by Roseanna White | May 12, 2017 | Fridays from the Archives
For my first Fridays from the Archives post, I’m borrowing one of my oldest “thoughtful” posts, from way back in 2009, just a few months after the blog got started. My daughter was, at the time, 3 years old. Rowyn was six months. I love looking back at these little snapshots of life with them then! And with Mother’s Day just a couple days away, I couldn’t think of a better thing to share.
There’ll be a bit from Roseanna Now at the end of this short little thing from Roseanna Then. 😉
~*~
My daughter has this thing. Instead of, you know, looking to see where I am, she’ll call out, “Mommy! Where are you?”
Now,
usually I’m about two feet away, just behind her. So I’m obligated to
give a silly answer, right? I mean, I can’t just say, “Right here.”
That’s way too obvious for someone with my caliber of wit (ha. ha ha
ha.). So I’ve taken to saying, “On the moon.”
Depending
on her mood, she might ignore me, she might laugh, she might insist,
“No, you’re not!” she might then pretend that the woman in the living
room is someone else and talk about her mommy, who is currently on the
moon . . . or she might pretend like she’s on the moon with me.
That’s
the most fun–to see the imagination come to life in my toddler. I’m
constantly amazed by her recall and the things she’ll put together. And I
get a little flutter in my heart when she tells me she’s going to write
books someday too. Yeah, she’s only three–chances are pretty darn good
her goals will change a few times, lol. But still.
Yesterday
she sat down at my computer, asked me to give her a blank page, and
just sat there typing. Most of it looked like this:
asdfahghasduoidfoivasrueioransdghosdb8ibf fsiorutawlktj
With
the occasional “xoe” thrown in. =) But it was so cool for me, because
my little girl’s sitting there trying to do what I do, saying as she
does it that she’s writing it for me.
It’s those little things that make it all worthwhile. That get my imagination going. Because you just never know what you might discover when you’re on the moon with your little girl.
~*~
One of the reasons this still makes me smile today is that Xoe is still writing–with considerably more skill. It’s a question I think any writer with kids gets: “Do any of your children want to be a writer?”
For a while there, I would just shrug. Because 3-year-old Xoe’s ambitions cooled as she grew. Oh, she wrote stories for her brother when she was 5 and 6, which was adorable. And would frequently say she was going to write a story in the years to follow, but mostly she just drew the pictures for them, made a cover, came up with a catchy title, and then never actually wrote. Which is totally cool–I’d praise the artwork and say it looked great and never pushed her or anything.
But I noticed that when we were all outside of an evening, Xoe would just walk around, clearly in another world. And I’d remember doing the same thing. And I’d wonder if she were perchance building worlds, building stories as I used to do.
A couple months ago she started writing again in earnest, working on a book that she insists WhiteFire must publish once she’s finished. I smiled and said, “Well sweetie, first you have to finish it. Let’s start there.”
Then she let me read it. And oh my gracious. The girl has wit. She has voice–something hard won. She made me laugh out loud. Oh, I could see where it needed to improve–I can never turn off my internal editor–but they’re small, doable things. The sort of things I’d ask any writer to work on.
My daughter is a writer. Who also wants to intern with me as a graphic designer.
Maybe I am on the moon–some people might think we creatives belong there, LOL. But if so, my girl really is right there with me, and it does a mama’s heart proud. I don’t know if she’ll really end up making a career of this crazy artistic stuff that holds me captive. But it has a place in her heart. And that makes mine go all kinds of soft and mushy.
by Roseanna White | May 10, 2017 | Announcements, Book News
Here it is! If you’re interested in becoming an influencer for A name Unknown, please fill out the form below for a paperback (US addresses only).
If you’d rather have a digital or have a non-US mailing address, please use this form instead.
As a reminder, this form will only be live for 24 hours, as I have only a few slots still available after giving my previous launch team a chance to sign up.
by Roseanna White | May 9, 2017 | Announcements, Book News
It’s that time again–time to collect influencers for A Name Unknown!
What’s an influencer? It’s someone who agrees to help spread the word about my book through:
* Reviews (copies are sent out to my team)
* Word of mouth
* Posts on social media (memes with quotes, photos when your book arrives, etc.)
* Asking your local library/bookstores to order/carry it
* Generally just being a pal and getting the word out there!
Interested? The sign-up form for influencers new to my team will go live tomorrow, Wednesday 10 May, 2017 at 2 p.m. EDT. The form will stay open only 24 hours.
I only have 15 slots to fill at this point, after rolling over previous readers interested in joining me for the new adventure, so new influencers will be chosen based on your ideas for helping out and/or your track record as a reviewer.
by Roseanna White | May 8, 2017 | Word of the Week
No, that is not a picture of my dresser. I don’t think . . . 😉
So this is another one of those words that is a big part of our everyday language, but which has some surprisingly late additions to it!
As a noun, mess has been around since about 1300–as a word for “food for one meal.” It’s from the Latin, via the French, meaning literally “a course of food.” By 1530, it had been extended to the military use of “a communal place for eating” and then “the group of people eating.”
It wasn’t until the 1730s that it became “mixed food,” especially for animals. But that meaning is what led people to apply mess contemptuously to any “jumble or mix” of things in the 1820s, which quickly took on the metaphorical sense of “state of confusion” or “untidiness” (by 1850s).
The verb form largely mirrors the noun; first it meant “to serve up portions” or “take one’s meal,” extending into the metaphorical senses as the noun did. So in the 1850s we got make a mess, and mess with, as in “interfere with” is from 1903. Mess up, however, didn’t come along until 1933! Which is, of course, the one I wanted to use in my book and couldn’t, LOL.
A N N O U N C E M E N T S
First of all, don’t forget that I’ll be doing my next live chat tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern on my Facebook Page!
Next, as I was chatting with my friend on our writing retreat, she shared an idea I think I’ll start instituting–namely, pulling old articles from my archives and reposting them once a week or so, since I have nine years’ worth of ’em. I’ll probably do this on weeks when I don’t manage my three posts on M/W/T and will create “Fridays from the Archives.” Categories may vary, but it should be fun to revisit!
by Roseanna White | May 4, 2017 | Thoughtful Thursdays
Yesterday, I attended the funeral of my 103-year-old great-grandmother, who passed away over the weekend. And while I was teary-eyed and sniffly at it (which is for me the equivalent of outright crying), I didn’t leave the service feeling wrung out or devastated or, honestly, even sorrowful.
I left the service feeling uplifted. Inspired. Because this woman whose blood runs partially through my veins was amazing. Not the sort of amazing that claims material success or fame or awards-won or anything like that–the kind that crafted a family full of people who love. Who love her, who love each other, who saw through her unflagging example how to love their neighbors.
As I listened to the stories people shared about Maxine Higson Seward, I sat in awe of how this one small woman could love so much. So completely. So without question. And I knew that that was the kind of legacy God wants us to leave in this world. The kind we spend a lifetime building. The kind that we don’t pass along by creating something that lasts after us–books or statues or inscriptions on palace walls–but by teaching others to be the same way, who will in turn teach others, and so on.
And because I process emotions through writing, I of course then try to think of characters I’ve written that model the principles my Grandma Seward always lived out. And though there have been several small examples through the years and books, I realize that the series I’m working on right now, Shadows Over England, portray this selfless love in rather ironic ways.
Perhaps no one would expect me to dedicate books about thieves to my saintly grandmother, who gave, never stole. But I’m going to. Because what I love about this fictional family I’ve created is that, though they were misguided, they will sacrifice anything for each other. They will go out of their way to help each other, or others they deem “theirs.” They may not always know the Right Way to act, but they know why to act–for those they love. In so many ways, this rag-tag collection of orphans I’ve decided to write about demonstrate what family should, in my opinion, be. What my family is.
I’ve thought here and there over the years about what kind of legacy I’m building. I have my books, of course. All the millions of words I’ve typed and put out there. But more important is what I’m teaching my children about life and family and God and giving. About their hearts and their service and their example. More important is teaching them that by loving others, you build something bigger than you are.
I’m not the same sort of person Grandma Seward was. My life certainly isn’t the same type she lived. But if I and it are guided by the same principles, then I know it would make her–and my Lord and Savior–smile.
Whatever my profession, I can be His follower first.
Whatever else I am, I can be a dedicated mother.
Wherever I live, I can help my neighbors.
Wherever I go, I can point the Way to Him.
Whatever my feeling on a matter, I can demonstrate patience and love.
And whatever else I might do or not do in this world, whatever I might leave behind, I can say in all certainty, “I want to be like Grandma.” That doesn’t mean I’ll be sitting on the porch shelling beans and making them stretch–it means whatever I’m doing, I’m doing it for those I love and the God who gave them to me.
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.