This Week in Words (9-24-06)

Writing

I have just one word this week: Cold >n A nasty bug, often viral, which takes up residence in the warm recesses of the sinuses, throat, lungs, or other preferred part of the body.  General symptoms include, but are not limited to: sneezing, coughing (also known as ‘hacking up a lung’), shivering with aches and

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Titling: The Curse and the Bane

Writing

Okay, so it’s not all bad.  Occasionally I know the title of a story before I begin it, and may even ‘hear’ the title in my head and jump from it to the story.  But . . . The other hundredth-millionth percent of the time (can you tell I struggle in math?) the title is

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Craft – Show Someone Famous

2 CommentsCrafting Pieces

Ms. Locken felt a light touch on her shoulder.  The soft voice of the flight attendant penetrated her sleepy thoughts. “Hmm?”  She asked. “We’ll be landing soon.”  The attendant sounded slightly anxious.  “You asked that we wake you. . . can I get you anything?” Ms. Locken rolled to her side, then into a sitting position.  “No,

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Images from Space

Speculative Science

This NASA link with pictures and info about how water boils in space is a great help for obscure and weird facts a writer needs to know for credibility.  That’s what I love about NASA.  They may not make American taxpayers happy with their space progress, and they really need to keep their shuttles in better working order, but

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Narcissistic Celebrities

The Human Condition

Another great study in the science of ‘duh’ has found that Celebrities are more narcissitic than average folks.  They’re defining narcissism as self-love. Of course, when I saw this I thought, ‘Okay, tell me what else is new,’ but then I got to thinking about the whole issue.  Why is it so obvious?  Because they only talk

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Talk Like a Pirate Day

The Human Condition

Here’s more on the pirate love affair, in celebration of Talk Like a Pirate Day.  I mentioned the American (and perhaps more global) fascination with pirates in my blog on video piracy, but apparently I posted early.  Happy Pirate Day, or– Ha’ye a good ‘ole haul, me maties!

Keela gearing up for WOTF

Writing

I’ve been of two minds as to whether to send my Keela story (Mermaid chick) to this quarter’s Writers of the Future contest.  I really don’t think it’s their cup of tea.  But my other stories aren’t ready to go, and it’s really hard to say what they’ll find palatable, so… Keela gets the honor of facing

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Pluto’s Prospects

Speculative Science

Who else thought, “Aww, the guy’s getting downsized,” when Pluto got bumped out of the planet category?  All my life I’ve enjoyed the fact that our solar system wound itself up with a quirky little rock that zipped through a crazy orbit–kind of cool, really. While we lived in the DC suburbs the kids took us

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This week in words

Writing

Delirium >n. an acutely disturbed state of mind that occurs in fever, intoxication, and other disorders and is chartacterized by restlessness, illusions, and incoherence of thought and speech. 2-wild excitement or ecstasy. –Origin mid 16th cent.: from Latin, delirare ‘deviate, be deranged’ (literally ‘deviate from the furrow’), from de– ‘away’ + lira ‘ridge between furrows.’ Quoll >n. a

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Craft – Delirium

Crafting Pieces

” . . . and now, on behalf of the KIP foundation, we’d like to announce the Grand Prize winner–Jane Sowers!” Jane leaped from her seat and clambored up the stairs to the dias.  She turned to face the audience, her face flushed and eyes bright. “Oh, wow–wow,” she said.  “Thanks, everybody, but especially the truly important ones

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