Winner!
And the winner of Deb Raney’s Almost Forever is . . .
Julia Reffner!
Congrats! I just sent you an email.
Thoughtful About . . . Confidence and Humility
Giveaway here – Deb Raney’s Almost Forever
Giveaway of A Stray Drop of Blood – a special Mother’s Day contest at Sunnybank Meandering includes my book and many other awesome prizes. Also, there’s a really awesome interview and giveaway to correspond with the ACFW book club this month, by the book club coordinator Nora St. Laurent. Check it out at Finding Hope Through Fiction!
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So last week I read my first not-glowing feedback on A Stray Drop of Blood. It got me thinking.
A while ago I made the comment to my best friend that I was looking forward to my first negative review because it would make me a “real” author. It would mean my book was really getting out there, into hands other than my friends and acquaintances. Now, granted, this was a deliberately optimistic take on something I was obviously NOT really looking forward to.
And now I know why I wasn’t looking forward to it. It’s not fun to realize that someone doesn’t like your book. It’s hard to separate it from people not liking you.
The optimist in me still sees the bright side, which includes that this wasn’t a full review and hasn’t yet appeared but one place. The optimist also remembers all the glowing reviews I’ve gotten, all the encouragement, and the readers who disagreed with this mediocre rating where it was rated.
It’s also a valuable lesson in both confidence and humility. We’re told, as authors, not to believe our reviews, either the good or the bad, entirely. But to take criticism constructively and always strive to be better. Can we address that thing someone complained about in our next book? Can we do better on that score?
There’s always room for improvement. No one book will be loved by all. I have to come to grips with the fact that even those in my target readership aren’t necessarily going to love it. But I can’t let that get me down. I have to take it and grow and be better.
The question is always how. And the answer is always Him. If I have any talent, it’s from God. If I have any stories, they came from Him. If anyone is touched by my books, it’s because He chose to speak to them.
Who am I to get upset because God has other ways of talking to some people? I’m just so, so grateful that He has blessed me with the commission to offer my hands, offer my words at all. Through my writing I’ve made friends, I’ve had epiphanies, I’ve grown closer to my God and my Savior. That in itself is reason enough to risk the negative.
Remember When . . . Historians Were Mindreaders?
Giveaway here – Deb Raney’s Almost Forever
Giveaway of A Stray Drop of Blood – a special Mother’s Day contest at Sunnybank Meandering includes my book and many other awesome prizes. Also, there’s a really awesome interview and giveaway to correspond with the ACFW book club this month, by the book club coordinator Nora St. Laurent. Check it out at Finding Hope Through Fiction!
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It finally occurred to me why reading Herodotus’s The Histories is so much more interesting than reading a history textbook from my high school days. It reads like a novel! I mean, modern writing rules would hate it, but seriously.
The thing that makes Herodotus fun to read is that he gets into the heads of the historical figures. He not only reports the actions, he tells you why they did them. He tells us who was jealous, who was arrogant, who was vindictive, who was earnest, who was noble. And when one’s reading, one totally buys it (mostly).
But as I was writing a scene yesterday, wondering why I couldn’t get past a certain part, it struck me. Herodotus, while trustworthy enough with the facts, didn’t know some things any better than I do. So I have ever right to ignore him sometimes (Duh, I know–I’m writing fiction, right?).
I’d already decided to ignore the motivations he states when they don’t suit me. There’s a rather scandalous affair he tells us about, and the only rationale given for it is “He fell in love with her. Then he fell in love with her daughter.” Um . . . that‘s boring. And waaaaaay too simple, given the “her” and the “daughter.” So Roseanna’s gonna take a few liberties. =)
Yesterday’s realization actually came when I had to ignore an underlying image. He never physically describes this one person, but the way he writes him gave me an immediate image of a sniveling little monkey of a man. As I introduced this guy, though, my fingers got a mind of their own and gave him a strong physical appearance. The sniveling became respect. The cowardice he shows later will become good common sense and a touch of divine inspiration. And suddenly I could write the scene!
It was one of those odd moments, when I realized that the very thing that makes me like a book is also the thing that means I don’t have to follow it to a T. Freeing, neh?
Story Time . . . FINDING JEENA
Giveaway here – Deb Raney’s Almost Forever
Giveaway of A Stray Drop of Blood – a special Mother’s Day contest at Sunnybank Meandering includes my book and many other awesome prizes. Also, there’s a really awesome interview and giveaway to correspond with the ACFW book club this month, by the book club coordinator Nora St. Laurent. Check it out at Finding Hope Through Fiction!
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A while back I talked about a novel I was still in the process of reading, Finding Jeena by Miralee Ferrell. Today, now that the book is released, I’m giving y’all the full review. =)
Finding Jeena
by Miralee Ferrell
Jeena Gregory had it all–the job she’d always dreamed of, a new townhouse in the right part of town, a car to make people drool, the finest clothes a fashionista businesswoman could want . . . she was heading exactly where she wanted to go. Until she wasn’t.
In a series of hard hits, some beyond her control and some her own doing, Jeena’s life spirals out of control. Everything she had worked so hard for is in jeopardy, and everything she thought she knew she has to doubt.
Jeena isn’t a character you necessarily like right away–but she’s one that you know is going to grow and whose promised dynamics keep you turning those pages. She pulls emotions out of you. Frustration, frantic hopes, sorrow, and finally a Joy from deep within when you get to glimpse with her the light at the end of her tunnel.
This isn’t a light, easy read, but for lovers of women’s fiction who value a journey from mountain to valley, this is the book for you. A story of growth, realization, and learning lessons the hard way, Finding Jeena is a deep look into the heart of one woman who knows exactly what she wants . . . until it betrays her. Miralee Ferrell delivers a beautifully written book that will invite you to gaze long into your own soul to see if there’s a bit of Jeena inside you.
Modern . . . Mothers
Giveaway here – Deb Raney’s Almost Forever
Giveaway of A Stray Drop of Blood – a special Mother’s Day contest at Sunnybank Meandering includes my book and many other awesome prizes. Also, there’s a really awesome interview and giveaway to correspond with the ACFW book club this month, by the book club coordinator Nora St. Laurent. Check it out at Finding Hope Through Fiction!
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Since we’re coming off Mother’s Day and all, I figured I’d take a moment to reflect on my fictional mothers. My real mother is, quite simply, awesome. But naturally I can’t have every fictional mother reflect my flesh-and-blood Super Mom. So they run the gamut. =) Here are a few snippets from my contemporaries about the heroines’ moms.
From Yesterday’s Tides we have Serena, who ended up raising her daughter only with the help of her mother-in-law after her husband died when said daughter was 8. She’s an innkeeper who can’t understand where her daughter’s fashion sense went awry. =) A snippet:
“Why in the world did you never tell her?”
“She’d have stormed across three states to strangle him.”
Picturing the tidy blonde who always greeted him with a smile and a hug, Garret could well imagine it. She was a Southern mama, which just said it all.
[The strangling would have been well deserved, LOL.]
From Note to Self we have Josie, a.k.a. the best-selling advice columnist Mama Josie. She has five kids but only one daughter, and she and Melrose are super-close. Snippet:
Mom blinked–and boy could she pack a wallop in a blink. Melrose and her brothers always joked that if their mother still did live counseling instead of an advice column, she’d never need to open her mouth. Who needed words when they could communicate an entire lifetime of reminders in a single swoop of the eyelashes?
From Love Me Silly we have the prim and proper Catherine Wilder whose daughter calls her “Mims” just because it suits her so poorly. 😉 Snippet:
“Aaaagggghhh! That woman drives me nuts. Nuts, I tell you! Cashews, almonds, pistachios, pecans . . . . ” Heading for the kitchen, she strode away. “Tell me Willow has wine. I need wine.”
“Now Vee, you promised you wouldn’t blur your mother’s edges with alcohol anymore.”
“But they’re razor sharp.”
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Hope all you readers who are moms were given a spectacular Mother’s Day yesterday. And I hope all you readers with moms did your part in making that day spectacular for the nurturer in your life!
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.