by Roseanna White | Jan 17, 2011 | Uncategorized
I’ve spent most of my weekend being mildly sick–nothing life threatening, mind you, just a headache and upset stomach. Which has left me a bit behind on things I need to do this morning, so I’m taking a sick day from blogging. Sorry. I know the world just won’t be the same without my dazzling wit. (Ha . . . ha . . . ha . . .)
So off I go to motivate my daughter to finish her last two minutes of morning homeschool, then back to work I go. Still not feeling fabulous, mind you, but feeling better than I have.
Oh, while you’re still reading . . . I have several friends who have either been dealing with cancer, just diagnosed, or awaiting a diagnosis. If you all could please pray for them, I’d appreciate it. Sandi has been fighting t-cell lymphoma for several months now (I blogged about her before) and is about to undergo another “bad” round of chemo. Mary has just discovered cancer in the bone of her leg, and they’re waiting for test results to tell them what type. We’re standing with Mary to claim healing. Finally, my childhood friend Jennifer has been told she may have cancer of the adrenal gland; biopsy results are still pending. Please pray that she does NOT have cancer, and that her health issues are quickly resolved.
Thanks, all.
by Roseanna White | Jan 14, 2011 | Uncategorized
Today I’m happy to feature another speculative author (or writing couple, as the case may be) from Splashdown Books. Adam and Andrea graham will be chatting about Tales of the Dim Knight.
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About Tales of the Dim Knight
Mild-mannered janitor and superhero fanboy Dave Johnson gets all his wishes at once when a symbiotic alien gives him supernatural powers. But what’s he to do with them? Follow his zany adventures as he fights crime and corruption while trying to keep his family together and avoid being sued for copyright infringement.
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About Adam & Andrea
Adam Graham is a multi-talented author known for his wit and poignancy. His work appears on Pajamasmedia.com, Renew America, American Daily, The Conservative Voice, Red State, and Conservatown. He also has short stories published in the anthology Light at the Edge of Darkness, and in the Laser & Sword e-zine. He is also host of the Truth and Hope Report podcast, as well as the Old Time Dragnet Radio Show, and the Old Time Superman Radio Show. Mr. Graham holds a general studies Associate of Arts degree from Flathead Valley Community College with a concentration in Journalism. He tweets at @idahoguy, @dimknight and @radiodetectives.
Andrea Graham co-authored Adam’s first novel,Tales of the Dim Knight. Her short story “Frozen Generation” also appeared in Light at the Edge of Darkness. She studied creative writing and religion at Ashland University. Visit her online at POVbootcamp.com and Ask Andrea, or follow her tweets @povbootcamp.
Adam and Andrea live with their cat, Joybell, in Boise, Idaho. They are members of several writers groups, including Lost Genre Guild and American Christian Fiction Writers. Adam is president of their local ACFW chapter, Idahope.
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What’s your latest book?
Tales of the Dim Knight (Splashdown Books 11/22/2010)
It sounds hilarious–love the copyright infringement line in the blurb. =) What’s your favorite part of the story?
I love the superhero team up chapter where Powerhouse joins with four other superheroes to fight a terrorist madman in New York City, er, Megalopolis. We had a blast poking fun at superhero stereotypes and even got to pay homage to the 1960s Batman TV show. Second to that would be the Alien Zoo chapter.
Okay, I’m thoroughly intrigued. What was the hardest part to write?
The relationship portions. Our hero is married and his marriage is in trouble. Getting to be a superhero with all the required whooshing off doesn’t help. In early drafts, I really tried to keep the focus on the action while coming back to the marriage here and there. The feedback we kept getting was that there wasn’t enough depth or details on the family stuff. Obviously, such an effort can get out of hand and ruin the light tone of the overall story. We worked in more scenes set in Naomi’s point of view, portraying what’s going on in her world. What was gratifying about the way it worked out is that most of her scenes still have quite a bit of humor and fun. So, the tone of the story is such that we’ve got a family comedy-drama worked together with the superhero story.
That sounds like a great balance! What do you hope your readers will get out of the story?
Adam: I hope they’ll laugh a lot and enjoyed the journey.
Is there a theme to this book?
Adam: Grace, forgiveness, and the need for God are big themes.
What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?
Adam: Speculative fiction, mysteries, action adventure. (same for both.)
I’m all surprise. 😉 What are you reading right now—and what do you want to read next?
Adam: I’d been on a reading kick after Christmas, but got hit with a stomach flu. I’m not yet committed to anything new, though I might try, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Let me know if you do and like it. We just rented the recently-made movie and loved it, though we understand it’s not exactly accurate, LOL. Other than the Bible, what’s your favorite of all the books you’ve ever read?
Adam: Frank Peretti’s The Oath. really is the most exciting, engaging, and thought-provoking novel I’ve ever read.
Oh, I loved that too! What’s one of the oddest or most interesting things someone has ever said about you?
Adam: Someone once told me I had an accent. I don’t. I speak perfectly unaccented English. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Though my New Zealand publisher may disagree.
LOL. What would your dream office look like—and what does your REAL writing environment look like?
It would be a soundproof recording studio. I would lie on the couch as I dictated my material to my robot secretary Bob, who could also program my blogs for WordPress and automatically edit all of my podcasts. My office would also come with a fully modern 3D Holographic workout facility with a five star robot-staffed dining room adjacent to me. (Remember, you asked this of a sci-fi writer.)
My current “office” is a sofa pulled up to my computer because I, like Nero Wolfe, have a certain problem with chairs.
Can I borrow Bob for a few days?? 😉 Is there any one thing or reference you keep handy when writing? Anything you kept around for this particular book?
Google is pretty much the only thing I “always” have on hand. My wife likes www.m-w.com.
What lessons have you learned through the publication process that you wouldn’t have guessed as a pre-published writer?
I would never guess the number of things that can become of critical importance when editing.
Ain’t that the truth! Are there any people (family, writing group, editors) who you rely on when writing?
My wife is probably the most important key to any success I have in writing.
Awwww. (Andrea, did you write that answer? Kidding, kidding.) Aside from writing, what takes up most of your time?
Working for the man, man. (Just joking.)
If someone were to give you $5,000 to spend on anything you wanted, what would you buy? (No saving or gifts to charities allowed!)
I would put up the money to start my own publishing imprint and publish, Genesis of Judgment, serious futuristic bioethics novel that has yet to find a publishing home.
Quite a goal! If you could take your family on a vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I’d have to say Scotland, to the ancestral family castle.
Sweet! What are you writing right now?
Right now, I’m writing the answers to the interview…Okay, forgive the literal sense of humor. (Quote Monk, “It’s a gift and a curse.”)
I’ve got an idea for a detective parody novel that I’m working on. I also might get to finishing the origin novel of my 18-inch tall superhero, Packages.
LOL. Any upcoming releases we should keep our eye out for?
I wrote a science fiction story based on Jesus’ parable of the Unjust Judge and sold it to Residential Aliens magazine. It should be out in the next issue or so.
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Thanks for stopping by, guys! Everyone, you can check out their website at http://www.dimknight.com and purchase from Amazon.
by Roseanna White | Jan 13, 2011 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Most of my readers know me well enough to realize I have two small kids. Xoe’s 5, Rowyn’s 3 next month. One of my greatest frustrations is that it seems that three minutes can’t pass without someone screaming, “Mommy!” Followed by some demand, request, complaint, or whine. It gets a little old sometimes. And then there’s the physical side. Rowyn’s still in that stage where, when he wants me, it isn’t enough to just be where I am. He must be up on my lap, and he does it with energy. He runs across the room, throws himself onto me, and, once situated, just tosses his little self in whichever direction he wants to go to get comfortable.
Now, as one tired mama, this can make me groan. I love that he’s a cuddle-bug, but good golly. Sometimes holding onto this kid feels something like wrestling an alligator. In spite of busted lips, head bumps, hurt arms and bruised knees, he (in true little boy style) never learns to slow down and be easy. No, it’s always full steam, all out. Even when it comes to hugging.
As he did one of his signature lunge-to-the-left moves while supposedly on my lap to get rocked before bedtime, my “oh, my aching back” thought was quickly eclipsed by the realization that this was trust. He trusts that Mommy isn’t going to drop him or let him fall. He trusts that for his every move, I’ll make a countermove. And he trusts that no matter how much I might grumble or chastise, Mommy loves him and will still hug him, rock him, and cuddle him. Even after I say rocking time is over.
It’s humbling. It’s especially humbling because, while I want to make the obvious analogy to God, I realize it’s not perfect. Why? Because God’s arms are so much better than mine. God doesn’t grumble about his aching back. God doesn’t lose patience with our constant whining. God doesn’t ever think, “Can’t you just do it yourself?” No, He in fact wants us to turn to Him with everything. He wants us to ask him in every moment what He thinks we should do. He wants us to toss ourselves into His arms without a care, with all our energy.
My kids have it right. But me–man, I’ve still got a ways to go. Not just in learning to fly to the Lord with such abandon, but in remembering that that’s the way it should be with my kids, that’s the relationship God set up that we are an imitation of. Sure, I want my kids to grow into independent individuals capable of making decisions and, you know, functioning away from the apron strings.
But how do I get them there? By catching them every time they fly at me, answering when they call . . . so that when they’re ready, I can teach them that God is the same way, only better at it.
We tend to complicate things, don’t we? We have this idea these days that our goal with kids ought to be to get them out and on their own ASAP. But is that how we were designed? And because we tend to get impatient with them (I’m speaking for myself here) we then wrongly take that analogy to the us-God relationship and get into the mindset of, “I don’t want to whine to God.”
That’s just not the way it works. Which in turn teaches me that maybe I’m looking at some other things the wrong way too. But one thing I know–no matter how much I mess up, how many times my stubbornness and pride lead me to bruises and scrapes and head bumps, no matter how many times He has to chastise me, I know my Father’s there, His arms open wide. And I know that no matter which way I turn as I jump into them, He’s going to catch me. He’s going to love me. He’s going to hold me, no matter how long I need it.
by Roseanna White | Jan 11, 2011 | Uncategorized
It started for me in high school. My hubby–then my boyfriend–was a diehard Orson Scott Card fan, and he told me, more or less, that if I didn’t read Ender’s Game, he may not ever speak to me again. (Okay, jokingly.) So I read it. And I loved it. So I read the rest of the Ender’s series. Which I didn’t love as well as Ender’s Game, but which was good enough that I steadily borrowed every other book Orson Scott Card had written by that time that David owned, and between us we bought the slew of new ones he put out during our high school years.
One year for Christmas, after we were married, my gift to my honey was to buy him a copy of every title by OSC that we didn’t already own. So naturally, as new books come out, we buy them. I do believe that there are more books by him on our shelves than any single other author. And for good reason. He has a great sense of humor, a great skill with writing, and imagination that makes me sit back in awe.
Pathfinder caught my hubby’s eye when we were out Christmas shopping, so guess what he got for Christmas? After hearing him chuckle all through the reading of it, I decided I’d take some time out of my busy reading schedule and share in the joke.
I’m glad I did.
Pathfinder is the story of a world about to be colonized by humans . . . and of a world where humans have counted down from year 11,191, past Year Zero, and are now counting upward again. In all this time of human history, people and animals have walked the various forms the earth has taken.
And Rigg can see their paths. They hover in the air, varying in color and intensity and texture, and as he tramps through the upland woods with his Father, learning lessons in politics and astronomy and physics and everything else a trapper has no need of, Rigg uses his gift to find the animals they need to make a living. But when an accident leaves him fatherless, with one last order from him to find a sister Rigg didn’t know he had, his ability to see paths becomes necessary for more than animals. It leads him to a boy about to plummet over a waterfall . . . and into the past? He has no other explanation for the man that appeared out of nowhere and disappeared as quickly, except that when Rigg focused on his path, it became him.
A quandry that matters litter when the boy falls to his death anyway, and Rigg is left to run for his life to keep from being hunted by the boy’s family, who thinks him responsible. He has one friend who comes with him–Umbo, a boy with a talent as unique as his own, who was really responsible for the leap through time–and an unexpected inheritance from Father. Nineteen jewels, and a letter stating that Rigg is in fact a prince.
Not such a great thing when the royal family has been overthrown.
In a story of adventure, coming of age, and more twists and bends and redefinitions of physics and time than a brain can handle all at once, Pathfinder is one of those stories that you have to read once you start, otherwise you spend your entire day going, “But how did that happen?” until you can go back, read more, and find the answer.
In his usual fashion, Card has created characters that made me laugh and shake my head, smile in pride and nod in agreement. In other words, extraordinary talents or not, they were real. I can always count on OSC for fabulous characters. And the plot of this one . . . wow. In his note at the end, he describes Pathfinder as madness, and it is that. The beautiful, fun madness that comes hand-in-hand with genius.
Pathfinder is being marketed as a young adult novel, and as I stretched my mind to try to understand all the intricacies of the story, I had my doubts that it was properly labeled. Then I remembered that I read similar stories by him as a teen and had no issue–perhaps because I didn’t know all the laws and rules that make it so hard to fathom what goes beyond them. One thing’s for sure–had I read this at 16, it would have involved staying up into the wee sma’s several nights in a row, and continually saying, “I’ll do it later, Mom,” until I’d turned the last page.
For those concerned about what their kids read, I’ll say that if OSC has any place in your house, you’ll find that this fits his usual standards. There are one or two mildly questionable words, a few references to bodily functions that don’t bother me and are undoubtedly in the vocabulary of any teen boy anyway (not obscene, just, you know. Functions, LOL), and otherwise nothing I wouldn’t want my kids to read when they’re round about high school age.
My final word–if you want a gripping, amazing fantasy novel that will steal your thoughts at odd moments throughout your busy day and make you wonder what in the world these crazy kids are going to do now, then Pathfinder is a book you have to get your hands on. You’ll laugh, you’ll scratch your head, you’ll wonder if maybe you could do some of these things if you could stretch yourself just a little more . . . but you won’t regret it.
by Roseanna White | Jan 10, 2011 | Uncategorized
So the other night as hubby and I were flipping through the TV while the kids were staying with their grandmother, we came across one of those movies. You know the ones–threat of the end of the world (or at least humanity) through weird and/or crazy source. You’ve got your main characters, at least one of which you assume will live through the movie, and then a slew of secondary characters that you just assume will die in some horrible, unexpected way.
Like, you know, a lawnmower. That’s all I’m saying.
Anyway. Starring in this particular movie (which had a few hilarious lines, just FYI) was Mark Wahlberg. He’s in a ton of movies from the last few years that dominate our television for long stretches, and when one of the networks was on an The Italian Job kick, I was trying to put a face to one of my characters. I saw good ol’ Mark E. and thought, “Yeah, sure. He could be my Smith.” And matching a face to my leading man really helped me, for once, feel like I knew him a little better.
I shared as much with my hubby the other night, and he said, “Seriously? I always pictured someone more like Dolph Lungren for Smith.” Me: “Seriously??”
LOL. Hubby and I have this problem frequently. But which I mean, 95% of the time. He will form an image of my characters that bear little or no resemblance to my idea of my characters, and will argue his opinion to the point of accusing me of describing them incorrectly in the pages of my books. (“I know you say on page 23 that she has blond hair, but you were wrong. I’m sorry, honey, but she’s a brunette. She just is.” LOL)
Which really just goes to show that the beauty of books is that everyone puts whatever face they want on the main characters, regardless of what book covers or comparisons within the novel tell us. My Smith is a strong guy, a SEAL, and the heroine describes his face as more angular than she is used to, and so European. Hubby’s mind jumped to as-angular-as-you-can-get, which makes a certain kind of sense. Not what I pictured though, ha ha.
Authors, do you usually pick famous folk (or spot regular folk) to pair up with your characters? Of do they remain nebulous in your mind? Readers, do you enjoy visualizing them yourself, or do you prefer when an author gives you a comparison within the novel? I’m always curious about how we visualize this sort of thing . . .
by Roseanna White | Jan 7, 2011 | Uncategorized
Today I’m mixing things up. After exchanging a couple emails with Karen Kingsbury’s publicist, we’ve set up a giveaway of Karen Kingsbury’s 2-in-1 collection both here and at the Christian Review of Books. Want two entries? Hop on over to the CRoB!
Please leave a comment to enter, and include an email address where you can be reached if you win.
Now, onto the good stuff!
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About Karen
USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury is America’s #1 inspirational novelist. There are more than 15 million copies of her award-winning books in print, including several million copies sold in the past year. Karen has written more than 40 novels, ten of which have hit #1 on national lists.
Karen has a true love for her readers, and she has nearly 100,000 friends on Facebook along with more than 7,500 followers on Twitter. The popular social networking sites have allowed Karen daily interaction with her reader friends.
Karen is best known for her Life-Changing Fiction (TM) and for creating unforgettable characters. When speaking before women’s groups – some with more than 10,000 in attendance – Karen makes audiences laugh and cry with her compelling story-telling. She likes to tell attendees they have, “One chance to write the story of their lives,” and her talk focuses on reminding women to live every day loving well, laughing often, and finding true life in Jesus Christ. Karen routinely speaks before more than 100,000 women each year.
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About the omnibus
A Thousand Tomorrows
Cody Gunner is a nationally renowned bull rider-cocky, brash, a legend among his peers. On track to the top, Cody has rejected everything about his past-his famous father, his hurting mother, and every woman who ever came along. His heart has room only for his young handicapped brother. Ali Daniels is the most recognized horsewoman in her sport. She embraces life, making the most of every moment and risking everything for her passion. Along the way, Ali seeks to fulfill the dreams of her little sister, a girl who died before she had a chance to live. And so competing is all she needs until the day Cody discovers what Ali has been hiding so well. Reluctantly Ali allows Cody into her private world. Despite their fears, they bare their souls and love finds them in a way that it seldom finds anyone. In a breathless race for time, their love becomes the one part of them that will never fail, never die. In the end they find something brilliant and brief – a thousand tomorrows.
Just Beyond the Clouds
Still aching over his wife’s death, Cody Gunner can’t bear the thought of also letting go of his Down’s Syndrome brother, Carl Joseph. Cody wants his brother home, where he will be safe and cared for, not out on his own in a world that Cody knows all too well can be heartless and insecure. So when Carl Joseph’s teacher, Elle, begins championing his independence, she finds herself at odds with Cody. But even as these two battle it out, they can’t deny the instinctive connection they share, and Cody faces a crisis of the heart. What if Elle is the one woman who can teach Cody that love is still possible? If Cody can let go of his lingering anger, he might just see that sometimes the brightest hope of all lies just beyond the clouds.
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Void where prohibited. Entry into the contest is considered verification of eligibility based on your local laws. Chance of winning depends on number of entries. Contest ends 1/14/11. Winner will have two weeks to claim prize.
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.