by Roseanna White | Nov 9, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
Yikes! I looked down at my clock and realized I’d totally spaced my blog this morning, largely because I’m several other places today. So I’m going to throw together a hodge-podge for you. =)
All my future tours will probably be only a few days in length with multiple stops per day, but this one is spread out through December and January, and will begin and end with what is shaping up to be an awesome giveaway package, if I do say so myself. 😉 The official tour launches on
Colonial Quills and will wrap up on
Seekerville, so I’m very excited!
A peek at that giveaway package . . .
A leather Bombay journal, much like the one Lark received for Christmas in Chapter Eight.
A French quill and ink set, much like the one Lark would have written with in above journal. 😉
A Colonial-style mug with individual packages of gourmet hot chocolate ~ chocolate being a favored drink of the era, though thicker and richer than these are likely to be (I haven’t ordered the mugs yet . . . am hoping to find some from our local pottery store. So this picture won’t likely be exact, though the style is what I’ll be seeking).
A Colonial-styled doll, not unlike the fashion babies in the post I linked to above. 😉 (Hey, gotta give something that’ll interest the kids in your life!)
And of course, a copy of
Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland signed by yours truly. 😉
This isn’t the official prize information or anything, so some changes are likely, and I haven’t yet ironed out the details of entering. But I’m looking forward to the launch of
Annapolis and seeing it come to life! Hope y’all are excited too. =)
by Roseanna White | Nov 2, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
Last week a friend of mine from Colonial Quills made mention of “brick tea.” Now, I had no idea what in the world she was talking about. Until this arrived in the mail yesterday:
The moment I withdrew this brick from its bag, the scent of tea wafted up to me. My daughter, who runs to the kitchen the moment she senses a package being opened, rushed out just then, saw the brown-paper-wrapped block, and said, “What’s that?” My answer was to hold it out and say, “Smell.”
You should have seen her eyes light up with delight and disbelief as she squealed, “Tea?!”
Tea has been a staple of many societies for centuries. But loose leaf tea is hard to transport, so back in the days of the silk road in Asia, the Chinese discovered that if they use forms to press the tea into standard sized bricks, they can transport them with ease, and the tea lasts through the journey.
This became such a standard that tea bricks could be used as currency, and this was the way most tea was transported for hundreds of years, all the way into the 19th century. So the tea tossed into Boston Harbor during the Boston tea party? That was bricks.
Naturally, when something is used so long, for so many purposes, there comes to be a rhyme and reason to each part of it.
I don’t know if you can read the label on this, but if you do, you’ll find its “translation”–what each part of it means.
The front of this particular brick has details that let buyers know that this tea comes from a company managed by more than one person, and is manufactured by Enterprise Company Tea and the Chinese Lee family.
The back of the brick is separated into squares that can be used as currency. One square, for instance, might equal the price of a chicken
In addition to being brewed, the tea traditionally pressed into bricks can also be eaten. I don’t intend to try that, gotta say, but I am looking forward to separating some, putting it into my tea ball, and brewing myself a nice cup of fine black tea . . . with history.
by Roseanna White | Oct 19, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
Though I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of the research I need to do for my Savannah-set work-in-progress, thanks to Saving Savannah and the mountains of research the author has done, I’m beginning to get an idea of what oh-so-interesting details I want to work in.
And of course, one of the biggies is the slave culture in lowland Georgia All I knew of it was what I’d picked up from novels and movies–I’ve already learned more just from the first chapter of this book, LOL.
Most of Savannah’s slave population came from West Africa, and after their years here they developed a mish-mash of African and American ideas. Some meshed together well, other aspects seemed to clash. The culture of South Carolina and Georgia slaves has come to be termed Gullah-Geechee. Their language was Geechee–a combination of English and West African dialects. And they used Geechee to speak through metaphors, which I find really interesting. Gonna have to find a good way to do that among the slaves in my book!
The Gullah-Geechee culture draws a lot from its landscape, and the lowland, marshy regions in which the enslaved now served had a lot of similarities to their homeland, where waterways were sacred–they were in fact believed to host spirits and allow them to circulate among the living. So you can imagine that everyday life in an area spiderwebbed with marshlands fostered a spiritual existence for these people.
Which leads right into their faith and religion. Some stuck solely to West African beliefs, but even those who embraced Christianity had a unique type of it that integrated their traditions into it. Most believed in ghosts and spirits–they were a fact of life in their eyes, not up for debate. Christian baptism reinforced their beliefs about water being sacred. Their stories began to shift to include what they were taught and what was around them–another something I’m looking forward to integrating into my story!
The final detail I’ll put in here today is their trade and economy. When a slave had finished his allotted labor for the day (if he/she could finish it, which wasn’t always possible), they were permitted to work for their family. Most slave families ended up with chickens and gardens, with hogs and goods that they traded first among themselves and then were allowed to take in the cities. Some–few–ended up with a little nest egg. Mostly, though, these resources were what fed and clothed them–and the masters took it as an excuse not to do so themselves.
So there we have the first glimpse of what will be a secondary, underlying setting for my book. My little brain’s just a-turning, trying to figure out how to smoothly put a storyline in that will showcase this unique culture that would have been pulsing alongside the world of hoop skirts and balls!
by Roseanna White | Oct 12, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I had a moment about a month ago when I was working up a new proposal idea, this one set in Civil War era Georgia. Yes, during that moment I realized my Civil War history was rather rusty. Ahem. But it was the “compared to” that gave me pause. Because you see, my Civil War history is rusty compared to . . .
* The Greco-Persian War
* The uprisings in Roman Jerusalem
*The Revolutionary War (and its aftermath)
*The War of 1812 (okay, this earns a sort-of)
* Certain key aspects of the Napoleonic Wars
And that’s where my bafflement came from. How in the world did I become a writer of war novels??? I mean, seriously. I write romance. Love stories, if they’re not typical romance. My stories always come to me as boy meets girl, they’re driven by the characters.
Yet here I am again . . . plotting out a book set during a war. I shake my head at myself. And laugh. And get down to history. =)
I started with the things most pertinent to this story–the Confederate Raider ships and the Union blockade on the Southern ports, and finally the Battle of Port Pulaski. Really, this is barely a slice of Civil War history. In a way, that’s going to make the research easier. But I still have to get the broader scope in my research so I know the hows and whys and whats and wheres that always enrich a story.
I’ve done some basic internet research, and now I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of a book through the wonders of ILL called Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War, by Jacqueline Jones. I’m really looking forward to devouring this book, which promises a fresh look at race relations, the impact of the war, and a look at everyday life in Savannah during the war. Exactly what I need to know. =)
So this not-a-war-writer who somehow keeps coming up with stories set against a backdrop of war is diving into yet another one. With the happy thought that some of my research will be able to double for another, later book I have planned too. You know, the one in the series that covers three different (you guessed it) wars.
Sigh. LOL.
by Roseanna White | Oct 5, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
The year is 1814. War has been going on for a couple years already, and it’s a war that some think is overdue . . . and some think shouldn’t have happened. Depending on which side you were on, of course. 😉
Some British never really accepted America’s independence. Some Americans couldn’t believe that their mother-country would really impress their sailors or renew hostilities.
Both were in for a surprise when the War of 1812 broke out, and independence had to fought for all over again.
Most of you probably know I’ve been writing a story set during the Revolution. Well, that one’s finished, and the next in the series is about the son of the hero and heroine from book 1, this one set during the War of 1812. I knew from the moment I decided on a general plot what my hero was going to be like. Thad is an adventurous American, a bit reckless, totally devoted to his cause, and fearless to the point of stupidity sometimes.
But it took me some effort to figure out my heroine, and I’m still trying to wrap my brain around her. Gwyneth I originally thought would be Canadian, but the more I considered it, the more I decided it would be more fun to make her from London. Because we all know what London of the era was like, right? Regency. Ahhhhh. Blissful. Courtly manners, marriage marts, drawing room drama. A young lady of some means would be totally concerned with her Season, especially if it were her debut. With her suitors, her friends, her fashion. So what would happen if she found herself shipped off to America? During a war with the uncivilized brutes, no less?
Well, there we have some attitude. But let’s up the stakes. What would poor, displaced Gwyneth be like if moments before she set sail, she witnessed the murder of the person dearest to her?
Yes, I’m a cruel author, what can I say. 😉 One who’s having a lot of fun imagining what my starts-as-a-typical-Regency-gentlewoman heroine might become and do under such circumstances. Will she arrive on American soil broken? Paranoid? Unwilling to trust the people she had been told to go to? Will she be defiant? Proud? Superior? Meek?
Yeah, I still haven’t figured her out completely, but I’m thinking she’ll be an interesting amalgamation of those things. Broken and defiant. Proud and meek. We’ll see how she turns out once I begin writing. =) But for now, I’m really enjoying the idea of bringing my love of British-set 19th century stories over onto American soil with these two characters.
by Roseanna White | Sep 28, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
Having just returned from the ACFW conference in St. Louis, and having spent the last few days chatting with my fellow historical writers about all we gleaned and learned while there, I thought it would be fun to take today to talk about historicals. Specifically, which ones are your favorites?
Do you tend to gravitate toward a particular era? A particular setting? What draws you to it?
Just a few choices to get you started. Do you like:
* Biblical / Ancient times
*Medieval
*Elizabethan / Tudor England
*Colonial / Revolutionary America
*Regency England
*Early Federal America (post-Revolution through War of 1812-ish)
*Civil War
*Reconstruction
*Victorian England
*European (which country, time period do you love?)
*Western
*Turn of the Century
*World War I
*Twenties – Depression
*World War II
Any of these jump out at you as your all-time favorite? Does your favorite not fit? (Gotta say, one of my favorites is Christine Lindsay’s Shadowed in Silk, which is India of 1919, so it’s kinda between WWI and Twenties with a totally unique setting. Feel free to expand my list!)
Let’s getting chatting about our favorites!!
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.