by Roseanna White | Jan 12, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays
This past week was a decent one for me when it comes to writing. Not fabulous, mind you–no earth-shattering personal records on word count. But I put down just over 10,000 words, and it felt great. Especially since it got me up to (a) a really fun, pivotal scene that I get to write today and (b) the halfway point of my story. Yay!
In my writing last week, I had some fun stuff in general too. I wrote my Christmas scenes, a New Year’s collation and ball, and had my heroine think about the hero something the effect of “Let him beg forgiveness of the Almight–she never wanted to see him again.” Right, of course, as he packed up the carriage to come see her. =)
And now, yes, I’m going to tell you what a collation is. I had to look it up. And, yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. As in, from the word “collate.” Like you do with paper. It means “a coming together.” Which was so logical that I laughed at myself for not realizing it right off the bat.
I had another fun word come up too. I wanted to describe the high-energy little boys and could think of no word other than “rambunctious.” But upon looking up the etymology, I discovered that it was too new a word for my time. However, it was an alteration of the word “rumbustious,” which, voila, was in use at the time. Yay! And isn’t that a fun word? Rumbustious. You know what it means just by hearing it. Love that kind of word. Like “quagmire.” Can’t you just tell by listening to “quagmire” that it’s a sticky, boggy place? 😉
That’s all I’ve got for you today. Unless you want two elbow-grabbing kids in need of breakfast . . . ?
So, what’s your favorite word?
by Roseanna White | Jan 5, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I’m at an interesting point in my work-in-progress right now–see, it’s the same time of year there as it is for real. Pretty neat, and it doesn’t often work that way for me. Oh, I’m a few days behind in Annapolis (it’s currently the 27th of December), but I’m about to skip a few days, so I’ll soon overtake myself. 😉
There’s something really fun about writing about the season you’re currently in, and about reflecting on it what your characters would be doing on this day in their year. I just got through Christmas with them, and my heroine received a leather bound journal–much like the two hard-cover journals I got. 😉 The kids in the family were playing with toy soldiers (which will be made either of wood or metal, though I haven’t figured out which) while mine are dashing around with Matchbox cars and My Little Ponies.
New Years celebrations are actually very similar. I don’t know that they stayed up to greet the New Year like our culture does, and certainly they didn’t watch the ball drop on TV (ha ha) but the first day of the new year was still a big celebration. Families pulled out all the stops and put on a huge feast, often entertaining friends and neighbors. And resolutions have been a tradition since Ancient Roman days, so don’t think that’s a modern concept!
Most fun in my story right now, though, is that “tomorrow” in the story, my hero figures out where my heroine has run off to and chases after her. Meanwhile, heroine reads a letter from her brother saying how sorry hero is for his dastardly behavior, but she renews her decision to sever all ties with him–yes, even as he’s hitching the carriage to the horses and galloping her way. =) Should be fun! I can’t wait to get these two in the same city again!!
Hope everyone’s having a great Wednesday thus far! And don’t forget to check out the two current stops on the Jewel of Persia blog tour for your chance to win–another’s coming on Friday, too! =)
by Roseanna White | Dec 29, 2010 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I just got to a crucial part of my Annapolis book–George Washington just resigned his commission before congress and declared that he would be a private citizen from here on out. The date was 23 December 1783, and no one knew at the time that a few short years later, he would be the first President of the United States. At that time, on that day, they saw only that the most influential man in the nation was handing over the key to total power and opting for private life. They saw only that a man so deserving was also so humble as to refuse what was offered him.
Because the speech is simply amazing, I’m going to post it, along with the response from the president of Congress.
“Mr. President,
“The great events on which my resignation depended having at length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere congratulations to Congress, and of presenting myself before them, to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country.
“Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty, and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming a respectable nation, I resign with satisfaction the appointment I accepted with diffidence; a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so arduous a task, which, however, was superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause, the support of the supreme power of the Union and the patronage of Heaven.
“The successful termination of the war has verified the most sanguine expectations; and my gratitude for the interposition of Providence and the assistance I have received from my countrymen increases with every review of the momentous contest.
“While I repeat my obligations to the army in general, I should do injustice to my own feelings not to acknowledge in this place the peculiar services and distinguished merits of the gentlemen who have been attached to my person during the war. It was impossible the choice of confidential officers to compose my family should have been more fotunate. Permit, me, Sir, to recommend in particular those who have continued in the service to the present moment as worthy of the favorable notice and patronage of Congress.
“I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last act of my official life by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God and those who have the superintendence of them to His holy keeping.
“Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theater of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life.”
General Mifflin, the president of Congress, replied in a speech thought to be penned by Thomas Jefferson,
“The United States in Congress assembled receive, with emotions too affecting for utterance, the solemn resignation of the authorities under which you have led their troops with success through a perilous and doubtful war.”
A woman of
Annapolis wrote, “I think the world never produced a greater man and very few so good.” I can’t help by agree with her.
(The painting is the famed General George Washington Resigning His Commission by Trumbull. He painted it years after the fact and inserted a few historic figures that weren’t there, basing his design upon other paintings he had done of said figures. In itself a subject worthy of a post, but you know. I won’t bore you.)
by Roseanna White | Dec 22, 2010 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
Yes, you read that title correctly. While researching Christmas traditions for my 1783 book, I came across information I may have heard before but obviously never paid attention to. 😉 Back in the day, in New England, celebrating Christmas was strictly forbidden. Why? Because English traditions for the holiday led to excessive drink and revelry, and that was a big no-no in Puritan society. So . . . sorry, folks. No mistletoe, no evergreens, no wassailing.
Luckily, my story takes place in good ol’ Anglican
Annapolis and Williamsburg, where the Yuletide season was still full of merry making. Whew! So I got to have a jolly good time exploring the traditions of Christmas that were around back in that particular day.
Christmas trees hadn’t made it across the pond yet, but there would have been mistletoe hanging, evergreen and holly boughs used for decoration, and food and drink aplenty. In the days before Christmas, the poor would have gone wassailing–going door to door with punch that the rich were pretty much obligated to buy. Mostly, this was a chance for the poor to come into the homes of the rich and get a few treats. Holiday parties were also expected to be public for a while, but eventually people stopped publishing their parties in the newspaper to avoid the drunken crowds mobbing them.
What, you wonder, would a typical Christmas look like in 1783 or so? Well, it would start with church. After that, the family would exchange a few gifts of toys or treats or books or the like, then have a feast of local delicacies. In Maryland and Virginia, this would have included oysters, crab dishes, ham, chicken, fruit in wine jelly, biscuits, minced pies, pound cakes, cordials, syllabub, eggnog, and more.
Now, folks back then really knew how to keep a celebration going–the Christmas season extended through New Years and into January. Traditionally it would have ended on the Epiphany (January 6), but folks had so much fun that the parties often extended through the end of the month.
So raise a glass to the good ol’ days, sing a merry tune, and deck the halls with boughs of holly!
by Roseanna White | Dec 15, 2010 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
So part of my Annapolis research involves the church my characters would have attended. There really isn’t a whole lot of choice there–only one church existed in Annapolis at the time, and it was St. Anne’s Episcopal. Very excited about that, my friend Kimberly and I went into the church last week, grabbed the historical brochure they have, and chatted with a few of the ladies preparing it for Christmas while we let our jaws drop at the glorious stained glass and majestic pipe organ.
Then, of course, we learned that the current building was actually the third St. Anne’s Church to stand on the spot. Naturally, I needed the second. But I saw that the brochure had info on it, so I just tucked it away and enjoyed the building there now. It’s truly lovely, and we enjoyed our ten minutes looking around the sanctuary.
Yesterday I finally read the brochure. I learned that right before the Revolution, it was decided that the first St. Anne’s was far too small, so they tore it down to build a new one. Only, you know, war broke out. The materials got used for a fort instead (sheesh, what priorities;-). So where, you wonder, did the church meet, since the old one was already demolished?
For a while, at King William’s School, which later became my alma mater, St. John’s College. (Go, SJC!) But they outgrew that too, and moved to . . . the theater on West Street.
This made me grin, because I’d already discovered that a new theater was erected about a decade before drama was banned during the war. What, I had wondered, did they do with the building? Well, there’s my answer. It got to be the church! Apparently for quite a while, since the second St. Anne’s wasn’t finished until 1792. That’s nearly ten years when Church Circle sat without a church inside!
And boy am I glad I bothered to read that brochure, otherwise I would have had my heroine walking to said Church Circle instead of West Street here in a few days . . . ah, research. The things we discover. 😉
by Roseanna White | Dec 8, 2010 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I had great fun this past weekend exploring Historic Annapolis with my friend
Kimberly. I left the kids with David and her hubby Martin and we headed into the ever-lovely historic district, armed with a digital camera, a notebook, and a spirit of adventure.
Okay, so my camera battery died within fifteen minutes (I charged it, I swear I did! LOL), but the pen survived just fine, so it was cool. 😉 And a trifle cold, but we were well wrapped.
It was honestly a blast to play tourist in the town we’d lived in for years, to be one of those annoying camera- toting pedestrians who didn’t know where we were going, rather than a native on a mission to get from Point A to Point B. We started out at the Visitor’s Center, of course, and loaded up on brochures that probably won’t be all that helpful. The highlight there, though, was a 3-D model/map of the town, color-coded by what era each building was built in. Now that is a great way to see how little was there at the time!
Of course, there was track-lighting, and trying to get pictures proved a work in glare-dodging. =) Luckily, Kimberly knows how to do all those fancy photographer things, like playing with exposure and stuff. I think we got some decent shots.
After that I decided I should figure out where the house is that my heroine’s staying at. One problem . . . the street I’d put her on is kinda occupied by the governor’s mansion. Um . . . hmm. It wasn’t there at the time, I know–but what was? Well, so far as I can tell, not a whole lot. So I think it’s fairly safe to insert a couple random houses. Like, say, one on the left side that would give that oh-so-perfect view of the Liberty Tree. =)
The next highlight was plotting the heroine’s escape route from the State House down to the bay. Oh, fun. And oh, the looks we got as we stood there going, “Well she couldn’t run that way, she’d have to dodge all those little outbuildings. And if he’s following her, she’ll just take the quickest way she can . . .”
I love being a writer. =)
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.