That amusing little image swam into my social media recently and oh BOY. Every writer I know who happened to see it shared it, responded to it, reacted to it, responded to it. makes you wish there really … Continue reading
Category Archives: language
Without preamble, here we go. Woke. This one is particularly irksome. High on the irony scale. “Woke” may have multiple origins, but the most contemporary one appears to be from early 20th century Black consciousness raising–”stay woke” appeared in a … Continue reading
Is gluten-free cat litter a thing? While browsing the Chewy.com website to read cat litter reviews—not something I normally do when bored, you understand—I saw this entry in the “ask questions” section. After a few muttered words of derision and … Continue reading
It’s THAT time of year, so I’m combining two of my loves: writing and baseball to reprise this post from several years ago with some additional thoughts. The title phrase of this post is from one of my three most … Continue reading
The idea of using fans as a semaphore system is instant story fodder for a lot of storytellers. For me as a young writer it certainly was, but not until decades later, when I invented more complicated social histories that … Continue reading
Sigh. I really need to take a news break. More and more, I switch the radio from NPR to the local college station, which plays everything from alternative rock to reggae to jazz to prestissimo electric—at night when students need … Continue reading
There are many, many things for the prudent author to consider when naming a character. I’ve blogged about some of them before. I’m writing a long series of novels (the first one will be out this month!!) and have been … Continue reading
Since everyone seemed to have fun with the last vocabulary quiz I posted, I’ve brought you another. So sharpen your pencils (or your quill pens!) and get ready to tell me which of the following words, expressions, or exclamations were … Continue reading
I love reading up on odd words and phrases used at different times in the 19th century; my copy of The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue is battered and dog-eared, as are several other similar reference books in my … Continue reading
So, you may have noticed that I just, JUST, had a new novel come out – “The Second Star“, now doing the rounds in paperback, ebook and audio editions and garnering reader responses and reviews that are making me very … Continue reading