Showing posts with label place names. Show all posts
Showing posts with label place names. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Cemetery: spooky or fascinating? by J.S. Marlo


Call me weird, but I love visiting cemeteries where people have been buried—unburied and reburied—for centuries. Day or night, graveyards are quiet and peaceful, but I'll admit I've never ventured in one in the middle of the night alone. I might find it spooky...

While I was in Paris, I made a point for visiting the catacombs with my daughter. It was eerie to see the skeletons neatly stacks into a solid wall so they wouldn’t tumble. Some of these bones or skulls were three or four hundred years old. Though I write romantic suspense (there are a fair amount of dead people and old bones in my stories) I've never googled how long it took for bones to decompose. Maybe I should have, because I would have guessed way less than four hundred years.

While seeing bones and skulls is interesting, I’m most fascinated with grave markers and the inscriptions on them. There are a lot to learn from the names, descriptions, and dates.

During a three-day vacation in Iceland, hubby and I rented a car and toured the island. In the countryside, we stumbled onto an old church dating back to the middle ages. Behind it was a small cemetery. Graves were marked with wooden crosses or headstones. The oldest grave dated back to the 11th century while the most recent burial had occurred in my lifetime. I was amazed that most of the inscriptions had weathered the centuries. It was interesting to see how some names change through time (an "S" that disappears, or a "D" that becomes a "T"), and to travel from one generation to the next and discover the family connections between the dead. Some had died young while others had lived to see their seventieth or eightieth birthday. To be honest, I was surprised to see so many of them reach an advanced age during the 12th or 13th century.

The early markings on the gravestones behind that little Icelandic church fascinated me, especially the ones dating back to the middle ages. I have seen many ways to write dates, but  that was my first encounter with this specific form. I wish I had taken a picture, but the battery on my phone was dead. I wrote an example of the markings on a piece of paper (see photo).  In that example, the person would have been born on April 17, 1263 and would have died on October 30, 1318.

My current story "Misguided Honor", which I'm hoping to finish by Christmas, revolves around an unusual  graveyard near Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia.  I've lived near Annapolis Royal for three years and my second daughter was born there. Back then, I was too busy raising my young children to spend time in graveyards. If only I'd known then what I know now...

Last year my hubby built my family tree. My ancestors arrived in Canada in the early 1600s. In my youth I'd heard stories about some of the males marrying native women, so I wasn't surprised to learn I indeed possess native blood, though it's very diluted after thirteen generations. What I didn't expect was to learn that a big branch on my father side settled in Annapolis Royal in the mid 1600s then fled to Quebec in the mid 1700s to avoid the great deportation. I had no idea that many of my ancestors were Acadians. These first settlers from whom I descend are probably buried in Annapolis Royal cemeterya few streets from the hospital where my daughter was born more then two hundred and fifty years later.

I wish I had known when I lived in Annapolis Royal that I had come full circle. Now I long for a chance to walk into that cemetery. Maybe one day...
JS


Monday, February 20, 2017

What's in a Name? by J.Q. Rose

For more information about BWL books by J.Q. Rose , 
and to purchase, please visit J.Q.'s 
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The month of February is known for cupids, hearts, romance and love. It’s the perfect time of year to remember Shakespeare’s famous love story, Romeo and Juliet. This is my favorite passage from the play.

Juliet:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
Juliet-"What's in a name?"
By any other name would smell as sweet."

In this famous scene Juliet asks what’s in a name. She answers by telling Romeo Montague that a name is meaningless. She loves the person who is called "Montague," not the Montague name and not the Montague family. 

Alas, Juliet is wrong about a name being meaningless as far as writers and readers are concerned.

As a writer, I've discovered a name helps to convey to the reader a character's personality. If writing a story set in Victorian times, an author would not choose Jayden or Madison, the popular names in 2010. Names also help to establish the setting of the novel. Arapaho Valley conjures up a setting in the West, not in an Eastern city. Do you agree?

A strong, powerfully built hero would probably not be named Herbert. How about that gorgeous sexy blonde character at the bar? A name like Edith just does not evoke the matching image in the reader’s mind. (But it would be a fun twist to name her Edith anyway.)

When penning my romantic suspense novel, Dangerous Sanctuary,I tried several contemporary names for my main character who is a female minister. In a moment of creative energy, the name Christine swirled through my brain. I knew that was exactly the name I had been searching for. Later I discovered the meaning of the name is "follower of Christ." 

Think about the name of your favorite character in a book you've read. I love Mark Twain’s Huck Finn. There just is no other name that would fit that adventurous kid. In Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, what better name than Lula for that wild and crazy lady of the night and Morelli for the sexy rogue policeman?

When it comes to naming characters, what’s in a name? Everything!

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Books We Love and author J.Q. Rose are celebrating this month of love by offering the romantic suspense, Dangerous Sanctuary FREE today, February 20. 


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About J.Q.
After writing feature articles in magazines, newspapers, and online magazines for over fifteen years, J.Q. Rose entered the world of fiction. Her published mysteries are Deadly Undertaking  and Dangerous Sanctuary released by 
Author J.Q. Rose
Books We Love Publishing. Blogging, photography, Pegs and Jokers board games, and travel are the things that keep her out of trouble. She spends winters in Florida and summers up north camping and hunting toads, frogs, and salamanders with her four grandsons and granddaughter.

Connect with J.Q. Rose online at


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