Word of the Week – Ghost

by Roseanna White | Oct 25, 2021 | Holidays, Word of the Week

It’s October! So I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the words you’re going to be encountering in this season. Whether you celebrate Halloween or just the harvest (or nothing at all), I think you’ll agree that the etymologies this month are interesting!

Ghost…Our modern English word comes from Old English gast, which meant “breath; good or bad spirit, angel, demon; person, man, human being.” Though the origins are a bit murky, it’s thought that gast, along with similar words in other Germanic languages, is from the ancient root gheis, which is used to form all sorts of words that convey excitement, fear, or amazement.

Early English translations of the Bible chose to use the word Ghost to render spiritus, the Latin word used to describe not only the soul but the Holy Spirit. So Holy Ghost is one of the few surviving phrases that use ghost in that particular way. Otherwise, the notion of “the disembodied spirit of a deceased person” is the more original sense of the word and has been its primary meaning since the 14th century. It’s certainly interesting to note in that Old English gast, though, that it could be used to describe so many things that go beyond the corporeal.

It’s also interesting to note that in most Indo-European languages, the same words are used to describe both the human spirit and supernatural elements. So whether or not you believe in ghosts that haunt a place, the word is actually linked firmly to the human soul or spirit…and I daresay you DO believe in that! Which I will be considering more fully the next time someone asks if I believe in ghosts. 😉 How about you? Where do you come down on the question?

Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt ~ Stop #17

by Roseanna White | Oct 20, 2021 | Scavenger Hunt

Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt Stop #17

Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! If you’ve just discovered the hunt, be sure to start at Stop #1, and collect the clues through all the stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 5 grand prizes!

The hunt BEGINS on 10/21 at noon MST with Stop #1 at LisaTawnBergren.com.
Hunt through our loop using Chrome or Firefox as your browser (not Explorer).
There is NO RUSH to complete the hunt—you have all weekend (until Sunday, 10/24 at midnight MST)! So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books and learn new things about them.
Submit your entry for the grand prizes by collecting the CLUE on each author’s scavenger hunt post and submitting your answer in the Rafflecopter form at the final stop, back on Lisa’s site. Many authors are offering additional prizes along the way!

Hello! I’m Roseanna M. White, author of several dozen historical romances (most of which are set in Edwardian England), a few biblical fiction love stories, and in my (ha!) spare time, a cover designer. I also run (along with my amazing husband) the WhiteFire Publishing Group. And my most recent venture is the Bookish Things Shop, right here on my website! (Where I have not only stuff relating to my books, but also things for EVERY book lover!) So…you know, pretty busy around here! You can find me everywhere @RoseannaMWhite (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest).

My most recent release is a historical romance set in 1906 on the gorgeous Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall…full of the search for pirate treasure, mistaken identities, and lots of adventure to go along with the romance.

Lady Elizabeth “Libby” Sinclair, with her love of microscopes and nature, isn’t favored in society. She flees to the beautiful Isles of Scilly for the summer and stumbles into the dangerous secrets left behind by her holiday cottage’s former occupant, also named Elizabeth, who mysteriously vanished.

Oliver Tremayne–gentleman and clergyman–is determined to discover what happened to his sister, and he’s happy to accept the help of the girl now living in what should have been Beth’s summer cottage . . . especially when he realizes it’s the curious young lady he met briefly two years ago, who shares his love of botany and biology. But the hunt for his sister involves far more than nature walks, and he can’t quite believe all the secrets Beth had been keeping from him.

As Libby and Oliver work together, they find ancient legends, pirate wrecks, betrayal, and the most mysterious phenomenon of all: love.

Isn’t that book cover (just below here) just GORGEOUS?! I was so excited when I saw it—my one request had been that my heroine, Libby, be in a purple dress (key to the story), and I was so excited when I saw it! Then my excitement grew even more on release day, when I received the most unexpected of comments on my social media posts about the book…

MEETING THE FAMILY OF
AND MODEL FOR A BOOK COVER!

Release week is always fun and exciting, but I was so surprised when I saw a couple comments from the grandmothers of the cover model on The Nature of a Lady! They were tagging each other, full of glee at seeing their sweet granddaughter on the cover. I reached out to one of them to say what a wonderful job she’d done at capturing Libby’s sweet spirit, and she was quick to tell me how sweet the model, Ashton, is in real life too.

Over the course of the day, I learned that Ashton, a professional model, and her husband live in the same city as my publisher, and how they are the hands and feet of Jesus in their neighborhood, which was in the heart of the riots last year. I learned how they seek God first and foremost. And I learned that this proud grandmother had been a reader of my books already, so to have her granddaughter on the cover of one was a treat for them as well. I was so excited that we were soon conspiring together to send her granddaughter a special surprise package to thank her for doing such an amazing job being Libby.

I’ve had many covers before, and a few times I even learned who the models were…but this unexpected connection was the sweetest release day surprise!

Here’s the Stop #17 Basics:

If you’re interested, you can order The Nature of a Lady on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBook, signed from my shop, or at your local bookstore!

Clue to Write Down: book

Link to Stop #18, the Next Stop on the Loop: Tamara Leigh’s site!

My Giveaway!

I’m excited to be able to offer one lucky winner $20 in credit to the Bookish Things shop here on my website! That will allow you to get a book or any number of other products. Do feel free to browse the shop and make a wishlist so that if you win, you’re ready (extra entries for that)! LOL.

Just enter using the Rafflecopter form below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Word of the Week – Demon

by Roseanna White | Oct 18, 2021 | Holidays, Word of the Week

We’re continuing our October look into spooky words today…with demon. I don’t know about you, but for me, this word conjures up a WHOLE different level of fear. Ghosts and spooks are words assigned to human spirits, but demon…that’s a whole different supernatural level, and one that invokes evil.

Right?

Um…well…if we’re looking at the history of the word, it actually isn’t so cut and dry!

The English word demon, which dates from 1200 as “an evil spirit, a malignant supernatural being, a devil” is taken directly from the Latin and Greek daemon, which means ANY spirit, good or bad, and sometimes used to describe human souls as well. So how did the English come to associate it solely with the evil side?

It’s because the Greek daemon is the word used in the Bible for “unclean spirits,” and Jewish authors also used it in Greek versions of the Old Testament books for “false gods.” Though Greek speakers never would have ONLY used it in this sense…we weren’t Greek speakers, LOL. So demon came to be applied solely to the evil side of the supernatural.

Occasionally writers or academics will want to use the word in the original Greek or Latin sense, especially when translating, so will interject that extra ‘a’ into the word and make it daemon to differentiate.

Introducing the Bookish Things Shop!

by Roseanna White | Oct 14, 2021 | Announcements, Bookish Tees and Totes, Books, Holidays, Sales

Okay, guys, I am sooooo excited to tell you about this today! For the past month-ish, I’ve been working on expanding my shop, and finally, the results are ready to show you!!

It started when we were on vacation. For us, “vacation” is really just the best brainstorming of the year. 😉 As we were walking on the beach and chatting, one of the topics was how to make even more cool stuff available in my store. I had tons of ideas…but of course, the problem is that I only have so much time. So I can’t just make everything I think of (never mind that I don’t have the skills, LOL). So I decided to look some things up. And next thing I know, I’m hours into browsing products by other individuals and artisans and I have found SO MANY that are a perfect fit!

And that’s what I’m about to show you! I’ve put together a ton of cool stuff. Some of it ties directly to one book of mine or another…some of it appeals to a general bookish audience. A few are especially for writers. I have some Christmas merch too, including new designs I just unveiled this week! A few highlights:

- Journals and notebooks
- Pens
- Book lockets and pendant necklaces
- Nature-themed jewelry and goodies
- Christmas ornament
- Book socks
- Book light
- Book earrings

AND…I also just added a wishlist button to the site! So if YOU are the book lover in your life and want to drop a few hints to your loved ones for the next holiday, I’ve totally got you covered. When logged in, you can create as many lists as you like, make them public or private, email them to people, you name it! (If you don’t log in, it will remember you for 30 days as long as you’re on the same device.)

So are you ready to see some of the cool new stuff?? I’ve divided them into a couple different categories–the images below are just a few of them! Check out the full shop HERE.

(All the old stuff is still there too, don’t worry! I’ve just built out new pages and taken new product images in some cases.)

Would you like to see a tie-in item that I don’t currently have? Just send me a note through the contact form with your suggestion, and I’ll see what I can do. =)

Christmas

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Glass Book Stack Ornament to Pinterest (opens in a new window)
Glass Book Stack Ornament
$25.00

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Word of the Week – Spooky

by Roseanna White | Oct 11, 2021 | Holidays, Word of the Week

Today we’re taking a look at spooky . . . which means really, we’re taking a look at spook, since that’s what it’s a form of. Spook dates from 1801 and is taken from the Germanic. The fun thing is that pretty much all Germanic languages have a work very similar to spook, but the meanings include not only the primary “ghost,” but also, “scarecrow” and “joke.”

In 1942 it began to be applied to spies–presumably because of their abilities to appear and vanish again.

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Word of the Week – Ghost

Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt ~ Stop #17

MEETING THE FAMILY OFAND MODEL FOR A BOOK COVER!

My Giveaway!

Word of the Week – Demon

Introducing the Bookish Things Shop!

Bookish Gifts

Glass Book Stack Ornament

Book Lover Necklace

My Weekend Is Booked Earrings

Book Dragon Earrings

Raven Book Locket Necklace

Book Locket Earrings

YOUTH Reading Reindeer “Bookish & Bright” Long Sleeve T-Shirt

Reading Reindeer Coffee Mug — “May Your Days Be Bookish & Bright” (11/15oz)

Bookish Jewelry

“Writer” Charm Bracelet

“Well Read” Charm Bracelet

“No Such Thing as Too Many Books” Charm Bracelet

Tangled Kantha Bead Necklace (A Stray Drop of Blood)

Kantha Shiva Necklace (A Stray Drop of Blood)

Book Locket (Silver)

Dangling Book Earrings

“Drink Tea and Read Books” Charm Bracelet

Christmas

Glass Book Stack Ornament

Bookish Tees

The Number of Love “18” T-Shirt

“Woof” T-Shirt

“Black Heart” T-Shirt

“Hero or Villain” T-Shirt

“Too Many Books” T-Shirt

“Today I…Read a Book” T-Shirt

A Portrait of Loyalty T-Shirt ~ “Look for the Beauty”

“The Power to Stand” Heart of a Princess T-Shirt

Bookish Totes

“Too Many Books” Tote Bag

“Today I Read a Book” Tote Bag

“The Number of Love” Tote Bag

“Hero or Villain” Tote Bag

“Woof” Tote Bag

“Black Heart” Tote Bag

“Look for the Beauty” Tote Bag

“All Will Be Well” Tote Bag

Special Editions

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Signed Books

A Stray Drop of Blood (Signed) – A Visibullis Story

Jewel of Persia Classic Edition (Signed)

A Soft Breath of Wind (Signed) – A Visibullis Story

Giver of Wonders (Signed) – A Visibullis Story

Whispers from the Shadows (Signed) – The Culper Ring, Book 2 (CLASSIC COVER)

Circle of Spies (Signed) – The Culper Ring, Book 3 (CLASSIC COVER)

The Lost Heiress (Signed) – Ladies of the Manor, Book 1

The Reluctant Duchess (Signed) – Ladies of the Manor, Book 2

Word of the Week – Spooky

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