by Roseanna White | Jul 2, 2014 | Uncategorized
I’m baaaaaaaaack! And oh, how awesome it is to have The Lost Heiress turned in and be free to catch up on other things. =)
One of which is my opinion on the wrap-up of AMC’s first season of
Turn. I was a couple weeks behind on watching due to the hockey finals and traveling…and for a few weeks there I really wasn’t sure what I could say anyway. I didn’t know how to put my finger on why the show was bugging me, other than the rather blatant ignoring of actual history (which I recognize most viewers wouldn’t even recognize, having not studied it as I did for
Ring of Secrets).
Then they helped me out by making it very clear–adultery ain’t cool, man. Especially when it’s (a) not accurate to history, (b) unnecessary, and (c) used to try to appeal to the viewers.
In a previous post after the first episode, I’d noted (with no complaints) some of the ways the show was fictionalizing history. And I’m quite obviously FINE with fictionalizing history, LOL. At first, I thought they were doing a grand job of doing so, too. They were putting key players together who really weren’t in reality, but that was okay. It was the for the sake of tension, and I really liked how they played off each other.
But here’s where they failed. They took the historical figure of Abraham Woodhull, who was in reality a farmer with firm Patriot roots who took great
Joy in pulling the wool over the British’s eyes, and turned him into a character who wasn’t sure what he believed, who was constantly changing his mind, and who had to be bullied into his role in the Culper Ring. Worse, they took a man of strong faith and made him a murderer, an adulterer, and absent any moral compass.
The Abraham Woodhull I read about in Washington’s Spies was a wee bit skittish, had opinions he shared too freely in his letters to Washington, but was a good man. A likeable man. One I cheered for when reading history.
I don’t want to cheer for Turn’s Abe anymore.
Largely because of the adultery. In reality, Abe wasn’t married at the time. In reality, Anna Strong was a decade older than him, never a love interest. And while fiction-writer-Roseanna is all for introducing a made-up romance (ahem), why why WHY did they have to make it result in adultery??
Anna, at least, thought her husband dead. But Abe. Why give him a wife, just to have him cheat on her? And why did the show assume that would make viewers like them? I guess their thought was to appeal to our desire for love. Yes, we can feel sorry for a character who married a girl he didn’t even know for noble reasons and then was still pulled toward his childhood sweetheart. But appealing to our base instincts–the ones that say Feeling is more important than commitment. What you want is more important than what’s right. The pleasurable is more important than the noble.–doesn’t work. A good TV show will portray a character’s failings in a way that makes us want them to be better. In a way that makes us ask ourselves what we’d do if put in such an impossible situation. In a way that makes us see the noble in the ignoble.
I didn’t see that here. Instead, I saw the noble be eclipsed by the ignoble.
And they missed a key ingredient–guilt. People falter, people make mistakes, and I’m all for using that in a fictionalized story (even if it’s a mistake the historical figures didn’t make). But the story would have been richer if Anna and Abe felt some remorse for what they’d done instead of basically flaunting it for all to see. Can you imagine the outrage in a small New England town if he really dueled for her? If she really jumped out of her husband’s boat and ran straight back into his arms?
In my opinion, that plot thread would have served the story much better had they left it at sexual tension. Have the Christmas scene where they almost falter, where Mr. Baker (best character they wrote!) interrupts. Leave that simmering between them, but give Abe a bit of a backbone. Have him care at least a little bit what he does to his family.
And that is, in my humble opinion, the other failure of the show. Abe isn’t driven. Abe has no backbone. Oh, he takes a few risks…but they’re not rooted in conviction.
What I love about the real historical Culper Ring is that they’re all about conviction. They lack skill, they lack professionalism, they lack training–but they definitely, 100% have a deep-down, scared-but-willing belief in what they’re doing. That, even before the adultery schtick, was what I was missing from the show. By all means, have them run scared now and then (the real people did). Have them second-guess whether they should pass something along for fear of getting caught (the real people did). Have them drive Washington slightly mad with their caution (the real people did). But give them the right heart.
The heart was what turned the real people into real, ordinary heroes.
The heart was what made me ask myself Would I be strong enough to do the same?
The heart is what has the potential to make viewers cheer through failures and setbacks and threat and victories.
Don’t strip the characters of it.
Will I watch next season? Probably. Because I really, really, really want them to redeem this story. I want to like the characters, and I want them to eventually tell the story of the Culpers I love. But I gotta say, I’m disappointed. I had high hopes, I was ready to love this show and shout about it to the world. And instead, I spent a lot of episodes sighing and shaking my head.
And now I’m down to a hope for improvement next season.
Fingers crossed that Abe gets a backbone, conviction comes to call, and they find a new character to give a bit of morality to now that they killed off the one who had it before.
by Roseanna White | Jun 18, 2014 | Uncategorized
Have I ever mentioned that trimming words isn’t my favorite pastime? But that’s what I’m doing now, trying to get The Lost Heiress down to size. And as I find it so very easy to get distracted from this task, I’m cutting myself off from all extraneous tasks until I get done what needs doing, LOL.
So I’ll be back when I’ve made some good progress. =) And when come back I do, I’ll have some thoughts on the first season of Turn, and who knows what else!
See y’all later!
by Roseanna White | Jun 12, 2014 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
First off, big congrats to the winner of my Fashion Find Challenge!
Angi Griffis
Angi gets to lay claim to all those awesome books, and her entry from Sunday was the one Random.org selected.
Now on with today. Or, er, I guess I’m talking about yesterday, LOL. See, it was a big day for me. Not because I spent the day painting our old house to get it ready for the tenant moving in tomorrow. Not because that earned me blisters all over my hands that even made it hurt to hold my spoon to eat ice cream (but I persevered. Just so you know. I didn’t give up on that chocolate cookies ‘n’ cream!). That was all pretty big. But what really made my day was that my mom finished reading A Soft Breath of Wind and my hubby (whose birthday is today!) finished reading The Lost Heiress.
Now, I’ve had two critique partners and my hubby read A Soft Breath of Wind already, but my mom is the first to read it after I cut a POV that those first readers all agreed was superfluous. And while I haven’t had a chance to drill Mom on whether she ever felt like anything was missing (because I’m not totally sure I put back in some of the details I also deleted that I meant to reinsert, LOL), I figure it must have turned out okay, since Mom declared that this may just be her favorite–which is saying something, because though Mom has always loved all my books, nothing has thus far been able to steal that particular title from A Stray Drop of Blood. I love that its sequel has succeeded!
I talked to my mom on the phone yesterday in the mid-afternoon, at which point she was 86% done. But I didn’t dwell on her finishing up too much, given that I was cleaning upholstery, painting, cleaning the kitchen, painting, trying to unclog the bathroom sink, painting… I had brain power only for “why is this stupid paint not covering?? Why did we not buy good paint?!” (which we then did, and oh the difference it made!) So when I got a message from her on Facebook last night, it was almost a surprise. An “Oh! Right. She was reading…” A very pleasant one.
My hubby David finished The Lost Heiress in the morning before we got to work, and I had totally spaced that–though he’s the first to finish it, and I was pretty anxious for his opinion. When we were getting ready to go to sleep last night, he said, “This is your best version of this book yet.” Keeping in mind that he’s read at least three versions. Perhaps more.
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Diane Kruger is a pretty good match for Brook
photo by Nicolas Genin via Wikimedia |
To which I replied, “Well that’s a good thing, given that it’s the one I sold.” LOL. He went on to add the icing to the cake by saying how I captured such depth, that all my characters were so well portrayed this time. That I really nailed Brook by making her more obviously French (or rather, Monegasque), that Justin is great with the extra moodiness, that Brice was so great this time around, and that giving her a father and taking out her uncles was spot-on for the story.
There’s Joy in hearing something like that–and there’s relief. I can’t speak for all writers, but I can tell you that I’m always anxious when I finish a book, before I hear back from my first readers on what works and what didn’t. My instincts are usually decent with this sort of thing, but I’m too close to really know if “It feels strong” equals “it is strong.”
Sometimes the two halves of a writer’s life–the real world of cleaning and cooking and caring for kids, of remodeling old houses and waiting for test results on a little one’s blood work; and the writer’s world of characters and plot development and deadlines–clash. But sometimes they line up pretty well. June has thus far been a month of hard work. Trimming words from a manuscript, hauling junk from an old house. Yesterday was a day of good report on my two next books and on the progress at the house.
None of it is perfect. I still have cleaning out and moving around to do today in the physical world. I still have some tweaks to make to the manuscripts, some editing, some trimming. But it’s always such a relief to know I’m on the right track!
by Roseanna White | Jun 11, 2014 | Uncategorized
Have you had a chance to come over to my Facebook event page and check out the fashions being posted daily? If not, GO! This has been so much fun. The ladies have found some amazing Edwardian gowns that will make you drool! My Pinterest page has filled out nicely. 😉
And if you post on Facebook, please remember to come here and log your links–each one gets you an entry into the contest!
The winner will receive this lovely stack o’ books.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
by Roseanna White | Jun 5, 2014 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Reality and our minds’ eyes very rarely agree. Depending on the type of person we are–and the situation–we tend to see things in extremes. As either terrible or grand, though it’s really somewhere in between.
Right now we’re doing some remodeling of our old house. And as I fill trash bags with all the stuff I didn’t want to take with us when we moved, I see that old house as something like this:
Which is ironic, because in my brain, my house should look something like this:
But as I grumble and pack and strip wallpaper and scrub and carry boxes until my back screams at me, I can hear that whisper in the deep places of my heart. The one that says:
I gave you a roof over your head.
I gave you heat in the winter, even if you had to build it by hand in the stove.
I gave you air conditioning in the summer, even if you had to put it in your window.
So many of my children don’t have that.
I gave you the means to buy all this stuff you now deem garbage.
I gave you enough, always enough.
More, I gave you plenty. I gave you bounty.
And I am shamed. And I have to pause and thank Him for providing. For always making sure what I have is sufficient. For the luxury I live in as an American. And I need to learn that what I make of those blessings is up to me. It’s mine to say no when someone offers what I don’t need, what will only clutter things up. It’s mine to say thanks for what I have. It’s mine to take care of it all and be a responsible steward.
I load all those boxes and bags into the back of our old clunker minivan that we bought for a song last year. And you know, sometimes I’m almost embarrassed to be seen in that thing. It’s not sleek and stylish. It’s not filled with cool features or storage compartments or the latest technology. It literally clunks every time we go around a turn. I often look at that old thing and see this:
when what I want to be driving is this:
Then I hear that voice again.
You prayed to somehow
have a van but no extra debt.
I you a van with no
debt.
I gave you wheels.
I gave you storage
space.
I gave you extra seats
for hauling around nieces or friends.
I gave you this to
keep you from spending money that I knew you wouldn’t have.
I took care of you
with this old machine.
And I remember how I knew, knew when the offer for the van came, that the Lord was preparing
us for changes. I knew, when I saw Him taking burdens of debt from us, that it
was because we’d have to be free of it—which meant financial change on the
horizon. And I thank Him again for taking such tremendous care of us.
So I scrub that old carpet. My husband crawls under it or
leans into the hood to fix what’s broken. My kids scrabble in with all the love
for that old clunker that they would give a shiny new car.
In April when I was on my writing retreat with my best
friend, we listened to a couple workshop MP3s from past conferences. The
amazing Susan Miesner said something that I found both hilarious and true. That
she doesn’t know why they call them “royalty reports.” Because when she opens
them up, she never feels like a princess.
For most of us, that is so, so true. I look at where my
books fall in the scale, and I realize I’m not at the top. I’m not a
bestseller. I’m not an award winner. In this business, it’s so, so easy to get
discouraged when we compare ourselves to others. But oh, how well I know the
whisper on this topic!
Your words are
reaching My children.
You’re telling the
stories I plant in your mind.
Publishers invest in
you.
Readers email you.
I gave you your
dreams.
I am humbled, and so very grateful. I praise Him for this
opportunity, and I put my nose to the grindstone and work as hard as I possibly
can to be faithful to this blessing.
But then…then there are the times we all know so well. The
times when we look in the mirror.
I’ve always been oddly confident in my appearance. I
honestly don’t know why. I’m not a super model by any stretch, my body is far
from perfect. I can no longer fit in those size 2 clothes I still had in the
back of my closet. I’m not willing to spend hours each day exercising or give
up the foods I most love. So yeah, my figure has changed over the years. It’s
not exactly what I want it to be. I still have a bump on my nose, and my
complexion hasn’t been clear since I was 10. But I’ve always thought it’s more
about how I feel than anything. So I make sure I feel great in whatever clothes
I buy. I’ll change my outfit five times even on days I’m not leaving the house,
because I need to feel right in
whatever I’m wearing on a given day. I like to think I carry myself with
confidence that people notice more than my actual assets or flaws.
I don’t always like the reality that looks back at me in the
mirror. I get self-conscience when I’m stuck wearing clothes that don’t make me
feel like a million bucks. I hate it when makeup won’t cover the flaws. Or when
an adorable outfit in the store doesn’t fit.
But I know that God doesn’t see that either. I know I’m His
daughter, precious in His sight. And it’s that whisper that matters most. It’s
what He sees there that is so very important.
I want Him to look at me and say:
You have a spirit that
seeks me.
You answer when I
call.
You love despite the
risks.
You feed those who are
hungry.
You clothe those who
are naked.
You nurture even when
you hurt.
You forgive when it’s
tempting to cling to offense.
You sacrifice when I
ask you to.
You teach your
children, My children, to love Me.
You speak the words I
ask you to speak.
You seek My reward
above man’s.
You are My daughter—well
done, faithful servant.
If that is my goal, if that is my achievement in life, then
I’ve lived a life worthwhile. And then it doesn’t matter what I wear or what I
drive or where I live. It doesn’t matter what I have or what I don’t. It doesn’t
matter what others say, though I still pray they see Him in me.
What matters is that, in His eyes, I’m more than the sum of
my parts. Because I have Him in me.
Masnion photo credit: Werner Kunz via photopin cc
Rusted car photo credit: GOC53 via photopin cc
by Roseanna White | May 29, 2014 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Last fall, we moved. But we moved in a rush, to a smaller house that was given to us by my hubby’s grandfather. We had a lot of work to do on the old one, so were in no rush to sell. We took what we needed right away…and then the bad weather closed in. It was not a good winter to move, and every weekend when it might have been possible, it was either snowing, raining, icing, our help was out of town, or there were more pressing repairs to be made to, say, automobiles.
So 9 months later, we’re finally getting to work–and on a tight schedule.
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A few boxes of books. Just a few.
Many more to come… |
As the one who will not be patching walls and rewiring, hanging new doors or plumbing, I’m on clean-out detail. And oh. My. Gracious.
When we moved back to Cumberland from Annapolis, Xoe was only 3 months old–she’s now 8.5. I was only a year and a half out of college. Now we’re planning our 10 year reunion. When we moved, I’d shoved a lot of clothes into a portion of a closet that’s hard to reach and unseen, and totally forgot about them. I just went through them last week and had to laugh. The wedding dress, okay. But seriously? That dress from high school? And that one from middle school? I still had that?? Why in the world did I still have that???
I discovered the amazing mess of items that the kids managed to lose under the bunk bed and behind the dresser in their room. I re-learned how few books you can really fit in a box. I found an insurance policy from our first apartment back in 2001. I scrubbed out a pretty-darn-gross fridge with nothing but elbow grease, cold water, and Windex. And I marveled at how much junk we’d accumulated–things that seemed so important at some point, but which I now threw out with no compunction.
And I wonder…what else in my life–in my emotional, spiritual, unseen life–is like that? How much do I cling to when I need to let it go? How much is begging for a good spring cleaning, a purging, a blank slate, but is still gunked up because I don’t have the time or energy or strength to let it go?
Then there are the things we’re looking for. For months, Xoe has been wondering where her little Ty hippo was. We verified it wasn’t among the toys brought over. So every time we went to the other house, Xoe looked for Humba. We checked all the likely places. The toy box. Under the bed. Under the couch. Downstairs.
Nothing.
She was starting to get upset about it. When I went on my own to do some cleaning on Tuesday, the first words from her mouth afterward were, “Did you find my hippo?”
Nope.
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My hutch, now filled with
all my china. =) |
Yesterday, we checked more places. Xoe sighed. We gave up and worked on other things–like moving my cabinet that would hold all my china, which had already been boxed and brought to the new house and now sat in the kitchen, taking up a quarter of my floor space. David and I (both sick) hefted the thing–and we hear Xoe call out, “There she is!”
She’d fallen, inexplicably, behind the cabinet. The last place we ever would have looked for her, there she was.
I was struck by the life lesson there too. That so many times we search and search for something. We work so hard for what we want, in the ways that seem logical. And we fail. Or at least falter. We never seem to attain that thing we’re reaching for.
So eventually we move on to other tasks. The ones that aren’t exactly what we want, but which are more important. And it’s there, in doing what we need to do, that we find that Thing. The one we’d been looking for. God knew all along what we needed to do to get us there, and once we gave up on following our own way–our so-called logic–we get where we need to go.
I’ve got a lot of packing and sorting, tossing out and selling ahead of me yet. No doubt I’ll have a lot more moments of “Why in the world did we keep this??” But maybe I’ll have some more realizations too. Some more opportunities to learn.
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| Humba the Hippo – home at last |
And maybe we’ll find some more treasures along the way.
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.