by Roseanna White | Jun 2, 2017 | Fridays from the Archives
Time for another Fridays from the Archives! Today, we’re jumping back to 2009, right before I went to my second ACFW writers conference. This was right as I was planning to re-release A Stray Drop of Blood in paperback. Before I had any readers. When my agent was advising against pitching historicals. Kinda fun to look and be see how much has changed in the last nearly-8 years! Check in at the bottom again for my Now thoughts on Yesterday.
With
the ACFW Conference in Denver only a week away (woo hoo!), my thoughts
have inevitably turned to the dual hope/fear of finding that perfect
editor (or not) for the book I’ll be pitching.
Up until two days ago, I didn’t even know what
I would pitch. I have a few books that were possibilities, but my agent
systematically eliminated them all. “No historicals this year,”
followed by “too sophisticated to break in with” followed by “needs
work.” I sent her my ocean book, now titled Yesterday’s Tides
thanks to y’all, with a cringe. As close as I feel to this book, I
groaned at the very thought of getting another “Not the thing” on it.
Not to mention it would leave me with nothing to try to sell. So you can
imagine my relief and Joy when my agent sent me a series of emails with
“One sheet is good. Interesting idea,” “Synopsis is good. I really like
how you handle this story,” and “Yes, pitch this one. I’ll have it read
by the time you get back, and we’ll make any tweaks necessary before
sending it to the editors who request it.” Whew! Step one down.
Now
for Step Two: finding an editor who loves this book as much as I (and
my critique partners) do. Never a guarantee, obviously. In the two years
since my last conference, I have sighed many a time over the fact that
the editors out there haven’t jumped at the Victorian series that
captured my agent’s attention. You just never know.
But said critique partners have done so much for me. Not just in critiquing my work, but in building me up. Stephanie
said once, “You know why you’ll succeed? Because you keep writing new
things, looking for that one that’ll break you in. You don’t sit back
and wait. You keep coming up with new stuff, better stuff.” The twenty
manuscripts on my computer prove the “you keep writing” part, lol. Then Mary said of Yesterday’s Tides
that she had a threefold prayer for it: that it would sell soon, that
it would be a bestseller, and that it would win a Christy. A dream for
everyone, for sure. And it really touched me that Mary believed in this
story enough to beseech the Lord for it in such a big way. And then Carole
made me preen by saying I was becoming one of her favorite authors–a
label she doesn’t give out easily. Could a writer have a better group of
friends and encouragers?
On one of my loops, we’ve
been talking about that place we all visit sometimes where the
not-knowing-where-we’re-going gets so overwhelming. Where the fear
outweighs the hope. Where you question your calling, your ability, your
everything. Roseanna the Optimist doesn’t often dwell on that, but I
wonder. I wonder if the encouraging news I got on two different projects
last week will come to anything–and if it’ll come in time for
conference. I wonder if all the work I’ve put into other projects will
ever amount to anything or if they’ll molder on my computer for all
time. I wonder if, when I finally do get published on a national level,
I’ll have any readers. I wonder if the re-release of A Stray Drop of Blood will actually sell.
All
things I can’t know. Things that could lead to those “Is this where you
want me, Lord?” questions. But as I’m getting ready to head to Denver
and pitch a project I love and believe in, I’m instead getting excited
about what He might have in store. The fact that I will even be
pitching this story, when I had assumed it off the table, is enough to
excite me. I finished its rewrites a year ago, but everyone kept losing
it, forgetting about it . . . it wasn’t it’s time. Now it seems to be.
Will that result in the “perfect editor”? I don’t know. But it gives me
hope.
Today Me again. One reason I loved rereading this is because I can at this point look back and see the winding but steady road I traveled from that conference to where I sit today, with 14 published books soon to be under my belt.
I pitched Yesterday’s Tides in Colorado, and the best reaction I got was from Kim Moore at Harvest House. She loved it. Loved the writing, loved the story, loved me. But a year later, I still hadn’t heard back from her on it, so I checked in with her. She’d lost the file–but I resent, and she ended up taking it to committee. They didn’t buy it, but Kim liked my writing so much that she asked me if I had any historicals (ha! full turn around on the ‘no historicals’ thing). In the meantime, I was also getting to know Rachel from Summerside Press, who also first said, “We’re penciling you in” to a contemporary and then asked for a historical, which became Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland. By the time that one was in the publication process, Kim had convinced Harvest House to buy my Culper Ring Series. All because of that meeting with her in 2009.
That said, Yesterday’s Tides still sits on my computer. I still love it. But it hasn’t been published, it hasn’t become a bestseller, it hasn’t won a Christy. My dear Mary (who passed away just a couple months before Annapolis hit the shelves) was wrong on the “soon.” But her faith in me kept me going. And I hope all I’ve accomplished would make her proud. I’ve now brainstormed how to turn Yesterday’s Tides into a historical, and we’ll see if that’s the way God wants me to tell that story. Who knows? Or it could be that He’ll have me sit on it a while longer yet. I don’t know. I just know that someday, that story that holds me captive every time I draw it out to work on it, will find its place in the world. I’m looking forward to that.
Just as I can look back and see that, yes, that conference led me to the editors I needed to know, so too do I know He holds all my stories in His hand. I love that feeling.
Happy Friday, y’all, and don’t forget to join me for my LIVE chat on Monday, to talk about Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland! I’ve heard from a ton of you that Annapolis was the first book of mine you’d read, and how much you love it; I’d love to take your questions and comments on it!
Jigsaw photo credit
© Aliaksandr Mazurkevich | Dreamstime.com – Hand inserting missing piece of jigsaw puzzle
by Roseanna White | May 31, 2017 | Companion Guides, Remember When Wednesdays
Okay, I just spent a ridiculous amount of time doctoring that photo that you can barely see in the title image, trying to make this Edwardian family at least pretend to match mine, LOL. Anyway…
In a month, you’ll get to meet The Family. The group of orphans and outcasts and misfits that have decided to stick together at all costs. To love each other. To sacrifice for each other. To beg, borrow, and steal to take care of each other. You’re about to meet a gang of thieves with a strange code of honor. The family of the Shadows Over England Series.
I hope you like them as much as I do.
In a perfect world, y’all will love this series so much that books will fly off the shelves and my publisher will be begging me to extend the series (ahem). In all likelihood, we’ll have only the three I’ve already sold to them, focusing on the eldest of the twelve children in this family–Rosemary Gresham, Willa Forsythe, and Barclay Pearce. But I wanted to take a minute to introduce you to the rest of the gang and tell you a bit about them, since the books, in an effort not to overwhelm you with names and identities, keep those details sparse.
For the purposes of this list, ages given are as they are in A Name Unknown.
BARCLAY(27)
The leader of this patchwork clan and hero of book 3, Barclay is the quintessential “big brother.” Overprotective and often accused (lovingly) of being a tyrant, he’s the one who set out the rules–never steal from those worse off, never give a gift that was stolen, etc–and enforces them. Though the other “siblings” occasionally resent him, they also adore him. He’s the one who teaches them all how to blend in with society, though no one’s quite sure how he learned. He’s remained decidedly mum about his early history; he met Rosemary and Willa when he was about 11.
ROSEMARY (24)
Our heroine in book 1, Rosemary is a Cockney girl whose parents died of fever when she was 8. Barkeeper Pauly found her rooting through his garbage and introduced her to
Barclay and Willa. She’s a whiz with a needle and can create clothing for them all to ensure they blend in when they sneak into galas in search of pretty baubles. And she’s also a whiz with languages. It’s the fact that she taught herself German for the British Museum heist that gets her the attention of Mr. V…which sets the whole series in motion.
WILLA (23)
Heroine in book 2, Willa is a cynical, untrusting young woman . . . and a
Violin prodigy. Abandoned by her parents when she was 6, Willa carried emotional baggage far heavier than her
Violin case–and is quite happy to stay forever with the family that
chose her, and who she chose. So long as she has her beat-up instrument and the little stump of a stage that Pauly built for her in his pub, she’ll be just fine.
RETTA (21)
There’s always a lover of beauty to be found in the dirtiest streets, and that’s Retta. Art is her passion…and copying it her gift. Which translates to very helpful skills like forging invitations to events…or documents, passports, and the like. Orphaned in a fire when she was 5, the original trio took her in that night, and she’s never looked back.
GEORGIE (17)
One of the oldest of the siblings but one of the newer additions to the family, Georgie hasn’t ever quite submitted to
Barclay‘s authority–but he’s so stinking endearing about it that they all just roll their eyes and give him a hug. Georgie is one of the first to sign up when war is declared–can’t beat 3 square meals a day, right?–and the family can’t stop missing him, disobedience and all.
ELINOR (17)
Ellie, it must be said, is getting far too pretty. And pretty doesn’t blend in well, so they have to be very careful which jobs they give her these days–restrictions she chafes under. And of course, the less the family lets her do, the more determined she is to prove herself. Elinor generally puts on her very-pretty smile, but it’s sometimes by sheer determination–she’s the only member of the family who was a part of, and then escaped, the orphanage and work house system.
LUCY (16)
Lucy was only a baby the night that same fire that orphaned Retta left her homeless as well. She remembers nothing but the family that took her in. They can tell by looking at her, of course, that she has a bit of India flowing in her veins, and the assumptions people in London make when they see her means that she can blend in perfectly with the servant class whenever she needs to find something out about a house or family. She’s also just discovering a true passion for baking and cooking.
CRESSIDA (12)
At that age when she’s not quite a child and not quite a grown-up, Cress is still sheltered from the family “business”…and eager to become a part of it and truly be one of them.
FERGUS (11)
Possessed with a sharp mind–and an equally sharp tongue–ginger-haired Fergus never minds telling people how it is, or how he wants it to be. And how can anyone turn down his freckle-faced charm? He’s perfectly at home in the family that took him in six years ago and can’t imagine life without them.
JORY (8)
Little Marjory has known nothing but the family either–and is a sister after
Barclay‘s own heart, always having a book in hand. You won’t ever hear her say much, but she quietly wraps the older ones around her finger and holds them there with a grin.
NIGEL (7)
Nigel might have physically blended in better with another gang, being of African descent, but his heart is all the family’s. He was another of Pauly’s rescues, and never regrets for a minute choosing to put his hand in
Barclay‘s and make their home his three years before.
OLIVIA (6)
The youngest of the crew, Olivia was just a tot when Rosemary and Willa found her in the arms of her dying mother, who begged them to see her to safety. They, of course, obliged and took her in. They don’t even know her last name, but that’s all right–when she’s old enough, she can choose one of theirs.
Quite the gang, eh? I’m still getting to know some of them myself, but it’s a
Joy to do so. They each have their quirks and charms, and I can’t wait to introduce you all more thoroughly in the pages of the books!
by Roseanna White | May 23, 2017 | Books, Giveaways and Contests
Hello, gentle reader, and welcome to the
second annual British Blooms and Books giveaway! This week, we’d like to
celebrate the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show. After
enjoying this post, please visit each of the other five authors’ blogs (links
provided below) and, after a bit of reading fun, follow one simple instruction
and then leave a comment on each blog. You’ll be entered to win a fabulous,
British Blooms and Books prize. (US winners only, please, due to shipping the
petit fours.) Enjoy, and thank you for stopping by!
There’s nothing quite like an English garden. On my tour of the Cotswolds and Cornwall (with a brief stop in Devonshire) last autumn, my family enjoyed little more than being set free to explore the beautiful grounds of the houses we toured, or frolicking about the rugged cliffs of Land’s End.
We saw the stunning terraced gardens of St. Michael’s Mount, in Cornwall, from above.
We saw the most perfect rose, still wet with rain, in the gardens of a manor house that had once been an abbey, in the Cotswolds.
We wandered the paths of Knightshayes’s expansive gardens in Devonshire.
But for all the beauty and appeal of a formal flowerbed, of carefully plotted and potted and planted gardens, sometimes it’s the wild that appeals most to us. Sometimes it’s the accidental beauty, or the little bits that God positioned just so for us. Perhaps it’s the purple heather or the yellow-sprigged gorse or the white wildflowers growing beside a cliff…
Or perhaps it’s something as simple as a dandelion–a little burst of yellow blooming where it shouldn’t. A little ray of sunshine, too often overlooked or dismissed as a nuisance.
In A Lady Unrivaled, Ella is quite determined not to be charmed by the scowling Lord Cayton, who has broken too many hearts before–fortuitous, because Cayton is quite determined not to do any charming. But when an impromptu walk through the gardens of Ralin Castle, still not quite in bloom, lead them out to the gardener’s shed, they happen upon one of those weeds that the gardener would no doubt obliterate.
Just a dandelion. Nothing special. But when Cayton’s toddler daughter shows delight with the spot of yellow, Cayton picks two of them. Gives one to his daughter and hands the other to Ella.
An admission that sometimes, as Ella had just insisted, you can find a reason to smile even when you shouldn’t. That sometimes, even when there are clouds overhead, you can find a little patch of sunshine.
Sometimes, what the world dismisses can be the most treasured beauty of all.
Ella’s optimism is perhaps what makes her A Lady Unrivaled . . . and Cayton’s moods can’t ever stand long against her. I hope you have a chance to read more about this unlikely couple, and the other adventures they have in a Cotswolds garden–not to mention the dangers and adventure they face as they work together to trap a villain haunting both their families. PLEASE SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER (current subscribers, you’ve already done this step!) and comment below for a chance to win A Lady Unrivaled as well as the other amazing books in the giveaway, plus a sweet set of tea hat petit fours to enjoy while you read!
Giveaway Rules:
One grand prize winner who comments on
each of the six authors’ blogs and agrees to the one boldfaced condition posted at the end of each post will win a
signed copy of each of the books plus
delivery of six English hat petit fours to enjoy while you read! Name will be
drawn via random.org
Finished? Well done! Please visit these
other fabulous authors of England-set historicals to see what flowers mean to
them and their heroines.
by Roseanna White | May 22, 2017 | Word of the Week
This isn’t one of those words I expected to be surprised by–but I was.
So. Waaaay back in the day, in the 1300s, the word boss was in English. But it was a noun meaning “a protuberance, a button.” It came from the French boce, which meant “something swollen or protruding.”
For nearly 350 years, that was the only boss in the English language…until American English adopted the same word in imitation of the Dutch baas, which means “overseer.” Americans, you see, had an interest in a word other than “master” for someone in charge of a workplace, especially to distinguish between slave and paid labor. So around 1640, boss became the American term for an overseer, especially on a ship.
It wasn’t until 1856 that boss is recorded as a verb. And not until 1882 that bossy became a word. (Though back in the Middle Ages, bossy was used to mean “something decorated with buttons.” Wee bit different meaning there!) So all in all, a much newer word than I thought, with a far different meaning before the familiar one came about!
~*~
D O N ‘ T F O R G E T !
TONIGHT –
I’m going live on Facebook at 7 p.m. EDT to talk about
A Soft Breath of Wind. Which has some of my all-time favorite elements and characters in it, and I’m so excited to chat with you about Zipporah and Samuel and Benjamin and Dara!
TOMORROW –
The 2nd Annual British Books and Blooms will go live!
by Roseanna White | May 18, 2017 | Thoughtful Thursdays
Last weekend, my dad preached on a rather familiar passage in Philippians 4. His sermon was great, focusing on how God can conquer any of our weaknesses and enable us to do the work He calls us to. It was a message full of things you just want to shout “Amen!” to. (You can watch it here if you need this reminder right now.)
But something struck me as he just read the passage at the start of the sermon. Something that hadn’t quite ever struck me this way before. Let’s look at Phil 4:11-13.
I’ve read this verse in context countless times. But before, every time I reached verse 13, I defaulted to “Oh, I’ve memorized this one!” So I just recite to myself as that mantra, that motto, that reminder that with Christ, I can conquer anything the world throws at me.
True.
But last weekend, I read it differently. Because this verse isn’t just about conquering and coming out on top, right? It’s about withstanding. It’s about existing in ways we might not deem good.
It’s not just about Jesus helping you find food.
It’s about Him sustaining you through times of hunger.
It’s not just about Jesus helping you defeat your enemies.
It’s about Him holding you close when they win.
It’s not just about Jesus giving you enough.
It’s about Him giving you strength when there isn’t enough.
Paul says time and again how much he’s suffered for the sake of the cross, and for the first time, as I read this I realized it was another example of it. Another way that Paul says, “Listen, friends. Sometimes we have and sometimes we don’t. But in all times, He’s there. And through Him, we can learn to thrive even in those bad times. We can be content without ‘enough.’ We can be content in pain. We can be content when the world hates us.”
Yes, He does also give us the strength to do. To fight, to be brave, to overcome our limitations and be used by Him. He enables us to answer the call He puts on our lives.
But sometimes, He also just gives us the strength to be, when we don’t feel like it. He fills us when by rights we should be drained. He teaches us how to greet with peace a tumultuous, bitter world that will abuse us.
Sometimes the only victory we can cling to is that Christ is in us.
And that’s enough.
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.