by Roseanna White | Sep 16, 2011 | Uncategorized
Last week my fabulous friend and crit partner, Carole Brown was the featured ACFW volunteer. I totally missed this (didn’t read many loop emails as I was buried in the first week of home school and trying to finish a book), but I’d like to give her a big hand now.
Carole is a simply amazing woman, and I’m going to miss hugging her next week in St. Louis. And Carole is BUSY! In addition to traveling a lot with her husband for their ministry and doting on a new grandbaby, Carole is the ACFW Ohio coordinator and secretary for the Ohio chapter, and has begun a cluster meeting in Cincinnati every month. She’s also an assistant for the ACFW book club, one of the ladies who reads the books and then moderates the discussion. Gooooooo, Carole!
When Carole makes it to conference, she inevitably volunteers there as well, usually at the agent/editor appointment area. She gives so selflessly of her time that I’m not sure she ever makes it to class, LOL.
Carole has a
great blog that I encourage everyone to check out. I always enjoy my visits there.
Now, I’m finally introducing the next giveaway, which will likely run through October, given how late I’m getting it started. This one will be for our fabulous WhiteFire lineup! My two biblicals, the amazing Shadowed in Silk by Christine Lindsay, set in India of 1919, and our newest book, which doesn’t release until 1 October–a beautiful medieval love story by Dina Sleiman, Dance of the Dandelion.
To enter, just leave a comment on this or any other subsequent Friday post, encouraging Carole. For an extra entry let me know if you’re following Carole’s blog. (Leave separate comments so that I can just count ’em up without thinking, LOL.)
by Roseanna White | Sep 15, 2011 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Am I the only one out there slightly amazed that the ACFW conference is only a week away? I knew it was coming. I had in fact thought, for a while, it was coming this week rather than next. But I’ve been so focused on finishing my Revolutionary War novel that until I completed that on Monday, I’d hardly spared a thought to conference prep.
Last year, I’d planned on going to conference. That is, until it came down to needing to register. As I considered it, I remember thinking, “This just isn’t the year.” I had no idea what I would pitch. To whom I would hope to pitch it. Where I was going in my career. I was in the midst of writing
Jewel of Persia for WhiteFire, but that wasn’t something I needed to present to anyone else. Which left me with the same projects I’d pitched before and the distinct idea that nothing would come of it.
So my hubby and I made the decision to focus on growing WhiteFire and forgo conference last year. “I’ll have a better idea of where I am next year, I think.” So we went on vacation. And had a beautiful, perfect time with the family.
I’m still amazed at all that’s happened in a year. Not only did I renew acquaintances with a few editors that I value super highly, but I also wrote and sold a book to Summerside that’s coming out
in two and a half months!! I’ve gotten to watch
Jewel of Persia take off, which is super exciting. And we’ve expanded WhiteFire with some of the best books I’ve read in years.
All in all a great year. And I felt definite peace about going to ACFW this year. Registered, paid, signed up for my classes, even volunteered. When I did all this, I had this idea that I needed to connect with every possible editor, and a vague one that it may be time to search for a new agent, as my original one was focusing on publishing. I kept thinking, “Okay, I’ve got
Annapolis. But what about after that??” I thought I’d be pitching anything I could.
Since registering, I’ve signed with the amazing Karen Ball as my agent. I’ve got two other deals on the line, though certainly not guaranteed. And I’ve got this beautiful realization in front of me–I’m not going to the conference this year to pitch. I’m just going to bask in the wonders of the industry I love and see where the Lord leads me.
I’ve yet to get a dress for the award’s banquet (which I had two months ahead of time last time I went). I didn’t even think about business cards until last week, and I was putting one-sheets together (overview of my genres this time, upon Karen’s recommendation, rather than specific to a book) just the last two days. If someone asks me for an elevator pitch, I may just laugh at them.
But that’s okay. Because I’m not going to be hunting down agents and editors at meals this year. I’ll have appointments, see what those editors are looking for. Talk to them, hopefully laugh with them. And count it a success on that front.
Mostly, I’m just looking forward to these three days of being a writer. Living it, breathing it. Hanging with my peeps. I’m grinning over the fact that I apparently signed up for a career-tracking class taught by my own Karen Ball, whose classes I didn’t realize at the time I would so adore. I get to take it beside my best friend, whom I haven’t seen in two years. It’s going to be a blast!
And yeah, I’m going tonight or tomorrow to shop in my aunt’s closet for a dress for the banquet. 😉 (She also offered me her shoes, which is akin to heaven on earth.)
I’m excited. Not because I’m hoping to make successful pitches, for once, but because I know I’m where I need to be.
I had no idea how right I was last summer when I cited that as my reason for not going to conference in 2010. But praise the Lord I listened!
by Roseanna White | Sep 14, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
Last year around this same time, I was shifting gears–moving from work on Jewel of Persia to work on Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland. It was a pretty big shift, I grant you. Both historical, but . . . yeah, not a lot in common otherwise, and it took me a goodly while to successfully switch gears in my li’l brain.
I’ll be honest. When I dove into the 1780s, it wasn’t my favorite era. The fashions were still unfamiliar. Powdered hair, paniers, sack-backs . . . It just wasn’t what I knew. I’d written in the 1860s, the 1880s, the 1920s, but the 1780s?? What in the world had I gotten myself into?
Speech patterns were different. Vocabulary, tricky. I like to stay true to the language as much as possible without being confusing to modern readers, but so many words I use regularly weren’t around yet.
But after reading some era work, studying the era fashion and culture, I wrote. And I fell a little bit in love with the elaborate coils of hair and the wide-hipped dresses. The beautiful mannerisms and the formality of life. Enough in love that I’ve spent the summer working on another book set 1779-80.
At this point, I’ve grown accustomed to the cadence of speech I settled on as a compromise between what it was and what modern readers will “get.” I close my eyes and see sack-back gowns and shades of hair powder. It’s comfortable, and it’s beautiful.
So naturally, it’s time to shift gears again, LOL. Back to the 1860s, of all things, though on a different continent than what I’ve written before. I’m excited to have this new project to work on, but when I sat down to write my first scene I had this moment of realization–I needed different speech patterns, different fashion. A different setting, which means different similes. A totally different feel.
It took me a few days to wrap my brain around the changes, some reading of appropriate books, some revisiting of hoop dresses and sugary-sweet mannerisms. I’m exciting to really dive into it all, and into the history I’m going to need to draw on for this new book.
But I’m going to miss the 18th century. That century that at first befuddled and confused me, that I didn’t quite love now has a very special place in my heart. Hopefully I can revisit it someday in the near-ish future.
I’m really grateful for this opportunity that requires the shift of gears. And I’m also really grateful that when it comes down to it, I just love history. Might take me a while to really fall in love with each era for its unique features and fashions, but once I discover what sets it apart . . . ah.
by Roseanna White | Sep 13, 2011 | Uncategorized
Right now I’m reading The Colonel’s Lady by amazing author Laura Franz. Thus far, here are my impressions: deep, lovable characters. Awe-inspiring writing. Compelling plotline.
Which begs the question of why I’ve been reading it for a month already, LOL. I feel like I’m really not giving Laura and this book their dues by going so long between picking it up, and when I do, I can only manage a few pages before the day’s exhaustion overcomes me. But last night as I squeezed in five pages, I realized I was really savoring every word. I knew I wouldn’t read much–it was already bed time, and my eyes were sliding shut. But as I moved my eyes over expert phrases that perfectly crafted the characters in my mind, this was me:
Happy siiiiiiiiiiggggghhhhh. 😉
Amazingly, I’ve yet to forget a single detail of what I’ve read thus far, though it’s occasionally been two weeks between my chapters. Why? Maybe in part because I’m reading slowly, savoring. Letting it all sink in before I turn a page. But also because the author has done an amazing job making a story and characters who stand out, sterling, in the reader’s mind.
So. I can’t offer a full review of the full story yet. But I can say that I’ve heard enough about what’s coming next that I really, really hope I have time to read more soon! And I can also say that what I’ve read thus far has convinced me anew that this is an expert author who knows her stuff and delivers it with amazing beauty.
(It also must be noted that the heroine’s name is Roxanna, which I have been mistakenly called enough that it still gives me a jolt to read it, LOL)
by Roseanna White | Sep 12, 2011 | Uncategorized
On Saturday I got the news that my critique partner and good friend of four years, Mary Proctor, lost the battle to cancer on Friday afternoon. I can’t tell you how hard this hit. How much I’ll miss her. How big an impact this godly woman had on my life.
It had been a while since I’d heard from Mary, but she’d been weighing heavily on my heart and mind this past week, and I emailed her just Thursday to ask her how she was doing and tell her I was praying for her. I doubt she ever read the message, but I’m glad the Lord prompted me to send it. Glad He spoke to my spirit to tell me to pray.
Today it seems fitting to remember Mary as her family and local friends are gathering for her funeral. I know this is more for me than my readers, but I beg your indulgence.
Mary’s motto always came down to “Praise the Lord anyhow.” No matter what went wrong, what discouragements came her way, what pain struck, that was her response. That was what I most loved about her. That her
Joy for the Lord bubbled out of her even in the darkest of times. That she let it carry her away so much she once injured herself dancing in church.
That’s Mary.
Grief, sorrow, are very personal, selfish things. I know Mary’s happy, praising God and glorifying her Savior. I rejoice for her in that. But oh, how I’ll miss her wise counsel. How I’ll miss her long emails. How I’ll miss finding her at conference and giving her a big hug.
Mary was my first critique partner, the first fellow-writer ever to read my work. In the last four years, she’s read everything I’ve written. Offered her advice, never believing how valuable it was. Loved me and encouraged me. Spoken such amazing things into my life.
“Despair not small beginnings, Roseanna–that’s what the Lord told me when I prayed about WhiteFire.”
“I always sensed a deep spirit in you. I’m so glad to see it blooming.”
“I believe you’re going to make it, and make it big. I know it. Your time of success is coming soon.”
I could always count on Mary to be a prayer warrior when I needed one. To offer honesty and truthfulness. To encourage and support.
I thank the Lord for the time I had to know and appreciate her, for the role she played in my life, and I pray I was even a fraction of the blessing to her that she was to me. I thank the Lord for the spirit He gave her, for the love that filled her. I thank the Lord for finally restoring her to wholeness, if not in the way I wanted.
And I thank Him, too, for a family to hold me while I cry. For a husband who just gathers me close and says, “I know.” For a daughter who carefully writes “I love you Mommy” on a slip of paper and presses it into my hand. For a son who snuggles up beside me in silence while the storm rolls through.
I thank Him for giving me a tomorrow in which to remember her, and all the other loved ones that have gone before. I thank Him through smiles and tears, through joys and sorrows.
I thank Him for Mary.
by Roseanna White | Sep 9, 2011 | Uncategorized
To my Brother, the Stranger
(written on 9/12/01)
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.
~*~
I have posted the above before on the anniversary of 9/11, and I like to do so anew each year to remind myself of my own reaction and what I observed. I knew no one directly effected by the tragedy–and no one left untouched by it.
But as all the stories poured in, what I most loved to hear were those miracles, large and small, that our Lord orchestrated amidst that terrible day. The alarm clocks that didn’t wake people up that morning. The viruses that kept healthy folks home. The heroes that waded through the wreckage for the chance to save a life.
Today, let’s focus on the hope and heroism that rose from the ashes. Let’s share the stories we’ve heard of God’s provision on that day.
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.