by Roseanna White | Sep 13, 2010 | Uncategorized
Given that I’m yet again staring out at the Atlantic (ah, bliss!), this seems like a perfect topic for today–especially because coming down to the Outer Banks inevitably reminds me of the contemporary novels I set here.
I know I’ve talked a bit about Yesterday’s Tides before, but I can never think of it enough. =) This is one of those stories that totally obsesses me every time I work on it. There’s something about the life of Louisa, my single mom to twins, that inspires me and consumes me. It’s not just that she’s brilliant, that she’s so very dedicated to her family. It is, in part, this place. And the fact that she’s so tied to it.
This is one of those stories that couldn’t have been set anywhere else. Louisa belongs to the Outer Banks. In a lot of ways, she is the ocean. Steady, but not always predictable. Deep, and not always safe. Yet also nurturing and welcoming. A life source.
I always expect to see Louisa sauntering up the beach when I’m here. Who knows. Maybe someday I will. =)
by Roseanna White | Sep 11, 2010 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
My hubby and I were Sophomores at St. John’s College on 9/11/01. We were in class when the planes struck the World Trade Center and had no clue what was going on. As we drove home for lunch, we saw a very strange sight for
Annapolis though–two white hazmat vans (strange looking things) rushing onto Rt 50 right in front of us. A curiosity that we ignored until we got home and my MIL called us to tell us to turn on the news.
As we drove back for afternoon classes an hour later, it seemed like a different world. Annapolis was deserted, all the government offices vacated and the Naval Academy on lockdown. Because my college is sandwiched between those two things, police stood at the corners of the college, checking IDs before allowing us to enter. It was a terrifying time. It rewrote reality.
I remember having the thought, “What is relevant now? What matters? These stories I’m working on seem so trivial, but what stories wouldn’t?”
We drove home that weekend, and across every bridge homemade banners stretched declaring “God Bless America.” People had stuck Styrofoam cups into chain link fences to scroll out messages of their patriotism. American flags had sold out.
And now, nine years later, I think most of us have forgotten that again, or have at least shoved it to a convenient place in our minds, one that we don’t have to look at but when we realize the anniversary is upon us.
So every year, I make it a point to pull out the essay I wrote on 9/11, which was published in my hometown paper a week later. It helps me remember–perhaps it will help you, too.
To My Brother, the Stranger
I did not know you. I never met you. If I had seen you, you would have been simply a face in the crowd. My thoughts never touched upon the possibility of your existence.
And yet. . .
And yet when I heard of the tragedy of losing you, you were suddenly my brother, my sister, my best friend. You were the comrade I never had the opportunity to meet, the face I could sketch simply because of how many faces you are. And every time I open my mind, it is to realize anew that you were a person, you were loved, and now you’re gone.
It’s a shock I never expected to feel , a pain no man, woman, or child should ever have to endure. And I did not know you. How much worse must it be for the widows, the orphans, the childless parents, the brotherless sisters that were made on that day? How much worse again for those who yet know nothing about the fate of those dearest to them?
It is a pain no one should have to gaze on, much less be consumed by. It is a piercing that should quickly tear down all barriers until there is nothing left but a shaken humanity, a resolved people, a united nation. It should induce the best in man when he looks at evil, when he sees the dancing in his enemy’s camps. It should make him realize that the sickness he feels, the death he sees is a presence to be ignored no longer.
I pray that somehow this change in our lives will be used in a way to make us better. I pray that as I walk down the streets of my untouched city I never forget that it could be gone in a moment. I pray that as I pass a stranger I remember to remember that he is not a stranger to someone. I pray that soon all our fears are exhausted and we are left instead with hope. And I pray that we never take for granted the greatness of our nation, lest through our disregard it lose that thing that sets us apart.
I can never say the right words to those who are grieving, because there are no words to be said. I did not know you. I never met you. All I can offer you is the love of a face you have never seen and the prayers of a heart that is reaching across the miles to the strangers it now calls brothers.
May God enfold us in His arms until the terror goes away. May He settle his peace over us until the rivers of tears run dry. May He comfort us until we become victorious. And may we never forget that it is He who will lift us from the mire. Today America has united in common anguish. Tomorrow we will rejoice in justice. And all the world will know that this is a nation that God has blessed and will never forsake. Let us be the first to proclaim that.
by Roseanna White | Sep 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
Today I’m pleased to welcome Martha Rogers to my blog to chat about her latest novel, Finding Becky.
As usual, leave a comment below for a chance to win a copy of this book. Be sure to leave an email address and make sure you’re a follower!
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About Martha
Although Martha’s primary writing experience is in non-fiction, she has been writing fiction for a number of years. The first two books, Becoming Lucy and Morning for Dove in her Winds Across the Prairie released in January and May of 2010. Books three and four will be available in September 2010 and January 2011. She is a retired teacher who enjoys spending time with her family, especially her grandchildren. Martha is a member of ACFW and writes a weekly devotional for the group. She serves as treasurer of both the Woodlands chapter of ACFW and the Houston chapter of Inspirational Writers Alive.
Other book credits include the novella, Sugar and Grits, a Christmas novella, River Walk Christmas, seven Bible studies, contributions to compilations by Wayne Holmes, Karen O’Conner, and Debbie White Smith. Martha has contributed devotionals to several anthologies including recently released Blissfully Blended, a devotional book for Step-moms from Barbour.
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About Finding Becky
Rebecca Haynes arrives home from college with new ideas and attitudes about women and her faith that bring dismay to Rob Frankston who has loved her since her days as the young girl Becky. Geoff Kensington arrives in town at the same time with an interest in Rebecca. When problems and strange accidents befall the citizens of Barton Creek, Becky seeks Rob’s help. He hopes he will find the Becky he’s always loved as they uncover the truth.
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What’s your latest book?
Finding Becky from Realms to be released on September 21, 2010
Oo, we’re getting a sneak peek! Love that. =) What’s your favorite part of the story?
I have several, but I suppose my most favorite is when Rebecca realizes how much her family and her faith mean to her and that she doesn’t have to sacrifice her independence for either one, and that being the Becky from her childhood is actually a good thing.
What was the hardest part to write?
None of it was really difficult. This was the easiest of the four to write.
Gotta love those. What do you hope your readers will get out of the story?
How much God loves His children and whenever we stray, He is there waiting for us to return to Him.
A beautiful reminder! Is there a theme to this book?
All my books have the theme of reunion and reconciliation. Sometimes that within the family and sometimes it’s a reconciliation with our Heavenly Father.
One of my favorite themes. =) What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?
I love writing historical romances, but I love to ready mystery and suspense
What are you reading right now—and what do you want to read next?
Just finished Kim Sawyer’s latest book, In Every Heartbeat and am almost through Allison Pittman’s novel For Time and Eternity.
Those both sound so good! What would your dream office look like—and what does your REAL writing environment look like?
I’m working on my dream office. Right now my space is so cluttered that no else can find anything.
LOL–I know that feeling. My whole house feels that way! Are there any people (family, writing group, editors) who you rely on when writing?
The 19th Century Writers Loop provides me with lots of info if I can’t find it on internet. If I’m in a pinch, I know I can rely on my friends Janice Thompson, Rhonda Gibson, and Kathleen Y’Barbo to help out.
Aside from writing, what takes up most of your time?
Church and family take up my time as I am a group leader for a weekly Bible study, sing in the choir, and lead a First Place 4 Health group once a week. Two sons and their families live here and we spend a lot of time with them, especially during football season with one grandson in the band and one playing football in high school.
I was a marching band girl. =) If someone were to give you $5,000 to spend on anything you wanted, what would you buy? (No saving or gifts to charities allowed!)
I’d put it toward renovating my kitchen with new cabinets, countertops and appliances.
Wanna renovate mine too?? 😉 What writing goal have you set for yourself that would be the hardest (or unlikeliest) but most rewarding to achieve?
To write well enough to win nominations for an award. Don’t have to win it, I would just like to be nominated.
Here’s hoping that’s a dream that comes true soon! Do you remember where you were when you got your first or most important call about a book contract?
On my birthday, I received a call about an offer letter from Realms and then a contract. We were on a family trip to Kerrville when Tamela, my agent called and said the final contract was approved and a copy of it would be waiting when I got home.
That’s so awesome! Best birthday present ever! What are you writing right now?
I’m working on Book 1 of the next series, Seasons of the Heart.
Any upcoming releases we should keep our eye out for?
Riverwalk Christmas, an anthology of Christmas stories has just been released. Find Becky is to be released September 21.
Is there another author who has greatly influenced your writing?
My three original Seared Hearts critique partners have been the greatest influence as they critiqued my writing and helped me to become the writer I am. They are DiAnn Mills, Janice Thompson, and Kathleen Y’Barbo.
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Thanks so much for visiting, Martha! Everyone check out Martha’s site at www.MarthaWRogers.com.
Void where prohibited. Entry into the contest is considered verification of eligibility based on your local laws. Chance of winning depends on number of entries. Contest ends 9/16/10. Winner will have two weeks to claim prize.
by Roseanna White | Sep 9, 2010 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
I can think of nothing else to talk about yet, so y’all are going to get the story of my last evening.
Okay, so let’s set the stage. Xoe (she’s 4, almost 5 for those of you who don’t know), fell asleep on the couch yesterday afternoon. This inevitably means she has trouble falling asleep at bedtime, but I was hopeful–she kept saying she was tired all evening.
But as expected, she was up at 8:30 or so asking to go to the bathroom (ah, stall tactics). In the bathroom, she spotted a teensy tiny little spider. The kind so small it barely even freaked her out, and she’s the master of over-reacting to any bug. (I say that with all love, LOL.) Then I tucked her back in, thankful Rowyn (who’s 2 1/2) didn’t wake up.
Half an hour later, shrieking. “Spider! Mommy, there’s a spider on my pilloooooooooooowwwwwwww!”
Riiiiiiiight. I’m thinking, “Okay, so she fell asleep, dreamed about the spider, woke up freaked out.” Something I would have done. So I calm her down, hold her for a few in the living room, make a show of checking her pillow and bed, and then tuck her in–for half a second before pulling her out of bed, barely containing a shriek of my own as a HUGE, thick spider (as opposed to our usual granddaddy-long-leg) scurries over the toy box right beside her pillow. (Rather than sleeping on her top bunk bed, she’s been on a mattress on the floor since July. Which I will not go into right now.)
So I hustle Xoe back to the living room, grab a flashlight (Rowyn’s still sleeping in the bedroom, so no overhead lights) and a shoe, and go spider hunting. But the thing must have gone into the toy box. (Can you see me shudder?) I can’t find it and squish it, which means no body to show Xoe.
We move her little bed to the other side of the bedroom, but of course that doesn’t work. A few minutes and she’s freaking out again, insisting she saw one on Rowyn’s dresser now (at her head), and trying to convince me that she’ll be fine if I just let her stay up until I go to bed. Which, at this point, is only a few minutes away anyway. So I let her help me make my coffee and watch me wash my face, then go back in with the flashlight. We check everything, and I leave the light with her so she can Shine it if she thinks she sees something.
A little bit later, I go to bed. Three minutes after settling in . . . wanna take a guess? That’s right, Xoe’s flying up the stairs. Obviously she’s not going to be able to sleep on the floor in there. So first we try the top bunk. No go–she hasn’t mastered the ladder yet, so . . . Our other option is what we try next–pulling her little mattress on the floor into the schoolroom.
Thankfully, that worked. She settled down and went to sleep. At 11:00. Three hours after bedtime. Argh!
After that the night was peaceful (though I was dreaming of bugs–go figure). Unfortunately, when I snuck down at 6 in search of some quiet time before the kids woke up, the kids woke up. So Mommy’s a little grumpy, and while Rowyn (who got a solid 10 hours, miraculously) is his usual chipper self, Xoe’s also grumpy–not surprising. Seven hours of sleep is not enough for a 4-year-old. And grumpy me is thinking, “She’s going to fall asleep again this afternoon and then repeat the whole can’t-sleep-at-night-thing . . .”
Here’s hoping for a smoothing evening tonight though, eh? Sigh.
by Roseanna White | Sep 8, 2010 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I’ve always been intrigued by the stories of dreams–you know the kind. The ones that get recorded, that come true, that sometimes need interpretations. Some are prophetic, some get the title “true,” some rewrite the course of history.
The Greco-Persian War was launched because of a series of dreams. Xerxes had announced he was going to war, but then rethought it that night and decided his cautious uncle may be right. He decided to change his mind. That night he had a dream of a handsome, fierce man who taunted him for turning away from the greatness he was called to. He dismissed the dream, announced the change of plans–and the following night dreamed of the man again, whose taunting was seriously disturbing this time. Terrified, he made his uncle come sleep in his bed, wearing his robes, hoping he would be given the same dream. The uncle was (much to his surprise)–and the man was so enraged with him for talking the king out of the war that he came at his eyes with red-hot pokers.
And so, they went to war.
This dream isn’t actually in Jewel of Persia, though Xerxes tells Mordecai all about it, and it’s a well known fact within the palace. But in editing, I just got to another dream. This one is a woman saying, “I dreamed last night that I will deliver a little girl when we get back to Susa.”
Now, it took some courage for me to put this in. Why? Well, for the very reason her husband uses in reply. “I have never heard of a mother dreaming of a girl-child, either in the stories of your people or mine.”
The mother replies with my reasoning for including it. “Why would you? History only records such things if the child goes on to greatness, and women matter little . . . you read the history of men. Women tell different tales.”
Ever talked to pregnant women about whether they’re having a girl or a boy before they get that 20-week sonogram? Sometimes they’re clueless. And sometimes they know. How? A feeling, sometimes. But many I’ve talked to have said, “Every time I dream about the baby–which I started doing before I even knew I was pregnant–it’s a girl.” (Or boy, depending.)
Me being me, these stories had me so excited that when I was pregnant with my first, I second-guessed myself constantly IN my dreams! Totally useless gauge–I would actually hold the baby in my dreams and wonder, “Boy or girl?” Sometimes the gender would change mid-dream. Kinda frustrating. 😉 But with Rowyn, my dreams did indeed always feature a little boy, though I was afraid to admit as much, given my dreaming-indecision with Xoe.
But as I was writing this part in Jewel of Persia, it really hit me–women didn’t just start dreaming about their kids in the last few years. If we do it now, we did it then. But why record it? What does it matter?
Historically, it doesn’t. The men who wrote the histories would wave it away. But we . . . we tell the tales of women. And we care.
by Roseanna White | Sep 7, 2010 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
Some of you undoubtedly remember when a few months ago I mentioned how I read Julie Lessman’s latest but had been asked not to post the review until the book had released. Well folks, the time has come!! A Hope Undaunted just released September 1st, and now I’m gonna drive you all nuts by posting my review, which will necessitate you buy it because, well, it’s awesome. =)
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Katie O’Connor’s got her life planned out, everything in place for perfection. In the fall, she’ll be attending Portia Law School. She’s got Jack, the rich, influential beau who dotes on her and will help her use that law degree to the greatest affect. Her goal—crusade for women’s rights, so that other women won’t have to live under the thumb of a man like she has all her life. She loves her father, sure, but times have changed. It’s 1929—when will he realize she should be given some independence? Instead, he sentences her to a summer of hard labor, working for her worst nightmare.
Cluny McGee has finally grown up . . . at least until he butts heads again with little Katie Rose O’Connor. She always did bring out the worst in him. Of course, she also always made his heart pound a little too fast. Her attitude certainly hasn’t changed over their decade apart, but he has. He’s a Christian now, and he’s determined to live up to it. Quite a task, when forced to work closely with Katie at the Boston Children’s Aid Society. Temper and passion get all mixed up, and the sparks that fly do little to illuminate the right path. But one thing he knows without doubt—Katie will either make all his dreams come true or rip him to pieces.
A Hope Undaunted delivers exactly what one expects from Julie Lessman. Passion, temper, faith, love, and family tying it all together. I loved the exchanges between stubborn, proud Cluny and fiesty, headstrong Katie. We all sigh over a strong hero, which Cluny certainly is. In this book we also have the pleasure of getting to know the sassy heroine who has to learn where wisdom and spirit meet.
I have to admit that I really wondered through the first half of the book how the author was going to rein Katie in and help her to see that willfulness is only an asset when our will aligns with the Lord’s. I knew Julie Lessman could pull it off—and boy, did she!
This is the first book in the Wings of Change trilogy, which continues the saga of the O’Connors that we met in the Daughters of Boston series. Readers of the first series will definitely not want to miss this one, as we get continued peeks into the lives of Katie’s family, whom we all adore. New readers will thoroughly enjoy the dynamics and sparks between Katie and Cluny, though the subplots might not resonate as much with them if they don’t already know the characters.
As with Lessman’s other books, A Hope Undaunted has quite a few passionate moments that some readers of Christian fiction might not like—but also as with her other books, each of those is underscored with and answers to God’s expectations. That’s what I love most about books by Julie Lessman. I know the characters are going to experience in equal measures passionate love for one another and for the Lord.
Another winner from Julie Lessman!
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.