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!
by Roseanna White | Jul 13, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I know, I know–you read that title and think, “You mean, like, always?” Yeah, pretty much. 😉 Which is why I volunteered to run an online session on research for writers 20 and under as part of the NextGen Online Writers Conference!
Have you heard about this? It’s pretty cool, and all you teens out there need to check it out–and all you older folks need to recommend it to the young writers you know. Registration is free, but you’ve gotta be registered to take advantage of the cool classes and contests.
You can find info on the event and register at
www.NextGenWriters.com. The presenters are all published authors there to chat about topics near and dear. Me, obviously, but also Stephanie Morrill, Melanie Dickerson, MaryLu Tyndall, Nicole O’Dell, Max Elliot Anderson, Caleb Breakey, Shellie Neumeier (who developed the event), Jill Williamson (who just won another Christy this week–Goooooooo, Jill!!), and Patti Shene. To find links to all their websites, check out the
presenter’s page at NextGen.
For my part, as you already know, I volunteered to talk about research. So in my post I cover why research is crucial, no matter your genre, and then dive into how to do it, touching on online searching, physical books, and experts.
PLUS–I’m doing a special giveaway for conference attendees and offering a free one-chapter (or 15 pages max) critique to one lucky winner!
The conference is August 2-3, so you’ve only got a couple weeks left to register! Don’t forget to check it out!!
by Roseanna White | Jul 12, 2011 | Uncategorized
We’re going to chat again today. =)
Every Tuesday, I take the kids to the library, and come home with a canvas bag full of kids’ books. The past couple weeks, rather than help me pick out books, my little ones have played while I did that task. I try to pick out a variety–some boyish ones for my truck-loving, monster-playing, super-hero whooshing little guy; some girlie ones for my oh-so-pretty, princess ballerina, wear-pink-all-day girl-o.
Last week, they surprised me. When I laid them all out at bedtime and asked what they wanted, I thought Rowyn would pick the robot one, maybe the bug one, and that Xoe would go for Pinkalicious or the one about the fairy mouse.
But no. Rowyn chose Fairytale Cake and Xoe picked Big Bug Surprise. Color me shocked, LOL.
It made me think about how often I’m surprised by my own reading choices. I confess I tend to pick up books whose genres I love or the author of which I either (a) know personally or (b) know will deliver a great story. Sometimes I stretch myself, waiting for a pleasant surprise.
I think the biggest one I ever got was Zora & Nicky by Claudia Mair Burney. I’d read another of her books and found some aspects of it that just weren’t uplifting enough for me. But I picked up Z&N because it was sent to me, and I was honestly thinking, “I’ll just get this one out of the way.”
It. Was. AWESOME.
I couldn’t rave enough about it–I still can’t, and that was two years ago. It was a book that delivered hope alongside reality, that forces you to examine all you believe, all your actions, redefines the difficulties of race with honesty and insight, and above all directs everything back to the Lord. It was amazing, simply amazing.
Other attempts at surprising myself haven’t always gone so well, LOL. Sometimes I end up tossing a book down going, “Yep. This is why I steer clear of this genre/author.”
But I love little more than discovering a new favorite where least expected. So . . . what are yours? What have you read that you didn’t expect to like, or picked up solely on recommendation but were unsure of, that you ended up falling in love with??
by Roseanna White | Jul 11, 2011 | Word of the Week
‘Tis the season for cookouts and barbecues, and I’ll use that as my excuse for talking about ketchup, LOL. Really, it’s because I recently discovered its history, and it’s just too bizarre to our modern minds not to share. =)
When we Americans think of ketchup, we think of tomato ketchup. I’d really never even heard of any other kind, until reading a book about the Revolution, wherein was mentioned mushroom ketchup. The very thought of this made my nose wrinkle up–I’m not a fan of mushrooms. And for that matter, it made my mother’s nose wrinkle up, probably because she imagine it in with tomato ketchup, LOL.
But the original definition of ketchup was “a kind of pickle, made of mushrooms,” which was used solely as a sauce for fish. The word itself comes from the Chinese word for “brine of fish.” Variants also included walnuts, cucumbers, and oysters.
Let’s all thank those American seaman for introducing the tomato to it, leaving out the other stuff, and so introducing a new staple to the world!
On another note, my series on Grammar is wrapping up over at
Go Teen Writers today, so swing by for some chatting about capitalization, quotations, etc.
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.