by Roseanna White | May 24, 2016 | Giveaways and Contests
Hello, gentle reader, and welcome to the first annual
British
Blooms and Books giveaway!
This week, we’d like to celebrate the Royal
Horticultural Society’s Chelsea
Flower Show with you.
After enjoying this post, please visit
each of the other five authors’ blogs
(links
provided below) and, after a bit of reading fun,
follow one simple instruction
and then leave a comment in order on each,
to be entered to win a fabulous,
British Blooms and Books prize.
(US winners only, please, due to shipping the
petit fours. Sorry, non-US friends.) Enjoy and thank you for stopping by!
~*~
Heather
I have always been intrigued by English gardens, and much preferred flower gardens over those ever-practical vegetable gardens (what can I say–I guess I’m not very practical! LOL). When I began my Ladies of the Manor Series, one of the things I loved was viewing the English countryside–and blooms–through the eyes of my heroines.
In the first book of the series, The Lost Heiress, Brook hails from Monaco. A densely-populated city on the Mediterranean coast, Monte Carlo was vastly different from the Yorkshire countryside where Brook ends up. I had so much fun looking up images and videos of the region and then seeing them through Brook’s eyes.
One of the first images she sees as the train crests a hill is wild heather. Even in my Appalachian home, I love coming around a turn and seeing swaths of green and purple. Brook, accustomed to the arid climate of Monaco, finds this sight breathtaking. Even more than the cultivated gardens of her new home in Yorkshire, she loves the wildflowers she sees when she’s out riding toward the North Sea.
In the second book of the series, Rowena is from the highlands of Scotland, where that beautiful purple heather is one of the native species that thrives. In the opening of the book, autumn is upon them, and she’s looking out over a brown landscape, feeling as cold and lifeless as the drying grasses. But throughout the pages of the book, as she escapes the shadows of her past and ends up in Sussex, in the south of England, her world begins to look brighter. And she begins to treasure those small beauties that God places in her paths.
Wildflowers in bloom. Heather rolling across the hills. Blue skies after a dark night.
Join Rowena in the gardens of both Whitby Park (from The Lost Heiress) and Midwynd (her new home in Sussex) in The Reluctant Duchess.
To enter the Giveaway:
- Please sign up for my newsletter (there is also a quick sign-up form in the right sidebar, on top!)
- Comment below to be
entered to win the grand prize.
- Visit the other authors’ links below, comment, and complete their bold-faced condition.
~*~
One grand prize winner who
comments on each of the six authors’ blogs and agrees to the one boldfaced condition posted at the end of each post will win a
signed copy of each of the books plus
delivery of six English hat petit fours to enjoy while you read!
Name will be drawn via random.org
~*~
Finished? Well done! Please visit
these other fabulous authors of England-set historicals to see what flowers
mean to them and their heroines.
by Roseanna White | Apr 5, 2016 | Giveaways and Contests
To celebrate the release of The Reluctant Duchess, I’m giving away some things that would make Rowena smile.
~ Brookside chocolates.
Because . . . chocolate. Need I say more?
~ Pepperidge Farm cookies
A nice biscuit to go with her tea on a blustery day always hits the spot
~ Rooibos Red Tea
A little tea to go with those biscuits . . . 😉
(Try adding a dash of cherry juice and almond extract to this. Seriously good stuff.)
~ Traditional Music of Scotland CD
Rowena’s father says he has “a man McCloud who can pipe the faeries from their hills.”
This best-selling CD might be able to do the same. (Well you never know!)
~ Signed copies of both Ladies of the Manor books
(If you already have them, think gifts! Or substitute any of my other books)
~ The story of George Muller
(whose faith inspired the characters . . . and me. Oh so much.)
~ Vintage style red necklace
Loosely inspired by the Nottingham rubies. (I don’t have Nottingham ruby money to spend on giveaways. My apologies, LOL)
and a special something hand-crafted by me
~ Rowena’s favorite scarf
This beauty, in a deep red reminiscent of the cover and rubies, would give Rowena comfort on those blustery days. It could drape her shoulders when she has just a bit of a chill
or wrap around her neck to add a bit of style to her warmth.
Made from a wool/acrylic blend that is super-soft. Machine washable and dryable.
Can’t wait for the chance to win and need to read the book NOW? (Of course you do. Ahem.) Get it from your favorite site!
Contest will run from April 5 – 26.
Void where prohibited. Chance of winning depends on number of entries.
Winner will have 1 week to claim prizes before another winner is drawn.
Due to shipping costs, only US addresses are eligible.
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by Roseanna White | Jul 29, 2013 | Giveaways and Contests, Word of the Week
Weekend winners are:
Chaplain Debbie and Meghan Gorecki
Wowy zowy, it’s hard to believe we only have 2 days left! Which means not a whole lot of time to enter for this truly amazing book of prayers.
And of course, only 2 more drawings for Ring of Secrets! Why? Because then Whispers from the Shadows will officially release!! It’s already in stock in all the online retailers, and it should be showing up in your local bookstores any day, if it’s not there already. If anyone spots it on a shelf and wants to send me a picture, I’d be so grateful! We have no Christian bookstore in my town, and I never seem to make it an hour away to look in one…
But anyway. On with the day. =)
Word of the Week – Moot
Many, many moons ago I got my hubby a little book called The Highly Selective Dictionary of the
Extraordinarily Literate. Yes. We’re just that nerdy. 😉 So naturally, we flipped through it, and one of the first words I read the definition of was a word I thought I knew.
Moot. Now, we hear this all the time, right? It’s a moot point. And I always took it mean something rather irrelevant, because it was purely hypothetical at that point.
And sure enough, it has come to mean that–but in fact, that meaning came from law circles. Why? Now that’s where it gets interesting.
The primary definition of moot is “debatable, doubtful.” Not what we usually think when a point is moot. Because that would imply we should debate it–right? But people today use moot to indicate that something should be dropped because it has already been decided.
But a moot point–an undecided, debatable point–is in fact something pretty entertaining to an academic crowd who just loves a good debate. They can spend hours–days–weeks–years!–talking about the same thing. So after a while, it becomes purely hypothetical.
And to the rest of the world, something hypothetical becomes…well…moot. 😉 Something to be dropped. Something about which debate should stop.
Confession: I’ve avoided using this word altogether in the last decade, because I didn’t want to use it incorrectly and knew my point would be missed if I used it as “debatable.” LOL.
My question to you today:
Do you like to debate, or do you shy away from all conflict?
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by Roseanna White | Jul 25, 2013 | Giveaways and Contests
I had so much fun hearing about everyone’s wedding dresses yesterday! If anyone missed that conversation but want in on it, I’ve posted some pictures of the dresses described by readers too. Check it out here.
And of course, we have a new winner of Ring of Secrets — Deborah Dunson! — And only two more days to enter for this!
Thoughtful About . . . Names
What is about names that have such power? Ever wonder about that? I sure have–I even wrote a 20-page essay on the subject in college, LOL, based largely on biblical names. So you can bet I put a lot of thought into my kids’ names, and that I put thought into each character name too. I could ramble on about that. But today I want to talk about another Name.
Because yesterday this just LEAPT out at me and made me scratch my head:
“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for he will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.”
~ Exodus 23:20-21
God’s name–now that’s a powerful thing! So powerful that it’s one of the commandments–“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” (Exodus 20:7)
So powerful that it is being itself: “Tell them I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14)
This is something I know…and yet I don’t think I fully understand it. Because we have so many names for God. You can find list upon list of them, entire Wikipedia articles about it. He is so much to us. Alpha and Omega, Jehovah-Jirah, Elohim.
But that passage from Exodus 23 doesn’t say “My names are in Him.” It says My name. One. God has one name, His true name…and we don’t know it. Jesus no doubt did, but He called Him “Abba.” Daddy. Papa, as my kids call my hubby. My little ones know his name is David, but they don’t use that name. They shouldn’t, because it doesn’t speak their love.
I daresay no other man knows the true name of God though. And why? Because that name is power. Power to destroy, to judge, to rule. It’s the power of God Himself. That’s pretty amazing. I’ve yet to find another passage where God gives His name–His true name–to any being. But here, as He’s preparing to take Moses to Sinai…that was a pretty special time.
And that really makes me pause. Even given that I know only the human names for my Lord…am I using them right? When I call upon Him, do I mean it? Do I ever sigh out an “Oh, Lord” that means nothing? Or even if I’m calling to Him…do I need it? Bear with me, now. 😉
This is another section of Exodus that struck me the other day. It’s when they’ve come to the Red Sea, Pharaoh’s army is closing in, the children of Israel cry out to Moses. Moses says, “Don’t be afraid, y’all! Just wait and see–salvation’s coming. The Lord’s got it all under control. He’ll fight for you, I promise.” (The Roseanna Paraphrase Version. Which usually has a few more “dude”s in it…LOL) And God replies to Moses’s plea:
“Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it.”
Did you catch what stood out to me? Why do you cry to Me? That left me dumbfounded. Because, well, shouldn’t we?? Isn’t prayer to be our first response?
Yes.
But…God had already made the promise. God had already led them with fire and smoke. God had already spoken, had spared, had afflicted the enemy. More, God had already lent His power to Moses for this. That’s what I took from that verse. He isn’t saying, “Don’t bother me, kid.” He’s saying, “Did you forget the power I put in your rod? Just stretch it out, dude. That’s all you gotta do.” (See–“dude.”) 😉 That “but” isn’t, I don’t think, a conjunction–it’s not saying, “but since you insist, do this.” It’s a an adverb. A “merely.” Just lift up your rod.
Sometimes it’s so hard to remember that God, especially through the salvation of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit, has already given us at least a portion of the power of His name. It’s within us, all the time. And while I don’t know the Name to call him…I know the title.
Abba. Father. God of my end (as they pray in the Culper Ring books, taken from Puritan prayers). When the wilderness lies before me, when the enemy’s closing in behind, help me to remember that You’ve already put salvation in my hand.
What does your name mean?
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by Roseanna White | Jul 22, 2013 | Giveaways and Contests, Word of the Week
Hope everyone had a great weekend! We participated in a fundraiser walk for some friends of our adopting from Ethiopia, watched Captain America, and did some much-needed straightening up around here. =) Two of those activities were much more fun than the other, LOL.
As a reminder, here’s this week’s bonus prize, in addition to a daily copy of Ring of Secrets! And if you haven’t watched my new video book trailer yet for Whispers from the Shadows, I added that to my left sidebar. It’s so much fun!
Now onward we go. =)
Word of the Week . . . Calm
Did you know that calm is related to heat? I sure didn’t! But our word calm comes from Old Spanish and Portugese calma, which meant “the heat of the day.” The time of day when everything came to stand-still, when work stopped so animals and people alike could find some shade and take a siesta. 😉 The Spanish in turn came from the Latin cauma, meaning “burning heat.”
So if your July is anything like mine, it’s been full of cauma to be sure–so a fine time to seek out some shade (or a pool) and enjoy some quiet and calm.
Your question of the day:
Which is your favorite season and why?
Mine is spring–love the new life, that brilliant green of fresh growth, and the moderate temperatures. Fall’s a close second…but it ends in winter, which is my least favorite, so… (And yet, yes, I named a character Winter, and I adore her. What can I say? LOL)
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by Roseanna White | Jul 15, 2013 | Giveaways and Contests, Word of the Week
Wow, halfway through our month of giveaways already!! How did that happen? LOL. We’ve had lots of winners already (most recently Kelsey Shade Perkins and bn100!), and just as many still to come! Remember, every day I’m doing a drawing for Ring of Secrets, book 1 in the Culper Ring Series, to celebrate the release on August 1 of book 2, Whispers from the Shadows.
And if you’re new to my books, you can get a free taste! Fairchild’s Lady is a free novella that comes chronologically between books 1 and 2, but which is a stand-alone. So download it today to see if you like my style!
Available from:
Amazon, CBD, B&N, iTunes, and GooglePlay
And our bonus prize this week is this beautiful Tea Light Garden by Elements. The drawing for that will be on Friday.
And now for your regularly scheduled program. 😉
Word of the Week – Roughshod
Ever wonder where the phrase “to run roughshod over” something came from? Apparently it’s a pretty literal expression.
Back in the 17th century, “roughshod” was what they called a horse’s (ahem) snow tires. LOL. When weather was bad, they would leave nail heads protruding from a horseshoe to it could dig into and break up the snow and ice. So a horse was literally shod with a rough shoe. Makes all the sense in the world, doesn’t it?
And yet, I don’t think I’d ever really paused to wonder where it came from…
So in honor of our equestrian friends, your question of the day is:
Have you ever ridden a horse? Did you like it?
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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. 