by Roseanna White | Mar 8, 2018 | Thoughtful Thursdays
But as my husband and I were talking a few weeks ago about how to really change the culture, he hit on this again. And I realized that the thoughts I’d applied to our churches can–should–be extended to a whole lot more. Bear with me as I try to reason through my thoughts on this.
As an author, my thoughts often start with books (go figure, LOL). “What,” people ask over and again, “is Christian fiction?” And some definitions will be all about the negative–what they don’t have. Christian fiction doesn’t have sex scenes. Doesn’t have bad language. Doesn’t have…
True. But it’s a whole lot more than that. Christian fiction has a
faith thread. Christian fiction is about how ultimately our stories are incomplete until they include God. Christian fiction is about seeing His love for us play out in a fictional world.
It’s not enough to write a book that lacks bad things. We need to write books that have good things. Good writing. Solid characterizations. Intriguing plots–what all good books need. Plus. Plus faith, plus Truth. Plus the Lord. Christian fiction needs to be more, not less, to be successful.
Why?
Because we’re never going to reach a hurting world just with messages of No. People don’t ever want to subscribe to the negative–they want something to believe in, not something to be against.
Let’s look at the culture for a minute, and where secularism seems to be winning. First example–the abortion question. I noticed when I was just a kid that both sides phrased their stance as a Pro. Pro-Choice, Pro-Life. No one is ever going to call themselves Anti-Life or Anti-Choice. Right? Because that’s by definition negative.
But what about the actions both sides take? Protests–protests are all too often negative. They’re protesting against something, not for it. And I honestly think this is when they fail. Because though we call ourselves Pro-Life, let’s face it–far too often we’re just anti-abortion. Which means we don’t have in place the things that affect a positive change–the clinics and support groups and counseling and open arms–so much as a willingness to speak against abortion and call it criminal, to denounce anyone who would consider it, to name the evil. This is what leads to abortion clinic bombings…and gee, I don’t think that gets us a whole lot of points with people of different opinions, does it? It doesn’t convince anyone to change their mind. All it does is convince people that we’re irrational and against free will.
Where Pro-Life really shines is when we share the heartache of the girls and women, when we offer love instead of judgement. But all too often, they don’t get that from our side. They get it from the Pro-Choice side. How topsy-turvy is that?
That is, though, just one example. There are so, so many more. So many times when Christians just take a reactionary stance. Where we take a stand…
against. Against homosexual marriage. Against abortion. Against the removal of the Ten Commandments from public places. Against the removal of prayer from schools.
And each and every one of those stances have failed. Why? Because we’re not standing for anything.
Why aren’t we more often, publicly, taking a stand for? For forgiving sinners. For offering second chances. For teaching our children right from wrong. For proving that the hard thing is often the best thing. For demonstrating that we’re stronger, better with God than on our own. For covenants. For bonds. For families. For community.
That’s a whole lot harder. It means giving of ourselves. It means offering help to people. It means sacrifice. It means danger. It means persecution.
It means changing the culture.
But that’s something we will never achieve by reacting. It’s something we can only do by acting.
by Roseanna White | Mar 7, 2018 | 20th Century, Remember When Wednesdays
In writing the Shadows Over England series, I did a lot of studying of the geography of England. For book 1, I only had two scenes in London, and then the rest was in Cornwall. So the fact that my family’s big trip to England fell during the writing/editing of A Name Unknown served me quite well. We spent a lovely four days in Cornwall, which gave me the opportunity to explore it and get to know the neighborhood in which Peter Holstein lived.
But then that made me all the more aware of how little I knew about the settings for the rest of the series. Wales. London. Ack!
To help me in
A Song Unheard, I purchased a few books…and spent a lot of time in Google Maps, traveling down the streets of Aberystwyth, Wales. To be perfectly honest, I was pretty proud of myself for actually learning all the street names around the hotel where much of the action took place. Because, much like Ella from
A Lady Unrivaled, I am directionally impaired, LOL. Even with a GPS, I can get lost. Or try to direct my husband down the wrong street. It is a foregone conclusion in my family that if I say, “I think/don’t think this is it…” one should ignore me. ? But when dealing only in fiction, I can give directions. I could make Willa (who explores until she’s at home in any town) navigate the small city with ease.
But also in A Song Unheard, I needed to get more specific about where the family lived in London. I knew it would be a big deal by book 3, which would take place almost entirely in that city, so it was time to get serious. The scenes in book 2 that actually took place in London were based partly upon my own very limited exploration of the place. When I realized Lukas would likely have come into St. Pancras train station–the same place we went by train to France–I decided I’d put my fictional newspaper office that he was seeking on the very street where our hotel was located. Why not? That allowed me to describe things like walking distance and surroundings with a bit of knowledge.
But
An Hour Unspent was a different story. First of all, I needed the neighborhood where my family of thieves had spent most of their lives. You may remember
my post from last April, when my tyrannical book
refused to be set where I wanted it to be. *Sigh* After searching through my book of London boroughs, I decided to put them in Poplar–historically one of the poorest sections of London. This, then, is where Pauly’s pub is, and where
Rosemary and Willa and Barclay were the most comfortable. The streets they know best.
But if you’ve read
A Song Unheard, then you know Peter offers them the use of his London house, which I decided to situate in Hammersmith. I had fun learning about that section of the city too. And it became an even better pick for them when I realized it was only a 7-minute walk from Whitehall, where the Admiralty buildings are. Given that my mysterious Mr. V is good friends with a naval officer who in fact gives them some of their assignments in
An Hour Unspent, this was perfect.
Still, if we’re talking personal preferences, I’m a country girl, not a city girl. At all. So it still feels a bit strange sometimes to be writing so many books set in London–
The Number of Love, book 1 in The Codebreakers Series that I’m writing now, is also set there. It was some consolation, however, to realize that my characters were a bit out of their element too, being transplanted to new parts of the city. Or in the case of
Margot, moving from small-town life in Louvain (Belgium) to occupied Brussels, and then finally to London, which is obviously very different from anything she’d known before.
Moving characters can be a challenge for a writer–logistics! New streets to pretend you know–but it’s also fun! Because you’re forcing your characters out of the familiar, comfortable places…and we all know that taking characters out of their comfort zones results in some beautiful tension and stressful situations. Mwa ha ha ha–just what every writer needs!
by Roseanna White | Mar 5, 2018 | Word of the Week
A couple weeks ago on the radio, I heard someone musing about the shift of the university experience from its origins. He was saying how university came from uni (one) + verity (truth), and how in recent years people have forgotten the one-truth bit and are instead treating it as place where they should question truth rather than learn it.
I found this intriguing, so of course went to look it up. And went, “Um…no, not really.” ?
Uni does indeed mean “one.” Of course. But versity is not from veritas, the Latin word for “truth,” but rather from versus, the Latin word for “turn.” Universe is more the root–meaning “the whole, the aggregate, the collective.”
That is what university is from…the collective of the academic world. Which does still harken unto unity. There’s a reason it’s not called “the diversity.” The purpose of a university isn’t to highlight differences, but to form a community. A oneness.
If you went to college, did you experience this community at your institution? I went to a very small school, and St. John’s (though not a university by the modern definition because there aren’t different “colleges” of study within it) is really all about the community. All about the common experience we have while there, despite our different backgrounds or interests or beliefs. We were about the uni-, not the di-. And I love that about it.
by Roseanna White | Mar 1, 2018 | Giveaways and Contests, Scavenger Hunt
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 30 stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 5 grand prizes!
• 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, 3/4 at midnight MST)! So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books.
• 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 Stop #30. Many authors are offering additional prizes along the way!
I’m so excited to be hosting Carrie Turansky in this year’s Scavenger Hunt! Carrie and I both write English-set historical romance set in the early 20th century, and I’ve found her to be such a huge encouragement and supporter as I joined her in this era of writing! She has such a sweet and generous heart, and I’ve been really looking forward to Across the Blue. I have my copy sitting here beside me as I welcome her to my blog. =)
I’ve always been intrigued by those early pioneers of aviation. Here is a brief description of Across the Blue: This is a story of a young man with hopes of gaining the skies and a young woman with hopes of finding the freedom to be something other than a gentleman’s wife. Travel to Edwardian England and the beginning of the age of flight.
And now, here’s Carrie!
Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines
By Carrie Turansky
Today we take airplanes and our ability to fly for granted. But did you know that in 1903 very few people believed the reports about the Wright Brothers’ flight at Kitty Hawk, NC? Many thought their claim to have achieved powered flight was wishful thinking or a prank at best.
Some newspaper editors and reporters called them dreamers or frauds who exaggerated what they had accomplished. Of course that only made the Wright Brothers more determined to prove they really had designed an airplane that could fly. And they spent the next few years giving demonstrations in the US and Europe to prove their claims were true.
Those who saw the demonstrations were amazed, and crowds flocked to watch those amazing men and their flying machines! Other aviation pioneers who had been conducting experiments and trying to get their airplanes off the ground took the Wright Brothers’ design ideas back to their workshops to improve their airplanes, and aviation exploded in the next few years.
That’s the backdrop for my new English historical novel, Across the Blue. The setting is Kent, England, in 1909, where James Drake, a brave young aviation pioneer, is working on his airplane design with the goal to be the first to fly across the English Channel. He hopes to win the prize offered by The Daily Mail of London and win the heart of the woman he loves, Bella Grayson. Bella has her own dream, to become a journalist and write for one of her father’s newspapers, in spite of her parents having a very different future in mind for her.
I loved doing the research for this novel and learning about the brave men and women who would not give up on the idea that powered flight was possible. Across the Blue weaves historical facts into fiction. You’ll read about the thrilling race to be the first across the English Channel as well as the exciting first International Air Meet in Reims, France. You’ll see what challenges they faced and how they overcame them.
Even if you’re not an aviation enthusiast, I think you’ll enjoy the romance, adventure, and inspiration woven into Across the Blue!
Carrie Turansky has loved reading since she first visited the Library as a young child and checked out a tall stack of picture books. Her love for writing began when she penned her first novel at age twelve. She is now the award-winning author of nineteen inspirational romance novels and novellas. Carrie and her husband, Scott, who is a pastor, author, and speaker, have been married for more than thirty years and make their home in New Jersey. They often travel together on ministry trips and to visit their five adult children and five grandchildren. Carrie leads women’s ministry at her church, and when she is not writing she enjoys spending time working in her flower gardens and cooking healthy meals for friends and family. She loves to connect with reading friends through her website, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
Here’s the Stop #4 Skinny:
But wait!
Before you go, I’m offering a PRINT copy of A Song Unheard AND this gorgeous sterling silver music note necklace! All you have to do is enter via the Rafflecopter form below! Giveaway will end 3/5/18 at 12:00am EST (USA only please)
by Roseanna White | Feb 27, 2018 | Sales
 |
| (Note: Not my actual house LOL) |
Okay, so y’all should see my house. Pretty much every spare wall is lined with book shelves (shocker, right?), including my bedroom. Now, while the living room holds all my reading books, the bedroom is where I store my author copies. And there is literally no more room in there.
Yes, this is why I opened a store on my website, LOL. I have new author copies arriving every 6 months, and I absolutely must clear out some of the previous ones before I can shelve new ones.
Which is what leads me to this rather fun news.
Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland, my first historical romance, has been handed back to me, and I’ll be re-publishing it with a new title and cover (same interior). But meanwhile, I have 18 copies of the original sitting here, and they need to go bye-bye to make room for new books.
So… I’m running a $5 Clearance Sale on it!
If you haven’t read this one yet, it’s a great chance to get it for a rock-bottom price. This sale will remain until all copies are sold!
About the Book
In 1784 peace has been declared, but war still rages in the heart of Lark Benton. Never did Lark think she’d want to escape Emerson Fielding, the man she’s loved all her life, but then he betrays her with her cousin. She flees to
Annapolis, Maryland, the country’s capital, and throws herself into a new circle of friends who force her to examine all she believes.
Emerson follows, determined to reclaim his bride. Surprised when she refuses to return with him, he realizes that in this new country he has come to call his own, duty is no longer enough. He must learn to open his heart and soul to something greater… before he loses all he should have been fighting to hold.
True. But it’s a whole lot more than that. Christian fiction has a faith thread. Christian fiction is about how ultimately our stories are incomplete until they include God. Christian fiction is about seeing His love for us play out in a fictional world.
That is, though, just one example. There are so, so many more. So many times when Christians just take a reactionary stance. Where we take a stand…against. Against homosexual marriage. Against abortion. Against the removal of the Ten Commandments from public places. Against the removal of prayer from schools.
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.