I finally sent the novel I’ve been working on to some writing friends for feedback. Huzzah! Now I’m shaking in my snazzy red boots. It’s amazing how my mind flipped after clicking ‘send’. Before hitting ’send’, I was pretty happy with the general shape of the draft. I’ve been dying for someone to read it … Continue reading Journal: shaking in my boots
This week I used the word GLUGGY in one of my facebook groups, only to be informed by one of my friends in the group that he didn't know the word and had to look up its meaning. Upon further discussion it turned out gluggy is not a word used often in North America. I … Continue reading Word of the day: Gluggy
Here's a cool word AILUROPHILE Sounds like... I don't know what it sounds like. What it means though is A CAT LOVER Yep. It's from the ancient Greek ailouros (cat) and philos (dear, beloved). And I'm guessing quite a few readers of this blog qualify as ailurophiles. Am I right? Here's my claim to fame -- Chenna, otherwise known … Continue reading Are you an ailurophile?
Today's blogging theme is WORDLE, the wonderful word cloud tool. After some contemplation, I decided to build a word cloud from all my blog posts with the tag worldbuilding. Cool, huh? I rather think this word cloud reflects the themes of my blog quite well. It's made from the following eleven posts (a total of … Continue reading Wordle on Worldbuilding
I like to surround myself with reminders of why I'm here, what I'm doing, and give myself the occasional pep talk while I'm at it. It's so easy to let life get in the way of dreams, so easy to get all caught up in the mechanics that you forget how to unleash creativity and … Continue reading Imagine wide, dream big
Cunctator noun: One who hesitates; a procrastinator or delayer When I saw this word hit my inbox (from A.Word.A.Day) last week, I knew I had to share it -- even if only as a reminder to myself that I must not embody its meaning. This evening, however, I fear I deserve it as a descriptor. … Continue reading Word of the day: Cunctator
Recently, a press release from the Plain English Foundation crossed my desk at work and immediately snagged my attention. It was titled "Fugitive emissions" tops the list of 2011's worst words and highlighted such iniquities as Nicole Kidman's "gestational carrier" and the obfuscation "negative good" in relation to the effects of teeth whitening. Now, I would argue these are … Continue reading Get over it: English is a living language
This word is cool for two reasons: SYZYGY - has 3 Ys alternating, not to mention a Z. What an awesome scrabble word! SYZYGY - means 1. An alignment of three objects, for example, sun, moon, and earth during an eclipse. 2. A pair of related things. The first meaning is celestial so I love … Continue reading cool word: syzygy
Today I highlight a wonderful word that seems custom-made for the fantasy genre. Darkle verb tr., intr.: To make or become dark, indistinct, or gloomy; to be seen darkly. According to A.Word.A.Day, it's a back-formation from darkling (adv., a.: in the dark), from Middle English derkeling. Earliest documented use: 1819. As far as I can … Continue reading An evocative word: darkle
When I push myself to write quickly, I tend to waffle. It's as though I throw anything onto the page in the hope that out of the chaos will emerge the odd little gem that can be extracted and polished. This means that on a subsequent much-needed editing/revision pass, I invariably lose a heap of … Continue reading Waffle or bones?
Ellen Gregory 