Winner!
And the winner of Grace Bridges’ Legendary Space Pilgrims is . . .
Pegg Thomas! (twinwillowsfarm@ . . .)
Congrats, Pegg! I’m emailing you now.
Thoughtful About . . . The Struggle of Self
I’ve been having a bit of difficulty getting into my latest work-in-progress. Probably because it’s been nine months since I wrote the first three chapters, and rather than day-dreaming about this one during those months, I was hard at work on Jewel of Persia. But this story is semi-under deadline, so I have to get working on it. Usually pressure gets my creative juices flowing, so I’m cool with that.
Except . . . well, it wasn’t working that way. Every single page, every single chapter has felt like a struggle since I picked it up again, and I had no idea what I was going to do about it. I kept thinking, “If I could just get to this part over here, but how do I do that?”
Yesterday my hubby had to travel to Baltimore for the day, and my mom took the kids Christmas shopping in the morning. Knowing I was going to have a solid block of writing time, I got all set up at my desk, put my butt in the chair, and stopped. Pulled out my Bible, opened to Proverbs 16.
1 The preparations of the heart belong to man,
But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.
2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
But the LORD weighs the spirits.
3 Commit your works to the LORD,
And your thoughts will be established. . . .
But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.
2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
But the LORD weighs the spirits.
3 Commit your works to the LORD,
And your thoughts will be established. . . .
and of course the ever famous verse 9 . . .
9 A man’s heart plans his way,
But the LORD directs his steps.
But the LORD directs his steps.
Had I dedicated this book to God? I know I’d prayed for the writing of it, that the words come. But somehow that didn’t feel like enough yesterday. So yet again, I stopped. And I prayed that if I should write this book, that I write it the way the Lord wanted. That if this is to be the next step in my career, it be His step. That He would remove from me any motives not His own, and more specifically any ideas for the story that would not glorify Him.
Then I opened my eyes, and I wrote. I wrote 3,000 yesterday, which is by no means a record for me–but it’s been MONTHS since I’ve written that much in a day. And oh, it felt so good. Not just because it was an accomplishment, but because I finally felt as though I were writing the right book . . . for the right reasons. And yet, my story ideas haven’t really changed. The book didn’t suddenly take an unexpected turn.
But I think maybe I did. I think maybe I turned that corner and stopped thinking, “I have to write this book to show it to the editor,” and started thinking, “This story has potential and deserves to be told.”
I asked the Lord to show me and help me pull out some of His Truths through the telling of this story, and now I have this peace inside promising that I will. What will they be? Well, I don’t know yet. But I do know that I don’t ever want to write a book without them.
If this book ends up being the one that gets a contract with that major publisher it’s aimed at, then wonderful. But if it doesn’t . . . well I finally stopped thinking I’d be wasting my time on it if it doesn’t. Now I’m eager to see what God has to teach me, and just maybe others, through its telling.
Remember When . . . The Church Got Interrupted?
So part of my Annapolis research involves the church my characters would have attended. There really isn’t a whole lot of choice there–only one church existed in Annapolis at the time, and it was St. Anne’s Episcopal. Very excited about that, my friend Kimberly and I went into the church last week, grabbed the historical brochure they have, and chatted with a few of the ladies preparing it for Christmas while we let our jaws drop at the glorious stained glass and majestic pipe organ.
Then, of course, we learned that the current building was actually the third St. Anne’s Church to stand on the spot. Naturally, I needed the second. But I saw that the brochure had info on it, so I just tucked it away and enjoyed the building there now. It’s truly lovely, and we enjoyed our ten minutes looking around the sanctuary.
Yesterday I finally read the brochure. I learned that right before the Revolution, it was decided that the first St. Anne’s was far too small, so they tore it down to build a new one. Only, you know, war broke out. The materials got used for a fort instead (sheesh, what priorities;-). So where, you wonder, did the church meet, since the old one was already demolished?
For a while, at King William’s School, which later became my alma mater, St. John’s College. (Go, SJC!) But they outgrew that too, and moved to . . . the theater on West Street.
This made me grin, because I’d already discovered that a new theater was erected about a decade before drama was banned during the war. What, I had wondered, did they do with the building? Well, there’s my answer. It got to be the church! Apparently for quite a while, since the second St. Anne’s wasn’t finished until 1792. That’s nearly ten years when Church Circle sat without a church inside!
And boy am I glad I bothered to read that brochure, otherwise I would have had my heroine walking to said Church Circle instead of West Street here in a few days . . . ah, research. The things we discover. 😉
Story Time . . . The Real-Life Princess by Rebecca Dunning
Well, I’m reviewing a children’s book today. Partially because I need to write a review of it anyway, and partly because I haven’t had time to read anything else in the past week or two. Or, when I have time, the energy. Anyhoo.
I received The Real-Life Princess from the author a while back, and my daughter was sooooo excited. At 5, she’s enthralled with princesses, and the lovely illustrations drew her in right away. A story-within-a-story, this book starts out with Zoe twirling around in a princess ballerina costume, and her mommy offering to tell her a story about a real-life princess. So they settle on the couch together, and Mommy proceeds to tell about Michaela. Michaela grew up a poor, filthy servant, despised by all . . . but when the king spots her in a crowd one day, he asks her if she would like to be a princess.
Michaela says “Yes.” And so begins the transformation, and the realization that she was made to be a princess all along. Just like, Zoe realized, we all can be if we say “Yes” to Jesus.
As an adult, I found the symbolism rather obvious and the logic of the story a bit bare, but I’m not the target audience, LOL. My daughter (thrilled from the start given that she shares a name with the little girl), loves this book. As in, she carries it over to me when I’m at my desk and nudges it over whatever I’m working on with an innocent bat of her eyes and her very sweetest, “Read it, please, Mommy? Read about the princess.”
So we do, and it has the honor of being one of her favorites. Can’t beat that, can you? And really, its message is one we all need to remember–that we all must make a choice. If we choose to turn our backs on the Lord, then we’ll spend our lives in the same state we’ve been in. But if we choose to say, “Yes,” then we’ll be princes and princesses of Heaven.
*This book was provided free of charge from the author in exchange for a review.
Modern . . . Holidays
‘Tis the season for pointed blog posts, right? =) I don’t know about you, but my family’s is full Christmas swing–the house is decorated, the tree is up (go, blue spruce!), gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies are baked.
This morning as I got up, bleary eyed (got a bit of a cold), and began contemplating what to blog about today, I started thinking about my characters, and wondering how they all celebrate Christmas.
One of my favorite contemporary characters, Louisa, didn’t get to have Christmas on-page in her book, but I can well imagine the holiday at her family’s oceanside inn. It would be decked out beautifully, with greens everywhere and a festive, elegant tree. Her 8-year-old twins would be tearing through the place with that unparalleled “we’re off school!” excitement. Louisa would go about the holiday quietly, but with abundant laughs at her family’s antics. She’d have selected gifts very carefully over the previous months, finding deals on those special things that will make her babies’ eyes light up. And in the year my story about her takes place, Christmas will be even more special than usuall–it’s the first year she and Rem are married, their family finally complete.
In the book currently called Love Me Silly, I actually end the book on Christmas in my epilogue. Heroine Davina has gotten red and green streaks in her hair for the holiday–and to annoy her oh-so-proper mother. 😉 Her family, along with hero Keaton’s, always travels to the Big Bear Mountains for Christmas, and this year is no exception. Nestled cozily in an old-fashioned cabin (no doubt equipped with every possible convenience, mind you, just cleverly, expensively disguised to look old-fashioned, LOL), the families string popcorn and cranberries for the tree and revel in having everyone together again.
I don’t imagine the plotline of Seized will stretch from May (where the action begins) to December, but I smile to think of Cantara’s first real Christmas. She was Bedouin, you see, so wouldn’t have celebrated Christmas growing up. And though villain Andre probably put on a good show for the occasion, where she would have been expected to appear in high fashion, it wouldn’t have meant anything. But this year . . . this year she’ll have a faith rooted in the coming of the Christ. This year she’ll be surrounded by loving family for the first time. This year will be magical.
There are a ton of Christmas novels out there, of course, and I always enjoy diving into a few this time of year. Yet I’ve never written a story revolving around Christmas. Hmm, maybe one of these days I will!
Writers, how do your characters celebrate the holidays? Readers, what’s your favorite Christmas-themed book? Do share!
About Me
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.