Kae Cheatham's Blog: Whoa! Another Author?, page 21

Dictionary Fun

I really like words: using them, knowing definitions and etymology. I should have been a lexicographer. Online dictionaries and thesauruses offer ways to spend time, when I should be doing other things, yet not feel like I'm wasting time. I'm learning something, after all!

Words hit the news when the annual 2010's Top Ten Words were posted at the Merriam-Webster online site. I checked it out. In the explanation it's stated: "...This profile of America's mood and interests is determined by the volume of user look ups at Merriam-Webster.com in response to current events and conditions."

How can they know the words were in response to anything other than curiosity? I assume they have a program that registers the date and time a word is looked up (I wonder if it also collects IP addresses?), then someone (more likely some program) correlates that with national/world events.

M-W also has a Top Ten TREND words (different parameters in the above program, no doubt), and a Top Ten most frequently looked up words. It's pretty interesting, but I find the juggling of statistics, and the "newsworthiness" (the pages information is always picked up by the media) is a bit iffy.

The entire site has myriad interesting pages and segments (although also filled with many monetizing ads and columns; I guess that's what keeps it free, so I shouldn't grumble). My favorite dictionary page is the "remarkable origins" page. Do you have a favorite?

Fun Referral

Have fun with the Holiday Quiz on the Get It Together Productions blog.

Tidbits 12-20-2010

For first time since 1378, total lunar eclipse of full moon to fall on winter solstice. It happens tonight! Learn what you can see (and when)

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If you think the younger generation has totally gone cyber/electronic/plug-me-in, check out Matt's blog, "Adventures in Typewriterdom."

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It's an ereader, for pity's sake. I don't want mine attracting any attention, or someone might try to steal it. But other people...
Of course, you could always get a leather-bound (rarely found any more) flip-the-page book, if that's the "feel" you want.

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I checked out those Top Twenty-five book covers at Huffington Post. Yuk. I only found two that were compelling. Most had too much clutter, and the fonts were really hard to read. Here are books with covers I find rather dynamic: I haven't read this book and
David Dalglish's book, which I have read (bought it because of the cover!).

Author Occupations Quiz

Which of the following American authors at one time worked as a bank teller?
O. Henry

Tillie Olsen

Alex Haley

Arthur Miller



Didn't get it? Click here for the answer and more information.

Top Picks Update

Odd, I managed to leave out a big player in the first Top Picks post. So here it is. The New York Times.

Character Perspective

In the contemporary mystery Grave Undertaking, protagonist Barry Clayton has returned home from several years of police work to help with the family funeral business. His father has Alzheimer's and decisions have to be made. While attending business at the graveyard with a local minister, the grave diggers unearth a murdered corpse on top of the burial vault they had come to move. A wallet in the murdered man's pocket reveals a photo that shocks Barry—it's of his girlfriend, Susan.

Susan immediately becomes a suspect in the murder, and Barry is drawn into an "unofficial" investigation to protect her and her family from scandal. As he develops clues, interviews people, gets shot at and beat up, he also must continue his mortician work and decide if selling the business to a national funeral home chain is in the best interest of his family.

I was struck by the fluid and spare way the author got from one segment of the story to another. I think this element stood out for me because a book I had attempted right before this one had been ponderous in its story movement.

In one section (of the book I didn't finish), it took several paragraphs for a character to get out of his car, up the steps, through a series of doors and into his apartment. Yet nothing was revealed during those paragraphs that brought nuances or information to the story or the characterization. Details were given like stage settings. Another segment had: "I stood and extended my hand to her. Laura took it, and then used it to slip her arm around my back." Not only is this hard to visualize, but it doesn't advance the story. These sentences were part of five paragraphs at the beginning of a chapter that were merely setting a scene--a scene the reader had been in for the past fifteen pages. When dialogue that would get out information did begin, it was repetitive and stilted. Also "I extended my hand. She took it," shows up at least four other times in what I read. Hence, Castrique's book seemed swift and lively by comparison.

Grave Undertaking involved the first person protagonist in all aspects of the story, even the descriptions. In the other book, the protagonist seemed more like a camera lens, showing the details without any invested emotion. Even when "to slip her arm around my back" happened, it wasn't followed with how that made the protagonist feel. Castrique's book had only one hand-holding sentence and it told a lot in eleven words. "I reached down and grabbed her hand with a gentle squeeze." The action words--grabbed and squeeze--give expression to the line; gentle lets you know his tender feelings.

Writing style and presentation carry a lot of weight with me, and even when I don't intend to, I analyze these characteristics in every book I read. I imagine most readers do, in their subconscious at least, and their reactions to these elements result in a positive or negative response to the book.

Top Picks in Books

No, I'm not giving my top picks. But a flurry of "tops" are available online. Here are a few

From NPR Book Movement has a weekly list of the top 10 picks from their book clubs.<//li>Best Fiction and Poetry from the Washington Post. Shelf Awareness lists start hereThese from the Media Bistroat Book BrowseFlavorwire rates books it didn't see on the NYT list.Boing Boing gives some off-the-beaten-path suggestions. (These are more my style ;-))

I'm certain even more suggestions or declarations will come forth in the remaining December weeks.

What would your picks be? Come on, tell me. I'm really interested!

Tidbits - 12/15/10

In keeping with this season of giving, Craig Lancaster has written a Christmas short story, on sale at various outlets--but not for his benefit: all the proceeds are going to charity.
On a similar note, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight Saga, presented a check for $1.5 million to the American Red Cross for its International Response Fund. Meyer had pledged $1.00 of every first printing, US sales of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella.

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In this Interview, Phyllis Gobbell, whose new book, A Season of Darkness was released this month, gives good insight into writing true crime and writing in general.

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Western historian and author of more than seventy books, Richard S. Wheeler, has an interesting post about university writing programs.

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Who owns the publishers? The GITP blog gives a few answers.

Writing a Series

It seems the mystery genre produces a great many series, with the same protagonist involved in crime and mayhem again and again. Some are grim, like Pronzini's

Mystery Series Writers Quiz

It's Quiz Sunday. Hope you're having a nice day.

Which popular author writes mysteries series set in the Southwest and Washington State?
Steven Womack

J. A. Jance

Margaret Coel

Janet Evanovich

Walter Mosley


Didn't get it? Click here