Friday, January 14, 2022
The Past is a Different Place...by Sheila Claydon
Thursday, January 13, 2022
A Cup of Kindness
Happy New Year, dear readers.
Auld Lang Syne means “in old times,” to the Scots people. Robert Burns was trying to keep his beloved Celtic language alive when he popularized it. He described Auld Lang Syne as ‘an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man’s singing.’
The town of Bedford Falls sang it at the end of It's a Wonderful Life, when a happy George Bailey finally realizes that his life has been a worthwhile struggle. We sing it at the dawn of a new year, to mark the passage of time. To grieve a little while we promise to do a little better, love a little stronger, be a little kinder. What words could be more poignant as we enter the third year of a global pandemic?
The words say, “We’ll take a cup o’ Kindness yet." That refers to the old tradition of toasting: raising a glass, a “cup o’ kindness,” but I am always moved by the notion of kindness in a cup overflowing, bestowed on each other at the start of each year.
Kindness. A whole cup of it, I wish to you this new year of 2022, my friends, and beyond.
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
Canadian Mystery Novels, eh?
Tuesday, January 11, 2022
Fun With Fleas? by Karla Stover
for more information and to purchase click link below
https://bookswelove.net/stover-karla/
I admit it, I'm a fan of weird stuff---one reason I love YouTube videos. You can find anything there. And since I've long been curious about flea circuses, and since we used to go to Seattle's Ye Olde curiosity shop where fleas wearing clothes are on display, I checked YouTube to see if anything was posted. Sure enough, there I saw one harnessed to and struggling to pull a little cart. Probably, only grooming monkeys are fond of fleas but PETA should have stepped in and rescued that flea; it was really straining.
One historical record says in 1742 a watchmaker named Boverick may have used gold to make a small coach and harnessed some fleas to pull it. Another says in 1578 a watchmaker named Mark Scaliot made a lock and chain and attached it to a flea to demonstrate his metalworking skills. There are other claims but it wasn't until the 1820s when the first flea circus showed up courtesy of an Italian named Louis Bertolotto. Using 435 fleas all wearing battle dress, carrying teeny little swords and seated on "golden saddles Bertolotto created a mock-battle, ( he liked to recreate political events of the time )depicting Napoleon's Waterloo defeat. Supposedly, though, in 1764, a man named John Henry Mauclerc saw a four-wheeled "ivory chaise" with a figure of a man sitting in the chaise which was being drawn by a flea. Possibly more creditable was Charles Manbey Smith who, in 1857, said he saw a "small brass cannon on wheels being drawn by a flea." It cost him a penny to witness this miraculous event. By this time, however, the fleas were of more interest than their accoutrements. Bertolotto soldiered on and his fleas continued performing until sometime in the 1870s. Then a man named John C. Ruhl took a flea circus from Germany to California and small flea circuses entertained people in the United States until the 1960s. However, England did America one better. There was a flea circus at “Belle Vue Zoological Gardens,” in Manchester, England, and it worked until 1970. Not to be bested, some say that every year at Munich, Germany's Oktoberfest a flea circus operates still.
Whether they can actually be trained to do tricks is debatable. They can jump, though, as many pet owners will testify so if they're close to a ball, jumping might push it. Their natural jumping behavior could then be interpreted by the audience as a ‘trick’. By placing objects, such as a ball near the flea, the flea could then ‘push’ or move it. With no one to care about the welfare of the fleas, glue was also used to fasten them to the an attraction. Their struggles to get "free from the glue made some people think they were having fun."
Here are a couple pictures, but for those truly interested, check out eBay. Like me, you might be surprised.
Monday, January 10, 2022
Subliminal Advertising
How many of the following products can you recognize?
1. 1. You’ll
wonder where the yellow went…
2. 2. Wake
up to _____ in your cup.
3. 3. They’re
magically delicious.
4. 4. Plop,
plop, fizz, fizz…
5. 5. I
wish I was an __________.
6. 6. Double
your pleasure, double your fun…
When television advertisers created jingles, they discovered a very important fact. Jingles were catchy, short songs easily remembered and repeated by children. Thus for every time a jingle played on TV, children would repeat it and basically gain the product “free” advertising. If you completed the six examples above, did you sing the jingle as you tried to finish it? Uh-hum. J
Another way companies brand their product is by
developing a spokesperson who is in all their ads. Recognize these? Is it
possible to say their name without adding the company they’re associated with?
Companies also get you invested in their products by
having celebrities in their commercials. State Farm is one of the best known to me as they use several football icons in their commercials. And if you’re a football
fan, you think “if it’s good enough for them maybe I should take a look.”
Back in 1967, I did a term paper on subliminal
advertising*, the art of projecting indiscernible objects onto a movie or
television screen to see if people watching would be influenced by that projection.
For example, a small picture of a popcorn box was put into the top corner of
the movie screen – flashed for only a tenth of a second – and statistics were
kept as to whether popcorn sales increased. Keep in mind sight is only one of
our senses; therefore advertisers can bombard us in any number of ways. Think
of the last time you walked through a mall (I realize that was a really long
time ago) and you smelled caramel popcorn or the rich aroma of roasted coffee.
How easily your feet moved you in that direction. * What
Is Subliminal Advertising? Definition, Types & More - ShareThis
I find this subject fascinating although I know
there can be far reaching effects from such “brainwashing”. You need to be
aware that suggestions are being made to you not only with actual commercials
(which we tend to walk away from to get our lunch or use the restroom) but
within the program itself. For those familiar with the movie “E.T.”, remember what
candy became an overnight sensation when the movie came out? Hershey agreed to spend $1 million promoting E.T. in exchange for the rights to use E.T.
in its ads. The payoff was huge—the little peanut butter candies saw a reported
65% to 85% jump in profits just two weeks after the movie's premiere.
The examples, of
course, are everywhere, but I started thinking about how much closer to home
such things were as a writer. Without consciously thinking about it, my heroine
asks for a Kleenex when she sneezes; the hero opens the door of his F-150 pick
up to take her to the local pizza joint where they have cokes and wood fire
pizza. I am certainly not getting paid to use brand names in my writing (wouldn’t
that be nice) but do I have to be concerned about saying “coke” instead of “soda”?
In some cases, the need to use a brand name helps distinguish and define the
people in the story. For example, the hero putting on a North Face jacket tells you he has good
(and more expensive) taste and enjoys outside activities. Naming a premium wine
choice at the restaurant is similar.
Rights
of Writers: Can I Mention Brand Name Products in My Fiction? Is an excellent article by Mark
Fowler about the four basic types of brand/trademark problems in writing, with
examples of each, but his bottom line is, “The use of brand names in fiction is
not a sleep-depriving issue. It would be obsessive (and stylistically
unpalatable) to use the R-in-a-circle symbol or the TM symbol every time you
refer to a brand name in your text. And, as long as you do not write
falsely and disparagingly about real brands and the companies who manufacture
them, you are unlikely ever to run into a problem.”
I had the delight
of sharing some of this discussion with my characters, JC and Charlie in “Loving
Charlie Forever”, a time travel. They were trying to figure out what they could
“invent” back in 1850s to support themselves, but were having a bit of an integrity
crisis worrying about taking away another’s invention before its time. I’ve
always liked writing time travels because of the knowledge that some characters
have given they’re from the future. Usually though, they don’t have the wherewithal
to invent a particular item. And afterall, what fun would that be for the real
inventors?
In your reading,
and perhaps your writing, you’re likely to run across brand names and chances
are, you read right over them with the intent to which they were used. If it
bothers you as an author to “promote” a brand name, (afterall, they’re not
paying you to mention their product) then use a generic form or eliminate the
reference altogether.
If you like time travels, I invite you to check out the following at Books We Love:
"Spinning Through Time"
Prospecting for Love"
"Hold on to the Paat"
"Loving Charlie Forever"
Don't forget to enter BWL's New Year, New You. Visit their website for a chance to win a delightful spa basket!
All
Best Wishes,
Barb
http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin
https://bookswelove.net/baldwin-barbara/
Saturday, January 8, 2022
English language - Fun Facts by J. S. Marlo
I'm currently re-writing and re-plotting a series I wrote over a decade ago. Not only am I having lots of fun with it, but it also made me realize how much I grew as an "English" writer. Here are some fun facts about the English language I dug out while I was brainstorming some new subplots.
A pangram sentence is a sentence using every letter of the alphabet at least once, like The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
An ambigram is a word that reads the same when turned upside down, like SWIMS.
A palindrome is a word that reads the same forward or backward, like racecar, radar, or madam.
An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once, like KOBO is an anagram of book, or schoolmaster is an anagram of the classroom.
An isogram is a word with no repeating letters. The longest one in English is subdermatoglyphic.
An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word. These are some acronyms that have become accepted English words: scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), laser (light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation), or sonar (sound navigation and ranging).
A contronym is a word having two meanings that contradict one another, like to bolt (to secure or to flee), to buckle (to fasten or to collapse), or left (remained or departed).
A portmanteau is a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two other words, like brunch (from breakfast and lunch).
A capitonym is a word that changes its meaning when its first letter is capitalized, like Turkey (the country) and turkey (the bird).
About 4,000 words are added to the dictionary each year. That’s roughly a new word every two hours.
The shortest, oldest, and most commonly used word is I, and the shortest complete sentence in the English language is I am.
The longest word in English is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which is a type of lung disease caused by inhaling ash and dust.
The most common adjective used in English is good, the most commonly used noun is time, and the word run has the highest number of definitions with 645.
There are seven ways to spell the sound ee in English. This sentence contains all of them: He believed Caesar could see people seizing the seas.
E is the most commonly used letter in the English language, A is the second-most common, and Q is the letter used the least.
More English words begin with the letter S than any other letter.
The ampersand used to be the 27th letter of the
alphabet. I often use it, and I'm kind of sad it disappeared from the alphabet in the 17th century.
The only one word in the English language contains the letters X, Y, and Z in order is hydroxyzine, and the longest common word with all the letters in alphabetical order is almost.
The longest common word you can make using only four letters is senseless, the longest one with no vowels is rhythms, and the only one with three consecutive double letters is bookkeeper.
The first number spelled out that contains the letter A is one thousand. You don’t use the letter B until one billion.
Some English words exist only in plural forms, like binoculars, scissors, pants, glasses (spectacles), shears, jeans, and pajamas.
In the world, there are 378 million native English speakers (those who speak English as their first language) and 743 million non-native English speakers (those whose first language isn’t English). In average, a native speaker knows between 20,000-35,000 English words.
I belong in the non-native group, and I have no idea how many English words I know, but I read somewhere that those who read fiction have a larger vocabulary than those who read non-fiction (fiction tends to contain a wider range of vocabulary than non-fiction) or don’t read.
So, happy reading! An adventure, and a few new words, await you between the pages of a new book. Better still, read to a young child and take him or her along on the adventure.
Stay warm & stay safe!
JS
Friday, January 7, 2022
Happy New Year! by Eileen O'Finlan
Wednesday, January 5, 2022
Baroness Orczy and The Scarlet Pimpernel ~ Fiction and Fact by Rosemary Morris
To learn more about Rosemary please click on the image above.
Baroness Orczy
and
The Scarlet Pimpernel Fiction
and Fact
“They
seek him here, they seek him there,
Those
French men seek him everywhere.
Is
he in Heaven? – Is he in hell?
That
damned annoying Pimpernel.”
The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy’s most famous character, is
Percy, the gallant daredevil, Sir Percival Blakeney Bart. He is the hero of her novels and short
stories set in The French Revolution, so aptly nick-named The Reign of
Terror.
Orczy was a royalist with no sympathy for the merciless Jacobins who
spared no efforts to achieve their political ambitions. Historical accounts prove everyone in France
was at risk of being arrested and sent to the guillotine. Orczy’s works of fiction about the Scarlet
Pimpernel display her detailed knowledge about Revolutionary France and capture
the miserable atmosphere which prevailed in that era.
When writing about her novel The
Laughing Cavalier, Percy’s ancestor, Orczy
described Percival’s “sunny disposition, irresistible laughter, a
careless insouciance and adventurous spirit”.
As I mentioned in my previous article in Baroness Orczy, in Vintage
Script, Percy revealed himself to Orczy while she was waiting for a train
at an underground station. She saw him
dressed in exquisite clothes that marked him as a late eighteenth century
gentleman, noted the monocle he held up in his slender hand and heard both his
lazy drawl and quaint laugh. Inspired by
their meeting she wrote The Scarlet Pimpernel in five weeks.
On the second of August 1792, Percy founded his gallant League of
Gentlemen composed of nine members. When
ten more members enrolled in January 1793 there was “one to command and
nineteen to obey.” Percy and his league saved innocents from the French
Revolutionary Government’s tool, Madame Guillotine.
London society speculated about the identity of The Scarlet
Pimpernel but, with the possible
exception of the Prince Regent, only the members of Percy’s league knew his
true identity.
Percy, a man of wealth and
influence well-acquainted with the Prince Regent, heir to the throne, married
Marguerite St. Just, a French actress.
Until Percy discovered Marguerite was responsible for an aristocratic
family’s death, he was an adoring husband.
Percy kept his alias, The Scarlet Pimpernel secret from Marguerite for fear
she would betray him. Still loving
Marguerite despite her crime, he feigned indifference, treated her coldly,
shunned her company and acted the part of a fool so successfully that he bored
her. However, Marguerite discovered the
truth about Percy and saved his life.
After the romantic couple’s reconciliation, Marguerite is mentioned as a
member of the league in Mam’zelle Guillotine.
At the beginning of each of Orczy’s novels about The Scarlet
Pimpernel and his league, the current events of the French Revolution are
summarised. Thus, Orczy weaves fiction
and face by not only featuring English and French historical figures such as
Robespierre, d’Herbois, The Prince of Wales, and Sir William Pitt, the younger,
but by making use of historical events.
For example, in Eldorado Orczy
describes the Dauphin in the care of the brutal shoemaker, Simon, who teaches
the prince to curse God and his parents.
Amid horror, Orczy uses romance and heroism to defeat evil, as she
did as a child when playing the part of a fearless prince while her sister
acted the part of a damsel in distress.
Orczy spent 1900 in Paris that, in her ears, echoed with the horrors
of the French Revolution. Surely, she
had found the setting for her magnificent hero The Scarlet Pimpernel, who would champion the victims of The
Terror. But why did she choose such an
insignificant flower for Percy’s alias?
It is not unreasonable to suppose a Parisian royalist organisation’s
triangular cards, which were hand painted with roses that resemble scarlet
pimpernels, fuelled Orczy’s imagination.
Further fuel might have been added by a man called Louis Bayard, a
young man with similarities to the real life Scarlet Pimpernel, although he
might not have been motivated by Percy’s idealism
William Wickham, the first British spymaster, engaged the
nineteen-year old Louis Bayard. In the
following years, Louis proved himself to be as elusive as Percy. Like Percy,
Louis had many aliases. Not only did Orczy’s fictional hero and Louis fall in
love with actresses, but both also appeared and disappeared without causing
comment. Real life Louis’s and fictional
Percy’s lives depended on being masters of disguise.
In disguise, Percy fools his archenemy, Citizen Chauvelin, who Orczy
gives the role of official French Ambassador to England. It is an interesting example of her
distortion of historical personalities and incidents for them to feature in her
works of fiction. In fact, it is
doubtful that Bernard-Francois, marquis de Chauvelin ever assumed a false
identity as he did in Orczy’s novel, The Scarlet Pimpernel, about Percy and his
League of Gentlemen, among whom are such fictional but memorable characters
such as Armand St Just, Marguerite’s brother, Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, Lord
Hastings, and Lord Tony Dewhurst.
Another example of Orczy weaving fact and fiction is Louis-Antoine
St Just, a revolutionary, who she describes as Marguerite’s cousin. Louis-Antoine St Just, a young lawyer, was
Maximillian Robespierre’s follower. He supported the punishment of traitors as
well as that of anyone who was a ‘luke-warm’ revolutionary. In The
Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel Marguerite’s brother, the fictional,
Armand St Just, meets with Robespierre and other Jacobins. Orczy portrays him as young, fervent, and
articulate as the real life Louis-Antoine St Just.
Throughout the history of publishing countless authors, who became
famous and whose work is still enjoyed as books, films, plays and t.v.
dramatizations, found it difficult to place their work. Orczy’s most famous novel was no
exception. Percy took the leading role
in her play called The Scarlet Pimpernel and
captured the audience’s hearts. Subsequently the novel was published, and Percy
became famous. His fame increased with
each sequel about his daring exploits.
http://bookswelove.net/authors/morris-rosemary
rosemarymorris.co.uk
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
The Necessity of New Year’s Writing Goals by S. L. Carlson
I am S. L. Carlson, a proud and grateful BWL Publishing Inc. author. My books can be viewed and purchased by visiting https://www.bookswelove.net/carlson-s-l
I find this yearly habit encouraging and strengthening.
More than that. As a writer, I find it vital in order to see and find my writing way.
Each year, I keep a file for the critique group. So
this new month of the new year, I looked up the file of our 2021 writing goals.
Couldn’t find it. I figured it was such a chaotic pandemic year (with me moving
a little over a year ago to a new state), that I simply hadn’t pieced all our
goals together like I’ve done the previous years. But when I searched my
emails, lo and behold, not a single 2021 writing goal popped up.
I was stunned. I stared at my computer screen for the
longest time because 1) I hadn’t sent out a request for goals (so unlike me);
2) no one else in the group made comments about it (so unlike them); and 3) I
was struck with how much this pandemic and move has kicked my writing butt!
This new year, however, our house is finally in order,
including furniture, and pictures on the walls. All our family have been
vaccinated. It’s a new year. New beginnings. Time for new goals.
If you have not made writing goals for this new year,
I admire your time, dedication, and tenacity to continue writing on your own. An
author’s life can be very solitary. As for me, I need others. If I didn’t have
a time-limit of when to have 3,000 new words written to sub to my critique
group each month, I know I’d make excuses to fill my time with things other
than writing, and there are always other things.
I’ve been in other on-line groups, like BIW (Book-in-a-Week),
where you’d post on Sunday night however many pages you think you’d be able to
write for the week, then report in on the following Sunday. I’ve also
participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November for ten years.
THAT is a rush – writing 1,667 blabbering words each day!
If you don’t have (or even if you do have) a writing group
to share you goals with, share them in the comments below. Let’s make 2022 a
spectacular year for writing.
S. L. Carlson Blog & Website: https://authorslcarlson.wordpress.com
BWL Inc. Publisher Author Page: https://www.bookswelove.net/carlson-s-l
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