by Roseanna White | Jan 24, 2013 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
For some reason that I can’t quite explain, 4-year-old Rowyn has decided that Heaven = Outer Space. There is no hesitation in his mind. When he talks about going to Outer Space, it’s to drop in on God and say, “Hello.” Preferably in a rocket. That, he says, is where he will go when he dies to live again forever.
Who am I, mere mortal that I am, to try to straighten it all out for him? LOL. The book of Daniel tells us about angels on a physical journey from Heaven to Earth, waylaid by demons so that they arrived seemingly “late” to answer the prayers of the faithful. For all I know, those demons were hiding behind an asteroid orbiting Jupiter. *shrugs*
 |
The Milky Way over the
West Virginia hills |
But it came up in my little brain in response to some wonderful conversations and books I was reading yesterday. The conversations joked about how the particular group involved is made of black sheep, it seems. Or at least, would be dubbed so by a prominent few. We like reality in our fiction. We believe that redemption is greatest when the sin was staggering–after all, who will love the forgiver more, he who is forgiven much or little? We believe in thinking, in living our life in this world even if we’re not of it, in refusing the neatly bottled answers that are often tossed around in Christian circles.
And yes, that leads some of us to rant and rail on occasion. Why, we ask, do our brothers and sisters in the Church judge us for following Him into the wilderness? Isn’t that where He went? Where He ordered us to go??
Then, in something I was reading by my good friend and WhiteFire author
Christine Lindsay, she quotes C. S. Lewis, and it resonated:
“
It
would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too
weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex
and ambition when infinite Joy is offered us, like an ignorant child
who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot
imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are
far too easily pleased.”
You know what that hammered home to me? That we’re so very small. Sometimes, that makes us petty. Sometimes, that makes us close ourselves into a cozy little box. Sometimes it makes us judge–and I’m not talking just about the ones in the box judging those outside, I’m talking about the opposite too. We all want to be accepted for who we are–and when someone else is different, we feel that as judgment. Don’t we?
But what Lewis pinpointed so beautifully there is that God is bigger than that. God is a God of the biggest dreams, the grandest ideas. He’s a thinking man’s God and an infantile-minded man’s God. The God of the broken and of the fixer. He’s a God who says, “You want the world? Foolish mortal–I’m offering you heaven.”
 |
The Dirty Devil River
photo by Seth G. Cowdery |
Or as Rowyn would say, Outer Space. 😉 And that’s true too, isn’t it? He’s the God of the universe, of the infinite.
But how often do we forget that, as Pascal expounded on in a Pensee, the infinite goes both directions? The infinitely great, and the infinitely small. So often, we pick one direction and focus on that, because that’s where our interests lie.
I love–absolutely love–that I serve a God with no limits. A God who can touch hearts through the sweetest stories as well as through the grittiest. A God who doesn’t say we must change before we can enter His house, but who invites us in as we are and says, “I’ve been waiting for you. I have a job for you to do, and those quirks of yours will make you a perfect fit.”
I don’t know about you, but I serve one amazing, all-out, no-holds-barred God. He meets me in the grime, and He promises me the galaxies. He tells me that there’s nothing I can dream that’s too big…but that sometimes He wants to give me something even bigger than the corporeal, than the physical. He’s a God who says, “Go ahead. Reason. Ask questions. Explore the what-ifs. I’ll be there too.”
So for today, in all gratefulness, I say, “My God, who art in Outer Space, I set your name aside as holy. Establish your kingdom, and do your will, O Lord. Not just up in the stars…but right down here in the muck.”
by Roseanna White | Jan 18, 2013 | Uncategorized
Please remember Haley in your prayers today. For anyone who didn’t see it early, she’s an 8-year-old girl (our families go to Bible study together) who had been experiencing dizziness and balance issues. Scans showed a tumor over an inch big growing at the base of her brain stem.
The tumor is benign, praise the Lord, but surgery was obviously still required. That surgery is today, Friday 1/18, at 12:30 p.m. EST. She and her family are understandably terrified.
Please cover them and the doctors and nurses in your prayers! She’s at Johns Hopkins, so we know she’s getting the best possible care. But do pray for wisdom, guidance, a divine touch, that there are no after-affects from the surgery (brain stem–*shiver*), that her recovery is quick and complete, and that they’re all just bathed in the peace of the Spirit today, that nerves are calmed and fears abated.
You have already heard our prayers for this precious little girl, Lord, and we praise you for that. Now we come before you again, thanking you for what you’ve done and trusting you to keep your hand upon them.
If anyone would like to send Haley a card to let her know she’s being prayed for in your neck of the woods, please send me an email at roseanna at roseannawhite dot com and I’ll give you her hospital address!
~*~ UPDATE ~*~
Just got the word on Haley. She’s doing well, but the doctor was unable to get the entire tumor–it was hard instead of cystic, as they had hoped. He still believes it’s benign though. She’ll have an MRI over the weekend to see how much they got–they think between 50 and 90%.
by Roseanna White | Jan 17, 2013 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
|
| Lay thy sweet hand in mine and trust in me by Edmund Blair Leighton |
Sometimes I think the world inside my head is a very strange place. Full of double-think and a pendulum of balance I knowingly employ to keep myself cheerful. A fair amount of rationalization when it comes to exercise and indulging in chocolate, and a strange collection of hope and fear.
All that comes into play at this point in the game with a book releasing. I so love
Ring of Secrets, I so believe in its message. Of all the books I’ve written, this is the only one that I not only loved but about which I felt a perfect confidence. I knew this book would find a home. I didn’t know for sure where, but I thought Harvest would take it. So when they did, in additional to the excitement, there was this great, peaceful, “
Yes.” Yes, this is right. This is where it’s supposed to be, and it’s going to do what it’s supposed to do.
But with the book a month away from release, the thoughts are bashing about in my brain. I have such hopes for it…but what if it flops? Harvest House has put so much faith and effort into me…but what if I disappoint them? I so adore this book…but what if others don’t?
I’ll admit it–I crave the validation of praise. I try not to, and I don’t define myself by it. I will always write, as long as I’m able and God permits, and if all the world tells me I stink, then I’ll write anyway. Maybe I’ll change the what or the how, but I am a writer. But those words of encouragement from readers? Those keep me going. And occasionally words of harsh criticism have been known to derail me for a day or two.
So I’ve been biting my nails lately. And the reviews have started coming in from advance readers. Mostly good. Nothing proclaiming it the best book ever or anything. And then yesterday, my first bad review of it. Three stars. Sigh.
I was pretty proud of myself for shrugging it off, but it niggled here and there through the night. But not because of the review itself…more because a good review from this same source on
Annapolis I had grasped hold of firmly. I grinned and laughed over it. I touted it. And now, with a bad review from the same outlet, I’m perfectly fine with shrugging it off and saying, “What does it matter? It’s just one reviewer.”
To some, this no doubt seems hypocritical. Perhaps slightly unhinged, LOL. But let me explain.
I’m doing what I have to do. What I’m called to do. It’s a ministry for me. While I know that my books aren’t the end-all-be-all, aren’t Shakespeare or Austen, likely won’t top any charts, I also know that I’ve written them for a reason. And that I have other stories to write for their own reasons. I have, now, commitments and obligations to fulfill. Contracts. Deadlines. I have to write.
And so, I have to feed my spirit. With prayer, with the Word…and with the encouragement of my brothers and sisters of the Church. I have to focus on the good. And I have to push aside the bad, the insecurities. Not criticism that help me grow, but that which just tears down? Out the window it goes.
I have to trust that whatever this book does, what any of my books do, it’s okay. I have to remember that it’s not about sales or reviews or awards or acclaim or royalty checks. It’s about obeying. Listening. And most of all, loving. Loving my Lord enough to write what books He lays on my heart. And loving you enough to risk insecurity and disappointment enough to put my work out there.
by Roseanna White | Jan 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
It’s good news time!
Luckily I’ve been busy with Whispers from the Shadows and then Christmas, otherwise it would have driven me nuts to have known this for a month and a half but been unable to share. 😉 But either way, the wait is over!
I’m thrilled to announce that Harvest House has bought another 3-book series from me! Let Me Count the Ways will launch six months after the Culper Ring Series finishes up and will take the reader to England during the life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Each book in the series will be titled after a line from her famous poem and will span the years of her life, incorporating EBB as a secondary character and common thread, but focusing otherwise on fictional hero/heroine in each book.
How fun is that? =)
Book 1, which I believe shall be called How Do I Love Thee? will be set in the Regency, when EBB was a precocious child of 6, already translating Latin and Greek and writing her first poetry. My hero’s family estate will neighbor the Barretts’, and my heroine will be enamored with the little girl.
Here’s a quick blurb on the story:
 |
| Lily Collins as Arabelle Denler |
Arabelle
Denler thinks life is perfect once Edmund Braxton proposes. He is all
she could hope for in a match, and surely love will come. In spite of
niggling doubts, she is determined that she is doing the right
thing…at least until a roguish Naval captain comes on the scene who
has decided she will pay the price for Brax’s sins.
The notorious Captain
Phillip Camden, nicknamed Le Cœur Noir by the French during the war,
is none too pleased to learn that his sister has been compromised by
Braxton, who now intends to wed another. But the solution is
obvious—he will simply kidnap and thereby ruin the reputation of
the rake’s lady so that Brax sees Cam’s sister as the better
option. And with his noble little brother willing to clean up the
mess, what possible drawback could there be?
A fine plan, until the
too-alluring Miss Denler and her talk of faith do the
unthinkable—stir his blackened heart and make him wish it clean.
 |
| Eduardo Verastegui as Phillip Camden |
Now, I can’t take all the credit for this idea. =) My editor has had it brewing for a decade. At conference in September, we had lunch and she pitched the idea of a series based on EBB’s poem to me, leaving the particular plots and settings up to me. I actually got to take a couple of my previous ideas I’d had lying around and work Elizabeth into them, which is going to be so much fun!
I’m very excited to be working more with Harvest House and am still unbelievably amazed that we already have our next series planned out before Ring of Secrets even releases. (And some good news on that too! I learned last week that RoS will be a Recommended Read [or whatever the technical name for it is] in all Lifeway stores from mid-February through May! Very exciting!!) Goes to show what a wonderful relationship I have with the folks there and the awesomeness of my agent, methinks. 😉
So while I still have book 3 in the Culper Series to write before I think much more about Let Me Count the Ways, it’ll be brewing in the back of my mind amid much anticipation in the meantime. Hence why I’ve started my Pinterest page for the series. 😉
http://pinterest.com/roseannamwhite/let-me-count-the-ways-series/
by Roseanna White | Jan 10, 2013 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
 |
| Waiting by Edmund Blair Leighton |
My kids are big on holidays (so unusual for a child, I know, LOL). The day after Christmas, they asked, “What holiday’s next?” And the same question came on January 2. Several times we’ve played the Holiday Hop game, naming which comes after which. Sometimes I think that if they could, they’d just skip from one special day to the next. New Year’s to Valentine’s to St. Patrick’s Day to Easter, and so on.
I remember being the same way as a kid–especially a growing kid looking for those days off school. 😉 And you know, there’s nothing wrong with that. The Lord instituting Holy Days, after all. As celebration, as remembrances, and a way to look ahead. Just like He made the Sabbath for our rest. He knew we needed those breaks, those things to look forward to.
In a lot of ways, it’s like a book’s plot. When I’m sitting down to start a new book, I usually try to have the big points figured out–kinda like the holidays. There will be major turns at B, E, and H, say. Minor ones at A, C, and F. But a wise friend of mine once said that the real story was like an Oreo–it happens in the middle.
Life’s the same way. Christmas was a lot of fun around here. But you know what was more fun? The day after, when we got an unscheduled 8 inches of snow. When we all went to play in it, to sled ride, to spend time as a family that wasn’t pre-planned. My best memories from being a kid aren’t just the Big Days–it’s the little days. It’s following behind my dad while he raked the lawn after mowing, tossing on dandelions and leaves onto his pile and pretending it was a salad for a giant. It’s passing the summers in the pool with my mom and sister and neighbor.
So often, we’re so busy that it’s easy to put off the special things for the special days. To say “Sure we’ll do that…on our next break. The next holiday. The next…”
But if you’re anything like me, it’s the unanticipated fun, the unexpected Big Days that build the best memories, that make for the best laughter, the best stories. As we head into the new year, you can bet I’m going to be looking forward the holidays with my kids, sure–but what I’m really going to be looking forward to, what I’m going to make a big effort to appreciate, are the days in between. The normal days. The days when you’re just waiting to get through the school day, to the weekend, to the next event.
by Roseanna White | Jan 9, 2013 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
|
Baltimore during the Civil War
(Yep, that’s right, apparently the whole city had a crease down its middle…LOL) |
Last week, I gave y’all a brief introduction to my heroine from my third Culper Ring book. Marietta Gaines (who will be called Mari by her grandfather and Yetta by her childhood friend, just FYI) is going to be a ton and a half of fun.
But now I need to figure out what her late husband and his brother (my villain) do. You wanna help, right? I knew it. 😉
The time is 1865. The place is Baltimore. War is raging, but neither Gaines brother was directly a part of it. They’re wealthy, and I’d like the family to be in a business such that:
- It’s perfectly reasonable that they would stay home from the war to run said business, and no one would question that
- Said business is of enough importance that both North and South would covet their loyalty
My first thought was that perhaps one of the brothers is a doctor . . . or maybe a judge (might be too young for that) . . .
Then I thought of railroads. Maybe the Gaineses are a railroading family. Could be, could be. All I know about them at the moment is that their mother is from Louisiana, hence the brothers’ first names of Lucien and Devereaux . . . and hence their hidden Southern sympathies. Well, okay, so plenty of Marylanders went Southern in the war. But everyone has to assume they didn’t, no doubt because their father was vocally Union.
Anyone have any other brilliant suggestions for the family business?
For that matter, I also need to choose a hunky actor to use as my model for Dev, to put on my Pinterest board. He has to be oh-so-handsome, in that strong way that can ooze all charm one minute and then, pow, you realize he’s dangerous. Thoughts on that? I was considering Hugh Jackman . . . maybe . . .
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.