May 18
2012

Last winter a year ago, I did a free trial on Ancestry.com to see what I could see as a present for my mom’s birthday. It was intriguing, but I was only able to go back to the mid-1800s. I always knew about my dad’s side of the family—born in Italy, immigrated to the U.S.—but I wasn’t sure how far back in American history that my mom’s side went. I always hoped for a Revolutionary War soldier somewhere in there! My great grandmother Ritter, whom I never met, told everyone we were part Native American, and I always heard that on the Price side, we were Welsh. That was about all I knew.

This spring I’ve put my shovel in once again and dug deeper (paying for a few months this time on Ancestry.com). It turns out that my family was mostly German (and Swiss), not Native American, and we go back to the early part of the 18th century, at least, in America. I’ve found some several times great uncles and cousins who served in the Revolution, and I’m onto some clues about a possible Price ancestor. If he’s the right guy, there’s a solider there, and the line goes back to late 1600s Connecticut and before that, Wales. Bingo! (If I have enough spaces covered when the caller repeats all the numbers.)

This is, needless to say, time consuming, so I’m putting this to good use—I’m hoping to join the DAR, and I’m planning to use a lot of what I’m learning in the book I’m working on about the Great Awakening, in the years 1739-1740. My central character is George Whitefield, the greatest evangelist of his time, along with two fictional people from Philadelphia. Should writing be this much fun? Yes, because it’s also a lot of hard work, and well worth it!

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Apr 21
2012

Elaine Stock’s blog, “Everyone’s Story,” is featuring my work and part of my writing adventure this week. Elaine proved to be an excellent interviewer, asking insightful questions that I enjoyed answering.  Please stop by–there’s an opportunity to interact with me, and to win one of my latest books. Thanks Elaine!  Everyone’s Story–Featuring the Work of Rebecca Price Janney

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Apr 11
2012

I’ve noticed many observances this week of the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s disastrous maiden voyage. Back in 1912, early into the 20th century, many leaders believed it would be the most peaceful, most prosperous, most blessed in all of human history. What made them so optimistic?

Advances in science and technology came at such a rapid pace—for that era—that it seemed there was nothing human invention and education couldn’t do, no problems it couldn’t solve. As I wrote in Great Events in American History:

“A major symbol of human development was a colossal ship called RMS Titanic, a luxury liner . . . (that) boasted unparalleled opulence for its first class passengers, including a swimming pool, a Turkish bath, and the finest food and décor. It didn’t, however, have many lifeboats, just enough for one-third of its passengers. Perhaps one reason for this was the absolute confidence that its builders had. . . According to Shipbuilder magazine, the vessel was ‘practically unsinkable.’ A deckhand who was trying to convince an anxious passenger not to worry said, ‘Not even God could sink her.’ (pp. 75-76)

On the night of the 15th, however, the ship struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic. At first, the captain ordered his band to play lively songs to keep up the spirits of the passengers, but when it became clear that the ship wasn’t going to make it, Christian hymns replaced the other tunes. Less than three hours after the accident, the Titanic slipped beneath the waves. Over 1,500 passengers lost their lives; there were 705 survivors.

“Evangelist John Harper was on board that night, and he hurried to put his six-year- old daughter in one of the lifeboats. That accomplished, he went throughout the vessel warning people of its demise and telling them that in order to avoid spiritual death, they needed to put their faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

“When he could no longer stay on board the sinking ship, Harper jumped into the frigid water and took hold of a piece of debris. Spotting another passenger, he asked the man if he knew Christ. When the man said he did not, Harper told him how he could. The man of God met his Maker that night and likely took several people to heaven along with him.” (pp. 76-77)

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Mar 2
2012

The news of Davy Jones’s death this week from a massive heart attack left me feeling sad. I was a huge Monkees fan as a little girl, and although I was fond of each member of the group, my favorite was Mike. It seemed that Davy got enough attention!
Funny, I was actually thinking about the group earlier in the week, before Davy’s death. The Monkees’s songs were sweet and fun for the most part, but it has bothered me in recent years, since writing my cultural history books, that one of their biggest hits was a song belittling an American way of life. In “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” the Monkees disparaged clueless grown-ups who were happy to live in the sterile surburbs, except for their restless kids, who sensed there must be more to life. That’s pretty heavy stuff for their target audience—kids who were too young for the Beatles. (I always thought the suburbs must have seemed like a piece of heaven for young adults who had spent their childhood in the Depression, and their youth witnessing the horrors of WWII.)
They weren’t the only 1960s group to have an “anti-establishment” song geared towards the under 13 crowd. The Cowsills, a fresh-faced mom and pop group, had big hits with their both their “flower girl” song and “Hair,” from the Broadway musical that was anything but innocent. These records extolled the virtues of the counter-culture.
At a very early age, then, kids who grew up in the 60s were given the message that “you can’t trust anyone over 30.” That adults had created a messed up world that the young people needed to change.
Certainly, there were things that in the 60s weren’t right with American society—racism, the divisive Vietnam War, living under the threat of a nuclear nightmare—but the whole idea of undermining a child’s confidence in adults doesn’t seem right to me. Have you ever considered these things?

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Feb 3
2012

Thank you, Margaret Daley, for hosting me on your blog today!

http://www.margaretdaley.com/2012/02/interview-with-dr-rebecca-price-janney/

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Jan 21
2012

Most of us have embarrassed ourselves in a language we didn’t fully understand. As a college student in Vienna, Austria, I did such a thing on a streetcar one day. I needed the conductor’s help, and when he asked, “Where are you going,” I thought he said, “Where are you from,” because the words are similar in German. My answer–“America.” Other passengers giggled, and I knew I’d gotten the words mixed up. The man smiled and told me, “We don’t go that far!”

A year later I befriended some Koreans at Princeton Seminary. During that time I liked to wear colorful socks, and one day a male Korean told me, “I like your sex!” At first I was shocked, until I realized he meant that he liked my socks! I didn’t correct him, needless to say, because he would have been mortified.

Many years later I’m teaching Korean graduate students at Biblical Seminary. Most of them have theological degrees from Korean schools, and many are pastors, but they want to study in America. First, however, they need help understand how to write for an American academy. I’m happy to be helping them develop their reading and writing skills. We often share laughs at how we misunderstand each other. I have the utmost admiration for them—if I were in their shoes studying in Korea, well, let’s just say I’d be in big trouble!

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Jan 13
2012

Sometimes it takes awhile for a dream to come true. When I was 17, I had an inspiration to write a book, and I began working on it. I even had a celebrity lined up to endorse it.

Lo and behold, the celebrity’s secretary lost the best copy I had–lesson learned there, I can assure you–and I tucked the story in the back of my mind for another time.

A few years later I took it up again, starting somewhere from scratch. After many months, I began sending the manuscript to various publishers, who politely rejected it. Back to the proverbial drawing board.

I worked and reworked it, then sent out a new and improved version, with much the same result. This time, however, the rejections were more specific, and I began to work on the story’s weaknesses while adhering to the heart of it.

It got disacouraging to keep on writing a story that no one wanted, but I felt compelled to stay at it. When God puts something on your heart, it’s unwise to walk away from it.

This past Christmas Eve a contract arrived in the mail for this book, making one of the best gifts I’ve ever received! I’m hard at work on the manuscript, which will be published by AMG at a to-be-determined date.

The story deals with a young woman who, in the election year 1968, believes Bobby Kennedy has the answer to all the nation’s perplexing problems. When he’s assassinated, she hardly knows where to turn. A close friend begins to draw her towards Christ at that time, and as she enters college a year later, she maintains contact with him. The story culiminates with the 1970 Asbury College Revival, an event I’ve studied for many years and have actually written about in some other books.

I”m so grateful to God for making this dream come true, and I look forward to the day when I can share this book with you.



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