So Thankful

So Thankful

by | Nov 28, 2024 | Cancer Journey, Thoughtful Thursdays

On this day of gratitude, I am overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with thankfulness. Overwhelmed with blessing. Overwhelmed with the faithfulness of our God.

Last Thanksgiving, I wouldn’t have dreamed that in the year to come, I’d go through cancer. I certainly wouldn’t have thought, had someone told me what was coming, that I’d come out of it feeling so humbled and blessed. Yet here we are. With a long road still ahead of me, but gratitude filling my heart as I look back on where I’ve been.

Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. Thank you for holding me so securely in the palm of your hand that I could not, for even a moment, doubt. I could feel no fear. I could experience only the smallest amount of sorrow. Thank you for bringing me through this, for obliterating the cancer cells from my body, for setting me on a path to full healing.

Thank you, family, for your endless support. For meals cooked and delivered, for the willingness to drive me to appointments, for gas money and check-ins, for loving me through every moment.

Thank you, friends, for your endless prayers. For a mailbox bursting with cards and “encourgement bombs.” For notes and emails that not only brightened my days with promises of those prayers, but which edified me as a writer and a person.

Thank you, strangers, whose names I didn’t recognize but who gave of yourselves, your hearts and your means, to support me in this time, proving that the family of God is bound by love that goes beyond all understanding.

Thank you, Church, for being the hands and feet of Jesus.

Tears are filling my eyes as I’m writing this, reflecting on the year it’s been. It’s a year I don’t want to repeat. A year of sickness and exhaustion and pain, when I focus on the physical. But a year of uncountable blessings too. A year that has left me in awe of this amazing community.

Thank you for being part of my life, part of my journey.

Word of the Week – Thank

Word of the Week – Thank

by | Nov 25, 2024 | Word of the Week

Did you know that thank is to think what song is to sing? It’s true! Think and thank are derived from the same ancient root, and in fact, thank used to just mean “to think, to remember, to recollect.” But then it began to take on the meaning of “to think of or remember fondly,” and only then “to think of with gratitude.”

The noun and verb forms of the word both evolved at the same time and trace their roots back to the original Germanic language…which is why other Germanic languages still have words that sound very similar to our English “thank” and mean the same thing. (Those changes in meaning happened before the word even entered English.

So as we contemplate what we’re thankful for, let’s really give it some thought…and even better, let’s make sure all our thinking circles around to thankfulness.

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It’s Release Day! An Honorable Deception

It’s Release Day! An Honorable Deception

by | Nov 19, 2024 | Announcements, Book News, Books

Welcome to the Launch Day Celebration
for An Honorable Deception!

It’s here, it’s here, it’s finally here!!!

I am so, SO excited to welcome the final book in the Imposters series into the world…because let’s face it. Yates has been chomping at the bit very impatiently for his turn to take center stage. I love that we’ve had his POV in the first two books, so we already know him pretty well. We know his good heart. We know his sense of humor. We know how devoted he is to his family. We even know how hard he’s worked to get over his feelings for his sister’s childhood best friend, Lavinia.

So…what is Yates’s story? Who will win his heart, when he’s both intrigued by his beautiful and mysterious new client, Lady Alethia, who is so desperately in need of the peace and security she finds when she’s whisked away to Fairfax Tower to keep her safe from men out to kill her, and Lady Lavinia, who recruits herself into the Imposters when Marigold and Gemma are both a bit indisposed with coming babies?

Yep, we’ve got a love triangle, but where it’s the hero deciding between two equally wonderful women. And whenever people ask me who he’s going to end up, I have a ready answer: Penelope the monkey, of course! 😉 Seriously, Lavinia and Alethia even look similar from behind, which is why I specifically requested that the lady on the cover not have her face fully visible. Which one is that lovely model representing?? You’ll have to read to find out! (Mwa ha ha ha!)

Scroll down to learn more about the fun I’ve plotted up for this release!

Live Event!

Join me for a Facebook Live video tonight, Tuesday November 19, at 7 pm Eastern! (You can watch it afterward too, and I’ll try to answer any questions in the comments!)

  • Behind the scenes
  • Fun facts
  • Short author reading
  • What’s coming next
Visit Roseanna M. White on Facebook

An Honorable Deception  focuses on Yates, Alethia, and Lavinia, so here’s a bit more about them!

Confession! I generated these images with MidJourney long before I plotted out the book, and it was actually the fact that these two ladies looked pretty similar that inspired a HUGE part of the plot!

Working left to right, here…

First we have Lady Alethia Barremore. Lady Alethia is the daughter of a (fictional) viceroy of India, so she spent most of her life in India. Her best friend, her only true friend, is Samira, her ayah (Indian nanny). When her family moved back to England when she was about twelve, Samira was obviously dismissed…but they’ve stayed in touch. Samira is the only one who knows the dark secret Alethia has struggled to escape. But when Samira goes missing, Alethia knows it’s that same secret rearing its ugly head and threatening to consume them all.

Lord Yates Fairfax may be an earl, but he’s the most unconventional one you’ll find in Edwardian England. He prefers his gymnasium to Parliament and feels a keen responsibility for the people who rely on him and the family estate, Fairfax Tower, for their livelihood. His sister is his favorite person in the world, with the circus performers who have retired to the Tower being close behind. “A veritable circus strongman,” Yates keeps a strict physical routine so that he can support his sister in their acrobatic feats, which aid them in the secretive private investigation firm of which he’s become the head. Yates is fun-loving and always quick to see the bright side of things…but the secrets they begin to uncover in this new case will challenge even him.

And finally, Lady Lavinia Hemming. Lavinia has been reeling ever since her mother’s duplicity and betrayal was revealed in A Beautiful Disguise. How can she ever trust anyone again? The only people she knows are safe are Yates and Marigold, and when she overhears that they’re the Imposters and invites herself into the organization, she finally finds something that sparks life in her heart again. But does being the daughter of a traitor make her half a traitor? Will she ever be anything but a burden to those who love her, few as they may be? She’s desperate to find her purpose…but when she does, it’s something she never would have thought herself capable of.

Launch Team Spotlight

All of a Kind Mom

Launch Team Spotlight

Bea R

Launch Team Spotlight

Erin L

Launch Team Spotlight

Faith O

Launch Team Spotlight

Lovely Words

Launch Team Spotlight

Melissa G

More from the world of the Imposters

There’s So Much to Explore!

Learn more about the Edwardian circus that defined the Imposters’ childhood, get fashion tips from Lady M, explore the theater of the day, meet the team, pet the animals, go behind the Top Secret stamp to learn about intelligence in the early 20th century, train yourself to be a private investigator, and dive into some fun and games!

Explore More!

Shop the Imposters Collection

Lions, sprayed edges, handmade vintage style bags, peacock stationery, and more!
To celebrate this release specifically, I ordered some adorable stuffed animals from an amazing brand, Wild Republic, and created Penelope the capuchin monkey with a pink tutu. We also have Leonidas the Lion (he really roars!) and Pardulfo the leopard!

Also, I regularly joked, whenever someone asked me with whom Yates would end up, “Penelope the monkey, of course!”
So some of my reader friends demanded a “Team Penelope” T-shirt. Who was I to argue? LOL

Giveaway

US entrants, enter to win a copy of An Honorable Deception
(or another book of your choice) + a $25 gift card to my shop!

International entrants, enter to win a copy of any of my books, shipped from your usual online retailer.

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Word of the Week – Susurrous

Word of the Week – Susurrous

by | Nov 18, 2024 | Word of the Week

Most of us probably aren’t all that familiar with the words susurrous and susurration, to be intrigued by the history of said words…but they are words perfectly suited to autumn, so I thought it would be fun to highlight them and give you an extra word in your vocabulary.

What do these words mean? They’re both used (as the noun and adjective forms) to describe whispering sounds, from the Latin susurrus, which means “hum or whisper.” The noun has been in use in English since the 1400s, but the adjective didn’t make its way into use until the mid-1800s, interestingly enough.

So if you find yourself needing a word to describe the whispering rustle of leaves on the ground or blowing in the breeze, now you know what to use!

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Who Have You Invited?

Who Have You Invited?

by | Nov 14, 2024 | Thoughtful Thursdays

Who—or what—fuels you in your work, your beliefs, your mission?

My husband subscribes to the blog of Seth Godin, a leading marketer who always has such wonderful insights…not only as to how to get the work of our hands and hearts before the world, but which can usually be applied to life too.

In a recent post, Godin talks about what fuels our work, and how that will affect the work itself. Some of the examples he gives are spot-on. For instance, is our work a response to a fear—a reaction? Then what happens to our work when that fear abates? We have to always have some fear to fuel us.

Do we say we’re not interested in something but continue to track or measure or pay attention to it? Then soon it will start to matter.

Do you want to teach someone a lesson or prove them wrong? Then you always have to have an adversary to teach or defeat.

The examples above that Godin gives were about our work. But the moment I read them, I knew they were just as true in life. This struck me especially given this past election year. So much of politics is fearmongering, and so many of our votes are fueled by that fear. We say we have faith that God will provide but obsess over all the “things” we claim aren’t important. So many of the posts we see or make on social media are about proving other people wrong—not just in politics for that one, but in everything. We want to prove that this book I loved is worth reading. We want to prove that our faith has value. We want to prove that we’re right about pretty much everything.

When we let a response to something negative fuel us, we become trapped. Because in order to keep going, we need to keep that negative thing close. Time and again throughout history, we see what happens when people are only reacting to a negative. When they’re not for something so much as against something else. And on the flipside, we see what happens when instead, they’re given something to believe in.

Even that can take on monstrous form, as we see so clearly with Nazi Germany, for example. Hitler didn’t rise to power just because of the fearmongering (though there was plenty) or by unifying the people against an enemy (though he used that too). What really turned the tide was that he gave them something they could be for. In that case, a stronger Germany, a promise that they were a chosen race. He invited them to be part of something great.

And that can be intoxicating. Blinding.

What if, instead, the something we choose to be for is service? That’s what Godin ends his blog post with, because in our work, that’s one thing that will never go away and which doesn’t leave us empty. If we’re working to serve others, then we will always be fueled to continue, because people will always need that service. And that’s also the root of our faith.

Christ came to serve. He tells His disciples not to seek to lord over others, but to be their servant. He invites us to do the same.

It’s why I write, has always been why I write. Do I appreciate that it’s a career and make some decisions based on monetary needs? I do, yes. But even if the money stopped, I would still write. I wrote before I made a dime, I wrote when it cost me instead of paid me, and I will continue to write no matter what, as long as God fills my heart and mind with stories. I worked for years, pouring time and energy and money into figuring out how to get those books into the hands of readers, because I believed that this calling God had put on my heart was worth that sacrifice. Because I believed that books were a service, that the stories He gave me were for a purpose, that He could use them to touch other hearts and lives.

I cannot count the messages I’ve received this summer, as I went through cancer, from people thanking me for my faithfulness in sharing those words and stories. And each one reminded me of why it’s work worth doing, even when I’m tired. Even when I’m sick. Even when each page is a battle and I’m not so sure the words are coming out right. It’s worth it, because my calling hasn’t changed. Because God still wants to use me.

He still wants to use you too. Not to disprove or fan fear or react to some other negative. He wants to use you for something. To direct eyes upward, toward what is good and holy. He wants to use you to bring joy and hope.

But is that what we’ve invited along our journey? Are we walking with Him in faith and joy and hope…or are we walking beside fear and selfishness and naysaying? In this month of focusing on gratitude, let’s take a moment too to focus on the invisible companions in our life’s journey.

Who (or what) is walking beside you day by day? Is that the companion you want…or is to time to reframe, refocus, and serve?

 

 

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