This week, something fun is happening, and I’m celebrating by making all the week’s blog posts go to the theme. This week, the book previously known as Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland will re-release from WhiteFire as A Heart’s Revolution. On Wednesday, I’ll be going behind the cover design process, and on Thursday–official re-release day–a cool contest will be launching!
Today, we’re taking a look at the word I chose for my new title…a word that’s very much a theme in the book.
Revolution
We’re all familiar with the word, of course. But when it first entered the English language in the 1300s, it had nothing to do with political unrest or change. Rather, it was a word used to describe the revolving of celestial bodies. It’s from Old French revolucion, literally “a course, a revolving.” Which in turn came from the Latin revolvere, “to turn, to roll back.”
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| William III & Queen Mary IIPinterest |
This sense of turning and rolling let the word by the mid-1400s to take on a generalized meaning of “an instance of great change in affairs.” But around 1600, it had been applied specifically to great changes in political circles and the new meaning of “an overthrow of an established political system” came about–specifically, it was used for the expulsion of the Stuart dynasty under James II in 1688, when the power in England was transferred to William and Mary.
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And of course, eventually we had the American Revolution. Which is the backdrop into which I put Lark Benton and Emerson Fielding, in A Heart’s Revolution. If you haven’t read this early novel of mine yet, I hope you seize the chance!
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.
What an interesting word. Love reading and hearing about our history's Revolution! I had many ancestors that fought in it. One (That I know of through genealogy.) was ( It's been proven.) a lieutenant for New York.