by Roseanna White | Nov 30, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
My poor hero just got shot. Fell overboard. Washed up on a Cuban beach in the Pinar del Rio province, near a few tobacco plantations.
And his poor author suddenly realized that the people there he’d be interacting with would be speaking–gasp–Spanish!
See, I took French in high school. I took French in college (and Ancient Greek). The many, many times I’ve had characters dealing with French-speaking folk, I do okay. Sure, I’m rusty, but I have that giant, unabridged French-English dictionary sitting on my shelf. I make do. 😉
Spanish though . . . yeah, my Spanish is limited to what I’ve learned from Dora and Handy Manny, and the obligatory mannerly phrases. But there’s no way around it. Cuba in the 1860s was, quite simply, Spanish. So I must dig out my limited knowledge, pull up an online Spanish-English dictionary, and also call on the help of some fluent Facebook friends who have proven themselves happy to jump into a conversation on which word for “shattered” I should use. 😉
But the hilarious thing is that, even when I want to pepper in a Spanish word that we all know, I keep messing it up. My thoughts sound something like this: “Okay, ‘please.’ I know the word for ‘please,’ obviously. It’s s’il vous pl–aggggghhh! Por favor, Roseanna–Spanish. Not French, Spanish!”
So I decided to make another character share my difficulties. 😉 See, one of the primary people in these scenes is a well-educated British man. Who would be fluent in what other language? French! So he, too, gets to keep lasping into the wrong secondary language. =)
Poor Phin will be stranded on Cuba for a couple months. Poor Roseanna will be done writing those scenes in the next couple weeks. But until then, that dictionary tab will stay open in my internet window. Those Facebook friends will remain on call.
And I’ll be trying my best not to make a Spanish planter say “Merci, monsieur.”
~*~
And don’t forget to check out the first blog review of Love Finds You in Annapolis! (Which has a few French phrases! LOL) You can leave a comment for a chance to win a copy. =)
by Roseanna White | Nov 28, 2011 | Word of the Week
I know, I know–what a strange, bizarre word of the week. And now y’all are probably wondering what I got into this weekend! 😉
Actually, it comes up because I’m a cruel author who just seriously injured her hero. I need him to be out of it for a while so said, “Hmm, they had some powerful drugs by then. Was morphine one of them?”
Yep.
And the name is just too interesting not to share. Did you know that morphine is named after one of the Greek gods as brought to us by Ovid in his Metamorphosis? (Not to be confused to Kafka’s book by the same name . . . and not to get into how much I despised said book-by-the-same-name each of the three times I was forced to read it . . .)
Anyway. Apparently Ovid gave the name Morpheus to the god of dreams. When the Germans named this lovely drug in 1816, they called it morphin in allusion to Morpheus, because of its sleep-inducing properties. The French, of course, changed it to Morphine. Which we borrowed in 1828 and have been using ever since.
Now to make sure my hero doesn’t develop a dependency–he has enough problems to deal with, I don’t wanna go there! LOL
And for those of you who are amassing those entries into the Great Annapolis Giveaway and/or interested in winning a free copy of Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland all by its lonesome, hop right back over to the Colonial Quills and leave a comment on my very first full-length blog review. =)
https://www.roseannamwhite.com/2011/11/review-of-love-finds-you-in-annapolis.html
by Roseanna White | Nov 24, 2011 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Thank you, Lord, for all You do for me. For sending Jesus to save me, for knowing me from eternity, for setting me on this path, surrounding me with friends and family, and holding my hand all through it.
Thank you, Lord, for placing me in a loving family, one that encourages and cheers me on, that holds me when I cry, that dusts off my knees when I fall. For amazing parents and a sister whose smile brightens my day. For nieces and in-laws and extended family that I love so very much.
Thank you, Lord, for my husband. Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing our lives together so early, for the ten wonderful years of marriage we’ve already had, and for the future still stretching before us.
Thank you, Lord, for these precious children with whom you’ve entrusted me. Sweet little Xoe with her generous spirit and creativity, energetic Rowyn with his whole-hearted approach to life. They are blessings beyond compare.
Thank you, Lord, for the friends to whom You’ve led me. Those from my childhood who helped me grow, those from college who will always be so dear, those I’ve met through my writing that have become close as family.
Thank you for the one I’ve lost this year, for the time you gave us together and all the lessons she taught me. Thank you for the ones still fighting, still holding on.
Thank you, Lord, for a year of blessing after journeying through the valley last year. Thank you for a year of five contracts, which just baffles and awes me after working so hard for so long. Thank you for this new book that is even now sitting beside me, and for the ever-increasing success of the ones that came before it.
Thank you, Lord, for all You do for me. For sending Jesus to save me. For knowing me from eternity. For setting me on this path. For surrounding me with friends and family. And for holding my hand all through it.
by Roseanna White | Nov 23, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
We all the know the story of the Mayflower and the very first Thanksgiving.
And if you have all my blog posts memorized going back years (ahem), you’ll realize that much of what is to come is reposted from two years ago. 😉
In the Old Testament there were commands for giving thanks to God, as well as New Testament guidelines. That we take time to give thanks is of vital importance–it not only gives the praise where it’s due, it helps us refocus. To get our priorities straight. To really enjoy what we have been given rather than thinking only of what we yet need.
I really love that our country has a history of setting aside a day for this–that some of the first settlers were here to seek free worship of God, and that they honored him for his faithfulness, in spite of the hardships.
I find it even more inspiring that there were people like Sarah Hale who cared enough about this tradition to fight for it. She first succeeded in getting each state to recognize the day, then, eventually, convinced President Lincoln to have the nation honor it as one. At a time when the country was torn by war, this was a monumental moment, one that helped us heal.
In some ways, Thanksgiving is viewed as a “second-rate” holiday to modern people–it doesn’t require presents, and in fact is often lost in the anticipation for Black Friday–and for Christmas. It only rates as a chance to host an elaborate meal.
But I remember my own childhood, when I sat back in my room one Thanksgiving smelling that wonderful turkey, knowing that soon my family would be coming. I remember spending some time writing a story about a girl named Felicia, which I knew meant something like “happy.” I remember cutting out some construction paper turkeys for all my family members. And I remember thinking, “This is one of the happiest days in the year. Where everyone just comes over to be together.”
I still love the holiday for that very reason. It’s a chance to come together with those I love and just be. Be there. Be together. Be thankful for all the Lord has given me.
Thank you, Father, for putting me in a country with such a history of recognizing You.
by Roseanna White | Nov 22, 2011 | Uncategorized
In this lovely world I’m in, filled with deadlines (praise the Lord!) and very little free time, it has become necessary to streamline operations. 😉 So, since I haven’t been reading enough to share a review every week anyway, and since my Friday features have been fizzling (oh, how I love alliteration! LOL), Tuesday and Friday posts are going to become as-needed. I will still be blogging regularly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, but Tuesdays and Fridays will be used only when I have a special announcement about my books, a review I want to feature, or some other bit to share that doesn’t fit on M-W-Th.
And in keeping with that, check it out! Amazon is reporting Love Finds You in Annapolis as in stock and 1-2 days of processing away from shipping! Woot!
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.