Once Again, Authors Should Thank the British by Karla Stover

                

I'm not sure that "Spotters" are as popular in my neck of the woods as they seem to be elsewhere. Our weather is innocuous enough to pretty much eliminate storm spotting, and we don't have the types of tornadoes that are so beloved on YouTube. Tacoma came into existence thanks to the Northern Pacific Railroad, but I've never seem anyone trainspotting. I used to see people watching planes come and go at Joint Base Lewis McChord, the nearby military base, but the threat of terrorism seems to have put paid to that activity, and besides, my husband says its illegal. Also, back in the day, people would sit at the border of SeaTac Airport to watch planes, but I haven't been there, lately and can't give an update. Wikipedia calls a person who enjoys watching activity on canals in the United Kingdom a gongoozler. Apparently, they "harbor an interest in canals and canal life, but do not actively participate." There are 18,241 canals in the United States but I've never heard of anyone watching them. But road geeks, aka Roads Scholars, 😁 like roads less travel and regularly take road trips. All this watching/spotting is by way of introducing the Cloud Appreciation Society, cloud spotters, as it were.

A British author named Gavinj Pretor-Pinney founded the society in 2005, and it has approximately forty-six thousand members in one hundred and twenty different countries. Their aim is to "foster understanding and appreciation of clouds." The society's homepage, cloudappreciationsociety.org has a gallery of photographs submitted from all over the world. Also, in 2005, Yahoo named the society the most weird and wonderful find on the internet." (I couldn't find Yahoo's list).

For authors and readers, how many books can there be that don't mention clouds? Whatever the weather--sunny, stormy, windy, etc. they are almost always part of the written text. TheAtlantic.com calls clouds "the most useful metaphor of all time." because they can shape-shift to meet any situation.

Joni Mitchell must have agreed when she sang about clouds getting in her way and going on to say:

"I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud's illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all."

Describe it!

Find my books at Books We Love

As a writer, it’s my job to use description well so my readers can see the world I’m creating and feel as if they actually know the characters as people next door, from work, or co-riders on the subway. There are millions of words for describing the taste, smell, feel, look and sound of everything and it really shouldn’t be a problem. Right?


Last week, I asked my niece for her mom’s chicken tetrazzini recipe. I love it and wanted to make it for my family. One of the ingredients is cooking sherry and it’s not something I keep on hand. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever used it in a recipe. So off to the store I go. After wandering the aisles looking in what I thought were the obvious places, I stopped a clerk.


“Can you tell me where the cooking sherry is?”


He frowned, then said, “Describe it.”


Huh? “It’s sherry…that you cook with.”


He had no idea but suggested I go to the front of the store to customer service.


Again I asked, “Can you tell me where the cooking sherry is?” Now mind you, this is a major grocery store chain; not a small back woods convenience store.


The man behind the counter checked his computer then said… “Describe it.”


You would think the name was description enough, but doing better this time, I said, “It’s liquid and comes in a bottle.” Thinking that could be probably 30% of the store contents, I added, “It’s sherry you use for cooking. You could probably drink it but it doesn’t have alcohol in it.” (Misconception on my part, as it’s 17% alcohol by content yet it’s not in the liquor department.)


He said it might be in aisle 3 so we headed that way. As he was perusing the shelves, I pulled out my phone and texted my niece, asking her where the cooking sherry was located. (I’m in Kansas and she’s  across the country in New York, but I figured … well, I’m not sure but the odds were she knew as much as my store clerks as she had used it before.) Just as she answered the clerk came from the aisle next to where I was standing with a bottle of cooking sherry.


I’m not sure there’s a morale to this story unless it’s to have someone else do your grocery shopping because in the time I spent wandering the aisles, I picked up several food items that looked good but I didn’t really need. All this for 4 tablespoons of cooking sherry.


****

Describing characters in my novel “An Interlude” was easier because Peter and CJ were so real to me. Stuffy, uptight New York businessman Peter didn’t like his need for southern bred, New Orleans contractor CJ, but she was in charge of the restoration of his great-aunt’s house and he would put up with her. Except that meant being around her on a daily basis and he soon began to feel the pull of what could only be bayou magic.


Grab a copy of “An Interlude”, as ebook or in print at my favorite publisher, Books We Love. http://bookswelove.net/authors/baldwin-barbara-romance/


Visit my website for more great reading with contemporary, historical and time travel romantic stories. http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin


Thanks for reading,
Barb

Romantic expressions - part 2 by J. S. Marlo

J. S. Marlo BWL Author Page

Like I said last month, I'm fascinated by expressions & idioms. In my October blog, I covered some criminal expressions, but since I write romantic suspense, not just suspense, there's also a romantic side to my stories.
So, here are some expressions about love and romance, their meanings, and their origins:

- To fall head over heels in love (late 1700s): to fall deeply and completely in love. "Heels over head" used to describe a bad fall, but then in the late 1700s,  it changed to "Head over heels" to describe falling in love.

- Sugar Daddy (early 1900s): a rich older man who lavishes gifts on a young woman in return for her company or sexual favors. In 1908, Adolph Spreckels, heir to the Spreckel's sugar fortune, married a woman who was 24 years younger than him. She called him "Sugar Daddy".


-  On the rocks (late 1800s): a relationship experiencing problems. It was originally used for ships which ran aground on rocks and broke apart. Since the late 1800s it has been used figuratively for other disasters or problems.

- The course of true love never did run smooth (1598): people in love often have to overcome difficulties in order to be with each other. It was first used by William Shakespeare in his play "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
 

people in love often have to overcome difficulties in order to be with each other (Theidioms.com)

- No love lost (1800s): there is a mutual dislike between two people. It originated in the 1500s where it meant extreme love or extreme hate. Then in 1800s, it began to signify hate exclusively.

- Labour of love: a task done for the pleasure of doing it, not for gains or reward. It originated in the Bible.

- Pop the question (1826): ask someone to marry you. It has been used since 1725, but with the meaning of asking something important. The specific sense of proposing marriage has been used since 1826.

- Kiss and make up (mid 1900s): become reconciled. In the mid 1900s, it replaced the expression "kiss and be friends", which had been used since the 1400s.
 




- Wear one's heart on one's sleeve (1604): make one's feelings apparent. It was first recorded in Shakespeare's play "Othello".

- Marry in haste, repent at leisure (1693):  those who rush impetuously into marriage may spend a long time regretting it. First originated in print in "The Old Batchelour" by William Congreve.

 

- Get hitched (1600s): get married. It was initially used in 1500s to describe tying horses to wagons. Then in 1600s, it started being used to describe two people getting married.



- Cupboard love (mid 1700s): affection given in order to gain a reward. It derives from the way a cat shows superficial love for a person who feeds it, or for the cupboard that holds its food.

- Hell has no fury like a woman scorned (1697): a betrayed woman is more furious than anything  hell can devise. The English playwright and poet William Congreve first wrote these words in his play "The Mourning Bride".

Time to go back to writing, and maybe use one or two expressions.

Happy reading!

JS

 J. S. Marlo's Website