Roseanna White - Roseanna M. White

Announcing: Dreams of Savannah!

by Roseanna White | Oct 31, 2019 | Announcements, Book News

Even as I was typing up the news about the Isles of Secrets Series, I knew I’d be getting to announce some other exciting news soon too. ? I’ll also be having a book come out from Bethany House between the end of the Codebreakers and the beginning of the next series! This one is a stand-alone, set in Savannah during the Civil War.

Dreams of Savannah (tentative title–it could very well change, LOL) is pretty fun. I actually wrote it years ago upon the request of an editor, but the contract fell through for various reasons. It’s just been sitting there in my digital drawer since 2011, so when my editor at Bethany House asked if I wanted them to take a look at some of my finished-but-unpublished books, I all but shoved it at them. ? And I was so incredibly pleased when they said they liked it and wanted to release it in just over a year! That’s right, this one will be coming out sometime around December 2020/January 2021 (exact date TBD)!!

The story, in a nutshell:

Cordelia Owens can weave a dream around
anything, and is well used to winning the hearts of everyone in Savannah with
her whimsy. Even when she receives word that her sweetheart has been lost
during a raid on a Yankee vessel, she clings to hope and comes up with many a
romantic tale of his eventual homecoming to reassure his mother and sister.

But
Phineas Dunn finds nothing redemptive in the first horrors of war. Struggling
for months to make it home alive, he returns to Savannah injured and cynical,
and all too sure that he is not the hero Cordelia seems determined to make him.
Matters of black and white don’t seem so simple anymore to Phin, and despite
her best efforts, Delia’s smiles can’t erase all the complications in his life.

War, however, doesn’t wait for the clarity of anyone’s heart. When the fort falls and the future wavers before her, Delia has to decide
whether a disillusioned hero is worth the sacrifice of all the dreams she so
long cherished.

For those of you who read my Culper Ring Series, you know I’ve already written one Civil War-era book. The funny thing is that Savannah was already finished when I was working on Circle of Spies, so in my mind, I kept thinking, “Well I already did this, so I…oh wait! No one else knows I’ve already done that!” (“”That” being things like certain treatments of issues like slavery from a Southern perspective–it was mostly the Union perspective represented in Circle of Spies.)

I’m so excited to finally be bringing this story into the world! I’m sure there will be many edits and changes from that 2011 version, but I love these characters so much–I actually reread it a couple years ago as I wrote A Lady Unrivaled, to make sure that Ella, who has some similarities to Delia, isn’t too close to my romantic-adventure-writing Southern belle. And leading Phin through some huge challenges and mental changes was an adventure in itself! One that involves the help of the most unlikely of friends–an Englishman of African descent, who has a very different view of the world than anyone Phin has ever known. I used him–Luther–to bring in some of England’s abolition history, which was fun. =)

Hilariously, the same story of mine from college from which I stole Phillip Camden (who is introduced in The Number of Love and is the hero in On Wings of Devotion) also gave me Luther. Originally he and Camden were first mate and captain on their pirate vessel. 😉 Luther was stolen first for Dreams of Savannah, and I’m glad I didn’t re-steal him for On Wings of Devotion, LOL. But just so you know that if ever the two met, despite now being of different generations, they would have been the best of friends. 😉

I’m looking forward to digging back into this one and polishing it up for you guys!

Word of the Week – Understand

by Roseanna White | Oct 28, 2019 | Word of the Week

(Originally published on April 25, 2011)

I can’t say as I’ve ever understood why, when we comprehend something, we stand under it. So this week we’re working to understand the word understand. ?

According to the wonderful world of www.etymonline.com, this word, which has been
in the English language pretty much since the English language has
been, carries an old sense of “standing in the midst of.” And if you’re in the midst of it, you get it.

Now, the “under” is the tricky part. Etymonline quotes a few different expert opinions on why it’s
“under.” They all agree it isn’t “under” as in beneath, but
rather as in “between, among.” Take, as a modern-day idiom that has
survived with this meaning, the example “Under such circumstances.” We don’t mean we’re literally under these circumstances, but rather in the midst of them.

Some other Germanic languages
have a word that means “stand before” rather than “stand under,” but
ultimately the idea comes back to truly comprehending something when
you’re very near it.

Understand? ?

Thoughtful About . . . Broken Vessels

by Roseanna White | Oct 24, 2019 | Thoughtful Thursdays

Sometimes we are broken. Cracked. Chipped. Completely undone.

Sometimes, no matter how much is poured into us, it feels like it all comes leaking back out.

Sometimes life just keeps throwing rocks at us, making those chips and cracks grow.

Maybe there’s been a diagnosis–for you or someone you love. Maybe it’s the loss of a job. A home. A dream. Maybe it’s a tragedy. Or maybe it’s just a million little things all adding up. Maybe you’re running too hard. Reaching too far. Expecting too much. Maybe you’ve fallen back into that habit you’d thought you’d kicked.

Maybe it’s any of a thousand things that leave you empty at the end of the day. Whatever it is, I think most of us have been there. Broken.

Way back in the day, when I was writing Whispers from the Shadows, my heroine Gwyneth says to the hero Thad, “I’m broken.” And his reply is one I think of time and again. He says, “Oh, sweet. We’re all broken.”

A truth we can’t always see. Because when we’re looking through a cracked lens, we sometimes blame that for the flaws we see in others. (Or sometimes we can only see their cracks and don’t realize it’s our lens.) But it’s a truth nonetheless. We all have those cracks and bruises. The pock-marks and scars. We all have holes and seams and missing pieces.

That’s why I love that our Lord is described as a potter. He knows all about these fragile vessels He’s made. He knows how easily we break. Shatter. Fall to pieces.

And He knows how to fix us. More, He knows how to take the pieces and make something new.

Lord, use us in your mosaic. Fix us where you can, filling our cracks and holes and empty places with you. And as for those times when we feel so utterly shattered that there’s no putting us back together…that’s okay too. We know, Lord, that to you it isn’t a thousand pieces of that old, broken vessel that you see. It’s a thousand pieces of a gorgeous piece of art, just waiting to be made.

We serve an artist, my friends. A God capable of taking the worst tragedy–the ones we can’t actually recover from–and using the fallout to forge something we never could have dreamed. We serve a Potter who can take that same old clay and shape something never seen before. We serve a King who never looks us and says, “You, my son, my daughter, are broken beyond repair.” He looks at us and says, “Will you let me take the pieces? I’ll make something wonderful from them.”

Let’s give Him our pieces. One by one. Maybe we’ll hurt a little as we pick them up and offer them up–some of the edges are pretty sharp. We might bleed. We might cry. But clinging to them will only make those cuts worse. Let’s offer them to Him instead. Our sacrifice. Our praise. Our trust.

Because when we’re at our worst, shattered, that’s when He’s at His best. That’s when He can really get to work…if we step back and let Him.

Lord, here are our pieces. Make of them what You will today.

Word of the Week – Amen

by Roseanna White | Oct 21, 2019 | Word of the Week

Post originally published 4/18/2011

Another Word of the Week revisit coming your way, again from my first days of doing these features in 2011. ? And today we’re (re)looking at amen.

“Amen” is a direct translation from a
Hebrew word that literally means “so be it.” That makes a ton of sense–when we end a prayer, we’re asking God to make whatever we prayed for be. But until the 13th century, it wasn’t tacked onto the end of prayers, but rather at the end of texts, carrying the meaning of
“verily” or “truly” and carrying with it a meaning of agreement. (Think,
“Amen to that!”)

Jesus revolutionized the “amen”
by using it at the beginning of speech without referring to the words of another speaker. He used it instead to claim the truth of what he was about to say. Pretty cool, huh? ?

On Wings of Devotion ~ Pre-Order Your Signed Copies!

by Roseanna White | Oct 16, 2019 | Announcements, Book News

I can’t believe we’re less than 3 months from the release of On Wings of Devotion! I’ll soon be diving into edits for the third book in The Codebreakers, and also into writing the first book in my new series, Isles of Secrets. Plus I’ll have another announcement in the next week or two, after things are signed-sealed-and-delivered. ?

But in the meantime, I wanted to let everyone know that pre-orders are open in my store for signed copies of On Wings of Devotion! And you can get 20% until December 31 if you use this coupon code: wingspreorder

If you’ve never ordered from my store before, it’s super-simple. Just add whatever items you want to your cart, and during checkout, type or paste that code into the grey box that asks for the coupon code. After you’ve proceeded to checkout, there’s a Notes section where you can put in your personalization request. ?

As a reminder, Wings releases on January 7. I’ll pack up pre-orders as soon as I get my copies, which is usually about two weeks early, though I can’t make guarantees on that.

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.