It’s Release Day for On Wings of Devotion!!!

It’s Release Day for On Wings of Devotion!!!

by | Jan 7, 2020 | Announcements, Book News, Books, Giveaways and Contests

It’s January 7 — and that means it’s Release Day for book 2 in the Codebreakers series, On Wings of Devotion!

In This Post:

  • A little bit of behind-the-scenes
  • Official blurb and cover
  • LIVE video tonight!
  • Link to the Quiz – how closely were you paying attention when you read it?
  • Tea Party Book Club
  • GIVEAWAY!

Behind the Scenes

I am so excited to get to introduce you to one of my favorite couples I’ve created. If you read The Number of Love, then you already know Phillip Camden–and you had a glimpse of Arabelle in the hospital scenes too. These two have been with me for quite a few years. I first developed them for a pirate story set in Jamaica of the 1600s…which I wrote, oh, two whole chapters of. ? I later repurposed them for a Regency idea…which got a whole seven chapters long before I called it quits. But when I was brainstorming this series, I had a moment of “Aha! I can FINALLY use them!” And I found that Camden made just as good a grounded pilot as he did a pirate. ?
I’ve already had several early readers email me to say how much they love the interaction of these two characters, which of course makes my day. There’s something really special about a hero hurting so deeply and a heroine whose calling is to heal. Especially when you throw in an adventurer father, an office full of cryptographers, an admiral that history has likened to a real-life Sherlock Holmes, and a Swiss spy loyal to her German-Intelligence beau. I had so much fun writing this book, and I’m so excited to welcome it officially into the world!
https://www.pinterest.com/roseannamwhite/on-wings-of-devotion-the-codebreakers-book-2/
Want a visual of my characters and their world? Check out my Pinterest board for the book! (I do have a Graphics section on the board, with images you’re welcome to share on any social media, and of course I love re-pins!)

 About the Book

Against Every Warning, She’s Drawn Ever Closer
to the Man Known as “Black Heart”

All of England thinks Major Phillip Camden a monster–a man who
deliberately caused the deaths of his squadron. But he would have
preferred to die that day with his men rather than be recruited to the
Admiralty’s codebreaking division. The threats he receives daily are no
great surprise and, in his opinion, well deserved.


As nurse Arabelle Denler observes the so-dubbed “Black Heart,” she
sees something far different: a hurting man desperate for mercy. And
when their families and paths twist together unexpectedly, she realizes
she has a role to play in his healing–and some of her own to do as well.


With Camden’s court-martial looming, an old acquaintance shows up,
intent on using him in a plot that sends the codebreakers of Room 40
into a frenzy. With their fragile hopes for the future in the cross
hairs, Arabelle and Camden must hold on to hope–and to each other–if
they want to survive.

Join Me Tonight!

https://www.facebook.com/RoseannaMWhite/posts/1438135803030207?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBs8Cb2oR018M6SrdiVByLE3nVFBnc3-Trc1aAdg17Ol7xJ4NPyoiu2emYff5e4C6Q4s318TGyttowc5jCol2XooifIzxc2qwU06SRPMh0_DmcVNNce4wsC-6UV6Ro4OU_s_B2V5XhqdmXYJz0uo-VUwoL7TqQgPgkpOI4agXtVDtZLA6Oy_ThJgnBbB5TbPc4fP7iQi3PsrTuD8scTmwyLv-OyznNANrlEnk0xhaFhcCFqP69z43shXmCwYdNNvyVo2WvoJ1CZQpKzwohYgmW0r80VNxZMuuZcOZ6EO4VeD9I_XDA2C5VbbniSa9c5FRxQ1W0q88RwaV-LgpTcNLgWTeWNbXkTZRAA7FQlJSJDDRsdI93B&__tn__=-R

Tonight I’ll be going live on Facebook, chatting about the book! I’ll share some fun behind-the-scenes, read an excerpt, I’ll be giving away TWO copies to commenters, answering your questions, and more! It’ll be at 7 EST, but if you can’t make it live, don’t worry! The giveaway will be open 24 hours, and you can catch it in my video archives on Facebook or watch on my website!

Once You’ve Read It, Take the Quiz!

How well were you paying attention while you were reading?
Take the quiz and share your score! Don’t forget to tag me @RoseannaMWhite
and use the hashtag #codebreakers

Tea Party Book Club

Of course this month’s Tea Party Book Club is going to be focused on On Wings of Devotion! I’m offering two dates to get us started and will add more as necessary, in a later month.

Friday, January 24, 7 p.m. EST / 6 CST / 5 MST / 4 PST
Saturday, January 25, 1 p.m. EST / 12 CST / 11 a.m. MST / 10 PST

What’s a Tea Party Book Club, you may ask?

It’s pretty simple–much like a regular book club, we’ll be chatting about the book, so it’ll assume you’ve read it already. But to make it extra fun, it’s also a tea party! I send you a package with loose-leaf tea and treats, including some bookish things like page flags and a pen (so you can mark your favorite parts, of course). At the given time, we all log in to Chime (online meeting software), enjoy our tea together, and talk about the book!

You can purchase the seat and the package for $25, opt to add a signed book, and even purchase a tea party starter kit that includes your pick of a vintage cup, a personal tea pot, a homemade tea cozy, and a spoon. There’s also an option to donate to the scholarship fund–and to apply for a scholarship.

Non-US? I can’t ship you a package, but you can purchase the seat and join us to talk about the book for a reduced price!

Want to share the experience with a friend who’d join you in person? This is perfect for mother/daughter duos or reader friends! Purchase one seat normally, then the bring-a-friend option as an add-on!

Want to book a private Tea Party Book Club for your in-person book club or Library group? I’m happy to put together group rates! Just shoot me an email at roseanna@roseannawhite.com to set it up!

Spots are already filling up, so act quickly!

Giveaway

And now, the part you’ve probably been waiting for. ? As always, I’ve put together two different giveaways–one that’s US only and one that is NON-US only.

Word of the Week – Nimrod

Word of the Week – Nimrod

by | Jan 6, 2020 | Word of the Week

Nimrod. In Genesis, he’s recorded as being a hunter of legendary renown and expertise. But I remember the first time I read that for myself thinking, “Really? I thought it meant ‘idiot.'”

The etymologists can’t document exactly how this change in meaning happened, but they do know that it happened within the last 30-40 years, taking on the connotation of “klutz, geek” etc. 
Popular opinion is that the change is actually thanks to a misunderstanding of–get this–a Bugs Bunny cartoon. ?See, Bugs would occasionally sarcastically call Elmer Fudd “a regular Nimrod.” Meaning, of course, that he’s not living up to the famous hunter’s name. But people unfamiliar both with hunting and with the biblical figure assumed he was just insulting Fudd in a straight-up, not-sarcastic way. So Nimrod became a way to insult anyone as unskilled as Fudd…rather than a way to point to an expert hunter.?
Who knew that misunderstood sarcasm could change the whole meaning of a word?

A Year of Promise

A Year of Promise

by | Dec 31, 2019 | Thoughtful Thursdays

PROMISE.
That was my word for 2019. As I blogged about it way back in the first week of January, I said I’d keep an eye out for how God’s promise would play out in my life this year.
Confession: I really didn’t.
In fact, I didn’t even remember that it was my word of the year. I had to look it up on the blog to remind myself a few weeks ago, and I felt quite the mental slap to realize I had a word so, well, promising and didn’t cling to it.
But as I reviewed the post, the scriptures I’d included in it, the thoughts I’d had at the time…it’s okay that I forgot. In fact, it totally fits with the whole purpose of the word as it was given to me. Because the thing that struck me then and which struck me anew as I read my words from a year ago is this:
It’s when we think God has forgotten His promise to us that He’s fulfilling it.
It’s been a difficult year. I finished up the last books of the 6-due-in-18-months schedule I’d been on, and I was seriously exhausted by the end of it. (Hence why I spent three weeks in November frantically rewriting the last of those books, which certainly told the tale of exhaustion, LOL.) My daughter began high school, which in homeschooling world means a bit more intensity for me in terms of grade-and-record-keeping. And my husband is changing careers, which comes with some stress…okay, a lot of stress.
But with the PROMISE of Joy. Something I need to remember now. And cling to. 
Something I need to examine. I sent my blog post from Jan 1 to my husband a few weeks ago, and he asked, “But what exactly IS the promise God has given us?”
He never promises us smooth sailing. He never promises us career success. He never promises us fame or acclaim or anything the world deems “good.” So what is at the heart of His promise?
I will never leave you or forsake you.
Through you all the nations of the world will be blessed.
Seek first the kingdom of God and the rest will be added.
His presence is, ultimately, our promise. Things will go wrong–but He’ll be there. If we keep our focus on Him, nothing else will matter–and we’ll spread the good news of him to everyone else.
A week before Christmas, my family started reading a book together morning and night called Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals (there’s a free app for smart phones too that has the exact same stuff in it!). It takes the traditional prayers of the church, both Catholic and Protestant, and combines them into one volume meant to connect us with other Christians around the world and throughout history; to be approachable to different denominations and backgrounds and help us seek unity with one another through our shared roots. The authors explain in the introduction that these sorts of prayers can be used to hide in…but they can also be used to teach us about the form of prayer and to be a wonderful jumping-off place for our more personal ones. There’s a place in each session where you pause to pray for what’s on your list and praise God for what He’s done.
Each morning prayer ends with this, which I think is a beautiful benediction for us all as we close out a year and prepare for a new one:
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you;
may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;
may he bring you home rejoicing: at the wonders he has shown you;
may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.
We never know where He’ll send us. The wildernesses we may go through. The storms that will come. We don’t know what the new year will bring. But we DO know that He’s there. In the whirlwind and in the whisper. We know that He does the miraculous every day, and that we ought to be looking for it, ought to be filled with wonder at the mystery that is our God. We know that when our eyes remain fixed on him, there is always Joy to be found. Always something to rejoice over.
We know that Christ is the ultimate promise fulfilled. 

How has He shown Himself to you in 2019?

Word of the Week – Figgy Pudding

Word of the Week – Figgy Pudding

by | Dec 30, 2019 | Word of the Week

Special request from Bev today, and an appropriate one for the 6th Day of Christmas. ?
Figgy Pudding. If you’re like me, you’ve really only heard of it in that oft-forgotten verse of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” But what in the world is it?
First, let’s get this out of the way: there are no figs in traditional figgy pudding. Rather, fig was just used to represent any dried fruit, especially plums…which also weren’t in the original dish, LOL. No, that honor went to raisins and currents. These fruits were mixed with meats and grains and spices and made into something like a sausage in the earliest days of the dish in 1300s England (“pudding” originally meant anything boiled or, later, steamed in some sort of bag or casing). Over the next two hundred years, fruit became more plentiful, and the dish went from savory to sweet. It became a traditional Christmas dish–often called “Christmas pudding” as a matter of fact…which led to it being outlawed by the Puritans, who didn’t celebrate Christmas.
So why do carolers demand it? Well, back in ye olden days, the poor would sing Christmas songs at the homes of the wealthy with the expectation that they’d get something in response, either a treat or a monetary tip–it was a way to ask for alms that didn’t wound anyone’s pride. The “now bring us some figgy pudding” and “we won’t go until we get some” lines of the song are considered to be a bit of poking fun at this arrangement.
Most Christmas puddings today are baked in loaf pans, laced with alcohol to bring out the flavors, and are filled with fruits and spices.
What’s your favorite traditional Christmas dish?

The Light Has Come

The Light Has Come

by | Dec 24, 2019 | Thoughtful Thursdays

Last weekend, my dad’s Christmas sermon began not with the familiar passage from Luke, but with John.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.




We all know those verses–I can even recite part of it in Ancient Greek. 😉 But this year, what struck me wasn’t the Word…but the Light.



The Light has come. Into this dark world. Into the shadows. Into the gloom. Into the evil. The Light has come–a pinprick, at the start. A baby. Small, vulnerable, powerless. But the moment the God of the universe took on flesh, something shifted in the very fabric of the cosmos.



The darkness was pierced. The Light shone. And the darkness did not–could not–shall not–comprehend it.


Sometimes our world seems so very dark today. Sometimes it feels hopeless. But it’s not, my friends. It’s not, because the Light has already come. And more, the Light now resides in us.


When Christ was born, God set a new star in the heavens, to light the way to Him. May we be that star today–shining the way to Him for those who seek Him. May we be mirrors to reflect His light. 


Christmas is, ultimately, this. A celebration of the darkness being defeated. The Light has come into the world. Let us praise Him.




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