by Roseanna White | Jan 3, 2013 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
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| Little Girl in a Blue Armchair by Mary Cassatt, 1878 |
Though this isn’t exactly the insightful post I’d hoped to start the new year with, it’s a necessary one.
Yesterday I got a call from one of the ladies in my Bible study group. We have a couples group that meets every Friday–the adults do the study, and our kids play upstairs. For the eight adults, there are approximately, oh, a gazillion kids. 😉 Okay, so 11. Lots of enthusiasm there, and we’re all so glad to be building relationships for and with our precious little ones.
One of the kids from this group is 8-year-old Hailey. At our last study before Christmas break, her mom mentioned how Hailey’s balance had seemed off, though she’d been trying to hide it. Walking very slowly, and indulging in wobbles and railing-gripping only when she thought no one was looking. Then at our Christmas party, Mom mentioned how her pupils didn’t seem to be dilating correctly. No one else noticed this when she called Hailey over and kind of laughed it off.
Apparently Hailey has gone to the doctor a couple times since–the family was expecting this to be some kind of ear infection, to be causing balance issues. But yesterday a scan showed a growth at the base of her brain stem. A growth “four pencil-erasers high.” They’re not sure yet whether it’s a cyst or a tumor, benign or malignant. She goes in today for an MRI and tomorrow will travel to the Baltimore area to see a specialist at Johns Hopkins.
Please join me in praying for Hailey and her family. Her mom was, needless to say, panicked and terrified and far more than just “upset.” And as someone who has gotten to know this little girl a bit this fall, I just ache for them. Hailey is a girl with a big, golden heart, one who loves quickly and without restraint.
Father God, we beseech you now for Hailey and her family. Though we can’t always understand Your ways, we know they’re there. Though we are baffled and shaken when such illness strikes our little ones, we know that You love them more than we ever could. Father, our healer and provider, please touch Hailey. Strengthen her for the scans and appointments, breathe Your peace into her, and touch Your finger to this growth. Make it shrink, vanish, change in whatever way it must to be nothing. Heal her, Lord our God.
And wrap Your arms around her family, please. I know this is a family that loves You so much, and I know right now they’re crying out to You in agony. Soothe them. Embrace them. Help them to feel You in every scary moment throughout this ordeal. Hold them so close that they can’t for a moment forget Who is in control.
In the name of Your precious Son we pray. Amen.
by Roseanna White | Dec 31, 2012 | Uncategorized
Well, here we are–the last day of 2012. My year ended with quite a few inches of snow this past week, and with the promise of a very busy 2013. So as is my custom, I wanted to take today to look back over the year with only a few short hours left in it.
At the end of 2011, I’d just gotten a three-book deal with Harvest House, but I hadn’t signed the contracts yet so hadn’t been able to announce it. Now, of course, we all know that it’s the Culper Ring Series, and
Ring of Secrets is only two months out!
Working on this series has been an amazing blessing to me. While I miss having the time to spend on my biblicals (and while I intend to squeeze out the time for another one of those this next year), the Culpers have taught me lessons I didn’t realize I needed to learn. Lessons about waking up each day and asking the Lord, “What can I do for You, for what You’ve called me to, today? How can I help others?”
I’ve so enjoyed working with the team at Harvest House, too. Each and every one of them I’ve talked with is simply amazing, and they’ve thrown their faith onto me, which is both humbling and exhilarating. They’ve uttered phrases about my career with them that I’ve dreamed of for decades. And we have more in the works together that I can’t announce quite yet…but which will keep us working together on other projects after the Culpers are finished. So thrilled about that!
But there were some disappointments in 2012 too, career-wise. I vaguely hinted in my 2011 wrap-up that I’d had other offers too. Which I did…but which fell through. And oh, but those hurt. Stories I had poured sweat and tears into, stories that I so fell in love with…so them languishing in my computer caused me some time of mourning. Three of them–three novels, one finished, one a third finished, one still a beautiful proposal–lay waiting for their turn. And while it isn’t as though I don’t have a ton of books waiting in my computer, these three were special. More, they had been wanted, had been given offers…and then that hope had fallen through.
This being me, though, I raise my chin and say, “Okay, so it wasn’t the time for them. Yet. But I know they’ll have their day.” And in the meantime, I stay so busy with the definite projects that the ache fades. Doesn’t disappear, but it fades.
In 2012, WhiteFire also contracted a banner number of books for us. In 2013 we’ll have a title releasing every month, which is pretty darn amazing for this small press with the big dreams. We have some fabulous authors working with us now, and these books…wow. That’s about all I can say. WOW. I’ve taken over the cover design as well as editing, which has been a ton of fun. And now I’m wondering how to balance all the editing with all my writing, with all our home schooling, LOL. Should be an adventure!
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| There are a few others still awaiting covers, too. =) |
Home schooling has been going really well this year. We’ve found our groove, are loving Sonlight, and Xoe’s getting more independent with a lot of her work. She’s doing amazingly, and regularly amazes me with her questions, insights, and creativity. Gotta say, though, I’m intimidated at adding Rowyn to the schedule in the next year, LOL.
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| Xoe in the party scene of The Nutcracker |
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| Rowyn on my lap, waiting for The Nutcracker to start |
Overall, it was a good year. I took two trips to Texas (within a month–yeah. Wow.), had a great conference, am privileged to work with so many awesome people, and know I’m on the career path the Lord’s been planning for me for years.
It’s been a good, busy year. And as I look toward 2013, I know that I have a lot of work coming my way. Tomorrow I’ll be focusing on the looking-ahead.
So how about you? What have you learned this year? What joys have taken you by surprise? What disappointments did you have to conquer? And what are you looking forward to in 2013?
by Roseanna White | Dec 30, 2012 | Uncategorized
It’s that time! I’m only two months away from the release of Ring of Secrets, and the marketing team at Harvest House has asked me to compile my list of influencers.
What, you ask, is an influencer? Quite simply, it’s someone who agrees that, in exchange for the publisher sending them a free copy of a book, they will (assuming they like it) do some or all of the following:
- Post reviews on retailer sites
- Buy a copy for everyone they see in the grocery line
- Blog about it (assuming they have a blog)
- Have the cover tattooed across their forehead
- Talk it up to all their friends
- Take out an airplane banner ad for it
- Request their Library stock it
- Invest in a giant blinking sign for their roof that says “Buy Ring of Secrets!”””
- Request their bookstores stock it
- Leave some bookmarks/postcards with libraries or stores or in waiting rooms
😉 Okay, so I doubt anyone would do all of those, LOL. But if you’re interested in taking on some influencer tasks, email me at roseanna at roseannawhite dot com with your address and what you’ll be able to do to help with the influencing. (I have a limited number of spots left, so hurry!)
And, and in case you’ve missed the blurb…
Love Has No Place in a World of Spies
1779—Winter Reeves is an aristocratic American Patriot forced to hide
her heart amid the British Loyalists of the city of New York. She has
learned to keep her ears open so she can pass information on British
movements to Robbie Townsend, her childhood friend, and his spy ring. If
she's caught, she will be executed for espionage, but she prays the
Lord’s protection will sustain her, and Robbie has taught her the tools
of the trade—the wonders of invisible ink, secret drop locations and,
most importantly, a good cover.
Bennet Lane returns to New York from his Yale professorship with one
goal: to find General Washington’s spy hidden among the ranks of the
city’s elite. Searching for a wife was supposed to be nothing more than
a convenient cover story for his mission, but when he meets Winter, with
her too-intelligent eyes in her too-blank face, he finds a mystery that
can’t be ignored.
Both are determined to prevail at any cost…and each is committed to a
separate cause. Will God lead them to a shared destiny or lives lived
apart?
by Roseanna White | Dec 20, 2012 | Uncategorized
I’ve been down with a cold for two days, plus am gearing up to turn in Whispers from the Shadows tomorrow–which means one last go-through. Yay!
And, of course, we’ve been hip-deep in Christmas prep around here. Including gingerbread cookies and ballerina pickles. 😉
After tomorrow, Christmas break officially starts over here. Which means I’m going to take a much-needed break too, and will be taking next week off blogging. Hopefully coming back with a plate clear of some of my piled-up tasks and just bursting with inspiration.
Christmas plans in my world are pretty typical. I still need to do all my wrapping (yikes!), but the festivities will begin this weekend. A party at my fabulous sister’s, a candlelight service on Christmas Eve, where the kids will be singing “Go, Tell It on the Mountain” in their adorable little-kid voices. So cute! My niece has an absolutely amazing voice and will be wowing us with two selections, and I’ll be (throat willing) breaking out one of my absolute favorites, “Mary, Did You Know?” I’ve been practicing that one, and Rowyn has declared it one of his favorites and likes to sing it with me. Can I just tell you how sweet it is to hear a 4-year-old voice singing that song? Awwww.
How about everyone else? Big, fun Christmas plans?
by Roseanna White | Dec 17, 2012 | Uncategorized
Friday afternoon I saw only the briefest clip of the news. A reporter outside a school, and the caption under them. That was it–about five seconds. I caught “CT school shooting” and nothing more–I had two kids waiting in the living room with a bare Christmas tree. The reality of what must have just happened hit me, but I deliberately put it aside. Focused on the decorating with only a few prayers about what must have been.
I tended my kids, our dinner, our decorating. I caught another few minutes of the news while they were playing a few hours later. And as I was putting them to bed and we were saying prayers, my tongue stumbled. Usually, we pray together for those we see on the news. We pray for hurricane victims, we pray for ill relatives, we pray for any number of normal but tragic events.
But this? I whispered a prayer silently, wondered what I should say…and made the quick decision not to burden my little ones with this. Because it’s too awful, to big, too terrifying. Because they can’t live if they’re afraid to walk outside, if they’re afraid to be in a crowd. I can’t do that to them, not when they’re so young. And so I insulate. Not from everything. Not from most. But from this? Yes. Yes, I will keep their sensitive ears and hearts from this. Because it’s too much, and nothing they can do can keep them safe from this kind of violence.
I’ll be honest. I can’t process this atrocity. I can’t, I just can’t fathom that someone would do this. And you know, I don’t think we should be able to process it. I don’t think we should be able to imagine how those families feel. No one should, them included. So I will pray. I will pour out my soul to my God and know that He is big enough, strong enough, Lord enough to process what I can’t. I will pray and cry and mourn and know that He weeps with us.
In church, our bishop said he had asked the Lord, “Why didn’t you stop it?” And he heard God’s answer whisper in his spirit. Saying, “I tried. So many times I tried.”
But. But maybe the warriors refused to pause their lives and pray. Maybe someone ignored the nudge to talk to this troubled man. Maybe someone did, and the evil in the world distracted him. I don’t know. I can’t know.
But what I do know is this–we live in a world with evil. We always have. Each time something so terrible as this happens, we wonder what is becoming of our world. Well, I’ll tell you–we haven’t changed it. That’s what. Since the dawn of history people have been committing atrocities. People have been slaughtering innocents. People have been murdering children. Such cruelty isn’t new, not even close. It’s as old as man himself. It’s old and it’s horrible and it’s unthinkable–yet it’s happened countless times.
And it won’t stop until we reclaim our world. It’s not about politics, it’s not about gun control, it’s not about medication or mental health or security protocols. It’s about us. You and me and every other believer out there. It’s about what we don’t do. It’s about the prayers we don’t say. It’s about the knees we don’t fall to until it’s too late. It’s about the hearts too busy to be bothered.
Oh, Lord, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I didn’t pray. I’m so sorry I didn’t have a heart open to your whisper on Friday. I’m so, so sorry I didn’t ask you to send your angels. I’m sorry that now there are family with presents wrapped and ready and no precious hands to open them. I’m sorry that there is an entire town reeling from loss. I’m sorry that I don’t know what to do.
Show me, Father God. Show me how to change myself, my family, my church, my town, my state, my nation. Show me how to hear you and heed you. Show me how to pray. Show me how to fight what I cannot see. Show me how to love those who need you most. Show me how to be your warrior.
by Roseanna White | Dec 13, 2012 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
This time of year, if you want a study in eagerness, all you have to do is take a look at children. Okay, if mine are the example, then looking at them anytime will give you a study in eagerness. =) At times, all that anticipatory energy can be exhausting. But sometimes, it can be so very inspiring, can’t it?
I love that kids can be just as excited about a day of service as they are about a birthday party. That reading a book to their younger sibling is as much a cause for celebration as a trip to the ice cream shop. I love that making their father a Christmas present is as awesome for them as opening one of their own.
I love that they take such
Joy from life–not just from the big things, but from the little. I love how they look forward to watching that new movie just as much the fifth time as the first. I love that they are always so eager for the things they love, no matter the work involved in getting them.
And I love that Jesus uses them as the example of how our faith should be.
I sometimes wonder when we lose that eagerness, that full-out
Joy. I’m sure I’ve wondered it here before. But as an adult, it’s so easy to worry too much to enjoy things. To look at things like Christmas cookie baking as a time-consuming must instead of anticipated fun. It’s easy to look at all the holiday activities and see only the minutes and hours adding up–and counting down–and get stressed wondering how to fit it all in. It’s easy to look at that gift you
want to get someone but can’t afford and feel disappointed.
And it’s so, so easy to forget to be eager about our faith. Sure, we talk about the Reason this time of year. But are we excited about it? Are we eager for Him every day of the year? Do we jump up and down for him morning after morning, like a four-year-old asking for his favorite breakfast?
This year, though I’m under deadline and anticipating a move and overall busier than usual this Christmas, I keep getting hit with this enormous gratitude for the enthusiasm of my children. It leaves me exhausted, but it reminds me of what matters. Of how I should be greeting the world. Of how I should be living my faith.
It reminds me of how my heart should be before the Lord–all-out, bubbling-over, squealing with delight joyful.
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.