I’m wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas! I’ll be taking a break from blogging, but I’ll be back on January 2 … with some fun. That will be release day for A Song Unheard, so in usual Writing Roseanna fashion, I’ll be celebrating with a big giveaway! Be sure to check in then to get in on the fun.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the time with friends and/or family. Here’s wishing you a holiday season filled with Joy, and much time for reading. 😉
Today I’m happy to welcome my friend and fellow biblical fiction writer Mesu Andrew to the blog, with a very special post. To go along with her upcoming release, Isaiah’s Daughter, Mesu has written a small devotional that is available as a free download to anyone who pre-orders her novel! And she’s here today to share one of those 14 devos…as it’s very appropriate to the season. Please join me in giving Mesu a warm welcome!
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| Christmas print – will be mailed to anyone who pre-orders |
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| Quote card ~ will be mailed to anyone who pre-orders |
Ishma
comes to the prophet Isaiah’s home as a five-year-old orphan,
devastated after watching her family destroyed and living as a captive.
With tenderness and care, her lively spirit is revived, and the prophet
and his wife adopt Ishma, giving her a new name—Zibah, delight of the
Lord. As the years pass, Zibah wins Prince Hezekiah’s favor, a boy
determined to rebuild the kingdom his father has nearly destroyed. But
loving this man awakens Zibah’s painful past and calls into question the
very foundation of her father’s prophecies. Can she learn to rely on
only Yahweh, who gives life, calms fear, and conquers nations?
Isaiah’s Daughter releases January 16, so this pre-order deal is good until the day before! You can find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, CBD, Parable, Lifeway, or see the full list of retail affiliates from the publisher.
Did you know that yule and jolly are from the same root? According to some sources, both come from the Old Norse jol (that J would be pronounced like a Y–see my word of the week on the letter J), which was borrowed into Old French as well, as jolif, which originally meant “festive.” Modern French now has joli, which means “pretty, nice.” And English, of course, has jolly.
But what about this whole “yuletide” idea, meaning Christmas? The yule log? Well, way back in the days of Old English, that Old Norse jol was a heathen feast. As Christianity came in and took over, they applied the English cognate geol to the coordinating Christian festival–Christmas. Old English, you see, already had the word giuli (which sounded very similar)–the Anglo-Saxon name for the winter season (December and January). It wasn’t a specific festival, but rather a two-month stretch in which many feasts occurred. But upon conversion to Christianity, the meaning of giuli narrowed to the twelve day feast of the Nativity (beginning Dec 25). By the 11th century, Christmas became the more popular word in most of England, except the northeast.
How did it come back, then? Well, there had always been a few holdouts–evidenced by yule log being recorded in the 1600s. But we’re mostly familiar with it today because in the 19th century, writers began using it as a nostalgic way to refer to “the Christmas of ‘Merrie England.'”
Today we’re exactly a week from the start of the official Yuletide season. I hope you and yours are having a jolly time!
We’re only a few weeks from the official release of A Song Unheard. My copies have arrived, and orders of signed copies from my store are in the mail.
And so, it seemed like the perfect time to share the book trailer! (If for any reason it doesn’t work for you here, you can watch it on Vimeo.)
A Song Unheard ~ Book Trailer from WhiteFire TV on Vimeo.
I’m so excited to share this with you!! Here’s the scoop on it.
Wow, that’s a lot of people who participated and helped me create this! Hence why it’s no surprise how much I love it. Thank you to all who submitted songs for the contest or voted on their favorites, and even bigger thanks to those who brought it to life!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! And if it does its job (ahem) and makes you want to rush out and buy the book, you can find it here:
Last weekend, my church went to a nursing home (where we visit once a month) and sang carols with the residents. At which point, I realized that I’d never paused to look up the origin of the word!
Carol dates from around 1300, meaning, “a joyful song.” It came into being as a noun and a verb at around the same time, the verb meaning “to dance in a ring.” Etymologists aren’t entirely sure where the word comes from–the English is undoubtedly from the Old French carole, but before that, their best guess is that it’s from the Medieval Latin charaula (a dance to the flute), which is in turn from the Greek khoraules (flute player).
By the end of the 1300s, it was being used to mean “to sing with Joy or festivity” and was used particularly of joyful Christmas hymns by about 1500 onward.
It took a while, however, for the word to take on the meaning of “go around from place to place and sing Christmas carols.” That first appeared in 1879, though it was said at the time to be a revival of an old English custom.
Do you like to go caroling? Is it a traditional in your family or church?
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. Having successfully launched two homeschool grads, she now spends her time writing fiction, 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, as well as a fantasy series and contemporary mysteries and romances. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.