by Roseanna White | Oct 22, 2009 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
I confess. I’m one of those writers that just wants to
write. When I was first informed that I’d have to market, I said something like, “Grooooooaaaaaan.” I’ve mostly gotten over that, but I still had a few pockets of Hold-Out in my little brain.
For some reason, one of them was discussion questions. I moaned at the very thought of someday maybe needing to write them. Then at the conference in September, someone said something about feeling similarly . . . until they got a piece of reader mail saying that one of those questions changed the reader’s life. Now I’m saying, “Well, huh.”
Given that I’ve already had people express interest in using A Stray Drop of Blood for bookclubs, It occurred to me that discussion questions might be a good thing. I said as much to my husband, who replied, “Better still, put together a bunch of the stuff that you drew on to write it. You know, behind the scenes stuff or information they can read to understand the culture of the day better. Encyclopedia Roseann-ica.”
This sounded cool, so I started taking notes on ideas. And thanks to my obsessive nature, it’s approaching completion on my website. I’ve now got both the Companion Guide and the Discussion Questions online (yes, the questions are also in the back of the book). If you’re curious but haven’t read Stray Drop, you’ll want to avoid the discussion questions (which might tip you off on some plot points) but you still might find the Companion Guide interesting. I’ll hopefully be finishing off my sections today. There’ll still be a few topics without links, though, which will be written by guest-experts. Just go to www.RoseannaMWhite.com, click on the Books tab, and voila. Companion Guide and Discussion Question links are front and center.
And since this is on my mind because I need to go do it, I guess I better, you know . . . go do it. =)
by Roseanna White | Oct 21, 2009 | Remember When Wednesdays
Did I get your attention with that subject line? LOL. You’ll see what I mean by it in a second. =)
When I was doing some research for another book to follow Mafia Princess, I was looking up marriage laws in Maryland in the ’20s. I had no clue about things like waiting periods, requirements for licensing, etc. And couldn’t find it, of course, until I put out a “Help!” message to the HisWriter’s loop. The fabulous Laurie Alice Eakes asked her law-school-going hubby about it, and he not only directed me to the online archives of MD state, he also browsed them for me and gave me the link to the one I need. Is that not the nicest thing??
Anyway. What I found was pretty interesting. These days there’s considerable red tape surrounding a marriage. Licenses and certificates and fees and this and that. Given that it’s a legal contract, that’s to be expected. And as everyone knows, you can always just go to the courthouse and let a judge perform the ceremony, right? Much easier.
Not so in the ’20s. There was a law that said (in legalese) that if one were to get married with a license but not by a member of the clergy, the marriage was not considered legal. However, if you got married by a member of the clergy without a license, the marriage was valid (though the clergyman could be fined for performing it without the legal documentation in place).
Isn’t that interesting? As recently as the ’20s, Maryland recognized marriage as a primarily religious, holy, and sacred union–as opposed to a strictly legal one.
*Totally off-topic, but hey. It’s my blog. 😉 I’m putting together a Companion Guide for A Stray Drop of Blood. Come check out what David calls Encyclopedia Roseann-ica at http://www.roseannawhite.com/index.php/books/companion_guide/ *
by Roseanna White | Oct 20, 2009 | Uncategorized
A week or so ago I was opening the mail and got to a package from a publicist. I opened it, glanced at the book, and thought, “Hmm. ‘Kay.” Flipped it over, read the back, and further thought, “Ahh . . . now this sounds like a really nice love story!” I was reading another book already but was only in the first chapter, so I didn’t feel too awful guilty crackin’ this baby open.
Seaside Letters by Denise Hunter is a Nantucket Love Story that sets a gorgeous stage and drags you deep into the characters’ hearts from the first page. It had me asking questions right away, like “How does she know that? What’s going on?”
For me, though, one of the best things was that a book with this premise could have been frustrating. It’s all about the guy looking for this girl he found online, Sweetpea, who won’t tell him who she really is. He hired the heroine to help him find her. It could have gone a few ways: he could have fallen in love with Sabrina without ever knowing she was Sweetpea. She could have not been Sweetpea. I was fully prepared for the frustration of “Just open your eyes, dude!”
I was pleasantly surprised to see really early on that the author avoided this. Go, Denise! Instead, we’re pulled into a deeply emotional pull-and-tug as the characters work to reconcile what their heart says with what their heads say.
I’m not finished yet, but I’m really looking forward to diving back into Seaside Letters tonight and letting this awesome love story wash over me.
by Roseanna White | Oct 19, 2009 | Uncategorized
Since last week we talked about beautiful characters, I figured I’d continue in a similar vein and talk about the particulars of a character’s looks. I remember someone once complaining about all these gorgeous blond heroines. Then someone more recently added feisty redheads to their list of overdone descriptions. I figure next they’ll take issue with the brunettes, right? LOL.
The problem is that there are only so many options, and that we have to use the same words to describe innumerable people. We’re all either blond, brunette, or redhead. Sure, there are a gazillion shades, but if an author describes them too much, it gets into purple prose–or else we revert to words that people might not even know. Tell me, what’s the difference between someone with chestnut hair and someone with auburn? Or raven versus ebony? Where’s the line between golden blond and platinum?
I ran into an interesting problem with this recently. Years and years ago I wrote a contemporary aimed at the secular market which I knew when I finished it would probably never be published. It was too long, not a strict romance . . . but I liked my characters. The heroine was kinda Snow White-ish–black hair, fairest skin, rosy lips, and gray eyes. Right after finishing it, I started another book, this one aimed at CBA. For some reason I cannot now recall, I decided to make this heroine also have darkest-brown hair and silver eyes. Now, that is where the similarities end. The first was petite and curvy, the second tall and willowy, one and artist, the other a scientist. One talkative, the other all but a mute. I never expected this to be an issue, because I knew I’d never do anything with the first book.
Then last year I had the brilliant idea to snitch the characters from it and plop them down in a totally different plot with a Christian theme. The characters took to it well. No problems. And since I was now not doing anything with the other book with a similar heroine, it didn’t much matter.
Except that a few weeks ago I decided to revive it. One of the first groans I encountered was that this heroine has the same description as the other. Which may not have been a huge problem had I not been targeting the same publisher. LOL. I tweaked her appearance so she didn’t sound so stinkin’ close to the other, but still it gave me pause.
Descriptions are tough things, and we writers give them a ridiculous amount of thought. Have I already had a blond heroine in this trilogy? Are my brunettes too similar? Should I give him brown eyes or blue? This one was tall and this one short, so should she be of middling height?
Does anyone really care? LOL. We go to great lengths to paint our readers a picture of our characters, but what it comes down to is imagination. My husband once argued with me about what one of my characters looked like. “She’s brunette,” I told him, pointing at the page. “See? Sarah’s the blond one.”
He just shook his head and said, “You might have written it that way, but you got it all wrong. Sarah’s a redhead. Cadence is blond.”
At some point, I just rolled my eyes and let him think that. =)
by Roseanna White | Oct 16, 2009 | Uncategorized
There are a lot of books that give me a chuckle. Sometimes a good chuckle. It’s a rare piece of fiction that makes me literally laugh out loud enough to get my husband’s attention. But when I first got
Trish Perry‘s
The Guy I’m Not Dating in the mail, I was laughing so much with the first four pages that my husband demanded, “
What is so funny?”
I totally fell in love with Trish’s first book, and when I emailed her with my review, I quickly saw that the fabulous book’s author was just as fabulous as her book. We emailed a few times, she participated in a few promotional games that I ran, and she was one of the first authors I worked closely with through the Christian Review of Books. The result? An author I get a real kick out of calling my friend.
Trish has a sense of humor that will keep you in stitches, and it’s combined with a giving spirit and a healthy dose of sweetness. We’ve emailed quite a bit over the years, and I always get a big smile on my face when I get a message from her.
When her second book came out, Too Good to Be True, I was ecstatic because (a) I couldn’t wait to read it and (b) my review of her first book was on the “praise page.” I had been so looking forward to the arrival of this book (just ask the publicist at Harvest House, who got a couple emails from me checking on its progress) that when it arrived, my indulgent hubby burst into the bathroom to show it to me while I was in the shower. I let out a squeal that came dangerously close to waking up the sleeping baby.
I checked in with Trish after reading it and asked about her future projects. I was thrilled
for her when she told me that the publisher asked her to write books for their popular Beach House series. Her second two books took place at this quirky and fun location, the first with characters from the chick lit Guy and True, the second with a whole new cast. I loved how she transitioned from one genre to the other, preserving her voice while offering the reader something new.
I can’t wait to see what Trish Perry has in store for us next. After meeting her at the ’07 ACFW conference and e-laughing with her for years now, I know she’s an author with a lot of great stories to keep me roaring in the future.
As usual, click on the book pics for my reviews. (I received all of these as complementary review copies from the publisher.)
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, she’s 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 books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.