by Roseanna White | Nov 23, 2009 | Uncategorized
Since it’s Thanksgiving week, I figured I’d put a grateful spin on everything I blog about the next few days. =) Now this is a bit of a challenge right this moment, because I’m sitting here in a half-zombie state thinking, “Why, oh
why can’t I just get a full night’s sleep?? Soooooo tirrrrred.”
But anyway. Combining my thoughts about the VERY soon-to-release Stray Drop with my thoughts on modern or contemporary stuff with my determination to be thankful, I arrive I at this:
I am so, so thankful for the history of the church that we have behind us, to draw on. Yes, there were some bleak times, a ton of disagreement, and, being comprised of people, a lot of mistakes over the centuries. But we also have a complete Bible, in any translation you please. We have so many amazingly brilliant Christian philosophers who have pondered the big questions and written extensively on them. We have, in our country and many others, the freedom to worship Him.
I’ve heard people saying they wish they lived in Jesus’ day, so that they could have seen him, witnessed the miracles, received the Spirit as they did. And yeah, that would have been cool. But on the other hand, we have the spiritual right to the same miracles and greater ones, we have the exact same Spirit, and we can see Christ in so many ways.
So this Thanksgiving, I’m not taking my Bibles for granted, nor my shelf full of Luther, Aquinas, Augustine, and Anselm (and others I can’t pull out of my sleepy brain right now . . .). I’m thanking the Lord for the rich history we have of working for Him, for the rights to do so, and even for living in a time when I can turn my thought into novels.
Thank you, Father, for speaking through the ages.
by Roseanna White | Nov 20, 2009 | Uncategorized
From A Stray Drop of Blood
CLEOPAS
Cleopas Visibullis is from an upstanding Roman family. Though his father had a falling out with Augustus Caesar, the family can claim a noble heritage. A military man, Cleopas served ten years in Gaul before going to Jerusalem with the Tenth Legion. With a fair, gentle nature, Cleopas set about learning the Hebrew language and, after marrying Ester, the Law and culture as well.
By the time the story opens, Cleopas holds the position of prefect of the Tenth Legion, one of the highest ranks–he is the one who trains the soldiers.
Tall and strong, Cleopas exudes authority that comes from within. He adores his wife and counts his servants as friends. Because he believes wholeheartedly in the one God and his precepts, Cleopas treats slaves and free alike as beloved children of Jehovah.
Cleopas is the first of the characters to hear of the teachings of Jesus and feel a stirring in his heart. As a Gentile, he longs for something to bridge the gap between him and Almighty God, for something that can make sense of his Roman house that is so very Hebrew.
His son eventually sees him more clearly than anyone.
“It is your goodness that makes you stand so straight.”
When I picture Cleopas, I see someone like Michael Nouri; dignified in his years, still handsome, and exuding that certain something that makes you think, “There’s a man I can depend on.”
by Roseanna White | Nov 19, 2009 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Drum roll, please . . .
Though this is only a proof, and there’s one mistake that’s been fixed (dare ya to find it, LOL), here it is. The full cover of A Stray Drop of Blood.
Since it’s hard to read the text in this size, here’s what it says:
The endorsement on the front is “. . . haunts you centuries beyond the last page.” ~ Julie Lessman, author of the Daughters of Boston Series.
Back endorsement is “White draws the reader in with irresistible characters and keeps him reading with complex action and a heart-clutching story. Not to be missed by anyone who loves Biblical fiction!” ~Marta Perry, author of Leah’s Choice and Rachel’s Garden
The copy:
Beautiful is a dangerous thing to be when one is unprotected.
For seven years, Abigail has been a slave in the visibullis house. With a Hebrew mistress and a Roman master, she has always been more family than servant . . . until their son returns to Jerusalem after his years in Rome. Within a few months Jason has taken her to his bed and turned her world upside down. Maybe, given time, she can come to love him as he says he loves her. But how does she open her heart to the man who ruined her?
Israel’s unrest finds a home in her bosom, but their rebellion tears apart her world. Death descends with Barabbas’s sword, and Abigail is determined to be there when the criminal is punished. But when she ventures to the trail, Barabbas is not the one the crowd calls to crucify. Instead, it is the teacher her master and Jason had begun to follow, the man from Nazareth that some call the Son of God . . .
Born free, made a slave, married out of her bonds, Abigail never knows freedom until she feels the fire of A Stray Drop of Blood from a Jewish carpenter. Disowned by Israel, despised by Rome, desired by all, she never knows love until she receives the smile of a stoic Roman noble.
***
Credit for this awesome design goes to George Weis of Tekeme Studios. He did a fabulous job in a short amount of time, and I am sooo grateful. Not only for the work he put in, but to the Lord for giving him this vision that so perfectly captures my story. And special thanks to George his wife Ashley, their daughter, and even the photographer for dressing up in costume after costume and taking shot after shot for the unfocused background image.
by Roseanna White | Nov 18, 2009 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
The original first line of
A Stray Drop of Blood–the one I typed when I was a freshman in college–was “Abigail stoically warded off the tears.” Though I didn’t understand the difference at the time, I was using “stoically” in a modern sense–that she was trying to be strong, push aside her feelings. Seemed appropriate . . . until the next year, when I read a Roman philosopher named Epictetus.
Ever hear of him? I hadn’t until he appeared on my reading list. Epictetus wrote a treatise called Discourses, in which he outlined the philosophy called Stoicism. This single work became the foundation of Roman thought, of Roman interaction, or Roman personality. Most of us today only have minimal understanding of what it means to be a Stoic–much like I intended in my first line, we think of it as “strong and unfeeling.” An opinion based in the truth, but which falls sooooo short.
I really enjoyed reading Epictetus, and, as in many ancient philosophies, I found a kernel of truth that fit with my Christian outlook before it deviated into the unknown. The gist of the idea is this: we all have spheres. We have a sphere of choice, which are all the things we can let affect us. We have a sphere of influence, which are all the things we can affect. Epictetus argues that letting our emotions be swayed by things outside those spheres is not only ridiculous, it’s unnecessary–that we’d all be content if we knew the boundaries of our spheres and stuck to ’em. And that when you know your sphere, you’ll simply be unmoved by everything outside it. (If anyone has read this more recently than me, feel free to correct me on any details I got wrong!)
Abigail reads Epictetus in the second half of Stray Drop, and she points out the flaw I found in Epictetus–he doesn’t acknowledge that emotions simply exist. He thinks you can allow them, but that otherwise they’re just not there. She argues that they in fact are there, and that we can use them to gain allies in people with larger spheres, so that in fact we can influence things outside our own. Especially when one factors in God, with His universal sphere, and how He responds to the pleas of His children.
In my latest revisions, I took “stoically” out of the opening line, since it’s unlikely Abigail, raised to hate all things Roman, would have admitted any allegiance to the philosophy at that point. But I enjoyed weaving Stoic thought throughout the book in the Roman characters, and even at key points in the Hebrew characters.
Because when all else fails, most of us shut down emotionally–we close off our spheres. In that way, there’s a little bit of Stoicism in everyone.
by Roseanna White | Nov 17, 2009 | Uncategorized
I loved Kaye Dacus’s first book from Barbour, Stand-In Groom, so when an ARC of the sequel showed up, I was sooooo excited. Still, it was a few months before I got the chance to read Menu for Romance. I settled in with it this past weekend, though, and thoroughly enjoyed my trip back to Bonneterre, Louisiana.
Meredith and Major star in this one, two characters we got to know and love in the first as secondary cast. Meredith, executive director at her parents’ company and in charge of planning major events, can’t understand why her prayers for a husband have been blatantly ignored by the Lord. But she’s never even had a boyfriend. This New Year’s sees her making a resolution though–to get over her unrequited fascination with Major, their head chef. If she’s going to move on and find another guy, that has to be the first step.
Major owes the Guidrys a lot–in some ways, they’re more like family than his own. Probably because his mother battles schizophrenia and has taken more from him than she’s given. So often he wishes his life didn’t revolve around her episodes, his trips out to the facility where she lives. How is he supposed to chase his dreams when he has to worry about supporting her, being there at precisely the right time on precisely the right days to keep her balanced? Frankly, he’s embarrassed to even tell people about her. Women have rejected him before because of her. And while he’d really love to make his feelings known to Meredith, to try to have a future with her, he can’t saddle her with that . . . or bear the rejection.
As more demands are put on these two over-workers–some huge events, a new cooking segment on the local news that Major is volunteered to do, and fixing up the old house Meredith brought–some of their priorities shift. But is a menu for romance enough to win love and overcome all the obstacles between them?
I really enjoyed this story and getting back to the rich setting of fictional Bonneterre. It was great to get an insider look into the world of a chef and event planner, to see the hours upon hours these dedicated people put into making other peoples’ days the best they can be. The characters were warm and lovable, the writing fabulous, and the overall effect a book I can highly recommend.
by Roseanna White | Nov 16, 2009 | Uncategorized
Age of characters is something I think a lot about. Probably because my own love story happened pretty early in life by today’s standards, I pay attention to how old the characters are in both contemporaries and historicals.
And I confess: I get a little frustrated with all of these historicals with heroines who are late twenties or thirties yet don’t really give the proper due to how ODD it would be for a woman in that era to still be unmarried. For that matter, I get a little frustrated with all the contemporaries that seem to say you can’t find true love until you’re over 25, given that I’ve been with my honey since I was 15.
I just find it so interesting how ideas about appropriate age for romance has changed so drastically in the last half century. I was genuinely shocked when I realized that Mary would have been about 13-14 or so when she had Jesus. But when I was writing A Stray Drop of Blood, I had to take into account that my heroine, who was just of age to be wed, would be that age too. I had to wrap my head around the fact that this was not young at the time, not like we see it. That back then, they still thought that you ought to act while the hormones are hot (so to speak, LOL) since you didn’t know how long life might be. Being pretty darn young when I wrote it, I enjoyed showing how mature a teenager could be. Keep in mind I was Abigail’s age when I got the idea for the story. Only 18 when I started writing it. So I don’t want to hear any complaints about the un-age-appropriate thing;-)
In my contemporaries, it’s sometimes I struggle for me to make all my characters the “right” age by today’s ideas. Easier now that I’m the “right” age, but I’ve been married for 8 years, so I’m not exactly in that “finding love” stage. I’m in that “enjoying the comfort of being with the one who completes you” stage. But maybe that’s why most of my heroines have critical backstories with the heroes–many of them have been in love since they were “too young,” and it just took them a while to get to the point where the right thing comes of it.
Sometimes it’s annoying to be one of the “weird” people who knew as a teen who I wanted to marry and then married him after our freshman year of college, solely because people judge us for it. Or used to. At this point, most people are willing to grant that we in fact had listened to the Lord and made the right choice.
And I was truly touched by a lady I met at conference in September. Our conversation somehow turned to when we got married, and I said I dated my hubby through high school and married him when we were still 18. I was expecting the usual, “Oh . . . okay. I guess that’s working okay for you.” Instead, I got a dreamy sigh and “I think that’s wonderful. I didn’t get married for the first time until my 50s, and I so wish I had taken the time for it early in life. I can’t think of anything better than having spent all those years with the one I love. You got it right.”
It just goes to show–love knows no age, and the Lord knows no boundaries. Be it 2000 years ago like in Stray Drop or here and now like in my contemporaries, love hits whenever it hits. We just have to be willing to take it when it comes.
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.