by Roseanna White | Dec 14, 2009 | Uncategorized
It worked so well in September that I’m doing it again! I need help coming up with a title for my WIP, and I’m offering a prize to whoever comes up with the best one. I’ll select finalists, we’ll vote, and the winner will receive:
Fools Rush In by Janice Thompson
The Blue Enchantress by M.L. Tyndall
and of course a personalized, autographed copy of
A Stray Drop of Blood by moi
So, here’s the new book, currently dubbed “My Modern Pirate Story.” Clever, eh? You see why I need you. =)
~*~
Smith barges onto the pirate ship with his team of ex-SEALs expecting to rescue a Saudi princess gone missing in the Med–what he finds is a woman chained to a bed, badly injured, and most definitely not a princess. Unable to leave her at the mercy of the ruthless Russian thieves, he offers her a way off the ship and the the protection of his CIA liaison.
Kindness has never been a part of Cantara’s world. She occasionally traded one form of cruelty for another, but it has all been in the spectrum of pain. But when the stranger stands there, looking at her with compassion–as though she matters–she sees a promise she never knew could exist. Not for her. She had thought life wasn’t so bad with Petrov, since he kept her from an even greater evil, but looking at this man called Smith . . . for the first time in her life she trusts a man instinctively.
Smith takes her back to the U.S., knowing her knowledge of these pirates who are prowling the seas and preying on yachts and merchant vessels could prove useful. But the story of how she ended up in the clutches of Petrov convinces the CIA that she’s far more important than that. More than the pirates, she has an intimate knowledge of a black-market arms dealer they’ve been hunting for years. Smith figures it’s his duty to convince her to help his country. And the Lord has made it clear he’s also to make Him known to her. He just doesn’t know what to make of the fact that he has only to utter a word and she’ll obey him.
He’s the best man she’s ever met, that peace in his eyes is addictive. Cantara will do anything to stay with him a moment longer, to remain in his favor. She knows she is unworthy of any affection, but she is happy to do anything he wants.
Anything but the thing he asks of her. He and the CIA want her to return to the black-market world Petrov stole her from. Though she agrees, it costs her. And proves, in her mind, that she is nothing, even to Smith. Plunged into the swirling maelstrom of fear, she takes the greatest risk of all and opens her heart to the source of that peace in Smith’s eyes, the God she so wants to be hers.
With both the pirate and the arms dealer out to get her back at any cost, Cantara must learn the true value of who she is and Who she now serves, even if it means sacrificing herself for the causes of the man she loves. She and Smith both know that following God’s will doesn’t guarantee success by their human definition. This fledgling love is strong enough to survive–but does that mean that they are?
~*~
So . . . themes recurring so far:
Black market
Pirates
Eyes (it’s his eyes that show her she can trust him, and hers that show him how painful her past has been)
Desert
Water/Sea
Faith, specifically prayer
Can’t wait to see everyone else’s creativity, cuz I’ve got nothing!
This is a romantic suspense, so I need a title that captures the tension as well as the deep emotion.
by Roseanna White | Dec 11, 2009 | Uncategorized
From A Stray Drop of Blood
ANDREW
Having come to the Visibullis house as a boy, Andrew has chosen to serve them for life and is now Cleopas’s trusted manservant, beside him both on the battlefield and in his home. He is dedicated, loyal, and possesses the strength necessary to defend his master.
Andrew is the first to admit that where he excels on the field of war, he suffers in academics. He has been trying (halfheartedly) for years to learn Latin, first under Cleopas’s tutelage, and then Abigail’s. Mostly, he simply enjoys the lessons as time to spend with his friend. He considers it his duty to cajole Abigail into smiles and laughter and takes his greatest delight from that success. When stories of Jesus begin to circulate through the house, he shares them only to seek other opinions on them, seemingly willing to trust whatever decisions the others come to.
He is in many ways an understanding man, willing to forgive much of those he loves. But when it comes to those he doesn’t like, he clings stubbornly to enmity. With Jason, for instance, he has never gotten along, and he resents the fact that, unlike his master, his master’s son treats him like the lowest of scum.
Andrew would generally be seen in the shorter tunic of a slave, with an earring winking at his ear to proclaim his allegiance to Cleopas.
When trying to decide who to cast for these roles, I remembered one of my favorite recurring characters from NCIS. Rudolph Martin played a villain on that, but a cute and charming one. When he grins (a picture of which I could not find, LOL) he has the boyish charm of Andrew, though he usually looks more serious.
by Roseanna White | Dec 10, 2009 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
My, aren’t I focused this morning? With one cup of coffee under my belt, my brain’s still fluttering here and there. But hey. It’s my musing day, so I’ll just go with the muse. (How very Greek of me!)
Anyway. So in my house, Christmas prep is in full swing. Were it up to my daughter, we would have been decorating a month ago, but I held her off until last week. =) Decorating, baking, holiday preparation is in that category of things I hate to get started on but love to have done. And which tend to engross me once I’m started. Baking gingerbread cookies the other night led to chocolate chip yesterday, and if I weren’t out of sugar and a few other crucial ingredients, I might just go for type 3 today. There’s just something about seeing those beautiful lights sparkling on the tree in my living room that makes me want to break out in song and fill the house with the smells of baking.
And I’m terribly excited to be going to a fancy Christmas party this weekend. I have NEVER had cause to get all dressed up for a Christmas party, so this is fun. And my friend the hostess actually put it together just for a chance to get all fancy schmancy, so it should be extra fun because of its fun-seeking origins. I found an awesome little black dress with a cream sash and some sparkle where strap meets bodice, and the perfect silver shoes. I am not a shoe fiend, but I loooooooove those shoes! As does my hubby, miraculously. So yay! Exciting!
On to the final installment of my subject line. A friend of mine from one of my writing loops got an ARC of Stray Drop and just finished it yesterday. Earlier this week I got an update from Goodreads where she had posted a halfway-through review that was GLOWING, which made my day. Her full reaction was even better. It so, so warms my heart to hear that I actually pulled off what I wanted to in this book. So thanks, Dina!!
Speaking of which, you have a few more days to comment on Tuesday’s WordVessel post for a chance to win. I believe the drawing’s on Saturday. There’ll also be an interview and giveaway on Stephanie Morrill‘s site next week, and I think I’m going to have another title contest on Monday with a copy as one of the prizes. Although y’all should really go buy a gazillion copies for everyone you know too . . . 😉
by Roseanna White | Dec 9, 2009 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
~*~Don’t forget to visit
WordVessel and comment for a chance to win Stray Drop!~*~
I figured it was the season for some holiday factoids. =)
The Christmas season is about much more than a day: it is about celebrating the miracle and life of Christ. Just as we have the Advent Calendar to count up to Christmas Day, so we also have the Twelve Days, which follow Christmas and lead up to the Epiphany.
Surviving mainly in Europe today, the Epiphany is a long-celebrated day that remembers the arrival of the Magi. Literally “Manifestation,” the Epiphany is also the day taken to commemorate the second birth or baptism of Christ and the importance of God being made man through that act.
A couple years ago, I made up what I called Epiphany Boxes for my family, though more accurately they were 12 Days of Christmas boxes. I made gifts for each day, enough for the whole family, appealing to Christmas traditions. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll share some of them on Wednesdays. =)
I’ll start today with The Christmas Star, for which I gave a star ornament for the tree.
The Christmas Star is one of the most questioned and most miraculous signs that accompanied the arrival of the Lord. It is this star that led the Magi to Bethlehem, this star that shone with a wondrous light to announce Him to the world. What was it? That is something that scholars and astronomers have been trying to discover for millennia.
Some say it is a miracle akin to the Pillar of Fire that God used to lead Israel out of Egypt. Others hold that it was a cosmic event such as a comet or super-nova. Still others hold it was an actual star and focus on the claim that it came to a halt over Bethlehem, which indicates it must be either the sun or Venus, the two “wandering stars” that halt in their paths.
Interestingly, that’s actually one of the reasons we celebrate Christmas on 25 December. The sun does “halt” on its north-south progression for three days, twice a year, on the solstices. During the time of Christ’s birth, the winter solstice was 25 December.
Today, we tend to look on the arrival of a star to herald Christ as either miraculous or just plain crazy. But it’s interesting to note that at the time of Christ, every great man was thought to be accompanied by a star when he was born. Similar cosmic events have been recorded for Alexander the Great, Abraham, and Saint Augustine. So for His followers, it wasn’t odd that a star appeared for him—it would have been odd had one not.
(If anyone wanted a doc with the script I used for the gifts and full descriptions of the presents to use as ideas for your own boxes, I’d be happy to email it to you!)
by Roseanna White | Dec 8, 2009 | Uncategorized
First, a note on me and mine. I’m being featured today on
WordVessel, so stop over to read an interview and comment for a chance to win a signed copy of
Stray Drop!
Now, onto the real topic of the day;-)
When I received The Lightkeeper’s Daughter by Colleen Coble in the mail, I was pretty excited. I haven’t had the chance to read much by Colleen, and since I love historicals, I was sure this book with the oh-so-lovely cover would pull me in straight away.
The set-up is that Addie was raised as the lighthouse keeper’s daughter in a remote island in California; she rarely got to see any people, except those shipwrecked or visiting the station. All her life, she’s plagued by nightmares where she is the one whose ship was lost, but her father always assured her it wasn’t so.
Only, it was. In the first chapter a gentleman shows up looking for her, claiming she’s his long-lost niece and the heiress to a sizable fortune. Now that her beloved father is dead and she’s left with an ungrateful mother who never cared for her, Addie is only too happy to realize that perhaps she has more family out there. The money she doesn’t give a fig for, but the chance to meet another father? That’s an opportunity she cannot pass up. Her uncle insists she go incognito until they can find proof enough to offer to the family. She doesn’t much care for the deception, but it isn’t all bad. She gets to be governess to her nephew and get to know her new family as the humble girl she is at heart.
Addie is a young woman of such blunt honesty that I can’t help but smile at her, and her naivete is endearing. When she meets and immediately falls for the handsome John, widower of her late half-sister, it’s easy for the reader to love him too. But all is not well in the redwood forests of her new home–someone has gone to great lengths to keep her away from her family all these years, and they’re not about to step aside now and let her into the Eaton’s uppercrust world without a fight.
I have to say that thus far I’m enjoying the book without being so engrossed that I can’t put it down. I began it several weeks ago, but then got sidetracked by the second two Twilight books and writing . . . I picked it up again yesterday and remembered why I’d put it down. While the story’s good and the characters are delightful, things were going so well that I just knew it was all going to fall apart in some horrific way, and I wasn’t in the mood for that, LOL. The unraveling began in the part I was reading last night, and it indeed made me sigh. But I confess I’m fully intrigued by the mystery now and eager to find out who’s out to get our lovely, outspoken heroine.
I have a feeling I’ll be a lot more enthusiastic about this one when I’m more than halfway through–it has a lot of promise, a nice setup for intrigue, and elements that you’ll gobble up if you’re a history fan.
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.