by Roseanna White | Nov 19, 2014 | Books, Remember When Wednesdays
This isn’t exactly a cover design post, since the covers haven’t been finalized yet. But this past weekend we had a photo shoot for an upcoming WhiteFire series, and it was so much fun that I thought I’d post a bit about it, and get y’all looking forward to when I do post about the cover design. 😉
WhiteFire recently had the Joy of signing a fresh young author to a 3-book deal. I first met Rachelle Rea on Go Teen Writers, quite a few years ago when the blog was first starting up. She’s been a regular member there over the years, and soon stood out as a sweetheart. One with talent. She just graduated from college last spring, and already she’s building a career as a freelance editor and is known for her tagline, “Inspiring Daring.”
Her Steadfast Love series takes place in the 1560s, focusing on a Catholic heroine caught in the middle of the riots and slaughtering of Catholics by Protestants in Holland, known as the Iconoclastic Fury. A rescuer arrives to sweep her back to her home in England…but not the rescuer she would have hoped for. No, the man who shows up is the very one who murdered her parents. She saw him standing over their bodies. So how is she to entrust her safety to him–but what choice does she have?
The heroine, Gwyn, is tall and willowy, blond, beautiful. So naturally, when stock photo sites fail me and I realize we’re going to have to do this one ourselves, I turn to my gorgeous, willowy, blond niece, Jayna. Happily, Jayna is active in theater and always eager to play dress up, so she readily agreed to pose for me. Yay!
The next step was costuming. The last couple times we had a photo shoot, we actually commissioned the dresses to be made by an amazing young seamstress–another girl I met through Go Teen Writers, LOL. But I knew I’d need three costumes (one for each book in the series), and that didn’t seem like the answer this time. So I instead contacted all the costume rental places I could find who were remotely close to my hometown.
I was kinda blown away by how that all worked out. My daughter was in a parade at our mall last week and had to go in for costuming…and it happens that the same shop I’d contacted in a town 1.5 hours away was the one doing those costumes, too. So I took Jayna to be measured at the same time as Xoe, and they brought the gowns with them to the parade. How perfect was that?
Now, fashions in the 1560s were pretty diverse. The gowns we chose reflect three of the very-different styles that a lady of Gwyn’s station would have worn, depending on the situation. In book 1, The Sound of Diamonds, she’s on the run—starting at a convent, where she wouldn’t have been decked out in court regalia. So for that one, we chose a beautiful blue velvet gown with a cape.
And we needed a “diamond” rosary necklace. Not that it deserves those quotes in the book, but I sure wasn’t shelling out the gazillion dollars a real one cost. 😉 So for the purposes of a photo shoot, we settled for Ye Olde Fakes.
Our next dress for The Sound of Silver was more in court styles. A burgundy velvet with a pop-up collar, this one is regal and ended up photographing so very well!
And finally, a dress for The Sound of Emeralds. Naturally, this one had to be green. =)
Of course, dresses weren’t enough. We needed a location. In the past, all our photo shoots have been in front of a blank screen, and then I put in a background photo to suit the setting. But in this case, I thought we’d try actually shooting with an appropriate backdrop. Of course, Cumberland, Maryland isn’t exactly bursting with Renaissance architecture.
But we do have one location that popped to mind–a church. I emailed them to ask about using the exterior of their building as our location, and they quite happily agreed. So we did the shoot at Emmanuel Episcopal, and it was absolutely gorgeous.
So there you get a glimpse of our costuming, set, and photography (photos are all by my fabulous aunt, Pam Mulligan). What you probably can’t tell from the abundant sunshine is that it was barely 40 degrees. Poor Jayna’s nose was getting red by the end of the shoot, LOL.
We had a fun time–though doing costume changes in a minivan is very daring. Rachelle should be proud. 😉 And the results were simply stunning. Can’t wait to share the cover process with you!
by Roseanna White | Apr 9, 2014 | Book News, Books
Wow, it feels like forever since I did a Remember When Wednesday post! Of course, last week we were celebrating the release of Circle of Spies. Which reminds me that we have some winners–but you’ll have to scroll down to find them. 😉
First, I can
finally share the news I’ve been sitting on for a month and a half! Yay! We all know that my next book out is my biblical from WhiteFire,
A Soft Breath of Wind, coming November of 2014. Well now I can finally talk about the next historical romance, coming summer 2015. Drum roll please…
 |
This is nothing resembling official artwork. This is Roseanna wanting a graphic for her blog, LOL.
Photo of Burton Agnes Hall by Richard Needham |
Coming from Bethany House,
The Lost Heiress is, to put it mildly, very special to me. I know, I know, I say that a lot. But seriously, LOL. Here’s why.
When I was 12, I decided to write a novel. I solemnly swore to the New Years Resolutions in my journal that I would finish it, too–and I did, at age 13. It was called Golden Sunset, Silver Tear, and it was a historical romance about a girl raised as a princess but who discovers she’s actually a British nobelwoman…with the help of her best friend, heir to a dukedom. And once back in England, she finds herself unwittingly involved in the ongoing mystery of her parents’ deaths…and hidden jewels.
Brook and Justin underwent a lot of revision over the years…and a few different titles. I decided to totally rewrite it before my first writers conference, at which point I named it Fire Eyes and pitched it in 2007. It landed me an agent and got me a bit of interest from Bethany House (whose editor I pitched to), but alas…the time wasn’t right. And I’m pretty glad. 😉
 |
A young Diane Kruger
is how I picture Brook Eden-
though with curly hair |
A while back, my current agent asked if I had anything that would work as an Edwardian, and Brook sprang to mind. She is so the kind of young woman who came into her own in the 1910s!! It was one of those “Why didn’t I set it here to begin with? This so works!” things. =) So I started yet another rewrite, gave it yet another title, and turned it in to Karen. Well, when the Culper Ring Series drew to a close and it was time to pitch again, this is what she sent out–and you can imagine my glee when Bethany House expressed interest! Not only are they the first ones I pitched to in 2007, they’re also the first house I sent out a query to at age 14. Third time, apparently, is a charm. 😉
I describe this one as Downton Abbey meets Anastasia. We’ve got priceless red diamonds, Grimaldi princesses, dukes, danger, romance, and a girl finding her father after 18 years apart. We’ve got mystery and adventure, kidnapping and love, half-wild stallions and brand-new automobiles.
 |
William Mosley, of Narnia fame,
is the closest I’ve seen to Justin Wildon,
heir to the fictional Duke of Stafford |
This is the book I was working on over the weekend at my retreat (I wrote 40,000 words between Thursday and Monday!!!!!), which means it’s now well on its way to completion, and I’m so in love, yet again, with Brook and Justin. (Their names are the only ones that haven’t changed from the original, LOL.)
I’ll be talking about this one more as I write it, I’m sure, and as its time grows nearer. But I had to share the excitement of my FIRST FINISHED NOVEL being published! Nineteen years after I penned “Chapter One” (literally penned, in a notebook, in Health class my 7th grade year). Four title changes later. Draft number 1,239,875, I think. With 9 other books out in the meantime. But it’s finally happening.
So, yep, I’m very excited. It’s been an amazing week–
Circle of Spies releasing, a writing retreat with my best friend, and now getting to share this. So to celebrate, I guess I’ll actually pick winners for that pearl necklace and set of the Culper Ring Series!
First, the Culper Pearls!
The winner is…
Rebecca Tracy-Williams!
Next we have the complete Culper Ring Series
Which goes to…
Sarah Holman!
Congrats, you two! You’ve likely already gotten emails from me requesting your info. 😉
by Roseanna White | Feb 12, 2014 | Books, Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I designed this cover quite a while ago, but hey. Why not do the step-by-step for my own book, right? =)
I’d had the idea for A Soft Breath of Wind for years. As in, years. Even before I rewrote and re-released A Stray Drop of Blood. The idea for the story came to me all at once, in an idea-swirling two days that saw it go from germ to full-fledged in my mind. I frantically wrote it all down in a few pages of notes, knowing it wasn’t the time to write it yet back then in 2007. But as I sat in a class at my very first writers conference, the teacher asked, “If you could only write one more book–if you knew you only had one more year to live–what book would it be?” My answer: this one.
Still, six years passed. Many other books came to me and were written down. This one was always there, waiting, but the time wasn’t right yet. After a Skype chat with a bookclub in July of 2013, though, I knew that time had come. So to inspire myself, I opened up Photoshop and got to work on the visuals.
My inspiration was a photo I had discovered some months earlier in my various searches through iStock and Shutterstock. I always save compelling images to a lightbox, either the one called “Random” or the one called “Historical.” =)
Loved, loved, loved this the moment I saw it. The photographer’s description is that she’s a Spartan queen. Sparta-loving me highly approved…though I didn’t have another book with Spartans in my plan. 😉 When I considered images for this sequel, though, this one came to mind. So I looked at the model. And I thought, “Is she too pretty to be Zipporah?”
Well, yes, probably. But this is a book cover. If you’re going to err any direction, err toward too-pretty, right?
There are quite a few images in this photographic series, but I chose this one because of the wind. I knew I wanted the wind to represent the Holy Spirit in this book, so having it on the cover would be awesome. But I didn’t want her bare leg showing. I got to work with my copy and paste and clone stamp tool to cover that up.
And while the hair blowing in the wind looks great, it’s also really tricky to get right when I’m taking out the background. I spent hours with a teensy-tiny eraser, going in between each strand to make it look right.
I didn’t save this image separately, so have to show you the layer from the final version, which also has lighting effects put in. You can’t actually see the super-dark part on the final cover, but the shadowing as she goes down is just what I was looking for.
You’ll notice I actually deleted some of her hair. There was one piece “catching” that flying curl that bugged me, and it didn’t look right as I was deleting the background, so it went bye-bye. But I did keep a few key wisps, and that main flying curl. Love it. =)
But I still had to work on her pretty factor. See, Zipporah is scarred. The first scar she receives in the very first chapter. It runs from her left temple down to her chin, along the side of her face. She could easily cover it with her hair, but more often than not she doesn’t. And as I looked at this model’s oh-so-lovely face, I realized that it works perfectly with the way she’s squinting into the sun, doesn’t it?
Now, how did I make that scar? Actually, I just found an image of someone with a nasty scar, copied the scar, adjusted it’s size, and faded it. This layer is at at 54% opacity, so that it looks like an old, healed-up and fading mark.
But I also wanted to show a scar she gets in the course of the book. This one is cross-shaped and on the opposite side of her face. So I took the same scar image, duplicated and moved the two parts around into a cross, and left it at 100% opacity so it’s bright and new.
There we go. I actually love how she looks with the scars (terrible thing to say, I know, LOL. I would never wish them on the model!), so it was time to move on to the background.
I searched iStock for Roman countryside or Roman villa or something like that and came up with this one. It’s of the Italian countryside, and I really liked the hazy look. Plus, the buildings in the back have an old-world feel. Perfect.
I adjusted the color a bit toward the pink/orange range, blurred the entire image to make it look out of focus, and added the same lighting effects I used on Zipporah.
So adding her in overtop…
Now, this is a sequel, so I wanted it to have the same elements as the cover of A Stray Drop of Blood. That includes a texture layer over the entire cover and flourishes sprouting out behind the cover model. I stared at Stray Drop’s cover REALLY closely to dissect the fun elements Tekeme put in. He used a distressed leather texture and a nice subtle flourish.
I wanted something new for this one, so I went with a parchment texture. I loved how it added a softness to it, a kind of glow.
Then I put in some flourishes. Similar style to the ones used in Stray Drop, but not identical.
Then it was time for the border. Again, not identical to Stray Drop’s, but the same feel.
Okay, so now we’re looking at the main front cover. The only thing left to add is the words. Again, I wanted some consistency with Stray Drop, so I knew I’d use the same fonts, and the same box thingy around my name at the bottom. I adjusted the color so it was purple instead of deep red.
But we’re still missing a very key element, right? The title, LOL. I actually struggled with this even as I designed the cover. My original title was Who Quickens the Dead. Which is, um, not good, LOL. Thematically it worked–in that God gives life to the lifeless. But it doesn’t exactly sound good. So I decided I wanted something that speaks to wind. I toyed with a few ideas.
The Wind of the Spirit. Okay, but not quite what I was wanting. Especially because I’d seen other books with the same title, LOL, and I like to be original. For a while I liked The Whisper in the Whirlwind. But I had Whispers from the Shadows coming out, and two Whisper titles in different series seemed like a bad idea. So I decided to keep the same rhythm as A Stray Drop of Blood. And my mind settled on A Soft Breath of Wind. So I went with it. =)
Ah yes. There we go. Just one tiny thing missing. On the cover of Stray Drop, there’s the blood drop behind the title, which I loved. I wanted a similar element here, but I’m working with wind instead of blood. Sheesh, how was I supposed to do that?? Well, I did a search for wind vectors at www.all-free-downloads.com and came up with this.
Fading that out to 30% opacity, I plugged it in behind my title and had my front cover!
But of course, the back cover of Stray Drop was just as beautiful as the front, and I wanted that to be true of this one also.
So I used my background image again, my parchment texture to get that layer under the words (using one of the funky erasers to get a torn-looking edge), and for the image on the back, I headed to Wikimedia Commons. There I found an image of a man in ancient garb reading a scroll. I also found a picture there of an ancient villa portico. I put the two together, blurred and faded them, and otherwise carried over the same elements from the front cover–the border, the purple shade of the box for the author area. I created some back cover copy, and ended up with this.
I haven’t yet put in my About the Author, but you get the idea. =)
And there we have it! My full cover for A Soft Breath of Wind, which I’m hoping to finish up in the next couple weeks. I’m getting excited!
by Roseanna White | Jan 15, 2014 | Books, Cover Designs
Well last week’s cover post was so much fun, I decided to do another one today. =) Especially because this week I’m editing the truly-amazing book behind the cover.
Soul Painter is set in 1891 Chicago–a city of crime and excess, where the opium dens butt up against churches, where the opulence contrasts the squalor. The author of this book is Cara Luecht (pronounced “Licked”–I asked), and she has a skill the likes of which I haven’t seen in years for painting a mood.
What mood, you ask? Gothic. A touch of film noire. The elements are every designer’s dream. We have an eccentric hermit of a heroine–Miriam Beaumont hasn’t, so far as Chicago knows, stepped foot out of her warehouse apartment since her father died some years ago. Maybe she’s a witch. Maybe she was terribly burned in an industrial accident. Maybe…maybe…
Maybe she preferred to watch the world go by.
But she did go outside. Once in a while. Only at night. Only in the fog. Then she would pace the streets around her dormant warehouse, beside the cathedral. She would look up at the statue of the Virgin Mary outside it and identify with the cracked creation. But she would always return before dawn could pierce the fog.
And she would paint. She would watch the faces that went by, and she would paint. First what her eyes saw.
And then what her soul did. Over the layers of reality she would paint…the future. For years, she had done this, and then watched the children grow up into the image she had seen.
Until Ione. Ione was supposed to be strong. Ione was supposed to be successful. So why is the young woman now haunting the alleyway between the warehouse and cathedral as a prostitute? It puts her in the path of an attacker who preys on such women, who nearly kills her. Until the fog rolls in.
So begins an unlikely team of crime fighters. A hermit. A priest. A lawyer. Two prostitutes. Can they bring light to the seedy underbelly of Chicago? And maybe discover something about themselves–and of course, find some romance–along the way?
Curious yet? 😉
This is a truly fabulous book, and the moment I read the proposal, I knew we wanted it. And I was already envisioning the cover. I wanted to capture Miriam on one of her foggy night walks. Gray cloak obscuring her features, apprehension on her face. Perhaps when she first heard that moan coming from Ione. Perhaps when she sees dawn sneaking in.
As usual, I started with the stock photo sites, searching for images of women in cloaks. This was the best image I found for Miriam.
There’s a lot right about this–it’s full length, which I loved. The look on her face is great. Her face itself is a decent Miriam. But the braid–no. The color of the dress–no. For that matter, the color of the cape–no. And of course, the background is all wrong.
So I started by erasing the background and that braid. (Oh, how I love the clone and heal tools in Photoshop!)
Now that I had her isolated, I started playing with the colors. I decided to make the dress a teal. It is, in fact, not a color Miriam ever wore at this point in the story, but she ends up with a very important dress that draws on that color palette, and I like the idea of bringing it in.
Then I made the cloak gray.
At some point I remembered to change her eye color to gray too, but I don’t remember when I did that, LOL.
So my next task was the background. I actually did a lot of searching for this one, trying to find that perfect image that would capture Chicago at the time. I searched, and I searched. I tried some arches. I tried some doorways. And then I growled and tried “cathedral.” Bingo!
This is actually from New Orleans, LOL, but it’s the right style and age, and I loved the picture itself. Foggy, which blurs the street lights enough that you can’t really tell if they’re gas or electric.
But it’s too bright–you know, like day–and I wanted some serious mood. So I darkened the image and added a color overlay. Teal again, to pull in the dress. (And took out that orange traffic cone, LOL. Eventually. Actually didn’t notice it until Cara said, “Uh, Roseanna…?”)
Ah, much better. =) Now to plug Miriam into it.
Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. There’s just one rather crucial piece missing.
The fog.
I deemed this a learning experience and hit Google. =) You know what I love about the internet these days? There are tutorials for everything online. I’d never tried to create fog in Photoshop before, but I knew it could be done. So I typed “how to make fog in Photoshop” into my handy-dandy search engine, and voila! A tutorial! Better yet, it’s easy. A pretty simple matter of creating a new layer, adding the cloud filter, and then fooling with the fade gradient.
So I added a layer of fog to Miriam by the cathedral.
Ah yes, there we are! That’s what I was looking for!
Now, the masterful Cara Luecht also has some background in design, and an eye that shows it. She knew exactly what she wanted for her cover in terms of style. She wanted a black block at the bottom, a flourish coming up behind it, and the tag line for the book on there.
I actually had some trouble finding a flourish that would work. There are tons of free flourishes out there online, but they’re small. And I needed to make this one HUGE. So I actually ended up buying a vector pack, which I try to avoid for this sort of element, LOL. And selected this one.
Now, the title. We actually debated a bit about this too. =) Cara had at first titled it Portrait of Grace, which was thematically awesome. Problem was, it didn’t speak to the mystery and intrigue. And mystery and intrigue are a very vital element to this story, so we tossed around several different ideas. Drew on our other awesome WhiteFire authors to vote. And decided on Soul Painter. Because, well, she paints the souls of people. And paints them from her soul. So it works. =)
Hence began the search for a font. I couldn’t find one that I loved, so I ended up patching a couple together. The S in Soul is different than the rest.
Then we had only to put it all together!
And I’m thrilled to say that when I posted this one to Facebook, I got a bigger response than I ever had to a cover. My book club ladies even approached me at a Christmas event that week and said, “We’re reading that, right? Tell me more about it!” That tag line and the cover hooked them. Which is, of course, our goal. =)
And it’s a book that deserves to hook. It’s got intrigue, spiritual truths, history, romance, and hope against a backdrop of darkness. Love it. Seriously. And you will too. So you know, if you wanna pre-order, feel free. 😉
by Roseanna White | Jan 8, 2014 | Books, Cover Designs, Remember When Wednesdays
~*~
Last week I was in a designing groove, so had some fun with the next WhiteFire historical, due to release in May. Sweet Mountain Music is a really fun story set in the Pacific Northwest in the 1890s. Chloe Williston is determined to make a name for herself as a journalist and earn her father’s respect–and thinks the way to do it is to tag along on a handsome naturalist’s expedition. His search–for the legendary Great North American ape (a.k.a. Sasquatch or Bigfoot).
In a time when gorillas had just recently been discovered in Africa, the idea of a giant ape in North America was downright reasonable, and I just love the comical voice author Suzie Johnson employs as she combines history and romance with whimsy.
But here was my challenge as a designer–how do I capture the allure of the adventure but also convey the historical era? How do I make it look fun and compelling without crossing over into silly? And how in the world was I to find a model that would let me accomplish all this???
Well, I’d been browsing the stock image sites for a few months, trying various search options until I finally found a model that looked promising.
She has the right look for Chloe–honey brown hair, the old books in her arms are great. But I wanted a bit more quirk. And blue eyes. And the costume sure isn’t right–the shirt could pass, but that skirt is way too slim.
And Suzie specifically requested a pith helmet. So.
I took a public domain photo of this bustle-era dress:
and copied the bustle part onto Chloe. I tilted her head a bit to give her a more playful look, and also added a helmet.
The result was this model:
Definitely the look I was going for–I loved the contrast of the helmet that screamed “Victorian adventure!” with the bustle. The books speak to her ambitions, but also add to the contrast.
Next came the background. I toyed with quite a few before my hubby said, “You need something green. Somewhere where Bigfoot could be hiding.” So I searched for leafy pictures of the Cascade range, and this one really worked with my model picture.
Plugged it in behind her, adjusted some lighting, a layer for texture,
and voila. I did the usual dance while trying to find the perfect fonts and frame to offset the title, played with positioning etc. I landed on a combination I liked after just a bit of trial and error.
I just needed one more thing. Purely for fun. =) Something to harken back to that Sasquatch search. Something…something like this.
Nowhere too noticable, mind you. Sasquatch is a hard fella to find, after all. But I bet you can spot it. 😉 Here’s the final front cover.
I have to admit, I loved it as soon as it came together–it felt like “it” to me. So I sent it to Suzie, who agreed that it captured all the elements we wanted to capture. She loved it too, so there we go! The final cover!
While I was at it, I went ahead and built the full cover too. Back copy may yet be tweaked, and that endorsement is obviously a place holder, LOL.
Overall, I gotta say I love how this one turned out–which is all the better because it had me stumped for so long. But you know, for two days’ work, this was a lot of fun. Bring on the next, WhiteFire! 😉
by Roseanna White | Aug 21, 2013 | Books, Companion Guides, Remember When Wednesdays
I’m having a blast digging into the writing of A Soft Breath of Wind. Right now, on chapter 2, I’m still getting to know my characters. And so, I’m building Pinterest boards and playing with Photoshop and coming up with images to inspire me.
I thought it would be fun today to introduce the characters that will be ruling my brain for the next little while. =)
Let’s start with my heroine, Zipporah.
 |
My cover model is so delightfully Zipporah
that I’m describing my character to match her, right down to
the clothes and accessories. =) |
Zipporah was always the not-so-pretty one. Anna, her older sister, was the type of gorgeous that men fight wars over, and Zipporah always knew she was just a shadow in comparison. But she was okay with that. She loved her sister, and she was happy enough with her good qualities. But when a gift of the Spirit opens her eyes to the angels and demons swarming around her, she faces down the enemy and comes away scarred.
As she grows from that thirteen year old into a young woman, Zipporah sometimes has a hard time balancing her internal and external lives. She desperately needed to learn how to restrain her emotions when her spiritual eyes were opened…but as a result has closed them up a bit too much. She can be witty, she has deep abiding friendships–but in a group setting she tends to stick to the walls and leave the socialization to others.
Zipporah is confident in who she is, likes to say that the Lord in His wisdom chose not to burden with beauty, as He well knew she couldn’t have handled it. She carries herself well and serves her masters with love.
But she has long ago resigned herself to never experiencing any other kind of love. For years now she has watched her master, Benjamin, with adoration. But he, much as he values her as a friend and sister in Christ, has never seen her as anything more.
Which is just as well. She is all but sure that someday, she will have to lay her life down for her faith, and the last thing she wants is to leave a husband mourning for her, like Samuel when Anna died in childbirth.
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A stylized Zac Efron (with the costume of Billy Zane’s character from Cleopatra)
as Benjamin Visibullis |
Benjamin Visibullis is in some ways the most important person to the growing Roman church. He’s the legal owner of the Visibullis estate outside Rome where Jews and Christians congregate. Tutelos is more than a villa now, more than home–it’s a small town full of many families, all of whom rely on him.
Benjamin takes his responsibilities seriously and wants nothing more than to serve the Brethren…but he cannot shake the feeling that the Lord is calling him away from Tutelos, off to see the rest of the churches and, perhaps, spread the good news to places who have yet to hear about the Messiah. His mother insists he cannot put his life at such risk until he has married and established an heir, and that is logic he understands. But no woman in Rome fits his idea of the bride Jehovah has in store. And so, after years of prayer, he finally sets sail to visit the growing churches, Samuel with him to keep him safe.
Their travels take them eventually to Jerusalem for the Passover, but returning to the land of his birth only shows him that it’s time to go home to Rome. When a trip through the city leads them unexpectedly to Samuel’s birth-family–including the mother who sold him as a slave to Benjamin’s father 25 years before–he has to admit his eye is caught by his step-brother’s beautiful sister. Dara’s face, Dara’s words say she is what he has been waiting for.
But something within Benjamin knows she’s trouble–and he finds out the hard way that he should have heeded the whisper. But by then, the enemy is already entrenched at Tutelos…and he fears he may have undone all he was ever called to do.
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| A stylized Jason Lewis as Samuel Asinius |
Samuel kinda took me by surprise in A Stray Drop of Blood. While I had planned the BIG plot twists from the get-go, I didn’t see the little slave boy coming, and so I certainly didn’t know the pivotal role he would end up playing in the second half of the book. But I fell in love with that beautiful little boy with a nurturing touch, and oh, how I’m already enjoying seeing the man he’s become!
At the end of Stray Drop, Samuel was legally adopted by Titus Asinius, so he’s the joint-heir of a pretty impressive Roman estate. This for a boy born a poor Hebrew, sold into slavery to a Roman, and moved to Rome when only 6. Now 31, Samuel is still a nurturer, a healer. Though not officially a physician, he’s been trained by one and is the man to whom everyone at Tutelos turns when they need medical help.
He’s also still the self-appointed protector of Benjamin, brother in heart if not by blood. After his wife and their child die in childbirth, Samuel mourns long and hard…and finally welcomes the excuse to escape her memory and travel with Benjamin. When he meets his “real” family in Jerusalem, his heart doesn’t even stir, though. These people are less than strangers to him. He had long ago erased his mother from his heart, and the sister who seems bent on coming with him back to Rome…he knows there’s something wrong with her claims. But who is he to turn away someone who claims she wants to learn more about Christ?
But when they take her home to Tutelos and Zipporah immediately recognizes the evil within her, he knows they’ve made a grave error. Perhaps the rest of the church would prefer to chalk Zipporah’s strong reaction up to jealousy–it’s no secret she’s always loved Benjamin, who Dara now dares to claim–Samuel has always trusted his wife’s little sister when it comes to matters of the Spirit. And he’ll stand with her now and fight for the Way.
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| A stylized Sophia Myles as Dara |
Dara is beautiful–and she uses it as a weapon. Endowed with a spirit of fortune telling, she serves a master in Jerusalem who has taught her how to hone her skills, both as a beauty and an oracle. Those who know what she is serve or fear her…and those who don’t still stand in awe of her unusual looks. She doesn’t just always get her way–she makes her way when the world might try to stand against her. She wants nothing more than to belong fully to her master, but he has said since she was little more than a child that she can serve him best through her marriage. That only by waiting for the right man can she serve their cause–and bring an end to the sacrilege of Christianity worming its way throughout the world.
When she realizes she has an older brother–and sees the one he calls “brother” by adoption–she knows her master was right. Her fate lies with Benjamin Visibullis. He is the fulcrum of one of the most important sects of the blasphemers. And it will be no great hardship to pass her days–and nights–beside the handsome Benjamin.
Who is Dara beyond the tool of this “master”? Well that’s just the thing–she doesn’t know. She has served him so long, so fully, always in secret that she cannot separate anymore who-he-made-her from who-she-was-born-to-be. Her whole purpose in living, in her eyes, is to serve him. To make his causer her own. To undermine their sworn enemy–Christians. Can she be cruel? Without question. Can she be kind? When it suits her. Has she a heart underneath the hatred? She’s none too sure.
It’s been a long time since I’ve written a bad girl who doesn’t reform right away, so this is going to be fun. 😉 Of course, I have some plans in store for our nasty little Dara. First though, we pit discernment against fortune telling. One Spirit against another spirit. Darkness against light.
And the real fun? Light doesn’t just defeat the darkness, right? It banishes it, and the things once dark become light.
Yep. Gonna have a blast with this one. =)
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. 