Thoughtful About – A New Adventure

by Roseanna White | Jan 25, 2018 | Thoughtful Thursdays

But I’m staring down the barrel of quite a lot of deadlines, and this time the advice really hit home. I do need an assistant. Someone to handle some of the minutia of book releases and promotions, to help keep me on schedule and do some of my scheduling. Someone who can handle the non-creative parts of my job, so that I can focus on the creative parts.

After a whole lot of prayer and quite a lot of emails, I’ve hired Rachel Dixon as my virtual assistant, and I’m so excited to begin this new chapter with her! Maybe most people wouldn’t feel the need to post about hiring someone, LOL, but I do. Because the way I view it (and the way Rachel views it, hence why she was a good match for me) is that what we’re doing is building a team. We’re working together toward a common goal. Serving authors as an assistant is Rachel’s calling, and serving readers as a writer is my calling. So the fact that we can work side by side for the Lord…well, that’s pretty awesome.

Thoughtful About . . . Heroes

by Roseanna White | Jan 18, 2018 | Thoughtful Thursdays

Whenever I have a new book release, there’s always that anxiety about how readers will connect with my characters. Oh, I’ve had some input by this time. Critique partners, beta readers, editors. And they all have their unique opinions. Their perspectives.

As I’ve been enjoying the feedback of my early readers of A Song Unheard, I’ve found it especially fun to see how readers are responding to my hero–especially as contrasted with the first hero in the series, Peter. Peter was awkward socially, Lukas is at home in society and a bit of a rake. Peter stammers. Lukas is silver-tongued. Peter is a man of prayer and consideration. Lukas is a man just beginning to realize that his mother was right, and seeking nothing but his own pleasure will leave him empty.

I loved creating both of these heroes. All of my heroes. They’re each unique, different. And yes, I love it when people call them swoon-worthy. I’ve given that title to some heroes in my favorite books as well.

I’ve noticed lately that the term “book boyfriend” has been floating around, and that always makes me giggle. I personally won’t ever call a hero that–I’m married, thank you very much, and won’t have any boyfriends, be they real or imaginary. 😉 But that, in turn, has made me ponder what it is we love so much about a good hero. And why we sometimes wish they were real.

I’m going to start by saying that bits and pieces of my husband work their way into each and every hero I write. Maybe it’s his wit in one. His eyes in another. Maybe it’s his way of questioning everything. Or of loving me so wholly. Maybe the way he looks at me. Or the way he supports my every dream.

My husband isn’t perfect. He’s the first to admit it. We have our moments of frustration, of course, but when I look at this man living life with me, I know God blessed me beyond measure. And I consider it an honor to demonstrate in my books that a real hero isn’t necessarily a muscle-bound hunk that can make women fall at his feet with a mere flex of his biceps. (Not that I have anything against muscles, mind you.)

A real hero is a man who knows, or discovers, that love makes him stronger.

A real hero is a man who listens to and leans on the Lord.

A real hero is a man who will make a sacrifice, not to gain glory, but to protect those he loves.

A real hero is a man who pairs duty with honor, diligence, and passion.

A real hero is a man who can be vulnerable.

I’ve written a lot of heroes who aren’t the typical hero. Some who might even be called anti-heroes. I’ve had a few action-type ones, a few too-handsome ones, plenty of should-be-average ones. But they each become more than ordinary in the pages of a book, and that’s because…

A real hero answers the call of the Lord.

That’s usually what we see them doing in one of my novels, and in the Christian romances I so adore. They’re just ordinary men, living often ordinary lives, but living them in an extraordinary way.

And that, in my opinion, is what makes us love them…just as it’s what makes us love these wonderful, flawed men in our lives.

Thoughtful About . . . Who We Get to Be

by Roseanna White | Dec 7, 2017 | Thoughtful Thursdays

I’ve had several ideas lately for Thoughtful posts. But it seems like every week, I run out of time, and blogging slips down my to-do list until it falls off the edge. =/ So when I pulled up a new post today, I’m not sure why I typed into that title line “Who We Get to Be.” But I had no desire to delete it. So let’s see where my fingers and my still-sleepy mind take me.

In part, I think my thoughts originated a month ago, with that horrific church shooting. When my husband said on the way home from Bible study, “When are people going to realize that it isn’t the guns doing this–it isn’t the people doing this. It’s the hatred that has such a stranglehold on this country.”

Or maybe it’s from a post my sister, just a few months away from her last cancer treatment, said on Facebook yesterday:

“We live in a society that seems to focus on the negative… the news, your FB feed, the magazine covers in the check out line…I’m just about in tears as I scroll through FB and read the self hate and the harsh words towards others. So many people are fighting battles every day that we don’t know about
or see! We can’t even imagine the thoughts going through the minds of
others and one small kind word or act could make their day or even
change their hearts. I’m here to tell
you I have experienced more kindness from family, friends and complete
strangers in the last few months than I could even imagine. I’ve had
strangers stop me to pray with me on days I really needed it, I had a
lady who I rented a condo from for a treatment to tell me if I ever
needed to stay there again it would be free, I have a girl who walked
the same path and was put into contact with me but doesn’t know me send
me messages; on days when I seemed to need them the most! Those are just
a few examples folks! Can we please spread love and Joy instead of
negativity?”

Or maybe it’s just the continued realization as I type up responses to emails or messages or smile at someone on the street: We get to choose how those people see us. We get to decide what kind of us we’re going to be. We get to determine whether we’re ruled by bitterness or love.

Hate does have a stranglehold on our nation. Hatred for the president (what happened to respecting the office even if you don’t like the man? I didn’t vote for Trump. But he’s now my president. MY president. Just as Obama was–who I also didn’t vote for. Why would I wish any of my presidents failure?? Isn’t that then MY failure, as they represent me?). Hatred for whoever believes differently on moral issues (What, you’re for/against homosexual marriage? Then you’re EVIL! It doesn’t matter where your belief comes from, it’s different from mine, and therefore you deserve no respect). Hatred  for those who believe differently on political issues (You own guns? When are you going to wake up and realize you’re part of the problem? You’re for gun control? You might as well stomp on the Constitution!). Hatred for those who say “Happy Holidays.” Or who say “Merry Christmas.”

We live in a society that has forgotten how to listen. That can’t fathom respect. And we, who claim to have the Light of the World living inside us, all too often add to that darkness.

But we get to decide, don’t we? We get to decide whether it’s words of love or hate that spill from our lips. We get to decide whether we meet bitterness with a smile and a prayer or with bitterness of our own. We get to decide whether we live by love or hatred.

I remember years and years ago, when I was working on the edits for Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland–my first book published with a company other than my own–I had an epiphany as I composed an email in response to some of my editors’ suggestions.

I get to decide, right now, what kind of author I’m going to be. I can be the kind that argues and snarls and resents every suggestion–the kind that will make editors groan when they see my name pop up in their inbox. Or I can be the kind that greets suggestions with enthusiasm and goes out of my way to make my editors know I value their opinion. Readers will never know how I interact with my publishing team. But they know. They know, they sense, they talk among themselves. And the kind of author I choose to be with them could likely determine whether they want to work with me in the future.

This is the same in all other aspects of life. In how we deal with our families. With our neighbors. With our churches. With the stranger in the supermarket line. It’s true of our online presence. It’s true of our in-person presence.

We get to choose. We get to choose who we are. According to the Bible, we get to be new creatures because of what Jesus did for us. We get to leave behind all the darkness and sin. We get to be perfect. We get to be saints. We get to be His.

So why are we still acting like the world?

We get to be joyful. We get to boast in our tribulations and troubles. We get to glory in insufficiency. We get to show the world that God is so much, even when life offers us so little.

We get to be Jesus to those hurting people around us.

What an awe-inspiring title. Not Employee of the Year, Best-Selling Author, Attorney at Law…not Best Mother or Award Winner or Millionaire.

Christ follower.

Sometimes that just blows me away. That we get to be that Light for Him.

We don’t just choose to believe. Choose to profess. We have to choose to live it. To be it. And then to watch the world around us change in response.

Thoughtful About . . . A Living Water Faith

by Roseanna White | Nov 2, 2017 | Thoughtful Thursdays

There’s an old-world definition of “living water”–it means water that moves. Dead waters are stagnant–you don’t want to drink from them, and sometimes things can’t even live in them.

For instance, the Dead Sea. Now, this place is pretty amazing in a lot of ways. The salt content in so high that nothing can live in the waters. So high that you get salt cubes littering the shore and chunks of it floating in the water like icebergs. We’ve all probably heard the stories about how easy it is to float, and how quickly the water heals cuts or scrapes on your skin.

Why is the Dead Sea so salty? Because the Jordan river flows in, but then it stops. There’s no outlet. The water simply evaporates in the heat. It’s dead, not just because the salinity is so high that nothing can live there, but because the water doesn’t move.

In contrast is the Sea of Galilee, which is fresh water. The same Jordan river flows in, flows out. Plus, it’s fed from underground springs. This is living water. Fresh and clean and teeming with life.

That’s what our faith is supposed to be.

My dad preached on this last weekend, and it really spoke to me. He started with John 7:37-38:

37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (Emphasis mine. NKJV)

 Somehow, through all the times I’ve read John, I’d never caught that before. Whenever I think of living water, I think of it being Jesus–I remember the woman at the well, and how our Lord promises that He can give a living water that will make us thirst no more. Jesus is the living water.

But then there’s that part in bold above. He comes into the hearts of those believe in Him–and then what?

 Living water–moving water. Fresh water. He comes in . . . and He needs to flow out. We need to be fed with His words, with His truth, with His salvation, yes–but that can’t be the end of it. We can’t just hold it all in and think we’re good. That we’re saved, so that’s all that matters. 

We can’t stagnate. We have to move. Our faith has to move. It has to flow back out to the rest of the dry and thirsty world.


In our Bible study on Wednesday nights, we’ve been reading Romans. In 2:16, Paul is talking about about how the law is written on the hearts of men and that God will judge them, through Jesus, according to “my gospel.” My husband, ever amazing at digging deep into the wording, asked “Why does Paul call it his Gospel here? Isn’t it usually called Christ’s gospel?”


We went back and forth with it for a while, and eventually I said something I thought was kinda simplistic, but which everyone loved: that Paul is owning it. He’s taking the Gospel inside him and then sharing it, so fully unashamed, so fully committed to it that he’s willing to call it his own.


That’s the living water faith we all need to have. The kind that takes it in. That lives through it and by it. And that sends it out again to nourish others.


Father, let your Living Water spring up within us. Let it fill all the parches and empty places in our souls. And let our spirits’ cups then so overflow with you that we have no choice but to spill out your goodness for those around us. Let us be the fresh spring in a bitter world. The life among the dead. Let us be a fountain of your glory.