by Roseanna White | Apr 30, 2015 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Passion: though its current definition involves “any strong feeling,” it has its roots in pain. Passion comes straight from the Latin passio, which means, quite simply, “suffering.”
So our English idea of being passionate about something…it means not just something we feel strongly about, but something we’re willing to suffer for.
Susan Meissner pointed this out in a great class at ACFW one year, along with the question of “Are we really willing to suffer for our writing? Are we
passionate about it?” And went on to say that for many writers, herself included, the answer was
no. She was willing to work really hard at it, but it was a career. She loved it, but it didn’t deserve the word
passion.
Another writer, very well respected and often ground-breaking, just said something similar. That when it came down to it, there’s not much she’d give up for writing.
It made me realize anew that I’m not in that camp. Susan Meissner began that aforementioned class by breaking down writers into 3 groups–those who write as a hobby, those who write as a job, and those who write as a ministry. She was speaking to the middle group.
I belong to the ministry group. Neither is right or wrong, they’re just different. But I’ve recently heard a lot of voices talking very wisely and thoroughly about the Career group, and I wanted to take some time to examine the Ministry aspect.
I have said many times that I write for the same reason that I breathe: because I must. I have written before about “
Being a Writer and Zombies” LOL and how even if the world as I knew it was obliterated and I was on the run for years at a time, I would write (albeit just in my head, telling stories around the campfire). If writing fiction became illegal, I would write. It isn’t a choice to me, it isn’t a job, it isn’t something I do–it’s who I am. It’s how I process. It’s how I think.
More, it’s how I fulfill the Great Commission.
I had the honor and pleasure of speaking at a MOPS group two weeks ago, which is something I’ve done before and always love. I’m about the same age as most of the women there, my kids are just recently out of that “pre-schoolers” age, and I can relate to them on a lot of different levels. I love talking to them about juggling their home life with other passions, which is what I was talking about this time too, and about my publishing story.
Afterwards, one of the ladies said something to me that I’ve heard before, LOL. “It’s so fun hearing you talk about this–you’re so passionate about it!” (When I’m speaking to older crowds, that often gets paired with “It’s so adorable how excited you are!”)
But that’s me. I get excited about writing, about books, about the stories I get to tell. I get excited about how God has worked in my life to bring me to this point, and the ways He has used my books in the lives of His children. I get excited about what’s to come.
And yes–I’m willing to suffer for it. Because the written word is my mission field. Telling stories is how I spread the Gospel and share God’s truths. Yes, I had to learn the career side–how to follow the rules of writing, how to appeal to readers and editors, how to get my books out into those readers’ hands (otherwise it’s not much of a mission field!), and I work hard at it. But if that were taken away from me, if I could no longer get books out there, I’d still write stories–and I’d still get them to as many people as I could.
There are so many reasons to write. So many ways to treat it. So many things it can be even to someone like me who considers it a ministry, a calling. Yes, I want it to entertain. Yes, I want to write the best I possibly can. Yes, I want to keep learning how to make my books successful. No, I certainly don’t want my stories to ever come across as an agenda.
But that’s the beauty, to me. If I pursue this thing I’m called to wholeheartedly, I know that God will give me those truths to write into my stories. I know I’ll continue to understand God’s love better and better by exploring relationship and family through writing. I know my stories will get better and better as stories, and that the better they get, the more they’ll be able to fulfill their purpose on a spiritual level too.
For those of us whose writing is a ministry, the question of “Why do we do it?” always comes back to “Because that’s how we serve Him.” And because that’s my reason, it makes me view things like low sales and setbacks in a whole different light. Obviously I want my books to be successful–as in, reach lots of people–but more, I want them to be used by Him. Ideally, the two will go hand in hand. But if not, if my sales are awful but I’m still getting notes from people telling me how my books opened their eyes or touched their hearts or made them redefine their faith…well then, I’m doing my job.
It’s not always easy. It doesn’t always seem worthwhile. It certainly isn’t always logical. It can’t always be quantified. But that’s true of most ministries, isn’t it? We serve, we give, we fight for the right to do so. We falter, we weep, we wonder if it will ever make a difference. Then we get up again and keep serving. Because it’s part of who we are.
It’s a little odd that writing is something you can do for so many different reasons–after all, not many people choose “missionary” as a career simply because they think they have a way with people and words and it seems like a good career choice. That’s one that most people will do only as a calling, a ministry. But writing can be a talent, a gift much like good math skills or engineering acumen. It can be a job that goes hand-in-hand with ministry. It can be so many different things.
But if you’re pursuing it, it’s a good idea to identify why you are. What it means to you. What you’re willing to give up for it, and what you’re not. For many fabulous writers, they’re not willing to give up much to pursue writing. For others, there’s not much they won’t give up to pursue writing. How awesome that God can use us all. =)
by Roseanna White | Apr 22, 2015 | Uncategorized
Last week I found myself in the unprecedented position of finalizing 11 projects all at once–one for a series of 8 books, so I was producing the final full covers all at once, a contemporary, a box set, and this one.
I was having a grand time. =) I’ll be sharing a bit about many of those soon, but I thought I’d start with this Western romance, solely because it’s the last one I was working on, LOL.
It’s my first Western cover–that’s right, the first cowboy I’ve ever put on a cover! And I was pretty happy to learn that the heroine should be wearing a ball gown. Love pretty-dress covers. Love them. =D But it occurred to me as I crafted Heather Blanton’s Grace that y’all might be surprised to realize that the heroine you see on the cover is actually made of 3 models. Namely, these three.
I started my search at www.PeriodImages.com, because I knew they had some lovely dress photos. And knowing that Grace had strawberry blond hair and needed an 1890s dress with a bustle, leg-o-mutton sleeves (that’s seriously what they’re called) and that it should be purple, I set about browsing. This one drew my eye. The dress was gold, but I knew I could change that. Her hair was right, though. And the dress was fairly true to the styling of the day. I’d have to lengthen the sleeve, but otherwise…not bad!
As it turned out, the model herself didn’t fit Heather’s image of Grace, and she wanted one with the girl looking happier…which didn’t exist in this series of photos. So I figured, eh, we’ll just find a new face, no biggie, LOL. But first, I had to make the dress lavender. And it also needed to be lower cut–a crucial plot point. So I deleted all we didn’t need and changed the color.
Coming along just fine, right? As it happens, I was working on this while watching TV with my husband, and he piped in with some nice commentary as I was working. Like, at this stage, “Agh! She’s headless! You’re so cruel!”
Roseanna said, “Mm hm.” And went to www.Shutterstock.com to look for a picture of a blond with her hair up. As usual, I searched for brides, this time in profile to get the right angle of the body. While hockey continued on the TV, I paged through the options. Pretty soon I had snagged this lovely lady.
The angle looked really close, so I dropped her into my file, deleted what I didn’t want showing, and earned a “Whoa!” from my husband. Who leaned over my shoulder to say, “You just put those together. And they work. And it took you, like, three seconds.”
Oh yeah. I’m that good. 😉
Feedback from Heather and the fans she showed early versions of the cover showed me some things that needed changed, though. I decided to tilt her head down. I half-lowered her eyes. Made the sleeve smaller. And then the tricky part–she needed more of a, ahem, chest. Both models I’d been using were rather, er, flat. The dress I could reshape with my oh-so-clever Photoshop skills. But Grace herself…well, I went back to Shutterstock. And that’s where she comes in:
This happy bride had more of what I was looking for in that department. So yes. I copied her chest and pasted it onto the existing image, LOL. And hey, the result was pretty good!
Being happy with Grace, I then turned to cowboys. I found an image that was promising of a guy in a duster.
His face wasn’t right, so I actually put a new one in, LOL, but based solely on his outfit, there was promise…but Heather had another cover with a cowboy in a duster, so I kept looking. I ended up at iStock, where I found this gunslinger.
Not that I wanted the guy reaching for a gun on the cover, but he was half-behind Grace, so no biggie there. The bigger problem was that he was kinda missing his legs…so I had to fix that for him. Here’s an early version of the cover that had him behind her, on their background.
Early viewers agreed that they liked them…but that it looked like he was staring at her tushie, LOL. So I ended up tilting his head back the other direction.
No more staring at her tushie. 😉
Now for the background! You can see in the early cover above what I was going for. We needed Wyoming mountains for sure, and after looking at Heather’s covers for her current series, I decided to continue with the drama in them that comes of bold skies. So I started with this one:
Which was the correct perspective for behind my people…but the color in the sky didn’t really end up on the page once the photo was enlarged to fit behind them. So I also found this one.
The mountains and sky were perfect on this, but the foreground was all wrong. So, you know me. I combined them.
Not that it was quite as simple as it might sound, LOL. I selected the mountains and sky from the second photo, put it overtop the first one, copied the treeline from the first to overlap those mountains…and decided the building looked funny peeking out from behind them, so I also used the Clone Stamp tool to borrow the texture from the grass and put it over the building to make it disappear. The new image was still too short, so I also just duplicated it and brought it down lower on the page, hence why you see identical patches in this photo…which wouldn’t be visible behind the figures. So that means we have this.
At this stage I’d also added a purple layer at the bottom, faded out, just to set off the eventual title
Overall, I really liked this, and so did Heather. Another slight change we made here was widening the cowboy so he wasn’t so rail-thin. To do that I quite simply widened the image, all but his head, which stayed the same. Just gave him a couple more inches of girth. =)
So then. Time for the words! This can sometimes be aggravatingly tricky, finding the perfect fonts. As you can see in that early cover I posted above, my first thought was an elegant script. But Heather wanted something more blocky and bold, so I eventually found that ParmaPetit gave me what I was looking for–a bold, rather standard serif font, but with a bit of a flair here and there.
Just a few things missing then–Heather had a tag line for this one that she wanted on the cover: Think like a lady. Act like a man. I also had to incorporate that. She’d mentioned she was okay with pretty flourishes behind or setting off the title (in our discussion of fonts), so I found this one.
I took just the top part, put it just behind and under the title, and then added a purple block at the bottom where the tagline would go.
The only thing missing now was the series title! It was rather long: Love and War in Johnson County. So I split it up, put that flourish behind it again, and made the book number large but at a lower opacity behind it.
And there we have it! Heather’s name went onto the top, and voila! My first Western romance cover with a cowboy. =)
by Roseanna White | Apr 20, 2015 | Uncategorized
The Grand Prize winners have been announced!
Grand Prize: Shay Teague
Purple Prize: Kristine Klein
Pink Prize: Dana McCall Michael
And now, the winner of my bonus prize of A Soft Breath of Wind is…
Bianca Rachele Gibson!
Bianca, I’m sending you an email now!
Congrats to all our winners, and thanks so much to everyone for making this hunt a HUGE success!!
by Roseanna White | Apr 16, 2015 | Uncategorized
Hello, and welcome to Stop #17 of the Purple Team’s loop of the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt!
Not sure what I’m talking about? Learn all about the hunt here: http://lisatawnbergren.com/2015/04/the-christian-fiction-spring-scavenger-hunt-basics/
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the other stops, beginning HERE, gather the clues at each stop, and be entered to win some fantastic prizes. A full list of stops can be found at the link above, and the other team (Pink) begins Here.
The Hunt begins at NOON Mountain time on April 16 and ends at midnight Mountain on April 19, 2015, so you have a long weekend to complete all 32 stops and maximize your chances at prizes!
The prizes are numerous and awesome! Lots of free books, Kindles, and more! There are 2 loops, so you can try for either or both, and if you complete both, you can be entered for the grand prize! Check out the prizes!
Many of the authors are hosting bonus giveaways–including me! Find the Rafflecopter giveaway below for a copy of A Soft Breath of Wind, winner’s choice of format (signed paperback or digital)!
Lisa T. Bergren has certainly written a lot of books—nearly
fifty!!—and her latest is a dystopian series called Remnants (SEASON OF WONDER
and SEASON OF FIRE). Think, “Hunger Games
with hope.” Her goal is to make every reader think about the gifts they’ve been
given and how those might be best utilized to change our world. Sounds good to
me!
With this newly published dystopian/romance/spiritual
suspense series, on top of her best-selling God Gave Us…picture book series
(which just showed up on the Wall Street Journal
bestseller list between Clive Cussler and Dr. Seuss!), she’s getting more
attention…and more inquiries from aspiring writers. So she decided to share
this, below…
HOW TO GET PUBLISHED
By Lisa T. Bergren
I love hearing from readers after they read my books—when you read my books, we sorta become friends. Lots of aspiring writers contact me. About reviewing their manuscripts (which I can’t). About publishing advice. About having coffee together, “if I have the time”… And I get it. After twenty-plus years in the biz, I’ve finally hit that place where I seem like I’ve ARRIVED. Like I have THE ANSWERS for writers.
And the good news? I have some of them.
But the bad news? I don’t have them all. (Do we EVER??)
Twenty-five years ago, when I was first starting out, or even twenty years ago, when I had a few books under my belt, I looked to those ahead of me and wondered why they had it “so easy.” Why they seemed to publish stuff that I could never get away with publishing…What they knew. How they had possibly MADE IT when I couldn’t quite seem to get there. Now that I’m a consistently working, mid-list writer, “making it,” I thought I’d share what I’ve learned so far.
1) Read. Read like crazy. Read a ton of the books that most closely resemble what you’d like to write.
2) Outline your favorite book you’ve read in the last year in the genre that you’d like to write in. Figure out what the author did right, chapter by chapter, by dissecting what happened with both the plot and characterization. Write notes on the pages. Underline. Star sections. Take special note of nuances that make it a stand-out: Fabbo dialogue? Incredible romantic tension? Fascinating, unique plot? Locale or description? Details? What WAS it that made that book SING? Summarize, chapter by chapter.
3) Now do the same with another book in the same genre. Maybe one that was a bestseller, if the one you chose above, was a closet-favorite, but never really seemed to sell. What do you think the differences are?
4) Read WRITER’S DIGEST. Go to the Library and read back issues. They usually have a fiction column every month (and other writing pathways too). It’s how I learned the basics for $15 a year.
5) Establish a basic web site, along with a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account and begin building your author platform, posting anything you’re willing to share about your life, your writing, and the genre you love to read/write. Don’t just market—strive to establish good social media relationships with real dialogue and sharing.
6) Go to a writer’s conference. Faculty should predominately be published authors or publishing professionals who are making a tangible “go” at this business (Google most to make sure), and relate to the publishing market you hope to get into. Attend your first conference with an open mind, ready to learn all you can, putting little pressure on yourself. Don’t go in thinking THIS IS IT. Go in thinking I’M FACT-FINDING. Find out where you are in the process, whether you’re just beginning to learn (which is fine!) or ready to submit to editors and agents or somewhere in between. Which isn’t to say you shouldn’t have SOMETHING ready Year One to talk about (a proposal/pitch). Just consider your Year One pitch your “straw man,” so you’re not crushed if an editor or agent doesn’t bite. Be brave enough to say, “You didn’t seem all that excited about what I said about my book/wrote. Can you tell me why?” Note: For most people, publishing is a long-term process.
7) Return to the conference the following year. I promise you’ll feel way more comfortable and confident both years you attend if you just press into the learning curve then return to be more assertive on the pitch-front; you’ll gain PLENTY from both experiences to make it worthwhile.
8) Follow up with any contacts. Keep writing. Start a new book if you’re done with the last. Maybe it’s book #2 or book #10 that is your winner.
9) Research self-publishing. But don’t leap into that unless you have no other option and you’re fully convinced it’s the way you should go. It’s its own investment. (And its own post-full of information.)
10) Keep writing. And reading. Outline a new book that’s your current favorite. See how it inspires you to improve your own writing.
11) Join a critique group. Now, I don’t recommend this lightly, since I’ve never taken part in the same. But I’ve heard good things about some and bad things about others. The only critique group I’d ever invest in would have to have similarly-dedicated writers, ready to give me constructive criticism with the goal to help me get published, not compete with me. That’s a pretty special group. If you can find it, go with it. If you can’t, don’t sweat it. Hallmarks of a good group would incorporate people who are (a) investing in writers’ conferences and resources; (b) making discernible writing progress; (c) getting better at the craft; (d) giving you feedback that both encourages and challenges you to improve. Anything else? Meh. Just carry on solo. You’re better off writing a hundred new pages and rewriting and rewriting, than spending time with a fruitless group. Don’t be afraid to cut ties with a sinking dock so you can sail away, even with a patched-together sail.
Go, Writer, go. There is ALWAYS room for a fresh, new voice. Tell the story on your heart. Write it and don’t stop. If I can do it, so can you. I’m not overly smart or savvy. I’m not overly dedicated. I just kept at it, until I had a manuscript together. And then I edited, and edited, and once upon a time, I got the chance to give it to someone with publishing power, and my fairy tale came true.
Yours might too.
Lisa Tawn Bergren is the bestselling author of nearly fifty books in all genres—from children’s picture books to teen fiction to women’s nonfiction—and can’t quite believe she’s been so blessed to see them all get into print. Still, she sees her job as work, and tries her best to just get the next thousand words down, day by day, until the next manuscript comes together. She lives with her husband, Tim, a duck maker (RMrustic.com), her three teen children, and a little, white, fluffy dog named Talisker Beatrice, in Colorado Springs. For more info, find her at LisaBergren.com, Facebook.com/LisaTawnBergren and @LisaTBergren.
You can find Lisa’s books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, CBD, or at your local bookstore.
THE SCAVENGER HUNT SKINNY:
Thanks for stopping by on the hunt! Before you go, make sure you WRITE DOWN THESE CLUES:
Secret Word(s): ~ Jim Rohn
Secret Number: 16, because that’s my kids’ ages added together
Got ‘em down?? Great! Your next stop is #18, Lisa T. Bergren’s site.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
by Roseanna White | Apr 6, 2015 | Uncategorized
It’s not that I’m not blogging just because we’re taking some days off school this week . . . I’m not blogging because all my blogging time this weekend (when I usually prepare the week’s blogs) was spent at church, the nursing home ministering, and at my family’s big egg hunt, LOL.
But hey, it’s a good time to refresh and regroup and bask in the world of sunshine and greening grass! So a couple quick notes:
1.) I’m in the ACFW Foundation’s silent auction, which ends today, 4/6/15. At this point there’s only one bid on the book cover design I donated, so someone is likely to get a great deal on it! If you’re looking for a cover design and would like to help out ACFW’s scholarship fund, take a look at the silent auction!
My Listing: http://bit.ly/1BRqCUo
Whole Auction: http://www.32auctions.com/acfw2015
2.) My determination to replace “Easter” with “Resurrection Day” is off to a good start, though it’s going to take a few years to break a habit so long ingrained!
3.) It’s starting to look like spring out there!!!!!!!! Go out and enjoy it! 😉
by Roseanna White | Apr 2, 2015 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” ~ Mark 10:21
This week, I tend to look long and hard at those verses that tell us to take up the cross. This week, it stops being metaphorical and has a gruesome, beautiful, REAL quality to it. This week, I’ve been giving some unexpected thought to this verse.
As everyone probably recalls, this verse is from the the account of the rich young ruler who approached Jesus to ask how he, who has always obeyed the Law, can have eternal life. I never would have considered it a controversial verse…but I think it probably is. Because Jesus, in his love for the young man, tells him to give up everything. To give it all away to those in need. To take up the cross–to embrace suffering, punishment, trials, pain–and follow Jesus.
I’m sure you’ve heard sermons on this verse. I’m sure you’ve talked about it in studies. I know I have. We’ve talked about how Jesus was identifying the thing that the young man held as an idol–his wealth–and telling him to put it far from him. To actually obey the Law that says to put nothing before God, instead of just claiming to. We’ve talked about how Jesus certainly isn’t telling everyone in the world to sell all their earthly possessions.
Which is true. He isn’t. He would only have to tell us that if we valued our earthly possessions above our heavenly ones. But last year, when we talked about this in Sabbath School, I went home asking myself, “What would I do if Jesus did ask me to give it all up? My house? My cars? My books? My comfortable life. Could I?”
 |
| My prized possessions–not the couch. The BOOKS. |
We’re all quick to say, “Of course!” But I wasn’t going to accept a trite answer from myself, because I know myself too well, LOL. As I examined my heart, I really wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure I could walk away from it all if He asked–but I knew that wasn’t how I wanted my heart to be. So I asked Him, that day, to change my heart.
There were no epiphanies in the following months. No tests. No…anything. But when I asked myself the question again about a month ago, I realized that there was no hesitation any longer. I quite simply no longer loved the idea of a comfortable house, a comfortable life, as much as I loved the idea of doing absolutely whatever God asks me to do. If He asks me to give it up, I will.
It’s a strange idea to people today though, isn’t it? We are, above all, a society that craves security. We want to know that our job will be there. That there will be a paycheck every week. That our insurance will cover our bills. That the car will start up every morning. That we’ll have a nest egg to retire on. But I realized yesterday that for most of my adult life, I haven’t had those things. As a freelance writer, editor, and designer, I frankly never know if or when or how the next contract will come. My hubby works for a family business in an industry incredibly unstable. I had no insurance until a couple years ago…and my premiums, thanks to the so-called Affordable Health Care Act, just doubled.
Last night, I was talking to my parents, and they mentioned how if it came down to it, my husband could get a great job. Good pay, benefits. Security.
And I realized…I don’t want it. I don’t want to be tied to “security.” I don’t want to give up my dreams–and worse, give up my ability to say, “Yes, Lord! Here I am!” because I’m too afraid to give up my things. I don’t want to turn into the rich young ruler.
Security, while something we all crave, is an illusion. Things could change at any time. The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. Fortunes disappear. Economies fail. Businesses go bankrupt. Our only security in this world is Him. In the sure knowledge that He can make less enough.
Our only security is knowing that we will suffer. We will know pain. Heartache. Loss. Persecution. (Death and taxes, as the old saying goes.) Those are sure. Guaranteed.
Our security is knowing that when those times come, we have a Savior who has suffered more, and who understands. Who lost it all, but did it anyway. Who had no place to rest his head, but all the grandeur of heaven. Who had no insurance, but who could heal through the power of the Spirit.
Our security is Him. Not the things of this world. The things of this world are what made men shout, “Crucify Him!” and nail his hands to a cross.
I nail those things to the cross instead. I say that all I am, all I have, is His.
I will obey your call, Lord. I will take up the cross. Right now, I know that means obeying the call you put on me to homeschool, to write, edit, design, and serve my church. But I know that tomorrow, that call could change. If it does, I pray I won’t hesitate over things. I pray I will follow you out onto the water. To the mouth of the cave. Into the mob. And to the cross.
Thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice. I’ve spent years trying to fully understand it, and I daresay I’ll spend many years more doing the same. Because the more I see, the more I realize it’s so far beyond all I can comprehend. But I thank you for it. I praise you for it. And I will work diligently to keep my heart open to it, rather than cluttered up with the things of this world.
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. 