by Roseanna White | Aug 3, 2009 | Modern Mondays
Anyone ever watch Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel? My husband loves it. I enjoy it for the gross-out factor and the interesting places he goes, but David . . . he actually thinks most of this stuff looks good. We’re talking intestines stuffed with . . . stuff. Every kind of creepy-crawly you can imagine . . . things fermented in the ground for three years. Yeah. Yucky.
It occurred to me when watching one night that most of these foods are well capable of scaring normal folks off. Which led to a “mwa ha ha” moment in the book I was working on at the time. My heroine was trying to scare off my hero (to avoid another heartbreak at his hands), so at one point in the story she resorts to a truly bizarre menu that would make Andrew Zimmern proud.
This scene has the distinction of making one of my critique partners question my sanity (waving, Carole), another alternately laugh and ew on every line (that would be Stephanie) and the third put questions like “Are you sure you’re okay??” in the margin (Mary;-). Their reactions just made my mwa ha ha all the louder.
To research, I started on the Bizarre Foods website, went to the forum, and followed the links to the different recipes posted. And let me just tell you, there are some mega weird and disgusting foods posted. Truly disturbing in some cases.
My character settled on an appetizer of dung beetle dip (where we got the line, “Just think of them as peanuts. Really big, crunchy peanuts. With legs.”) followed by a first course of calf-head (cooked with the heart and lungs of course), and the main course–fruit bat soup. Which is bad enough in name . . . just wait until you have to shampoo those little critters before you cook them. (Can’t skin ’em until they’ve stewed for a while.)
Grossed out yet? Yeah, me too, lol. In spite of what people might think when they read that or see the show up on my television, I am the Queen of Boring when it comes to food. I eat my salads with nothing but shredded cheddar and Ranch dressing, my burgers with nothing but ketchup, and mac & cheese still ranks as one of my all-time favorite meals. But hey . . . if we can’t explore new foods in the pages of a book (when our tastebuds are safe from the experience, lol), where can we?
Bon appetite!
by Roseanna White | Jul 31, 2009 | Author Interviews and Guest Posts
It was my first morning at the ACFW conference (after that first night where I met my now-best-friend), and I stood in line for breakfast. I’d left my room early so that I could be gone by the time my 23-month-old daughter woke up (hey, we avoid those “Don’t leave, Mommy!” scenes whenever we can!), but already there was a line outside the banquet hall where we ate.
In front of me stood a lovely woman who turned around and struck up a conversation with another nearby attendee. In typical me-fashion, I more or less twiddled my thumbs and pretended I wasn’t eavesdropping–like I could help it, lol. Then the woman drew out bookmarks for her upcoming release, handed one off to the woman she’d been chatting with, and passed one to me, too, along with a grin. “I’m Julie Lessman,” she said.
I introduced myself and looked at the thick plastic bookmark in my hands. “Nice,” I said in reference to the giveaway. “One my daughter won’t be able to destroy in three seconds.”
Julie laughed and confessed that the printer had messed up, and she’d been concerned about them. We started talking about the book featured on the mark, her debut novel A Passion Most Pure. As the breakfast-line started moving, she asked to pray for me and the other lady beside me. We told her what we were pitching, and she took our hands and prayed then and there for us and our projects.
As we moseyed in to breakfast, I offered to review her novel for her when it came out. I’d been praying that morning that the Lord show me a way to give back at conference, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. Especially when Julie gave me a blank look. “I know reviews are important,” she said, “but I’m not sure why.”
Since I’d started the Christian Review of Books a few years before, I was well able to expound on that topic. She further endeared herself by saying, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look really young to be so well versed in the industry.” Is there any quicker way to make a woman your friend? LOL. We chatted all the way into breakfast, I gave her a card . . . and then conference went on. I didn’t see Julie again.
But soon after I got home, I sent an email to her publicist asking for
A Passion Most Pure when it was available. Not long after that, I received an email from Julie asking for
my book,
A Stray Drop of Blood. We emailed back and forth a few times, and when I confessed that I read both CBA and ABA romances, Julie got very excited for my opinion on her novel, since it was a little more risque than CBA usually published. Which made me all the more eager to read it. =)
Since then, Julie and I have formed a unique kind of friendship born of mutual respect and appreciation. As each of her books have come ou
t, I’ve written reviews and raved to everyone I know (I can’t help it–they’re sooooooo good! My sister always threatens to fight me for them when she sees me with Julie’s latest release). She was kind enough to write a review of Stray Drop for me too. We email now and then for updates on each other’s projects, and she assures me she’s praying that my manuscripts find favor with the publishers.
Remembering that lovely woman who prayed for two strangers during the first full day of conference, I don’t doubt it. I have found in Julie an author of amazing talent, yes, but more importantly, a woman of deep faith and such a beautiful, giving spirit.
The third book in Julie’s Daughters of Boston Series hit shelves this summer, and it’s a fantastic “ending” to the saga. (The quotes are earned because her next series will pick up with the remaining O’Connor siblings–I can’t wait!) Check out more information about her books at her
website, and click on the pictures of them for my reviews.
by Roseanna White | Jul 30, 2009 | Thoughtful Thursdays
As I near the end of a manuscript (which I’m doing now), my mind starts moving ahead to the next project. With me, there are always other projects waiting. If someone were to look in my My Docs folder, they may just shake their head. In addition to the three dozen or so “loose” documents, I have folders. One for ABA (containing another few dozen ideas I’ve worked on to some extent or another), and then a folder for each CBA idea I’ve carefully hewn out. Once an idea earns more than one document, i.e. notes as well as a few pages of text, they get a folder. (There are six, at the moment.)
The real challenge? Figuring out what to dedicate my time to. There are the sequels to books currently under consideration. These will obviously have to be written at some point (see, optimism!), but I need to wait to see what sells first. There are the off-the-wall ideas that often form in a flurry of “what if”s throughout a single day, spurred by who-knows-what. (Like, what’s something my friend Stephanie [YA writer] and I could work on together that we could pitch to Andy Meisenheimer of Zondervan [who’s looking for weird stuff and is hilarious about it]? Oh, I know! . . .) There are the ideas that I am totally in love with, but which may be a hard sell.
Part of me says, “Who cares what’s selling now? Don’t write for the trends. Write for the heart.” And part of me says, “Yeah, but Janet (my agent) specifically requested I keep to American-set historicals or else contemporaries. And I trust Janet.”
For instance, I have this awesome idea for a Victorian-era story that must be set in England. I could contort certain aspects of it and make it New England instead, but then I’d lose the identity of my characters. So what do I do? Write it anyway, and hope that my Victorian novel already out there sells by the time I finish it? Wait until I have a relationship with an editor and then say, “Look, I have this idea. What do you think?”
Because the research for this one is going to be daunting. But I not only believe in the story, it occasionally haunts me. (Now being one of those times.) I’ll occasionally pull out the prologue I wrote and read through it, sigh a little, try to feel the characters. Until now they hadn’t been real enough for me to really dive into now. Now though . . . well, yesterday I took that 9 page prologue, ditched it, and wrote a new 5 page one. So I’m kinda in the groove.
I’ve heard non-writers ask writers, “Where do all your ideas come from?” For me, the answer is EVERYTHING. Seriously. I get ideas constantly–just ask my crit partners, who are occasionally treated to rambling emails on my various unpersued projects. The harder question is, “How do you know what to focus on?”
The answer? Prayer. And then I keep an eye open for the pointing of the Lord. A year ago, He showed me pretty clearly it wasn’t time to write this new Victorian (even though I’d just spent $75 on research books). But now it’s time to break out that prayer again. Maybe He’ll say, “It’s time for this one.” Or maybe He’ll show me something else. Maybe another contemporary. Maybe an American historical. Maybe that weird “What if” idea. Who knows?
Either way, it’s an exciting time, this point where one project will be finished and another picked up. A time when you get to see the flower of one project bloomed full and another bud right beside it, still perfect with its closed petals, no blight or flaw upon it.
“What,” you get to wonder, “might you be in a few months?”
by Roseanna White | Jul 29, 2009 | Remember When Wednesdays
The 1920s. Hemlines went up, waists went down, curls waved goodbye, and everyone shimmied their way into the Jazz Age. Prohibition was the law of the land . . . and gangsters made millions flaunting it.
Is there anyone who thinks this doesn’t sound like a fun time write about? LOL
A little over a year ago, I was struck by inspiration. “What if,” I thought, “a law enforcement officer used a girl to get an in with her family? And what if we’re on the girl’s side, even though her father’s, oh, I don’t know . . . a mob boss? And what if she knows what he does and has no problem with it–at the beginning?”
This is how Mafia Princess was born.
I threw myself wholeheartedly into research. After reading a book about the Mafia (not yet called the Mob), I decided that I wanted to set my book in pre-Capone Chicago, which meant around 1922. (Capone was there, of course–just not ruling the city.) I made this decision because I much preferred the Mafia of those days. In spite of some really nasty illegal goings-on, they had an honor that was lost after Capone took over. A respect for the “old ways” that they brought with them from Sicily.
Unfortunately, that also meant that a lot of the styles that came to define the era weren’t around yet. Yes, hair was bobbed–but not yet shingled. Yes, dress silhouettes were simplified and elongated–but waists hadn’t dropped to the hip quite yet. Yes, cloche hats were coming into style–but brims still reigned the day.
And of course, there was the super-fun slang like in the title of the post. I had to use it sparingly, but I really enjoyed writing one character who peppered her conversation with every faddish phrase I could find. She habitually said things like, “Take off this ball and chain, put on your glad rags, and let’s hit the town. I know of this party that’s going to be the elephant’s instep.”
Now, selling a Mafia story to the CBA (even one that is decidedly Christian) may prove a challenge, but I just received word that the first editor we submitted to has requested the full, and I’m pretty excited. So for the next few weeks, our Remember When Wednesdays are going to share some more interesting FYI about 1922 Chicago. We’ll learn a little about the Mafia of the day, the styles and fashions, and some of the misconceptions that have arisen about the era over the years.
Come on, Twenties, give us a roar!
by Roseanna White | Jul 28, 2009 | Books, What We're Reading
When Claudia Mair Burney’s new book out from Cook arrived on my in-pile, I thought something along the lines of “Sigh.” I’d only read one book by this author before, and while I enjoyed most of it, I didn’t care for the ending. I was kinda afraid this would have the same kick-me-while-I’m-down thing going, but I dutifully picked it up anyway. And fell in love.
Zora & Nicky is a look into the lives of the title characters that will redefine your entire way of thinking. Zora is a young, wealthy black woman whose father is an influential minister in the Prosperity movement. Nicky is the down-on-his-luck son of a white Southern Baptist preacher who’d run for the senate not long ago. To the world, these two couldn’t look more different. But after they both walk out of their respective churches one Sunday, fed up with the rhetorics of their fathers, they meet at an informal Bible study–and are never the same again.
This is such a timely, relevant book right now. It’s unafraid to look deep into some popular denominations, it’s unafraid to deal with race issues head one. And Burney arrives at a place where the reader, no matter his/her color, is touched by the honesty of the character’s hearts.
I was raised in a community with next to no minorities, and with the belief that everyone was made equal. When a minority did come into our area, I can honestly say I barely even noted the difference in their skin color. Growing up like that, at once sheltered and well-taught, watching the news could be weird. First of all, what was with all the prejudice? And why did the black community always assume prejudice?
Those two questions are at the heart of this book–Zora sees everything Nicky does as racist, and Nicky has to figure out how to get around that by looking at things through her eyes. He isn’t racist, not in his heart. But before he can convince her of that, he has to understand that she was indeed raised to think that everything’s different for a black person.
This is a story of profound sensitivity and yet hard-hitting facts. It pulls no punches, whether they be concerning the lustful thoughts of the hero or the sad reality of the world as we know it. But it leaves you not only with hope, but with understanding. I couldn’t put this book down, and long after I turned the last page, it’s still with me.
As I watch the latest “race issue” debacle on the news, I shake my head and think, “EVERYONE ought to read Zora & Nicky!” The world might just get a little brighter if they did.
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.