by Roseanna White | Aug 28, 2013 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
One of the most challenging–and amazing–aspects of writing is digging deep into issues that the author knows nothing about firsthand. That’s what research is for, and when it comes to facts, it’s pretty simple. You look things up. Read. Watch documentaries, maybe. Voila. Knowledge.
But some parts of books aren’t about knowledge so much as wisdom–how our characters would react to things, how faith grows and fades. There are ways to research that too. More books, interviews… But I’ll be honest. I don’t do that. When it comes to internal aspects of my characters, I go from the gut. Which can be a challenge, because I’ve led a beautifully boring life, LOL. I’ve never suffered even the slightest abuse, never gone without.
I love, though. And I’ve lost. I’ve fought. I’ve prayed, I’ve cried, I’ve laughed. And though losing a grandfather to cancer is far different from, say, losing a child in a lot of ways, in other ways, grief is grief. I take what I know and put a magnifying glass on it when it comes to these things–prayerfully. And thus far, the feedback I’ve gotten from people who have suffered the things my characters have suffered is that my methods work. =)
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| Holy Spirit depicted as the dove above Child Jesus in two Trinities by Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo |
But in
A Soft Breath of Wind, I’m dealing with aspects of the faith that go beyond imagination. And while I have some experience to go on, and have spoken with some people (not when researching, I’m just blessed to have met folks with an amazing awareness of the spiritual world), I’m keenly aware that the Holy Spirit’s movement can feel different to us all.
So today, as I’m five chapters into this new biblical, I wanted to take the time to talk to you. Would you be willing to share with me your experiences with the moving of the Spirit? How and when you’ve most strongly felt Him? What other senses came alive? Have you ever seen-with-your-eyes into the spirit world? Heard His whisper? Felt His touch? Dreamed His dream? Have you ever followed a nudge and seen so clearly why He did the nudging? Felt a call to pray at a time you thought random, but which was anything but?
You’re welcome to share in the comments if you don’t mind it being public. Or if you want to share but not publicly, you can email me at Roseanna at RoseannaWhite dot com — because this is me, I sincerely doubt I would use anything you share exactly. But I’m quite likely to take bits and pieces and aspects and weave the understanding of them into my character’s world.
On an unrelated note, it’s my day at Colonial Quills–and the blog has a new look! It’s a revision of my post about espionage in early America that I posted in July, but if you missed that one,
check it out here.
by Roseanna White | Aug 21, 2013 | Books, Companion Guides, Remember When Wednesdays
I’m having a blast digging into the writing of A Soft Breath of Wind. Right now, on chapter 2, I’m still getting to know my characters. And so, I’m building Pinterest boards and playing with Photoshop and coming up with images to inspire me.
I thought it would be fun today to introduce the characters that will be ruling my brain for the next little while. =)
Let’s start with my heroine, Zipporah.
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My cover model is so delightfully Zipporah
that I’m describing my character to match her, right down to
the clothes and accessories. =) |
Zipporah was always the not-so-pretty one. Anna, her older sister, was the type of gorgeous that men fight wars over, and Zipporah always knew she was just a shadow in comparison. But she was okay with that. She loved her sister, and she was happy enough with her good qualities. But when a gift of the Spirit opens her eyes to the angels and demons swarming around her, she faces down the enemy and comes away scarred.
As she grows from that thirteen year old into a young woman, Zipporah sometimes has a hard time balancing her internal and external lives. She desperately needed to learn how to restrain her emotions when her spiritual eyes were opened…but as a result has closed them up a bit too much. She can be witty, she has deep abiding friendships–but in a group setting she tends to stick to the walls and leave the socialization to others.
Zipporah is confident in who she is, likes to say that the Lord in His wisdom chose not to burden with beauty, as He well knew she couldn’t have handled it. She carries herself well and serves her masters with love.
But she has long ago resigned herself to never experiencing any other kind of love. For years now she has watched her master, Benjamin, with adoration. But he, much as he values her as a friend and sister in Christ, has never seen her as anything more.
Which is just as well. She is all but sure that someday, she will have to lay her life down for her faith, and the last thing she wants is to leave a husband mourning for her, like Samuel when Anna died in childbirth.
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A stylized Zac Efron (with the costume of Billy Zane’s character from Cleopatra)
as Benjamin Visibullis |
Benjamin Visibullis is in some ways the most important person to the growing Roman church. He’s the legal owner of the Visibullis estate outside Rome where Jews and Christians congregate. Tutelos is more than a villa now, more than home–it’s a small town full of many families, all of whom rely on him.
Benjamin takes his responsibilities seriously and wants nothing more than to serve the Brethren…but he cannot shake the feeling that the Lord is calling him away from Tutelos, off to see the rest of the churches and, perhaps, spread the good news to places who have yet to hear about the Messiah. His mother insists he cannot put his life at such risk until he has married and established an heir, and that is logic he understands. But no woman in Rome fits his idea of the bride Jehovah has in store. And so, after years of prayer, he finally sets sail to visit the growing churches, Samuel with him to keep him safe.
Their travels take them eventually to Jerusalem for the Passover, but returning to the land of his birth only shows him that it’s time to go home to Rome. When a trip through the city leads them unexpectedly to Samuel’s birth-family–including the mother who sold him as a slave to Benjamin’s father 25 years before–he has to admit his eye is caught by his step-brother’s beautiful sister. Dara’s face, Dara’s words say she is what he has been waiting for.
But something within Benjamin knows she’s trouble–and he finds out the hard way that he should have heeded the whisper. But by then, the enemy is already entrenched at Tutelos…and he fears he may have undone all he was ever called to do.
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| A stylized Jason Lewis as Samuel Asinius |
Samuel kinda took me by surprise in A Stray Drop of Blood. While I had planned the BIG plot twists from the get-go, I didn’t see the little slave boy coming, and so I certainly didn’t know the pivotal role he would end up playing in the second half of the book. But I fell in love with that beautiful little boy with a nurturing touch, and oh, how I’m already enjoying seeing the man he’s become!
At the end of Stray Drop, Samuel was legally adopted by Titus Asinius, so he’s the joint-heir of a pretty impressive Roman estate. This for a boy born a poor Hebrew, sold into slavery to a Roman, and moved to Rome when only 6. Now 31, Samuel is still a nurturer, a healer. Though not officially a physician, he’s been trained by one and is the man to whom everyone at Tutelos turns when they need medical help.
He’s also still the self-appointed protector of Benjamin, brother in heart if not by blood. After his wife and their child die in childbirth, Samuel mourns long and hard…and finally welcomes the excuse to escape her memory and travel with Benjamin. When he meets his “real” family in Jerusalem, his heart doesn’t even stir, though. These people are less than strangers to him. He had long ago erased his mother from his heart, and the sister who seems bent on coming with him back to Rome…he knows there’s something wrong with her claims. But who is he to turn away someone who claims she wants to learn more about Christ?
But when they take her home to Tutelos and Zipporah immediately recognizes the evil within her, he knows they’ve made a grave error. Perhaps the rest of the church would prefer to chalk Zipporah’s strong reaction up to jealousy–it’s no secret she’s always loved Benjamin, who Dara now dares to claim–Samuel has always trusted his wife’s little sister when it comes to matters of the Spirit. And he’ll stand with her now and fight for the Way.
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| A stylized Sophia Myles as Dara |
Dara is beautiful–and she uses it as a weapon. Endowed with a spirit of fortune telling, she serves a master in Jerusalem who has taught her how to hone her skills, both as a beauty and an oracle. Those who know what she is serve or fear her…and those who don’t still stand in awe of her unusual looks. She doesn’t just always get her way–she makes her way when the world might try to stand against her. She wants nothing more than to belong fully to her master, but he has said since she was little more than a child that she can serve him best through her marriage. That only by waiting for the right man can she serve their cause–and bring an end to the sacrilege of Christianity worming its way throughout the world.
When she realizes she has an older brother–and sees the one he calls “brother” by adoption–she knows her master was right. Her fate lies with Benjamin Visibullis. He is the fulcrum of one of the most important sects of the blasphemers. And it will be no great hardship to pass her days–and nights–beside the handsome Benjamin.
Who is Dara beyond the tool of this “master”? Well that’s just the thing–she doesn’t know. She has served him so long, so fully, always in secret that she cannot separate anymore who-he-made-her from who-she-was-born-to-be. Her whole purpose in living, in her eyes, is to serve him. To make his causer her own. To undermine their sworn enemy–Christians. Can she be cruel? Without question. Can she be kind? When it suits her. Has she a heart underneath the hatred? She’s none too sure.
It’s been a long time since I’ve written a bad girl who doesn’t reform right away, so this is going to be fun. 😉 Of course, I have some plans in store for our nasty little Dara. First though, we pit discernment against fortune telling. One Spirit against another spirit. Darkness against light.
And the real fun? Light doesn’t just defeat the darkness, right? It banishes it, and the things once dark become light.
Yep. Gonna have a blast with this one. =)
by Roseanna White | Aug 14, 2013 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
As I was taking my walk the other morning, I was thinking about my next biblical and my heroine, Zipporah. Zipporah is going to be interesting to write. She’s scarred (physically, I mean), but still confident. Not in the beauty she knows she doesn’t have, but in who she is. She’s outspoken with enemies, yet often hesitant with friends. Friendly and witty, but too different to be totally understood. Respected, but sometimes in a don’t-get-too-close way.
She has quite a story to tell. =) And as I was thinking through one of the moments I have planned for late in the book, I realized she needs a catalyst for really flying off the handle. My original jotted notes was that this villain would insult her looks, but she’s so used to that by now, I don’t think it would have any great effect after all.
But then a dog barked at the house I was walking past, and I had to pause to say, “Good morning, Tipsy.” (Her owner pauses every day as he drives by to say, “Tipsy’s out. Say hello.” So I do, LOL.) Another neighborhood dog answered. Squirrels jumped up the tree at my side, and birds twittered overhead. That’s when it came to me.
A pet! Zipporah needs a pet! Some poor creature she rescues, perhaps with an injury of its own that she can relate to.
So…now to decide on what kind. =) She’s on a villa outside Rome, so I have to make sure it’s an animal that would have been there. Still, Rome was a bit of a hub (ahem), so the options should be pretty wide.
Thoughts? What kind of pet should my biblical heroine have?
And yes, that’s all I’m talking about today. 😉 It’s my birthday, and I’m off to enjoy a day of pampering. Which reminds me–last day to place your orders for my online Mary Kay party!!
www.MaryKay.com/TerriHarr and put “Roseanna White Hostess” in the memo box at checkout.
by Roseanna White | Aug 7, 2013 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays
Since I’m still in the first week of Whispers from the Shadows officially being out, I thought I’d share today a repost of something I wrote for www.RegencyReflections.com–about the War of 1812, but from the British perspective. — And stay tuned!! Tomorrow I’m announcing a week-long party for you Mary Kay fans to help a friend kick off her new business and lead into my birthday. =) For now…enjoy some tall ships!
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The Chasseur, one of the most famous privateers of the War of 1812
This Baltimore captain harassed the British merchant fleet in their own waters. |
You know, it’s really kind of funny. When reading the Regency-set novels I so love, I often find references to the on-going war with France and the audacity of Napoleon. Only rarely, however, do we see the British perspective of another war going on at the same time, one with the upstart Colonists that had declared their independence a generation before. Even America often forgets their War of 1812, and in Europe…well, it tends to dim in comparison to the Napoleonic Wars. It’s become overlooked by both sides.
But oh, how interesting it is!
In 1811, England had been fighting France for long enough that the escalating troubles with America were little more than a nuisance at first. They sent men and ships, but for the first two years of the war, their focus remained set upon France. In North America, they were concerned largely with protecting their Canadian assets, using raids along the Chesapeake to distract American forces from their invasion northward. After Napoleon surrendered, however, everyone–both British and American–new exactly what it meant.
It was time for the fighting to get serious in America.
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| Privateers engaged in battle during the War of 1812
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Not only were those in the Admiralty tired of fooling around with the upstarts, but the citizenry were beginning to fuss about the audacity the Americans demonstrated in this second fight, even sending privateers to harass the British in their own waters! They demanded that the Americans’ cities be burned and her people crushed for their impudence. Ready, I daresay, for a breath of peace, more men and ships were sent from Europe to Bermuda and then, finally, to either the Chesapeake or Canada.
But the men were weary. After months and years of suffering in the war with Napoleon, followed by months idle on the ships across the Atlantic, their hearts weren’t in it. More, the humid mid-Atlantic summer–one of the hottest recorded–caused heat-stroke left and right. More men were felled by vicious storms and intense heat for the first few months than by the sword or shells.
For many, this second war with America was but a P.S. to the first. The Revolution went wrong, they were sure, because of bad leadership decisions. Their men–the fathers of those now in charge–were killed or injured because of this. So it was their duty to put it to rights, especially when America persisted in ignoring the laws of citizenship and rights-upon-the-seas that England had held to for centuries.
It was, for many of those involved, a war no one wanted to fight. It was an afterthought to some and forgotten by many more since. A war based on little more than affronted prides.
But like any other, it was also a war with heroes and bravery and determination. And as such, it deserves to be remembered. Especially now, during its two-hundredth anniversary.
My question to you today:
Which war’s history always interested you
the most in your school days?
by Roseanna White | Jul 24, 2013 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
First, if you jump over to Colonial Quills today, there’s a review of Whispers from the Shadows with a giveaway of it! I know some of you already have Ring of Secrets, so you might be interested in getting that new one. =) https://www.roseannamwhite.com/2013/07/guest-marian-baay-reviews-roseanna.html
Can you believe there are only 6 left in the giveaway?? And only three for the beautiful Pen, Ink, and Paper set! Though still quite a few chances to win Ring of Secrets. =) Yesterday’s winner is:
Jill Haggard!
The Silvery Plume Pen and Ink Set
Now for today.
Remember When . . . She Chose the Gown?
As I took my early morning walk one day last week, I was brainstorming my next book, How Do I Love Thee? (Let Me Count the Ways Series, Harvest House, 2014) and musing about the ones already out. Somehow or another, my thoughts about those melded with my thoughts about my friend’s upcoming wedding in which I’m honored to be a bridesmaid.
And I decided it would be fun to talk weddings and dreams with you all today. =)
As a romance writer, weddings come up. LOL Though I don’t always write the wedding itself, you can bet there’s one at least alluded to at the end. Sometimes I actually get to include it in the story. Sometimes I just leave it in my imagination. But I know I’m not alone in sighing blissfully at the thought of flowing white dresses, bounteous flowers, and promises of forever.
In my first published book, A Stray Drop of Blood, there is indeed a wedding in the middle of the book…but not exactly a huge celebration. It’s biblical, and I’m afraid Abigail didn’t have what we’d call a gown. But she would have worn a new linen garment and the ruby necklace her bridegroom gave her.
In Jewel of Persia, Kasia finds herself wed to the king of Persia. There was no formal wedding ceremony for a mere concubine–just a contract, the time of preparation, and then the night she was brought to him. But I have these lovely pictures of my cover model, so imagine her looking something like this as she gazes into the eyes of her beloved.
My next book was Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland. Set in 1784, the book begins with a betrothal on the rocks and takes the readers through Lark’s escape from the emotionally-withdrawn Emerson, to Annapolis, and eventually back to her home in Williamsburg. Lark’s wedding dress would have been a fine gown (not necessarily white), which she would have worn again after her wedding. Her family was well-to-do, so it would have been fine indeed. Perhaps like one of these. =)
Then we jump back a few years to Ring of Secrets. Winter Reeves was of strong Long Island stock, more comfortable in homespun than the fine silks her grandparents forced upon her. She does, however, keep a nice gown for her wedding–still, it would be something she would feel comfortable in. I’d loved to have seen her in one like this:
In Whispers from the Shadows, Gwyneth arrives in Maryland with only one trunk of dresses, and she hasn’t the time or inclination to shop for more. For her wedding, she would have chosen something directly from her wardrobe. Perhaps even this one. 😉
In book 3 of the Culper Ring Series, Marietta is widowed. For her first wedding, all the stops would have been pulled out. She was marrying one of the wealthiest men in Maryland, after all. So let’s imagine her simpering in a Victorian beauty like this:
My next one is back to the Regency, in England this time. Maybe, when it comes time for Arabelle to marry, she’ll choose something like this.
I hear my soon-to-be-the-bride friend has chosen a dress with lots of frill and pouf–and I can’t wait to see it!! I always thought I’d pick out a ball gown to get married in. But I opted for a more modern, strapless look for my wedding, something simple because I married my hubby at the beach.
And I love it still. =) What about you? I want to see your dream dresses too! Like…
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| Abbi Hart’s 50s-inspired dream dress |
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| Bookishqueen, perhaps something like this? |
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| Jennifer F. wants a corset-back, A-line dress. |
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| Ice-blue mermaid style for Salyna |
What did you always dream your wedding gown would look like?
If you’re married, what dress did you in fact choose?
Feel free to post links to pictures, and I’ll add them to the post!!
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by Roseanna White | Jul 17, 2013 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
Welcome to Day 17! Yesterday’s winner is:
Rebekah Gyger!
And here’s what you’re entering for this week. Winners of the book are selected every day, and the Tea Light Garden’s winner will be drawn Friday night. Keep entering all week! Every entry is good all week long.
And EXCITING!!! I think I might have missed an email from my publisher alerting me to this–but the book trailer for Whispers from the Shadows is live!!!
You’ll notice that there’s a new way to earn an entry. 😉
And now for today’s normal post.
Remember When . . . Espionage Needed Tools?
I’ve blogged about my different discoveries in historical espionage before, but I’ve never put them all together before. And since this fall I’m teaching a home school class to my local group about the different historical methods of spying, I figure it’ll be fun to get a head start here. 😉
By the time of the Revolution, spying in Europe had reached some rather hilarious levels. It was so common in the different courts that they all knew other countries’ men were intercepting their messages and copying them. The “Black Chambers” of these master spies were located nearby the courts. The spies would steal incoming correspondence, make a copy, and slip the original back into the post. Codes had become common too, but these dudes got their jobs by being able to break them, quickly and efficiently. So it was just all one big puzzle that they were playing, knowing well their opponents were evenly matched.
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| A page from the real Culper Ring’s code book |
One story I read and loved was of a spy who mistakenly sent along his copy instead of the original message. The recipient knew right away what had happened and sent it back to him, demanding his original in its place–proving that they all knew exactly who was doing what and took very little issue with it after so long.
But in America, espionage was like so many other things–new and experimental. And when the Revolution was in full swing and General Washington found himself in need of reliable intelligence, he had no Black Chamber to rely on. He had only a few trusted men with no background in spying and no training in the covert.
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| My personal experiments with heat-developed inks |
Today we look at the cyphers and codes that the Culper Ring developed and shake our heads at how amateur they were. But they did the job, and because of the ingenuity of the brothers Jay and their “sympathetic stain” (invisible ink), the British never even
saw the code to crack it. Until then, they had to use heat-developed inks for messages, which anyone with a flame could develop. But this stain required a particular counter agent. This level of security is what kept their secrets throughout the war. And what made
Ring of Secrets a lot of fun to write. 😉
By the War of 1812, another intelligence tool had made its way to America–the mask, or grille. This was a piece of paper with a shape cut out of it. The writer of a message
would put this mask down upon a blank piece of paper, write his true
message within the hole, and then remove the mask and fill in the lines around the message so that the real words would be innocuously hidden within innocent sentences. In order to know what the message was, the recipient would have to also have the mask, which would be sent in a separate batch of correspondence.
In the Civil War, codes were the feature of the day, and there were a lot of them. Members of the Knights of the Golden Circle, for instance, would come up with codes for each occasion. Simple phrases to let each other know if a particular outcome had happened as expected or not. Other codes used a key–a book, usually a dictionary, that both sender and receiver had. They would use numbers to indicate words. So you might see something like this: 192.15.26
These numbers stood for page, line, word on line. If they were encoding something like a name that wouldn’t be in a dictionary, they would spell it out using a forth number to indicate a letter within the word.
See why this series is so much fun? And you’ll have a chance to put some of your own skills to use this Friday, when I’m taking part in a blog tour for a kids’ series about a K9 spy. 😉
Now my question to you today:
Do you think you could have been a spy in early America?
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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. 
