by Roseanna White | Jul 20, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
Last week I got to visit our local(ish) colonial reenactment place,
Old Bedford Village. I can’t remember it if I’d been there before, so it was a blast for me to visit now, especially as I’m writing books set in the 18th century. (Would have been more fun had the 3-year-old not insisted on being held the entire time and the weather been 15 degrees cooler, but you know. We take what we can get, LOL.)
They have an entire village set up there, and different reenactors there throughout the week. When we went, there was a lady in one of the houses demonstrating spinning and explaining about how the kitchens worked, a blacksmith, and a woodworker. Gotta say–my favorite was our first stop, the Biddle House, where I got to learn more about the everyday workings of the home. =)
We watched her spin some wool onto a walking wheel (also called a great wheel and a wool wheel). This baby’s so big that you have to walk back and forth about six feet as you’re spinning–hence the name. The wool ends up on a spool, then you detach it from the big wheel and start spinning it onto the weasel, which puts it into skeins. It takes 150 rotations to equal one skein–and because the ingenius creators of this device knew well no one was going to sit there counting to 150 all day, the weasel pops after 150 revolutions. Sound familiar? Altogether now: “Here we go round the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel . . .” =)
The lovely lady, after explaining more about fabrics and dyes and how “ripe” urine was used to get the dye to set, moved over into her kitchen to show us how one crafted a meal in the day.
There’s a huge fire place taking up almost the entire wall of this house, divided into two sections that meet in a very wide V. The right side is a traditional fireplace, complete with a crane to swing a pot back and forth over the flame. But the left side has a stove top supported on the stone–a very thick piece of iron perfectly fitted to this side of the fireplace. On it you could put your pots, or cook food directly on the surface. Managing the fire underneath for the desired temperature, of course.
They had small, moveable ovens to show us too. A larger one for cooking meat, which onto a spit so you could rotate it within the metal box. The box was then set up against the fire. Not only would the heat cook the meat facing it, it circulated through the box to cook it all around. The lady showed us a smaller version of the same with a shelf inside it–on here they would bake biscuits and cookies. Three at a time, which means that a traditional recipe for about 2.5 dozen cookies took four hours to make.
So yep, a fun, educational morning in Pennsylvania. =) And boy was I glad in that 95 degree, humid heat that I wasn’t wearing the long sleeves and petticoats of the reenactors!
by Roseanna White | Jul 19, 2011 | Uncategorized
Rachel is a dance teacher determined to grow her studio and prove to the world that she can be a successful businesswoman. Josh is a former fighter pilot determined to fight the dark in society and avoid frivolity–like the arts. When the two are tossed together, sparks fly–both the kind that burn and the kind that dazzle.
Set in the late 1940s, Unforgettable is a fun, lively story that follows an unlikely couple as they teach each other that sometimes opposites make life all the richer. Josh, a total hunk with a chip on his shoulder, wants to make a difference with his reporting career by exposing dirty politicians and the like–but when one of his sources goes into hiding, he’s forced to retract the biggest story of his career . . . and gets sentenced to the prison known as the Life & Style section. The only bright side is that he meets Rachel right about then. And that, even though he makes a fool of himself repeatedly by expressing his opinions about her career when he ought to keep his mouth shut, they seem to click.
Rachel loves nothing like ballroom dance, and she takes serious offense when someone calls it frivolous, even when that someone’s as attractive a man as Josh. But she accepts his apology and gives him another chance. After all, she’s expanding the studio with the help of a banker’s investment and needs to focus on getting back into competitions–she doesn’t have time to hold a grudge. Accept, perhaps, against the ex-boyfriend who has ruined competition dance for her.
From the melodrama of the dance floor to the drama of politics, Josh and Rachel learn to find support in unlikely places. And, to take a line from the back cover, “once they stop dancing around the truth, the results are unforgettable.“
I’m a big Trish Perry fan, so I was really looking forward to this book, and it hasn’t disappointed! Though a more serious tale than Perry sometimes delivers, the characters are endearing, especially in their bumbling. You can’t help but cheer for Rachel in her business endeavors, for Josh in his attempts at romance. And you can’t help but groan when you see them about to do something you know’s going to lead to complication.
The rich, post-War setting adds a beautiful layer to the lovable characters and compelling plot, resulting in a story that truly is unforgettable. Great job, Trish!
by Roseanna White | Jul 18, 2011 | Word of the Week
There I was, tippity-tapping away on my story, eyes (surely) intense as I put my poor heroine into a terrible situation. Knife at her throat, blade glinting in the lantern light. But that isn’t the villainy–the villainy is in the news he imparts. News that sets her reeling, that makes her spinning world grind to a halt. When the hero rushes up and sees her empty eyes and non-responsiveness, he thinks, “Oh no, she’s in sho—” Wait a minute.
Could she be in shock in 1779? Growl, grumble, away from the story I go to the awesome
www.etymonline.com. Where I discover that no, she could not have been (in so many words). BUT–
Shock. This word entered English round about 1560 and was a military term for a violent attack. In the 1690s the word was used to mean “offend, displease.” So you could shock someone then–but it wasn’t until 1705 that it took on the noun side of that and broadened to mean “a sudden, disturbing impression upon the mind.”
So things could shock us mentally in 1690, and we’d feel the shock of it in 1705, bwhich is what I needed for my particular story–my heroine could be shocked, just not in shock. That didn’t come about until 1804. Though interestingly, an electric shock dates from almost exactly the same time as the mental shock.
Shocking!
by Roseanna White | Jul 15, 2011 | Uncategorized
Well, I’ve just about reached the end of my scheduled author interviews paired with book giveaways. I have a few more over the next couple months that are already scheduled, and I’m happy to do them whenever an author asks. But feedback on those have been down, so I’m brainstorming a new approach to My Friend Fridays.
Here’s what I’m envisioning. Since beginning this blog, I’ve made a lot of other friends in the blogging world, and they’re not all authors. So what I’d like to do is highlight YOU on Fridays. I’d like to go visit your blogs, your websites, discover what you’re passionate about that brings you online to connect with folks. And I’d like to write about it, directing my other readers your way.
Giveaways? Well, I’ll probably do one big one a month, and comments from any of the Friday posts will enter you, so you can be entered multiple time.
To start this, I’ll probably be visiting the sites of some of you I know pretty well. But once I run out of those, I’m going to be going through my Followers list, following links and getting to know you. Then, rather than just being a place for mindless giveaways, I’d like MFFs to be a time to encourage and support one another.
You guys have been amazing in supporting me–now I want to return the favor!
So, would you like me feature you one Friday? Or do you have another friend you think deserves the recognition? Leave me a comment with your website and a sentence about what you do, what your ministry is.
And of course, the success of this relies on interaction, so please pass along the opportunity to your friends and come back every Friday to discover someone new!
Thoughts? Suggestions? I’d love to hear them!
by Roseanna White | Jul 14, 2011 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
In a few short weeks, I’m going to be hopping a cross-country flight and winging my way to Oregon for the
Oregon Christian Writers Conference. This will not be my first conference, or my first solo flight. But it’s my first time flying so long at all, and my first time going to a conference as an editor. I’m so excited! (Okay, not about the loooooong, lonely flight, but . . .)
It’s kind of funny. When I agreed to do this, it was because it sounded like too good an opportunity to pass up. I’ve always wanted to go to Oregon, and going to conferences for WhiteFire was a must. So I accepted–then began to think, “But I don’t know anyone there. I’ll have appointments, sure, but who am I going to talk to otherwise?”
In the months since, it seems like every week I come across someone who is from the West Coast and will be in Oregon for the conference. To start, the editor who wants to see the manuscript I’m working on now–she asked me to bring with me whatever of it was done. Then, there’s my new agent, Karen Ball of the Steve Laube Agency. I’m stoked to get to chat with her while I’m there! Then I discover that one of my readers for
Jewel of Persia is the president of OCW and will obviously be there as well. Wow!
I’ll also get to teach a class while there, and of the options I sent them, they chose my “Marketing Monster” workshop. Rather than focusing on the specifics of marketing, I’m going to be focusing on overcoming your fears of marketing. (I’ve already gotten some great input from published and unpublished authors on what their fears are, but if you haven’t already sent me yours, feel free to do so now! I’m looking for the things about marketing that make you sweat or wince or your stomach knot up, the things that make you think, “But, but, but . . .”)
So all in all, Oregon is on my mind a lot these days. =) I’m dreading leaving my kiddos and hubby for four days (and will be leaving on my birthday), but I’m looking forward to seeing the beauty of Oregon, meeting in person all these wonderful folks I’ve talked to these last couple months, and chatting with folks on behalf of WhiteFire. Should be fun!
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.