by Roseanna White | Oct 4, 2011 | Uncategorized
So as I close the book on one historical era (with the hopes of revisiting it sometime soon!), I open the pages on another. And in so doing, open the pages of Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer-winning classic Gone with the Wind. Yes, this is research. 😉
But cracking open this book takes me back to childhood. Which might seem strange to some, but bear with me. My family (father excluded, that is) LOVED GwtW. We’d watch the movie whenever we had snow days, which meant several times a year. Whenever we drove south for vacation, we’d go past a huge old house that we dubbed “Tara” in honor of the O’Hara plantation. Phrases like, “But I don’t know nothing ’bout birthin’ no babies!” were common vernacular between me, my sister, and my mom. And I believe we all dreamed about that dress made out of curtains . . .
Up until my teen years, I’d only ever watched the movie, of course. But when I was in high school, I read the book. I believe I skimmed all the many paragraphs of pure history, LOL, but oh! The story of Scarlett and Rhett, even fuller and more complete in the book than in that ridiculously long movie! Be still my heart. =)
So as I prepare to dive into all things Civil War and Deep South, I thought I’d ask y’all for your favorite GwtW moments, memories, or (if this is possible) what you might prefer over GwtW from a similar era. When you settle in for a Civil War story, what do you reach for? Fiction, non-fiction?
I currently have on my desk two books and two movies awaiting me–the obligatory GwtW, both book and mvie, and then The Blue & the Gray (DVD) and The Killer Angels (book). I figure I’ll hit up the Library for more soon, so recommendations are welcome!
by Roseanna White | Oct 3, 2011 | Word of the Week
It’s that time of year again. The leaves are turning colors, the weather is turning cooler, and the pumpkin vines are taking over my yard. Okay it’s the first year we’ve planted pumpkins, so this is a first–and a lesson to us on where NOT to plant them next year! LOL.
So it seems like a fine time to talk about the roots of the words we associate with the season. =)
For a good while, British folk referred to this time of year solely as “harvest.” It wasn’t until the 16th century that the word “autumn” entered the vernacular. Taken from Old French and, in turn, Latin, there are also suggestions that it shares a root with August, and that the aug- implies severity.
Over the centuries, most “autumn” words have come to carry a meaning of “end, end of summer” or “harvest.” And unlike all the other seasons, we not only have several words for it, we also have several different start/stop dates in English speaking countries. In Britain, for example, autumn begins in August, while in America it’s September.
And of course, from “autumn” we get one of my all-time favorite words: autumnal (pronounced aw-TUHM-nl), which my best friend still swears I made up. 😉 As you can assume, it means “things pertaining to autumn.”
And then, of course, we have “fall.” Now used only in the U.S. as a synonym for the season, “fall” is short for “fall of the leaf,” and dates from the 1540s. So it’s nearly as old as “autumn,” but has for some reason fallen out of use (ha . . . ha . . . ha . . .) in other English-speaking parts of the word.
So here’s wishing everyone a beautiful, colorful fall filled with all the delightful, autumnal things that make you smile. =)
(For reference, the picture is my kids and nieces at our family farm’s Octoberfest, from last year. From left to right you see Isabelle (niece), Paisley (niece), Xoe (my oldest), and Rowyn (son in need of a haircut last year, LOL).)
by Roseanna White | Sep 30, 2011 | Uncategorized
Today let’s give a big welcome to Jennifer Slattery, who is here with a guest post on faith. Jennifer is a lovely woman who has followed the Lord into various avenues for her writing, and I have great admiration for all she’s doing. I hope you are blessed today by her words. Please see the end of the post for information on this month’s giveaway.
And now, here’s Jennifer!
Shining In the Dark
By Jennifer Slattery
It is easy to live in self-protection mode. It is comfortable to surround ourselves with Christians, seated in a nice, safe, predictable church pew. But as I read the Bible, I never see God calling Christians into seclusion. Consider Joseph in an Egyptian prison. Egypt was a pagan land. How many prisoners, enslaved by darkness, watched Joseph pray day after day? And what about Paul? One of our favorite stories is of Paul singing in prison. How brightly did his light Shine surrounded by inmates?
When our daughter was young we lived in Southern California. Life in California is unique in many ways. It is not uncommon for a child to go through life without ever touching snow. You can live on top of your neighbors and not know them. You’ll spend hours in your car, not moving (rush-hour traffic). You’ll drive forty-five minutes to find the hiking trails cut in center of the city. You’ll sit in your back yard, which will likely be covered in cement or gravel, and stare into the night sky in search of those ultra-bright stars that somehow manage to outshine the city lights.
One evening, we wanted her to see the night sky without the “dimming” city lights, so we drove to the desert. We lived on the edge of the Mojave, so it didn’t take long, but once we got there, the view was spectacular! The stars that appeared so faint at home blazed, and numerous stars that were previously out-glimmered by streetlights, dotted the sky.
This image often comes to mind when I pray for guidance. As new opportunities come my way, my first reaction is always self-protection—to remain tucked in my nice church pew, surrounded by brightly shining Christians, waiting…just waiting for that occasional non-Christian to trickle in. And yet, where does our light
Shine the brightest? In the dark. God’s love is extravagant, initiating, self-sacrificing. God’s love penetrated the darkness.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5).
The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness cannot, does not, will not overcome it. So, carry your candle and run to the darkness.
~*~
Jennifer Slattery is lives in the midwest with her husband of fifteen years and their thirteen year old daughter. She prefers peanut butter sandwiches to juicy burgers, likes eating ice-cream for dinner, and devours “issue” novels with authentic characters. She writes for Christ to the World Ministries, The Christian Pulse, and Samie Sisters and is the marketing manager of the literary website, Clash of the Titles. You can find out more about her and her writing at http://jenniferslatterylivesoutloud.com
~*~
Please leave a comment for Jennifer in order to be entered in this month’s giveaway for the 2011 WhiteFire lineup. You can also enter by leaving a comment here.
by Roseanna White | Sep 29, 2011 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Back when I worked in the Admissions Office of my college, I made friends with one of the (non-student) staff who manned the office. Patricia was a total sweetheart, and we had many a laugh together over the four years I worked there. At 6’1″ tall, Patricia towered over me. She was more than a decade older, with a teenage son. But we had a great relationship.
One of the things that struck me early on about Patricia was that she offered compliments so freely, and so often. Every day when I walked in, she would have something sweet to say. “Oh, your hair looks good like that.” or “I love your shoes.”
Is there any better way to make friends with someone? LOL.
It didn’t take me long to figure that secret out, so I would start finding ways to compliment as well. Sometimes in creative ways, sometimes in those same simple observations. But you know what? Those who give them freely don’t often get them as regularly, and Patricia was often surprised, her thanks startled and genuine. I began saying in response to baffled thanks, “Hey, compliments are easy.”
It became a bit of a joke between us, this genuine complimenting and then laughing response.
At the ACFW conference last week, I was thinking a lot about Patricia. Not that she was a writer or anything (grins), but because those lessons she taught me about complimenting came back to visit. In a situation where one meets a lot of new people, or people one usually only sees online, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by it all, or to feel a little lost in the crowd. But it takes so little to make someone feel comfortable.
“Wow, that’s a great skirt.”
“You have the most perfect hair.”
“Well aren’t you adorable!”
Easy things to say. Simple to come up with. But not so simple to the person hearing them. To the recipient, a compliment can settle, can lift up, can encourage, can edify.
I received a few at ACFW that made me smile. And I tried to give some that would do the same for others. Because compliments are easy. They don’t cost me anything, they don’t take any effort. It’s no sacrifice at all to say something nice to someone. So why don’t I do it all the time?
Because the one thing compliments DO require of us is to look away from ourselves long enough to notice someone else.
I make a concerted effort to do this, but it took a bit of training. I couldn’t tell you how often I thought nice things but didn’t say them before I learned this lesson from Patricia. Why did I hold my tongue? Couldn’t tell ya. Probably because it was easier not to engage someone at all.
But that’s not who I want to be. I want to be someone who can make you smile, make you laugh. I want to be someone who brightens your day, just as so many of you brighten mine. We can all be a little self-focused now and then, and to a point there’s nothing wrong with that. But I really, really hope I never forget this lesson. That every time someone says something nice to me, it serves as a reminder for me to give even more.
So a big THANK YOU! to all of you who lift me up day after day with your comments and emails, to those who made me grin at the conference with the nice things you said about me. And while I can’t exactly offer individual encouragement to y’all here and now since I have no idea who is reading this (ha ha), I can tell you this: your words make a difference. You’re appreciated and loved. You make my life richer.
Now, accepting compliments graciously, humbly, but without denying them and thereby calling the giver a liar . . . that’s a whole other post. 😉
by Roseanna White | Sep 28, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
Having just returned from the ACFW conference in St. Louis, and having spent the last few days chatting with my fellow historical writers about all we gleaned and learned while there, I thought it would be fun to take today to talk about historicals. Specifically, which ones are your favorites?
Do you tend to gravitate toward a particular era? A particular setting? What draws you to it?
Just a few choices to get you started. Do you like:
* Biblical / Ancient times
*Medieval
*Elizabethan / Tudor England
*Colonial / Revolutionary America
*Regency England
*Early Federal America (post-Revolution through War of 1812-ish)
*Civil War
*Reconstruction
*Victorian England
*European (which country, time period do you love?)
*Western
*Turn of the Century
*World War I
*Twenties – Depression
*World War II
Any of these jump out at you as your all-time favorite? Does your favorite not fit? (Gotta say, one of my favorites is Christine Lindsay’s Shadowed in Silk, which is India of 1919, so it’s kinda between WWI and Twenties with a totally unique setting. Feel free to expand my list!)
Let’s getting chatting about our favorites!!
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. Having successfully launched two homeschool grads, she now spends her time writing fiction, 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, as well as a fantasy series and contemporary mysteries and romances. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.