by Roseanna White | Apr 4, 2011 | Word of the Week
I was actually going to talk about the word “fiance,” and how it entered (or perhaps re-entered after British folks stopped speaking French in the middle ages) English surprisingly late, but I mis-typed, got curious, and discovered that “fiasco” is way more interesting, LOL.
So. The definition of “fiasco” is failure. It began as a theater term for an onstage flop in 1855, but since we’re always looking for new ways to describe our blunders, it only took 7 years for this word to transcend the fourth wall and make it into the speech of the audience.
Its roots, however, are mysterious. In Italian, “fiasco” means
bottle. So, um . . . what does that have to do with a failure of epic proportions?? The OED makes vague references to long-forgotten theater incidents in Italy (bottle over the head, maybe?), but the compilers of
www.etymonline.com found a far more likely reason in an Italian dictionary. There they found
fare il fiasco, the notion of a game in which the loser is expected to buy the next bottle (of wine). So the mistake causing the loss–a costly mistake, one might say–could easily have earned the shout of “fiasco!”
Works for me. đ
As a side note, tomorrow is my 500th blog post, so I’m going to be cooking up a fantabulous giveaway of some sort. =) See ya then!
by Roseanna White | Apr 1, 2011 | Uncategorized
Today I’m happy to welcome Amanda Cabot back to my blog to chat about the third and final installment of the Texas Dreams trilogy, Tomorrow’s Garden. I’ve had the pleasure of reading the first two books in this series and am seriously looking forward to this one!
~*~
About Tomorrow’s Garden
As the seed awaits the spring sunshine, so one young woman hopes for a brighter tomorrow
Harriet Kirk is certain that becoming the new schoolteacher in Ladreville, Texas is just what she needsâa chance to put the past behind her and give her younger siblings a brighter tomorrow. What she didnât count on was the presence of handsome former Texas Ranger Lawrence Woodâor the way he affects her fragile heart. But can Harriet and Lawrence ever truly conquer the past in order to find happiness?
Book 3 in the Texas Dreams series, Tomorrowâs Garden is a powerful story of overcoming the odds and grabbing hold of happiness.
~*~
About Amanda
Amanda Cabot has always been a dreamer, and so itâs no coincidence that her first books for the CBA market are called Texas Dreams. Set in the Hill Country beginning in 1856, these deeply emotional historical romances showcase Godâs love as well as that between a man and a woman. The first in the trilogy, Paper Roses, was a finalist for the Carol Award. Scattered Petals received critical acclaim, and the final Texas Dreams book, Tomorrowâs Garden, has just been released.
A former director of Information Technology, Amanda has written everything from technical books and articles for IT professionals to mysteries for teenagers and romances for all ages. Sheâs delighted to now be a fulltime writer living in Cheyenne, WY with her high school sweetheart/ husband of many years.
~*~
What’s your latest book?
Tomorrowâs Garden, the third and last of the Texas Dreams books, is an April release from Revell. As was true of the other books, it can be enjoyed without having read the previous books, but there are continuing characters from the first two books. Lawrence, the hero of Tomorrowâs Garden, was introduced in Scattered Petals and demanded his own story, never dreaming that Iâd pair him with a spitfire of a schoolmarm.
I’m so looking forward to Lawrence’s story! Were there any surprises in writing it?
Iâm a careful plotter, so you wouldnât expect me to encounter surprises along the way, but there were a couple in Tomorrowâs Garden. The biggest surprise was that Isabelle, who appeared in both Paper Roses and Scattered Petals, became such an important part of this book. She took over a role that I had planned for Sarah, the heroine of Paper Roses, and simply wouldnât let go. What could I do? I let her have her way.
There’s just no reasoning with characters when they dig in, is there? I’m sure this surprise made it turn out beautifully. What was the hardest part to write?
The ending. Not because the ending itself was difficult to write, but because I knew that this would be the last time Iâd be writing about the people of Ladreville. Over the course of the trilogy, theyâd become real to me, and I wanted to discover what happened to them. What changes did the Civil War bring? Did the next generation overcome the hostility that had plagued their parents? The questions were endless, but since Iâm already contracted to write two very different trilogies, I know they wonât be answered anytime soon, and so my relief at finishing the book was tempered with regret that Iâd be leaving Ladreville.
Maybe some time in the future you’ll be able to visit them though. =( Always sad to leave behind old friends. Though I’m eager to see what new stories you have in store too! But back to Tomorrow’s Garden. What do you hope your readers will get out of the story?
Of course I hope theyâll enjoy the romance between Harriet and Lawrence â a mismatched couple if there ever was one â but I also hope that the story of sibling relationships will resonate with them. Harrietâs had responsibility for her five younger siblings for far too young. As for Lawrence ⊠without giving away the plot, letâs just say that his relationship with his sisters has had an enormous influence on his life. Watching the two of them deal with their past as they try to forge a future reminded me of the often turbulent relationships I see in other families.
What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?
Romance, in both cases. I love happy endings, and so I gravitate toward books that promise me one. To me, thereâs nothing more satisfying than watching two apparently mismatched people surmount obstacles along the path to true love, and when you add a faith element ⊠well, thatâs the perfect story for me.
I so agree. =) Now, onto fun. If someone were to give you $5,000 to spend on anything you wanted, what would you buy? (No saving or gifts to charities allowed!)
Books, books and more books. Not just ordinary books, either. Iâd buy those wonderful (but expensive) picture books that some people call coffee table books. I find photographs, whether of exotic places or ordinary people going about their ordinary lives, fascinating. Theyâve also provided inspiration for my own books. Itâs true that a picture is worth many words.
Oo, good one! I think I’d also have to add “shelves to store those books, books, and more books”! Mine are bursting, LOL. What is the most rewarding part of writing for you?
Hearing from readers. I know itâs a clichĂ©, but readers are the reason I write, and when a reader takes the time to tell me that sheâs enjoyed my story, it makes all the hard work worthwhile. I was particularly touched by several readersâ response to Scattered Petals. I literally had tears in my eyes when they told me that Priscillaâs story had helped them heal. Those notes were more precious to me than almost anything I can imagine.
Oh, I can imagine! Readers really are the heart of publication. Let’s look to the future now. What are you writing right now?
Even though I have two other books already in the pipeline and scheduled for publication in 2012, Iâm working on my 2013 release. This is the second of the Westward Winds books and is titled Waiting for Spring. Whatâs particularly fun about this book is that itâs set in Cheyenne, which is where I now live. Not only is research easy, with both an excellent county Library and the state library and archives close by, but itâs wonderful to be able to walk along the same streets that my hero and heroine did. Of course, the city has changed dramatically since 1886, but thatâs part of the fun.
Roseanna, thanks so much for inviting me to be part of your blog. Iâve enjoyed our time together.
Thanks for visiting, Amanda! Readers, you can find her book at Amazon and be sure to check out her website at www.amandacabot.com.
by Roseanna White | Mar 31, 2011 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
This might sound like a strange blog post for someone who’s still jigging along one of life’s mountaintops, right? And in a way it is. But it’s something that’s come to mind from various sources this last week, so let’s see where it goes . . .
Two of my good friends have cancer–you may remember me mentioning that months ago. Both have been undergoing treatment and seeing results.
Both have just had setbacks.
I find it a little strange that though their stories are very different, Mary and Sandi seem to be coming up against things at nearly identical times. For Mary, whose cancer is in her leg, this latest setback is a broken femur, which has put her in incredible pain. For Sandi, who’s trying to get rid of a tumor and cancer in the bone marrow so she can get a bone marrow transplant, the setback was news that the tumor had stopped responding to chemo and had grown.
Not cool. And I can only the imagine the fear when you go into the hospital wondering, “What now? What’s wrong this time?” It stinks. It hurts. Because you’re already fighting so much, so hard, that to be told something isn’t working or went wrong . . . it could be devastating.
On a lesser scale, I’ve experienced this with my daughter lately. She has always, always, always shown her stress through sleep patterns–and interruptions of them. These past couple weeks, she has been a total monster when we put her to bed, and I had thought we were over that, so it was doubly frustrating. Then after a few nights of improvement, when she started to show signs of a fit again, I nearly banged my head into the wall. And why? She was still way better than she’d been.
But we want forward progress. Always, in everything, we want to stride forward. I think it’s probably part of our genetic makeup as humans, so it’s no big surprise when those setbacks bring us down. Make us question. Lead to a little hair-pulling. We don’t want to go back. Not to bad behavior, not to sad times, and certainly not to worse health.
I think (and this is pure speculation) that faith is probably lost more through the mountain of little things, those “minor” setbacks, than through the big disasters of life. The big things we know we have to handle with faith and grace. So we gather all our courage, all our strength, all our will, and say, “Let’s do this, Lord!” We’re certain He’s with us, even through the awful.
But when a few steps forward only send us slipping back, that’s when it’s so easy to ask, “I already gave it my all, Lord! Why this? Why more? Why?”
I don’t know about you, but I don’t often get answers to that question.
Yesterday I read Psalm 46, which is probably best known for verse 10: Be still, and know that I am God. For perhaps the first time, I paid attention to the context of that yesterday. The whole psalm is about how God is always there, God is our refuge. Is trouble thundering around you? He’s there. Is there a place of beauty and gladness? He’s there. See, look–wars come to an end. Bows and spears are broken. Chariots are burned. All those things with which we fight, where we might think our victory lies . . . He destroys them. Why?
Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!
The Lord of Hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Yesterday, those words said to me, “Stop fighting. Stop thinking you have to. When trouble comes, don’t grab your weapon. I am the one who casts those mountains into the sea, and I am the one who tells the battles the halt. I am ruler of this rockface that comes crashing down, and why would you not trust me? Did I not make a refuge for you from the very same rock?”
We question, and questioning can be good. But when the storms around us are louder than our praise, when the nations are raging and our shelter is moved, when forward slips into backward, sometimes we have to remember this from verse 6:
He uttered His voice, the earth melted.
With a single murmur from the Lord, all can change. Our part is to be still, to give it all to him. To trust. It’s not easy when we’re facing setbacks. But the God of the flood is also the God of the trickling leak.
We put our hands into His when trouble first strikes. Let’s be sure we only grip it the harder when the setbacks come.
by Roseanna White | Mar 30, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I find the idea of mediums totally bizarre. I mean, people who talk to the dead? Who can summon them up? Um . . . weird. And unbelievable. As in, the kind of thing that makes most of us roll our eyes and go “Riiiiiiight.” Right? Surely anyone claiming to be a medium is really just a charlatan. A fake. A phony.
So why does God order us not to go to them?To be “defiled by them” as He puts it? Hmm. Why, for instance, in I Samuel 28, does Saul first toss all the mediums out of the land, then seek one out? Do you remember that part of Saul’s story? It’s crazy. Samuel has just died, but Saul needs his advice. So what does he do? He goes to one of the mediums that Samuel himself had instructed Saul to cast out and has her call up Saul so he can ask him a question.
The really crazy thing? It works. It’s right there in the Bible. So obviously this isn’t just a hoax (all the time, anyway). Which begs the question of what it is. And since God tells us very clearly not to do it, not to go to the people who do, and not to have anything to do with it, that makes it pretty clear–this stuff is possible, but it’s not of the Lord. Which means it’s of His enemy.
Let’s fast-forward a couple thousand years to Victorian England and America. As you may remember from my intro post on Spiritualism a couple weeks ago, it became rather suddenly fashionable to be into the afterlife and looking for a bridge between it and this life. Enter mediums. There were a few very famous, very notable ones reported to do everything from summon a hand to touch someone to a dead relative to give a few words to call up full-bodied apparitions (like the one in I Samuel). We have no way of knowing today which of these mediums was faking and which weren’t. And even in the day when it was happening, folks had a hard time deciding, sometimes, what was real and what was hoax.
There seemed to be a few main categories of how people reacted. There were those willing to believe anything, and who tried to tap into personal abilities to do this stuff too (housewives and servants were apparently especially predisposed to this–perhaps because it brought a little excitement into their lives?), there were those who were willing to entertain the notion and keep an open mind about it. And there were those who thought it all a bunch of nonsense. Those, at least, are the reactions I’ve seen recorded.
But where, I wonder, were those who believed it could and did happen, but took the Biblical stand and cried out against it because it could and did happen, but was wrong? Well, that’s where my fictional heroine comes in, if ever I settle down to write this novel. =) She’s not going to take too kindly to folks parading out their young children and using them as mediums, no sirree. Why? Because it’s real–and because it’s real, it’s dangerous. Oh, if only everyone would listen to her . . . đ
Happy Wednesday everyone!
by Roseanna White | Mar 29, 2011 | Uncategorized
I am a HUGE MaryLu Tyndall fan, so when a signed copy of Surrender the Night arrived on my doorstep, I did a little jig. I loved Surrender the Heart and couldn’t wait to read the second book in the Surrender to Destiny Series. But alas–it was third at the time in my to-be-read stack.
Then life descended in the form of a 5-year-old who decided bedtime was a good time to move to Tantrum Town. I haven’t read at all in the past week, other than a little snippet last Saturday. But last night, when she finally went to bed like a normal kid (which means some “But I’m not tired!” whining, but no fits), I cracked open Surrender the Night again. Ah, bliss.
I’m only four chapters in, but already I’m loving this book. Rose lives on a farm outside of Baltimore, where she does her best to hide from the memories of all the British took from her–her parents, her home, and her innocence. But when British soldiers again invade her world, and she again finds herself at the mercy of a brutal soldier, she prays the Lord will be merciful and let her die.
Instead, 2nd Lieutenant Alexander Reed stands against his superior, risking a court martial when his conscience forbids the attack on one more innocent woman. Perhaps he saves her life, but he knows well his own is forfeit. For if the British Navy doesn’t punish him, the Americans surely will when the fair damsel he rescued turns him in.
Rose hides the man in the barn as long as she can so she can nurse him back to health, but when a fever sets in, she fears this man will yet be her ruin. Her only goal is to get him back on his feet and away from her . . . but of course, the back of the book cover promises love intervenes. =)
That’s as far as I’ve gotten, but golly. I’m already in love. A tomboy beauty who prefers the company of pigs to men . . . a handsome hero who chose nobility over the war that wasn’t his own . . . perfect. I am seriously looking forward to reading more when peace and quiet (or at least the absence of fits) permits! You can be sure I’ll post a full review after I’ve finished. =)
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, sheâs 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 booksâŠto offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.