Rose Anderson's Blog, page 44

Standing the test of time

For the past few days I’ve been discussing names for the symbols they are.

I’m a writer of romance  but I’m also a reader. What romance reader isn’t familiar with names like Darcy and Heathcliff? I know if I saw those two names in print, my mind would make an instant association to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and to Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.  An author can’t do better than create a character that stands the test of time as well as Darcy and Heathcliff have. It’s no small feat to inspire an instant association between the character’s name and the literature they’re found in.  It shows that not only is a memorable storyline necessary, our character names matter too. Would those two heroes be as well-known 201 and 169 years later if they’d simply been named Dan and John? 

In the realm of literature, what other names inspire immediate connotation in your mind? I clearly see each literary work when I see the names below. Test yourself. What do you see?

Ahab    Ashley   Atticus    Moll    Uriah   Americus    Ichabod    Jane   JeanValjean

Cosette    Hermione   Daisy  Rhett    Nancy    Scarlett    Scout    Katniss    Antonia

Sethe    Sherlock   Tristan  Frodo  Holden   Porthos   Lara   Toby   Holly   Luna  Fern Anastasia  Aragorn  Harry  Celie  Novalee  Hester  Stella  Lemuel  Yuri  Jo  Juliette  Hannibal   Tristam   Heidi   Augie   Dorian   Elinor   Emma   Blanche   Watson  Humbert  Lysander   Kizzy   Ebenezer   Huckleberry   Desdemona    Tess    Algernon   Robinson

Galadriel   Natty   Pippi  Inigo  Ishmael   Caspian   Horatio   Pollyanna   Roxanne   

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The doors are open! Author Martha O’Sullivan is there today. Come see her favorite 5-star reviews.

http://eq-recycled-reviews.blogspot.com/

A place for your old stars to shine

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Another 100 Things Blogging Challenge! For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Words on the Verge of Extinction. There are 91 entries to come.

Here’s one for today:

Teterrimous (adjective common from 1704-1864)

most foul

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Today we have author Melissa Keir’s interview.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

All through January the RB4U authors are doing interviews. The thoughtful questions are a great way to get to know us. Commenting that day gives you a chance to win a collectable t-shirt. Come see!

Right now the COLD SNOW, HOT ROMANCE CONTEST is on! Three winners will each receive a $25 gift card for Amazon/Barnes & Noble, and split the other prizes randomly picked from prize list. Be sure to check all our pages for news about authors and their books, publishers and their books, and industry representatives. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

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Today is The Genesis of a Book featuring author Skye Michaels. She’s sharing the spark behind her novel Cassandra’s Revenge.

Several promotional opportunities for romance authors can be found on my Exquisite Quills group blog. Meet the founding authors and our guests.

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills Yahoo Group

First Kiss Wednesday ~ share your best 300 word kiss.

Set the Scene in Six ~ share your backdrop or lead-up on Sundays.

The Genesis of a Book ~ share the spark that ignited your novel

Author Interviews ~ We’re booking late spring now.

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Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

Sample my love stories for free!

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Onomastics…huh?

Did you know there’s a field of study devoted to origin, use, and history of proper names? It’s called Onomastics. What’s more, the person who studies it is called an Onomast. The Onomast is into all names — from people and places, to animals, roads, and even chocolates. As you read in yesterday’s post, many names originated as meaningful words for occupations. Joe the Baker became Joe Baker. His son Joe Jr. might have been called Joe Bakerson. The Bakers throughout Europe became Bakker, Bager, Pagar, Boulange, Besitzer, Panettiere, Rzecz, Padeiro, Mierii, Panadero, and Pobydd. 

There’s so much more under the large umbrella of Onomastics. In fact, there are many fields of study associated with it.

Did you ever stopped to think anthropologists, archaeologists, and sociologists would study names to learn about human societies, past civilizations, or for evidence of social change? I really never gave it much thought until my husband developed his genealogy hobby. While family genealogy hobbyists hunt down clues to their past, historians study names for evidence of the past such as settlement areas and migration patterns. There’s even a branch of name study called philology that looks to names for clues regarding lost or early languages. Lexicographers also get into names and study them for the words and word meanings that names are comprised of. Who knew geographers combed names for evidence of early landscapes?

Today I’m peeking into the fields of geography and lexicography and talking place names, or more formally, toponyms. I can’t possibly list them all without blowing my blog to smithereens, so this is only a short list. Many show up with prefixes such as Ab, Di, Du, O’, Fitz  and others have suffixes such as son, sen, dze and ski. Many surnames have both.



Example: the people who lived by water could take the name Brook, Beck, Brooke, and Rivers. The following are toponyms for four key geographic features:

Water

Arroyo, Hooker, Horne, Beeks, Bach, Bachmeier, Burnes, Beverly, Bachmann, Puro, Head, Ruisseau, Patak, Crawford, Ford, Ewart, Daugherty, Rzecz, Marsh, Sanka, Moeras, Marais, Marécage, Sumpflander, Sands, Sandford, Seymore, DiPalude, Pantano, Acquitrino, Lavlanderson Baader, Lago, Ware, Dalgalar, Walton, Blackburn, Poole, Meer, Newport, Lamar, Eau Claire,  Rush,  Llyn, Vance, Witmore

Valley

Dyffryn, Valle, Vale, Dale, Dolina, Wied, Slėnis, Valatti, Gleann, Glen, Glenn, Ebene, Laakso, Dahl, Craft, Bently, Combs, Coombs, Dean, Harden, Harley, Marsden, Ogden, Stainthorpe, Westley, Summerfield, Winterbottom

Mountains and hilly ground

Fjell, Hora, Bjerg, Brandon, Berg, Berger, Mägi, Vuori, Montagne, Monceau, Montana, Montagna, Monte, Haight, Bray, Hull, Huff,  Brent, Hyland, Hill, Radcliffe, Hills, Kulle, Colline, Colina, Wzgórze, Helling, Haug, Heuvel, Attenberg, Cantrell, Downs, Downer, Harlow, Underhill, Salita, Winslow

Forest, woodlands, and fields

Houtman, Ash, Greene, Hollins, Holt, Ashe, Holly, Beasley, Boyce, DuBois, Buckley, Delaney, Fay, Shiel, Forrester, Haywood, Lockewood, Woods, Wood, Hurst, Garland, Gore, Hayward, Hays, Hayland, Rhodes, Roscoe, Selby, Shaw, Stroud, Timberlake, Vernon, Timberlane, Wooton, Woodward, York

That was exhausting. lol And that’s just a drop in the ocean of names. If you’d like to see what your own surname means, try Your name might be a toponym.

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The doors are open! Author E. Ayers is there today. Come see her favorite reviews.

http://eq-recycled-reviews.blogspot.com/

A place for your old stars to shine

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Another 100 Things Blogging Challenge! For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Words on the Verge of Extinction. There are 92 entries to come.

Here’s one for today:

Sinapistic (adjective 1879)

consisting of mustard

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Hump Day Hook

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Horny Hump Day

http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

First Kiss Wednesday

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

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Today we have a guest blog with author Amber Skyze

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

All through January the RB4U authors are doing interviews. The thoughtful questions are a great way to get to know us. Commenting that day gives you a chance to win a collectable t-shirt. Come see!

Right now the COLD SNOW, HOT ROMANCE CONTEST is on! Three winners will each receive a $25 gift card for Amazon/Barnes & Noble, and split the other prizes randomly picked from prize list. Be sure to check all our pages for news about authors and their books, publishers and their books, and industry representatives. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

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Today is First Kiss Wednesday! Come share your best 300 word kiss.

Several promotional opportunities for romance authors can be found on my Exquisite Quills group blog. Meet the founding authors and our guests.

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills Yahoo Group

First Kiss Wednesday ~ share your best 300 word kiss.

Set the Scene in Six ~ share your backdrop or lead-up on Sundays.

The Genesis of a Book ~ share the spark that ignited your novel

Author Interviews ~ We’re booking late spring now.

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Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

Sample my love stories for free!

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Work that name…

My mother always harbored the wish that I’d become an artist of note.  She worked near a store where art supplies of all sorts were sold, so I had early access to clay, colored pencils, sketch books, and how-to books. One day she brought home a book all about carving ship’s figureheads! Hooked, I started carving bars of soap. As for the how-to sketch books, I didn’t see the point in the step-by-step instructions of most of them. If you roughed out a sketch first with all the lines they suggested, you’d have to erase. And every kid knew erasing ruined pictures and sometimes even put a hole in the paper. If I wanted to draw a face, I’d just draw a face. I wouldn’t make an egg shape with lines for where the eyes, nose and mouth would go. All these years later, if I get a rare urge to draw a face, I’ll just draw the face — no egg head first.  But I digress…

One day she brought home a how-to book all about cowboy and rancher brands of the old west — symbols used to keep cattle and property separate at a glance on the vast prairies. There were names and meanings hidden in the simple lines, and I was enthralled by them all. I still remember some of the brands nearly 50 years later: the Rocking R ranch showed an R with rocking chair rockers across the bottom. The Lazy K had the letter K lying face down. The Lucky M had three m’s turned in such a way they formed a clover leaf. That weird how-to book set me up for a life-long appreciation of symbols.  I love symbolic representation. I guess that’s why I’m always tucking symbols into my stories. I get such a kick when readers catch them and write to tell me. Even if they’re never noticed, I know they’re there. 

So the other day, after reading that Huffington Post article about which names  were popular in 2013, I started thinking about how to explain how I use names as a writer. Typically, I go for names that give me a layer of familiarity to work with when I create my characters. (Scroll back a bit to my previous post to see what I mean) But names can also be great symbols. Names have meaning.

Occupational names

I’d never given last names much thought until I encountered occupational surnames. My maiden name is actually one of these, and it means woodcutter. Names like these tied the occupation to the person. Here are a few examples:

Chandler = a candle maker

Fleischer = butter maker

Baker = literally a baker

Potter= literally a pot maker

Draper = cloth maker

Faulkner = falconer

Kowalski = blacksmith

Cartwright = cart builder

Fuhrmann = a cartwright

Barber = literally a barber

Fischer = fisherman

Baumgartner = an orchard keeper

Garson = servant

Knight = literally a soldier

Hoffman = farmer

Kellogg = hog butcher

Schindler = a roof shingler

Thatcher = literally a roof thatcher

Mason = literally a mason

Palmer = pilgrim

Sawyer = a cutter of wood planks

Sherman = a sheep shearer

You get the idea. How fun for writers to tuck those nuggets into our stories. Miss Fleischer can be buttering a slice of toast. Mr. Sherman can be wearing a cable knit wool sweater. Mrs. Kellogg can be eating bacon and eggs for breakfast. I do things like this all the time. Read my novels and see how many symbols of all sorts you can find. I think you’ll be surprised.

Tomorrow ~ more names.

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The doors are open! Author Missy Martine is there today. Come see her favorite reviews.

http://eq-recycled-reviews.blogspot.com/

A place for your old stars to shine

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Another 100 Things Blogging Challenge! For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Words on the Verge of Extinction. There are 93 entries to come.

Here’s one for today:

Gaudiloquent (adjective common from 1656-1727)

speaking joyfully or on joyful matters

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Today we have a guest blog with Michelle Grey.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

All through January the RB4U authors are doing interviews. The thoughtful questions are a great way to get to know us. Commenting that day gives you a chance to win a collectable t-shirt. Come see!

Right now the COLD SNOW, HOT ROMANCE CONTEST is on! Three winners will each receive a $25 gift card for Amazon/Barnes & Noble, and split the other prizes randomly picked from prize list. Be sure to check all our pages for news about authors and their books, publishers and their books, and industry representatives. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

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Several promotional opportunities for romance authors can be found on my Exquisite Quills group blog. Meet the founding authors and our guests.

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills Yahoo Group

First Kiss Wednesday ~ share your best 300 word kiss.

Set the Scene in Six ~ share your backdrop or lead-up on Sundays.

The Genesis of a Book ~ share the spark that ignited your novel

Author Interviews ~ We’re booking late spring now.

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Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

Sample my love stories for free!

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Sychronicity at its Best

One more ball in the air! I just had to introduce the Exquisite Quills Recycled Reviews blog on its opening day.

Tomorrow, the discourse on names will continue.

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Community (noun)

1. A unified body of individuals

      g: A body of persons of common interests scattered through  a larger society

2: Society at large

     a: joint ownership or participation

     b: common character

     c: a community of interests, social activity, fellowship

3: Exquisite Quills

Three years ago come March 15th, my first novel hit the shelves. As part of their process, my new publisher sent me an invitation to join their Yahoo Group page. I was ignorant of the whole Yahoo Groups thing back then, my understanding limited to the chat room culture of AOL and IRC. I wasn’t prepared for the sheer volume of posts. I had such a hard time following threads because many things said just didn’t make sense to this newbie.  I’m like a dog on a bone when I want to know something. I’ll generally work a problem until I learn it, or at least have a better-than-vague understanding. I hate to admit this, but I gave up after just a few days because the author’s world was like a punchline without a joke to me. This simply would not do. I had life plans. Three weeks passed and desperate to figure it out, I tried again. I had to. I got myself into this for a reason — to learn.

In a classic case of dumb luck, I created a yahoo mail account for myself and set things up to get emails instead of confusing threads. Good lord, the volume of emails!  I found myself floundering in an unnavigable inbox filled with stuff both foreign and confusing. Guest spots? Reviews? Track changes? Stars? Negative Reviews? Line edits? Copy edits? Amazon Author Pages? Stats? Royalties? Bestsellers? I tried looking up unknown words and terminology online. Pantser? What the heck is a pantser??  I couldn’t seem to get what I was seeing. Worse, I was so afraid of screwing up. Remember, the advice from that intensely-bitter horror author? (scroll back to read) It made me fearful of making a mistake. Beyond hope, I made up my mind to throw in the towel and wait for the publisher to send me things I needed to know. And then I was met with a magically synchronistic moment.

I stared at my screen feeling dumb. I had so many questions with no idea how to ask them or where to even begin. It was reminiscent  of my father teaching me to swim by jumping off the diving board with me in his arms.  Oh, I swam alright…for my life! But dad was gone. Even my husband’s supportive arms around me couldn’t help me swim this sea of perplexity. Then, right before my eyes, an email popped into my inbox. Author Michele Hart was forming a small group to support and encourage. The next thing I knew, I clicked reply.

Falling in with a great bunch of authors my second month as a published romance author was exactly the life preserver I needed. Believe me, floundering wasn’t fun. But floundering alone was terrible. It’s been my desire ever since to pay it forward. Today, as part of my whole Exquisite Quills reader/writer community concept, I’ve launched Exquisite Quills Recycled Reviews. 

Come see!

http://eq-recycled-reviews.blogspot.com/

A place for your old stars to shine. 

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Another 100 Things Blogging Challenge! For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Words on the Verge of Extinction. There are 94 entries to come.

Here’s one for today:

Ecstasiate (verb 1823-1957)

to go into an ecstasy; to cause to become ecstatic

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Today we have an interview with author Tina Donahue.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

All through January the RB4U authors are doing interviews. The thoughtful questions are a great way to get to know us. Commenting that day gives you a chance to win a collectable t-shirt. Come see!

And..check out the new January contest and meet the RB4U authors! http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

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Several promotional opportunities for romance authors can be found on my Exquisite Quills group blog. Meet the founding authors and our guests.

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills Yahoo Group

First Kiss Wednesday ~ share your best 300 word kiss.

Set the Scene in Six ~ share your backdrop or lead-up on Sundays.

The Genesis of a Book ~ share the spark that ignited your novel

Author Interviews ~ We’re booking late spring now.

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Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

Sample my love stories for free!

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A touch of reality

A few weeks ago, the Huffington Post did a piece on the top baby names popular in 2013 that led to a site called and their list of the top 100 names of the year. In my recent interview on the Romance Books ’4′ Us blog, I encountered a question regarding how I choose names for my characters. Needless to say, both got me thinking about the naming process.

If you haven’t guessed by now, my modus operandi is hiding things in my stories. I’m kind of like Alfred Hitchcock that way. lol I think tucking nuancehere and there makes storytelling more intimate. It’s no different when I pick names. Sometimes I just like the way the name rolls off my tongue, or I know someone with the name. Sometimes I know the history of it and the historical aspect is the nuance I’m looking for. Occasionally I try to pick names that hint at personalities. But mostly I choose names that lend themselves to levels of intimacy.

Example: The name Elizabeth. Friends, coworkers, family, and love interest might use nicknames depending on how well they know Elizabeth. As a writer, I find this familiarity adds another layer of depth and a touch of reality to her character.

A search revealed these options to use: Elle, Lise, Elise, Elisa, Bette, Ellis, Ellie, Betty, Betsy, Bette, Bee, Liz, Lizzie, Beth, Libby, Lily, Liza, Eliza, Lisa, Bess, Bessie, Leeza, Bettina, Tibby, Izzy, Elsie, Liddy, Ilsa, Ilse, Babette, Lisette.

Several of those nicknames for Elizabeth feel a little stodgy for the levels of intimacy I’m imagining, but I could certainly see myself with an Elizabeth called Liz by her best friend, Lizzie by her older brother, and Betsie by grandpa.

I find names fascinating. This week ~ all about names.

And speaking of the week to come…

Opening for Guests tomorrow!

A place for your old stars to shine

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Back to business after a month of seeing to other things, I’m all over the web this weekend. If two things are listed for one blog, scroll back to see what you’ve missed.

My interview at Romance Books ’4′ Us

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-new-year-q-with-rose-anderson.html

Weekend Writing Warriors & Seductive Studs& Sirens http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

Sneak Peek Sunday

http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Set the Scene in Six (open author promo – come leave yours!)

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Sexy Snippets

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

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Another 100 Things Blogging Challenge! For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Words on the Verge of Extinction. There are 95 entries to come.

Here’s one for today:

Canitude (noun common in 1656-1742)

greyness; hoariness; whiteness

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Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

Sample my love stories for free!

 

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Today we have an interview with author Paris Brandon.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

All through January the RB4U authors are doing interviews. The thoughtful questions are a great way to get to know us. Commenting that day gives you a chance to win a collectable t-shirt. Come see!

And..check out the new January contest and meet the RB4U authors! http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

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Today is Set the Scene in Six. Come share your backdrop or lead-up!

Several promotional opportunities for romance authors can be found on my Exquisite Quills group blog. Meet the founding authors and our guests.

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills Yahoo Group

First Kiss Wednesday ~ share your best 300 word kiss.

Set the Scene in Six ~ share your backdrop or lead-up on Sundays.

The Genesis of a Book ~ share the spark that ignited your novel

Author Interviews ~ We’re booking late spring now.

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My interview is live on Romance Books ’4′ Us.

Today find my interview on Romance Books ’4′ Us. Come see!

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

All through January the RB4U authors are doing interviews. The thoughtful questions are a great way to get to know us. Commenting that day gives you a chance to win a collectable t-shirt. I’ll be on and off all day if you have questions.

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The weekend mini-hops are in high gear. I’ve one posted today and three more post tomorrow. http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/ You’re too late for today’s hop, but you might have time to sign up for Sunday. Scroll down a few posts here to find those links.

Speaking of links…Do you prefer neutral sounds when you’re working? I do, and I have something to share. The following were recently uncovered in the mine a.k.a my inbox:

http://www.rainymood.com/

http://whitenoise247.net/nature.aspx  (this site also has mechanical sounds. For me, writing to the sound of a washing machine and a dish washer only makes me feel guilty I’m writing books and not house cleaning. lol They are benign sounds though.)

And here’s a nifty gadget I’m glad I found again:

https://widgets.amazon.com/Amazon-Slideshow-Widget/?id=V20070822/US/laulonboo09-20/8003/7f6d854b-9ca9-48ee-aeeb-901cb04fc9ad

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Another 100 Things Blogging Challenge! For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Words on the Verge of Extinction. There are 96 entries to come.

Here’s one for today:

diloricate (verb common in 1623-1656)

To rip open a sewn piece of clothing

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C heck out the new January contest and meet the RB4U authors! http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

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Several promotional opportunities for romance authors can be found on my Exquisite Quills group blog. Meet the founding authors and our guests.

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills Yahoo Group

First Kiss Wednesday ~ share your best 300 word kiss.

Set the Scene in Six ~ share your backdrop or lead-up on Sundays.

The Genesis of a Book ~ share the spark that ignited your novel

Author Interviews ~ We’re booking late spring now.

Opening for Guests this Monday!

A place for your old stars to shine

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Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

Sample my love stories for free!

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The hook & love of gadgets

Even if you’re not an author, I’m sure everyone can relate to this. You get an email notice of some kind, a link to follow, a gadget to try, words of wisdom, writers’ tools, etc. You save them when they come in because you love gadgets and useful tools of all sorts. The problem is, whatever gets saved for later also gets buried in the strata of a busy inbox. I mention this today because I’m sorting the inbox in preparation of the final move to the new laptop. Not everything will make the switch.

My life is full of the tangible gadgets and useful tools…who doesn’t need a palm peeler, orange scorer, or a mushroom brush? I even have a small hard-boiled egg peeler that can literally power-wash the shell off an egg. Funny thing about gadgets used in the kitchen, by the time I rummage the drawer to find one, it’s often just easier to use a simple knife or tap the egg on the counter and peel it with my fingers. I’m sure I’d find this to be true for other types of gadgetry, including tech stuff. We really don’t need them.

Well, the deep dark mine that is my inbox has things saved since 2010. Most because they just got lost in there, others because they were gems. I uncovered fun non-tangibles* like cloud generators, to-do list keepers, and a text reader gadgets. What can I say, I have a mind like Doc Brown. 

*if you can’t access these links because you subscribe to my posts, they are active on my blog.

No sooner did I get to the bottom of the saved emails when new emails came with new gadgets and new links of useful info. And guess what? I saved them! I think I’ve discovered a new hording disorder — InfoHounditis.

How can I possibly delete this without reading all 62?

http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/62-of-the-top-writing-articles-from-2013-that-can-help-you-in-2014?et_mid=654781&rid=239304117

lol I’m hopeless.

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Yesterday was spent rewriting the magnum opus. Ha! A slow go slogging through wordy-Rose’s plethora of verbiage from 2007. I saw something that needed immediate change — the beginning had no hook. That’s a problem. You can’t start a hero quest without a hook! I dug six chapters in and found this piece to begin on. That’s the plan, for now anyway. I actually have several good places to begin on. *sigh* Believe me, it’s easier writing linearly from scratch.

Mind you, this snippet is unedited. We born and bred Chicagoans have our own relationship with language. If you feel pressure building in your skull, stop reading. lol Chicagoese can make heads explode.

I give you Julian’s nightmare:

Waking from a nightmare engulfed in pain and fighting to breathe, Julian Marec bolted upright. It took a moment before the remembered agony faded and surroundings told him he’d been in his own bed dreaming. Trembling and drenched in sweat, he closed his eyes and focused on slow even breaths to drive away the terror.  He felt feverish and ready to vomit, and no wonder; it was a very unpleasant way to die. He had these on occasion – fragments of horrific pastlife endings that crept unbidden into his sleeping consciousness to turn dreams into nightmares.

Being young Michel in 1307 was not a life or dream to revisit. As a Templar Knight, he’d stood with De Molay and the rest and burned to death in the fires that followed the Templar round up on Friday the 13th. His shivering intensified as sharp recollection enveloped him. It took more than a few steady breaths before the torture-induced nausea passed and his body stilled. The last time this particular dream appeared, his brother and sister-in-law were involved in a fatal car accident. Dreams were often prophetic messages from the Universe. Pastlife dreams were doubly so. To the spiritually advanced Vibrant Soul, the subconscious mind always intuited things long before the conscious mind recognized them.

Trying to grasp the edges of the dream once more that he might sweep the emotional details of the mirage as he’d once felt them, he counted backward from ten to allow his mind to drop into focus. Sensing the three men there, his eyes popped opened. This dream is significant.

Needing to know why tonight of all nights this was the dream to have, his mind reached back across the fragment of the nightmare. Amid screams and roaring flames he caught the barest whisper of three words: Light and Shadow.

His soul remembered exactly where and when he’d heard those words before. He drew a slow ragged breath to calm himself. The recollections brought more trembling. He dragged his hands over his face and gripped his hairline trading actual discomfort for the memories. It helped.

Deciding more information would come with hydromancy, Julian threw on his robe and went to the great hall to gather the tools he’d need. Quickly locating two candles, matches, and a shallow black glass bowl, he decided against the scrying chamber and headed instead to the kitchen. His family used several divination tools, but he chose water. Water was the metaphor of creation, a link to the flow of the collective conscious and a method of entering the stored compendium of existence – the Akashic Records. It was here where the concentrated state dwelled – the super consciousness, and within it the messengers from one’s own higher self.

The candlesticks were set a foot apart on the table. He then filled the bowl and a measuring cup at the sink before placing them between the candles. Sitting before the scrying bowl with full cup in hand, he slowly added more water until surface tension bulged slightly above the rim, and the dome of water appeared as jet-black as the reflective glass that held it. Lighting the candles, he carefully moved them closer to the water, all the while focusing on the two golden rings of light that danced over the surface. He made adjustments until the halos bisected and formed the Vesica Piscis. It was here in the almond-shaped center where the sparks of divination began.

Julian drew inward with each measured breath. When his mind cleared and his focus sharpened, he fell into self-directed trance and began to scry.

~*~

As a hook, does it make you want to know more? I hope so.

Tomorrow: the weekend mini-hops are in high gear. I’ll have links and another bunch of useful gadgets from the mine.

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Another 100 Things Blogging Challenge! For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Words on the Verge of Extinction. There are 97 entries to come.

Here’s one for today:

Devalgate (adjective in use from 1851 -1883)

bow-legged

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Today we have an interview with author Debra Webb.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

All through January the RB4U authors are doing interviews. The thoughtful questions are a great way to get to know us. Commenting that day gives you a chance to win a collectable t-shirt. Come see!

And..check out the new January contest and meet the RB4U authors! http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

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Several promotional opportunities for romance authors can be found on my Exquisite Quills group blog. Meet the founding authors and our guests.

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills Yahoo Group

First Kiss Wednesday ~ share your best 300 word kiss.

Set the Scene in Six ~ share your backdrop or lead-up on Sundays.

The Genesis of a Book ~ share the spark that ignited your novel

Author Interviews ~ We’re booking late spring now.

Opening for Guests this Monday!

A place for your old stars to shine

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

Sample my love stories for free!

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Wading in the stream

Today begins the polished rewrite of my 500,000-word labor of love, my as yet unnamed Magnum Opus (from here on the MO). It sounds absolutely crazy to say, because I wrote the darn thing, but I find the prospect a little daunting. I’m a linear writer. I step into the story and keep walking that line until it tells me to stop. If my last novel taught me anything, it’s that you can’t go back.

Before getting sidetracked by The Witchy Wolf story, I started Enchanted Skye with the idea for a series examining guardian myths around the world. To a person who devours factual info like I do, I find fictional stories based upon facts just taste better. Before that story was even done, the midday news outraged me to the point of writing the social statement that became Loving Leonardo. But four books later when I finally went back to the nearly completed Enchanted Skye, I was shocked at what I’d found. The writer I had been was no more and I couldn’t relate to her work. I was so close to completing it when I got sidetracked. I tried to finish that last bit, really tried. In the end, I scrapped 75% of it and rewrote it. I’m a terribly picky fiction reader so I can confidently say I’d enjoy reading it. You learn a lot from one book to the next. It’s certainly better than what that old Rose Anderson had written, that loquacious hack. lol

I admit to being a stream of consciousness writer (as illustrated by my blog. lol). My thoughts pour from brain to fingertips.  The MO’s story is quite heavy. At the time, I wrote what I saw in my head — every. single. word. of it. Linearly speaking, all the facts fit perfectly as I put them together, but something wasn’t right and I knew it. My son, a horror novelist of note, would read my work when I asked for opinions and say, “For god’s sake mom, write tight.”

Inexperience back then, I hadn’t learned ways of editing that allow a writer to build a scene without extraneous detail. In other words, my facts were swimming in a cloudy sea of superfluous verbosity. He saw it, I saw it, and voila, I became a romance author to learn how to write tight. I still write the stream of consciousness, I just don’t tell you about the wallpaper patterns in the scene.



Am I ready to tackle the MO this year? While there’s a part of me that’s as sure-footed as a mountain goat reminding me I’ve already made up my mind to do it, there’s another part that whispers -  but Rose, romance is so comfortable. Stay here.

Tomorrow: A sneak peek~

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Another 100 Things Blogging Challenge! For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Words on the Verge of Extinction. There are 98 entries to come.

Here’s one for today:

bumposopher (a noun common from 1834-1886)

One learned in bumps, in other words, a phrenologist.

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Today is Cynthia Arsuaga’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

All through January the RB4U authors are doing interviews. The thoughtful questions are a great way to get to know us. Commenting that day gives you a chance to win a collectable t-shirt. Come see!

And..check out the new January contest and meet the RB4U authors! http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

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Today is Genesis of a Book featuring A Brilliant Marriage by Jean Lamb

Come read the spark that started that novel.

Several promotional opportunities for romance authors can be found on my Exquisite Quills group blog. Meet the founding authors and our guests.

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills Yahoo Group

First Kiss Wednesday ~ share your best 300 word kiss.

Set the Scene in Six ~ share your backdrop or lead-up on Sundays.

The Genesis of a Book ~ share the spark that ignited your novel

Author Interviews ~ We’re booking late spring now.

Opening for Guests this Monday!

A place for your old stars to shine

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

Sample my love stories for free!

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Another 100 Things & Wednesday happenings

A short post today. I have to pack up my holiday decorations and put it all away for next year. Where are those elves when you need them?

After I saw this on the yahoo homepage yesterday, the first thought that came to me was what a terrific picture it would be for a Wordless Wednesday. Then it occurred to me.. too many cool things happen on Wednesdays to be silent that day! Oh well. That’s just not the meme for me right now.

An amazing frozen bubble by http://www.flickr.com/photos/anniison

I’m starting that synchronicity jar today (scroll down for details) First thing in – how much I enjoyed the 6-inch snowfall and watching the sheer joy of happy dogs in snow. The crystalline beauty overlaid with their joyful abandon makes me indescribably happy, and that’s certainly worth remembering.

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Another 100 Things Blogging Challenge! For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic:  Words on the Verge of Extinction. There are 99 entries to come.

Here’s the first:

Aquabib (a noun common from 1731-1883)

A water-drinker

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Today is Nicole Morgan’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

All through January the RB4U authors are doing interviews and the questions are great. Commenting that day gives you a chance to win a collectable t-shirt. Come see!

And..check out the new January contest and meet the RB4U authors! http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

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It’s First Kiss Wednesday! Come share your best 300 word kiss.

Several promotional opportunities for romance authors can be found on my Exquisite Quills group blog. Meet the founding authors and our guests.

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills Yahoo Group

First Kiss Wednesday ~ share your best 300 word kiss.

Set the Scene in Six ~ share your backdrop or lead-up on Sundays.

The Genesis of the Story ~ share the spark that ignited your novel

Author Interviews ~ We’re booking late spring now.

Opening for Guests this Monday!

A place for your old stars to shine

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

Sample my love stories for free!

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Let your boat of life be light

Thirty-six years ago my soon-to-be husband gave me a subscription to The Mother Earth News for Christmas. (In a nutshell, that speaks volumes about the person I am.) The gift notice came as a card with a memorable quote by Victorian English writer and humorist Jerome Klapka Jerome. I just loved the metaphor of it. So much so, all these years later, I can recall the entire quote word for word.

Here’s my New Year’s wish for you from his pen:

“Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need – a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.”

Most people go through a year with some buffeting by life. On the downside of 2013, we’ve had assorted sadness in my family. I’ve lost loved ones this year. I had a bout of pneumonia that I just couldn’t shake. We saw the end of a very special 25-year event my husband and I built with our own hands. Worse, my old puppy, my empty nest child, is fading before my eyes. Sadness came in the form of grief, huge life changes, disappointment, and heartbreak.  Life is like that. Sad or negative things can be instantly recalled and revisited with such clarity that you’re almost reliving them days, weeks, months, years later. But how often do happy things come to mind without searching for them? I have a theory on this and it involves mankind’s early development.

Negative things, like those found in a wild environment, have potential to kill you so it’s important to steer clear of them. You steer clear by being able to recognize them in an instant. It’s simple self-preservation. You avoid them because negative associations can be recalled in a flash to protect you. Rare now are the dangerous bears in the back of the cave, rare too are the other situations you need to recognize to save your life. But the instinct for self-preservation remains. It opens the mental and emotional door to things like sorrow, personal slights, disappointments, and heartbreak. And the brain revisits them in their painful entirety because instinct says self-preservation comes with remembering. And the heart aches with the memory. That’s my theory anyway. I did say I think too much. 

Having rheumatoid arthritis since age 15, my personal philosophy has always been it could be worse so be happy it isn’t! I’m no Pollyanna in my outlook. I’m simply a pragmatist. In all honesty I can say in retrospect, I’ve had a very good year.  In between all of the above were far more good things. I had fun and laughs. I was entertained. I had interesting life experiences and personal growth. I had love and friendship. What’s more, people I care for are still doing well, and that makes me happy. And, my old puppy still seeks me out for ear scratches and shoulder rubs and is doing well with her physical therapy sessions. On good days she’ll carry a stick around the yard even though she fetches them only in her dreams. Seeing her run in her sleep makes me happy too. I have lots of reasons to smile, and many to be grateful for. Tomorrow when I put my happy synchronicity jar on the table for a year, I’ll prove it. (scroll down to learn what that is.)

I’m ending 2013 with just a few things that gave me smiles and laughs throughout the year and I hope they do the same for you. It was very hard to choose so I did a smile test to be sure they still make me smile.

(If you subscribe and get my daily post in email, the video clips might not work. Find them live on the blog.)

If you’re on Pinterest, my account is filled with happy and interesting things. Do stop by and feel free to harvest things from my collection for your own. The top 81 of those boards are mine. My titles all begin with a little heart. The remaining 118 boards belong to other pinners and I was invited to join them. Beware. Pinterest can be addicting and you’ll lose your sense of time. Case in point – I have 81 boards. LOL

http://www.pinterest.com/FollowTheMuse/

And this last one. Have a safe and Happy New Year! Party on!



ɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤ

Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

Sample my love stories for free!

ɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤ ɤɤɤɤ ɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤ

If you’re here for the first time, my husband and I are assembling a vintage holiday postcard scrapbook one card at a time. I hope you’ve enjoyed them. Here are the last. 

ɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤ ɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤ

Terrific posts by wonderful authors. Come see!

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Meet the RB4U authors!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

ɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤ ɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤ

Several promotional opportunities for romance authors can be found on my Exquisite Quills group blog. Meet the founding authors and our guests.

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills Yahoo Group

First Kiss Wednesday ~ share your best 300 word kiss.

Set the Scene in Six ~ share your backdrop or lead-up on Sundays.

The Genesis of the Story ~ share the spark that ignited your novel

Author Interviews ~ We’re booking 2014 now.

Coming Next week!

A place for your old stars to shine

ɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤ ɤɤɤɤ ɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤ