The Cutting Game

Photo by Livin4wheel on Unsplash

Spring is here! I keep repeating this mantra to myself, even though mother nature (she has a perverse sense of humour) has greeted us the last few mornings with SNOW. But the determined birds keep singing spring’s praise, so much so, that if I close my eyes, I can almost feel spring. I’ve also had the spring-cleaning bug—rifling through closets, dusting off clothing no longer worn to donate and cleaning out the boxes that have been sitting in my back room for months and months.

Photo by Stephanie Harvey on Unsplash

I’m also shaggy. I am in serious need of a haircut, an eyebrow shaping, and I’m prickly! I dearly need a new razor to release these legs from their winter coat. Too bad we weren’t like animals and could shed our leg hairs each spring. Regardless, it got me to thinking about all this self care and how my current manuscript could the same focused love.

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Quest for Truth

When beginning this blog, my intention was to explore the language that peppers social activism discussions these days. Terms such as virtue signaling, manufacturing consent, false flags, being woke and right to protect were mostly new to me. Instead, the writing was sidetracked and I learned an important lesson along the way. 

 FAIR WARNING – RANT ADVISORY!

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The Weird Brother, Onomatopoeia

Picture from Pixabay, SashaNebesuyk
I don’t think he got the same advice as I did about running in zig zag patterns

When being chased by a rhino, you should run in a zig-zag pattern. The wildlife guide in Nepal provided this advice to me. Zig-Zag is probably my favourite onomatopoeia word. The very sound of “zig” and “zag” suggests its meaning. I was “almost chased” by a rhino three times— still don’t know if it was a set up for an extra tip by the guide— and yes, each time, I duly ran in zig-zag patterns. Zippy-do-da! I’m still alive to write this blog.  

Onomatopoeia refers to a word that imitates or suggests the word’s sound. It can bring language to life by capturing its sound in the word itself.  Buzz, crash, whisper are all common examples.  Animal noises (bark, meow, chirp) are all onomatopoeia words.  Nature sounds lend themselves to be onomatopoeia. (The drizzle of rain; the swoosh of the wind; the gurgling creek).  

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Writers & Artists Paying It Forward

Artwork by Birch Notes Creative
Artwork by Birch Notes Creative; Photo credit ~ Lori Twining

Above all else, writers should be writing, but what if you have trouble getting words on the page?

With the world raging in turmoil outside our windows, writers start to wonder if the words they are writing will matter in a time like this. We thought the pandemic was challenging, but now, people are dying thanks to a man with a greed problem. I’m simplifying this because the man has more problems than greed, but I’m sure you understand we are on the verge of World War III now that Putin, the Russian leader, has ripped up the peace deal and has launched a devastating attack on Ukraine by air, land, and sea.

This news is scary shit. Read more

Finding Your Family – Comparable Titles

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

The dreaded ‘comp’ or comparative title is every querying novelist’s nemesis. You spend years writing and perfecting your novel—a book only you could have written, a story unlike any other—and then you’re asked to list the similar books.

What? Are they crazy? Of course, there is nothing exactly like your novel—that’s why you wrote it.

The trouble is—this is the business of books. If you want an agent to promote your work, if you dream of the day a publisher will commit to printing your pages and you can’t wait to see your glossy hard cover baby mingling on the shelves of your favourite bookstore, then you need to help everyone to position your book. Read more

Love is All Around

Is there any subject spanning the ages that has been written, sung and contemplated about more than love? How many battles have been fought and tragedies endured over love?

Seeking inspiration for writing a Valentine’s Day sentiment, I sorted through my late grandmother’s postcard collection and found a few valentines she had received between 1908 and 1913. The cards are little works of art, most printed in Germany or Saxony. Surprisingly, a number of messages included requests to let the senders know if she was still alive. It was hard to tell if the questions were asked in jest or if it was a very real concern given it was early in the twentieth century.

The cards inspire a lot of creative imaginings. They were mailed from distant places and I wonder about those who sent them and how they knew my grandmother.

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The Evil Sisters Anosmia and Ageusia

~from Pixabay, PublicDomainPictures

So I caught the ugly fish, Covid 19, in early January. Like a huge catfish, it latched onto me with its sucker mouth and slathered me with all of its nasty symptoms. This includes losing my sense of  smell (Anosmia) and taste (Ageusia) for a week.

These are the twin sisters of senses as the loss of smell effects the sense of taste.

…and smell and taste are in fact but a single composite sense, whose laboratory is the mouth and its chimney the nose…

~ Anthelme Brilliant-Savarin (and see note below)
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