by Roseanna White | Feb 18, 2015 | Uncategorized
A while back WhiteFire acquired a spunky, urbane contemporary called I Always Cry at Weddings. Set in Manhattan and featuring a modern woman who makes the crazy decision to follow her heart instead of what society says she ought to pursue, this is a novel unlike any we’ve published before, more geared to cross over to mainstream readers than our other titles.
I’d been stewing over the cover ever since we signed the contract, wondering what direction we’d go for it. When the author got her questionnaire back to me and pointed me toward popular trends in mainstream contemporaries, I knew we’d be treading new–fun!–ground.
See, almost all my other fiction covers had called for a model photo. This one didn’t. For this one, we deliberately wanted to avoid an actual photograph of a person. Something that featured either an object or an illustrations…or maybe a combination thereof. We wanted something more like The Help.
Or Me Before You.
Or Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing.
Feeling the Joy of flowing creativity, I started brainstorming. We toyed with the idea of an NYC stoop, which is important to the story…but that just didn’t mesh with these ideas. So instead I thought, “Let’s focus on the wedding part.”
My first thought was cake toppers…
I liked the irony of this one, which tied in with the fact that the heroine, Ava, breaks off an engagement. Of course, I didn’t want a line of grooms. And I thought it would be fun to put the bride in a red dress (which features later in the book) rather than a bridal gown. So I came up with this.
Of course, they needed to be on a cake.
And in casting around for a background, I decided an illustrated NYC skyline would be fun.
Putting it all together, I came up with this as our Option #1
A solid enough first try…but not quite it. I kept working, going at it from a different angle. This time, I starting thinking Statue of Liberty. Does anything scream NYC more than the Statue of Liberty? I found an actual photo, isolated, of Lady Lib.
I plopped her down in front of the same illustrated skyline.
You’ll notice she’s not holding a torch. That’s because I had an idea. Again, I wanted to draw on that rather crucial red dress. So what if, I thought, Lady Liberty was holding it up? In the book, the dress becomes a symbol of Ava chasing a dream through all its convoluted paths. The dress, in some ways, represents her liberty from expectations. I thought it was fitting. So I created an illustrated dress, a hanger, and had it flapping from the statue.
I thought this was great fun, so I slapped a title on there, and the author’s name. I chose the font Broadway for “I Always,” “at” and “Sara Goff,” and used You’re Invited for “Cry” and “Weddings.”
We very, very nearly went with this one. But early feedback got us some interesting perceptions. Like the one who said, “It’s too patriotic, having the Statue of Liberty.” And then the other who said, “It’s too un-patriotic, having the Statue of Liberty holding a dress.”
At the very least, it got a reaction, LOL. So we still very nearly went that way. But I thought, “Okay, let me try one more thing.” I went back to searching for illustrations and fond one of a bride on www.all-free-download.com. I hit on this one.
I liked the silhouette, though the colors were all wrong, and I knew all the swirlies and flowers would interfere with my simplistic design. But thanks to the wonders of Adobe Illustrator, I could open the file in there and select just the elements I wanted–the dress, the torso, the hair, and the veil. Copying those back into Photoshop, I then adjusted the color of the dress, again, to be a brilliant splash of red. Not a wedding dress any more, but I kept the veil because, well…it’s part of the story, LOL.
In this, I also changed the font of “cry” and “weddings” to Corinthia. And Sara and I both agreed that this was great. “But,” she said, “I’m concerned that it comes off at first glance as too sweet.”
I saw what she meant…and I thought it was the bouquet doing it. So I took it out of her hands…and then had to put those hands somewhere. “Attitude,” I thought. “Ava needs to have some attitude.” So I erased her current arms and drew her some new ones. And this was it!
See how that subtle change in stance changes everything??!! We both loved it! (As a note, I did have to fool with the title a bit more. With the bouquet deleted, “weddings” wasn’t centered anymore, so I nudged it over…and then figured I’d add one more cute touch and looped the D through the Y.)
And voila! Something totally new for me, but the reaction has been fabulous. Everyone loves the feel, the look, the colors, and the pop of red. And I know the book’s going to be a hit too. Written with a very modern voice, about a very modern woman, this is a story that tackles the realities of life for most women today…and then puts a unique spin on it all. Like so:
Ava Larson is going to bring all the other brides to tears.
Engaged
to a wealthy NYC socialite’s son, Ava is ready to set the city abuzz
with her glamorous wedding. At least until she realizes her relationship
isn’t what it should be. Then, in a move as daring as a red satin
dress, she does the unthinkable–she calls it all off and makes a
promise to God that from now on, she’ll save sex for marriage.
She’s
convinced the future is hers for the taking, especially when an
undercover cop promises a new romance…and an unexpected friendship
with the homeless guy under her stoop brightens her days.
But
when her carefully balanced life teeters out of control, weddings aren’t
the only thing to make her cry. Ava has to figure out what life she
really wants to live…and what in the world love really means
So what did you think? Do you like where we settled?
by Roseanna White | Feb 17, 2015 | Uncategorized
For a decade, people have been telling me I need to read The Red Tent. Like, pretty much ever since they heard I wrote biblical fiction. I’ve heard it from multiple sources, but I just never had…until my sister asked if we could read it for our book club. Seemed like a fine opportunity, so we set it as our January book (which we ended up discussing last week when we got iced out of our January date).
And boy, did I come away with some opinions, LOL.
I’ll begin with what I loved.
The culture–oh, the culture! SO RICH! Ms. Diamant paints such a vivid picture of life in the days of the patriarchs. You could taste the dust. You could smell the camp fires. You could feel the sun scorching the road.
I loved how she brought to life the women’s world. How she painted the relationship between Rachel, Leah, and their two handmaidens. Certainly I loved getting a perspective on the little-mentioned Dinah, and what it must have been like to be the sole daughter among 12 brothers.
I love that in their culture, womanhood (and the coming into it) was something to be celebrated. I loved seeing how midwifery was a sacred calling and earned characters such respect.
There was a lot to love. And had it been a story about any other family at that time, I would have just deemed it awesome and left it at that. But…
But this isn’t just a story about any family at that time. This is a story about THE family. About Jacob and his parents and his sons. This is a story about Israel. This is a story about these men who dared to believe in one God (whom the author calls El) when surrounded by a world that believed in the pantheon. This is a story about people who became more than a family. They became a nation. A culture. A faith.
But it wasn’t.
Oh, it captured perfectly how a family becomes a nation and a culture. But a faith?
Nope. It wasn’t there. We get a few glimpses of the power of El. Jacob does wrestle with him. Joseph is forever changed after visiting the place where that happened.
But the other gods and goddesses have just as much power, if not more. Dinah herself has the power to curse and bless. The women never worship El, they continue to worship their own goddesses, and Jacob’s totally cool with that.
I’m not.
I wanted to see the idol worship, yes. It was not just part of the culture of the day, it was the culture of the day, and when the author painted that so vividly, I fully approved. But knowing the author is Jewish, I was assuming she believed her God to be more powerful than these stone figures, so I thought we’d get a glimpse of why a whole nation abandoned their other gods to follow Him. I wanted to see God triumphing over the other gods.
I didn’t.
Instead, the opposite. I saw a god called El who demanded but never repaid. I saw a god of men but not of women. I saw followers of this “strange and mysterious” god who were awful, dirty, mean, cruel, distant, abusive, murderous, cowardly, whining, greedy, selfish…
There were no good men from the line of Jacob. None. Not a single one. At first we like Joseph okay, but by the end, even he is painted as lucky, not blessed. Self-centered. Cruel. And with an eye for the handsome young men in his employ. He comes to Dinah to whine to her, but their childhood sibling love is pretty much forgotten.
See, I’m totally cool with painting the patriarchs as real men. Men who made mistakes. Men who sinned. Men who stumbled. But in my opinion, Diamant went way too far and painted them as men who did nothing else. Oh, we see some affection between Jacob and his wives (which was awesome) and we see him through their eyes to know why they loved him. But the older he gets, the more we lose sight of any of those good qualities.
It’s like she had to systematically dash our respect of EVERY biblical figure we grew up respecting. Abraham. Isaac. Rebekkah. Jacob. Joseph. I left the book despising all of them (as she painted them). I left the book wondering why anyone in the world would have followed their way instead of the more-powerful Egyptian river god. I left the book hugely disappointed.
I admit it’s largely because I have expectations. These are personal expectations. Not everyone (or even most) share them, and I don’t try to make them. But to the me, the beauty of a novel set in biblical times is painting the culture and then showing the power of God shining through it. Emerging victorious. Showing us why He became a God whose name is to be feared.
Personally, I left The Red Tent feeling like a great opportunity was lost. This was a beautifully written, amazing book that could have shown a generation the God of Israel. Instead, it showed a generation how savage and cruel the patriarchs could have been, and how their savagery and cruelty forced even their own daughters into idol worship.
I always thought one of the coolest things about God in the Old Testament was that He, unlike every other god, wasn’t just a god of one thing, one people. He is Lord of sun and rain. Of harvest and childbirth. Of the river and the sky. Of the earth and the heavens. He is Lord of all. Of men AND women.
Dinah didn’t agree. She wanted nothing to do with the God of her father, and given the evidence presented, the reader doesn’t blame her in the least. That makes me so, so sad.
So my final pronouncement–it’s a good book. It’s well written and easy to read and has some really great qualities. As pure fiction, it does a fabulous job of telling a story. But I left the book feeling as though it missed the point. I left the book quite disappointed…and more than a little disturbed.
My final judgement–if you want a look at the Dinah story that doesn’t exalt idols (but includes their prevalence in the culture), take a look at Mesu Andrews’s Love Amid the Ashes instead!
by Roseanna White | Feb 11, 2015 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Today is one of those milestones (so forgive me for posting my “thoughtful” post a day early, LOL). My baby turned 7. My youngest, my little guy. Proving yet again that time marches ever onward.
So as is my tradition, I figure I’ll take time out of my normal scheduled blogging today to talk a bit about my awesome little guy.
For starters, I have a hard time finding a picture these days, because he’s so much like his papa–he likes being behind a camera, but has developed an aversion to being in front of one, LOL. This is from his party. You won’t find him in the shot. 😉
Rowyn is an inquisitive little guy, and he loves learning. His favorite books are his Lego Build book and his Dino Encyclopedia. (Yes, non-fiction. Can you hear me weeping? Sniff, sniff.) He loves science, is awesome at math, and likes to pretend he can’t read very well…until he wants to, then lo and behold, he can read most anything he sees.
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| Candy bridge (why, what do you do with yours?) |
Though he often still says he wants to be an artist when he grows up, he also thinks it would be fun to be a digger. And a race car driver. And a rock star (though he doesn’t like being on stage any more than he likes having his picture taken). And…he just admitted last week…a builder.
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| Lego Dragon: “Fully articulated!” says Rowyn |
This is where he really shines right now. This kid will build in absolutely any medium. String and toothpicks become bridges for his toys. Halloween candy isn’t just for eating, it’s for building a Candy Kingdom with. Blocks, Legos, boxes…all fodder for his rich engineering imagination. I love seeing what he comes up with…and after Christmas or a birthday, you may just hear me saying, “Please, Rowyn, can we take a break from building things for just a few minutes? Please??” LOL
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| Rowyn, age 4, building with wood scraps |
Of my two, he’s the busier–always playing, building, drawing. But he’s also the cuddler. I joke that I must have a magnet in my lap, because I can’t sit down near him without him climbing up and plopping down. I can always count on that 6 a.m. “Mama!” to be followed by hugs and cuddles. He loves to laugh, hates to be apart from his sister, and doesn’t need to be reprimanded for hitting nearly as much as he used to be. 😉 Though in some ways he refuses to be independent, in other ways, he takes pride in being self-sufficient…usually in the ways I wish he wouldn’t, LOL. (“No, Rowyn, don’t try to cut that yourself! Rowyn, don’t climb up on that, just ask me to get it off the shelf for you! Buddy, you can’t operate that equipment on your own…”) He’s my helper in the kitchen, though if ever I suggest he learn how to be a chef someday, he gives me a look that says, “No way, crazy woman.”
This kid’s dimples always get me, and his laugh is one of the bright spots in my days–it’s straight from the belly, unrestrained. Though he often goes silent around other folks, he spends his days with rarely a quiet moment at home. When he isn’t talking or making appropriate sound effects for his toys, he’s singing–and rarely a song that isn’t an original Rowyn. (So who knows, maybe he will overcome the stage-aversion thing and be a rock star, LOL.)
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| Ro “stealing kisses” in Dec. 2013 |
I’m so incredibly blessed to have these two amazing little people in my life. So incredibly blessed to get to spend my days teaching them and learning with them, watching their every discovery and seeing how they grow. I love seeing them come into the gifts and talents God has given them.
And so glad to get to wish my little guy a happy 7th birthday. May this year be filled with discovery, love, and laughter, Ro-boat!
by Roseanna White | Feb 10, 2015 | Uncategorized
Forgive the exclamation points. =) But this is exciting stuff!
The Lost Heiress, coming this September from Bethany House, is my first book. As in, the one I started when I was 12 and finished at 13. Okay, so it’s undergone a few minor changes (cough–gazillion rewrites!), but the heart of the story is still the same.
And I have been waiting 20 years for a cover!!!
Here are a few of my early trials, from when it was called Golden Sunset, Silver Tear.
As you can see, I was all about jamming as much as possible on that cover, LOL. For reference, the black horse still plays a part in the story. (Though his name is now Oscuro [Italian for “darkness”] rather than Star). Brook and Justin are still my hero and heroine. Her necklace is now pearls rather than wooden beads, and there’s no little angel figurine (why was there ever, again??).
And Bethany House decided to go simple with the cover. “Stark simplicity” was their choice of words, and I think it was a wise decision. So…drum roll please…here she is! Brook, The Lost Heiress!!!
(This hasn’t been finalized by the last committee at BH to look at covers (that comes next week), so some tweaks may yet appear.)
What do you think??? I love the gold tones. And the dress. And the hair! They found me a lovely Brook. Ahhh. =)
And the listing just appeared on Amazon and is up on ChristianBook.com too!
by Roseanna White | Feb 8, 2015 | Uncategorized
We all know how I love a good book cover. And in planning a cover reveal for my next book, I came across another author doing the same, so we decided to swap reveals. 😉 I know Amber Stokes through her reviewing, and it’s so much fun to be able to return the favor she’s paid me before and is paying me now and tell you a bit about her book! I know you’ll love the cover (so pretty!) and there’s also a giveaway attached, so scroll down to the Rafflecopter!
Now here it is! The really adorable cover for Where Trains Collide!
I love the lighting here, the train tracks going off into the distance, the heart dotting the i…all in all, a strong, compelling cover that gets a thumbs-up from me! Now to tell you a bit about the book. =)
New Adult Contemporary Romance Novella
Two hearts racing in different directions will meet where trains
collide.
Burned out and disillusioned with her chosen career path, Trisha
Knolane gives in to impulse and hops on a train bound for Oregon, eager to
escape the stress of college for a few days. But what begins as a fun little
adventure suddenly collapses into a nightmare when she discovers that her
ex-boyfriend is also on board.
All her hopes and dreams had once centered on Paul Benson. Now,
when Trisha doesn’t know where her current track will lead, Paul’s questions
only complicate matters and spark a few of her own.
Questions that could change the course of her life.
A heartfelt and thought-provoking contemporary romance novella, Where
Trains Collide faces the uncertain season of new adulthood head-on and
shows that sometimes a path of broken dreams can lead to life’s best destination.
Coming April 2015
Amber
Stokes works in marketing for a Christian
publisher. On the side, she writes inspirational fiction depicting the seasons
of life and love. Her passion for books compelled her to earn a bachelor’s
degree in English and to run her own freelance editing and publicity business
for over a year. The next step in her career has her happily settled in the Pacific
Northwest—a part of the world she’s always considered home. Learn more about
her indie-author adventure at www.seasonsofastory.blogspot.com.
About the Cover Designer
Lena Goldfinch
writes romance and fantasy for adults and teens. She’s a sucker for a good
old-fashioned romance, whether it’s a novel, novella, or short story, young
adult or adult, fantasy or realistic, contemporary or historical. Elements of
romance, fantasy, and mystery have a way of creeping into her writing, even
when she’s writing historicals or something light and contemporary. Lena has
been a finalist in several national writing contests, including the RWA Golden
Heart and ACFW Genesis contests. She lives in a scenic small town in
Massachusetts with her husband, two kids, and a very spoiled Black Lab. Visit
Lena at www.LenaGoldfinch.blogspot.com.
Giveaway!
Fall in love with
gorgeous autumn earrings by Belle on a Budget (perfect to set aside as a gift for yourself or a friend later on!) and
treat yourself now to a little something on Amazon.com with a $5 gift card.
This giveaway is open to residents of the US
and Canada only, and you can enter using the Rafflecopter form below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
by Roseanna White | Jan 29, 2015 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Be good. It’s a familiar refrain, one we probably say to our children a gazillion times. Whenever we send them off to a friend’s house, or on those days when The Sibling Wars are especially fierce. It’s understood that there are the good things to do and the bad. That those are, to a point, what define us. That it’s by what we’re judged by the people around us, at the least.
And in my ongoing quest to figure out how to be who God wants me to be in this world that seems more intent upon pursuing all the bad things rather than the good, I came across this verse.
“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— 16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. 17 Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.”
~ I Peter 2:15-17
In this section, Peter is cautioning people to live a Godly life before the world, abstaining from lusts of the flush and sinful things. Obeying the government. Then these verses above. I’ve no doubt read them quite a few times, but they really struck me the last time I did. Look closely.
By doing good you my put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
What does that mean? It means that our actions speak louder than the words of our enemies, of our detractors. It means that by doing good, doing the will of God, we point to Him, and in the face of it, no one can really say anything bad about us. It means that by being/doing good, we force the other side to bite their tongues. Because how can they argue with what is universally acknowledged as good?
But then it goes on. Let’s examine verse 16. …as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice…
This reminds me of the part in I Corinthians where Paul says, “Look, guys. You’re free from the law. That means all things are lawful for you. But don’t be stupid. It doesn’t mean all things are good for you, that all things are helpful. Act like they are and you’re just going to become a slave to them.” (That’s the Roseanna paraphrase.)
We are free. Yes, absolutely. Faith in Jesus frees us from law, from religion. But we’re still responsible for our actions in the world. And what’s more, people are still watching us. So we don’t want to use freedom as an excuse to do bad things. That’s just stupid. We have to find the balance to strike–embracing the freedom without abusing it. Rejecting the chains of the law, be it the ancient ones that Jesus was arguing with or the ones the church was pretty quick to develop within the first couple hundred years of Christianity–but not betraying the spirit behind all those constricting rules.
And here’s the clincher. …as bondservants of God.
I’ve talked before about what it really means to be a bondservant of God. (Read that post here. It’s one I go back to frequently.) In a nutshell, it means we freely turn our will over to Him. We swear to serve Him for all our lives, and in return we become part of His family, part of His household. A servant, yes, but one beloved by our master and even able to inherit. So if we’re living out our liberty as bondservants of God, then that means EVERYTHING WE DO is for Him. In His interests. What He asks of us.
It means we’re going to show respect to those in authority. We’re going to love our brethren in Christ. We’re going to be good citizens. We’re never going to forget what God can do. We’re going to be good. And because we are, others will see and respect us and love us and seek God. It means that the worst thing people will be able to say about us is that we follow a strange God who doesn’t do the things that the world does, doesn’t worship what the world worships, and leads others to this same God.
Now that’s a criticism we should all seek to have lobbed at us!
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.