Peter’s review of Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric > Likes and Comments
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Quite right. I spent more than thirty years as a professional speechwriter and I knew, early on, that the most effective lines in speeches come from the Anglo-Saxon side of English.
"Fight on the beaches," "Ask not what your country," "And just fade away."
Latinate words speak to the intellect, Anglo-Saxon gets to the guts and glands.
Matthew wrote: "Quite right. I spent more than thirty years as a professional speechwriter and I knew, early on, that the most effective lines in speeches come from the Anglo-Saxon side of English.
Heh. Speechwriter, eh? How was the pay?
Incidentally, should I come across a richie loking for a house-sitter, shd I pass it along? SLO County, north coast. Beautiful country:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2905046...
My last corporate rate, fifteen years ago, was $200 an hour, though I almost always charged a flat rate for the whole job.
No more American sits for me, I'm afraid. One of your border guards gave my wife a very hard time (twice) when she went over to Vancouver Island from the Olympic Peninsula to get my thyroid meds at a reasonable price.
Besides, I wouldn't want to catch the bug, having already had lung ailments and a mild heart attack. Here in BC we have it thoroughly under control.
And I see the WSJ's reviewer, [mumble], was once a speechwriter too. Likely at a higher pay grade? Ah. Barton Swain, https://www.wsj.com/news/author/barto...
Younger guy than I thought, if his littel thumbnail has any relation to current reality.
Incidentally, I hope more Vance-inspired fiction is in your out-box? I do get your newesletter. Thank you for many hours of entertaining reading over the years.
Cheers -- Pete Tillman
Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Til...
I'm finishing up the first draft of a sequel to Template, which was my only real attempt at Vancean space opera.
And I'm shopping around an episodic novel about Baldemar, a wizard's henchman in the Dying Earth. But you might have already read the episodes as a series of novelettes in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
And soon I hope to return to Barbarians of the Beyond, the authorized sequel to Vance's iconic Demon Princes quintilogy. It fell into hiatus because of the pandemic.
Cool. More good reading to look forward to! I don't subscribe to F&SF, but maybe there were reprints?
The original Baldemar novelette, "The Sword of Destiny," appeared in Gardner Dozois's The Book of Swords. It was set near the end of his career. All the rest, but one, were prequels to that story. The last one, "The Glooms," will run in the November/December F&SF.
Thanks! I missed that Dozois anthol -- and miss Dozois too. I met him just once, but have since gotten to know Michael Swanwick pretty well. He held Dozois in very high regard, especially as a "story doctor". I faithfully read most every Dozois Years Best SF doorstop, and own most of them. He died too young.
J. Strahan is taking over the Dozois Years Best gig, I hear:
https://reiszwolf.wordpress.com/2020/...
Strahan's good. But Dozois was Dozois. He bought a lot of stories from me, both for his anthos and at Asimov's. I was particularly proud that he saw me as someone who could write him a story in short time, when somebody invited into one his anthos failed to deliver.
I never met him, and I regret that.
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Quite right. I spent more than thirty years as a professional speechwriter and I knew, early on, that the most effective lines in speeches come from the Anglo-Saxon side of English."Fight on the beaches," "Ask not what your country," "And just fade away."
Latinate words speak to the intellect, Anglo-Saxon gets to the guts and glands.
Matthew wrote: "Quite right. I spent more than thirty years as a professional speechwriter and I knew, early on, that the most effective lines in speeches come from the Anglo-Saxon side of English.Heh. Speechwriter, eh? How was the pay?
Incidentally, should I come across a richie loking for a house-sitter, shd I pass it along? SLO County, north coast. Beautiful country:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2905046...
My last corporate rate, fifteen years ago, was $200 an hour, though I almost always charged a flat rate for the whole job.No more American sits for me, I'm afraid. One of your border guards gave my wife a very hard time (twice) when she went over to Vancouver Island from the Olympic Peninsula to get my thyroid meds at a reasonable price.
Besides, I wouldn't want to catch the bug, having already had lung ailments and a mild heart attack. Here in BC we have it thoroughly under control.
And I see the WSJ's reviewer, [mumble], was once a speechwriter too. Likely at a higher pay grade? Ah. Barton Swain, https://www.wsj.com/news/author/barto...Younger guy than I thought, if his littel thumbnail has any relation to current reality.
Incidentally, I hope more Vance-inspired fiction is in your out-box? I do get your newesletter. Thank you for many hours of entertaining reading over the years.
Cheers -- Pete Tillman
Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Til...
I'm finishing up the first draft of a sequel to Template, which was my only real attempt at Vancean space opera.And I'm shopping around an episodic novel about Baldemar, a wizard's henchman in the Dying Earth. But you might have already read the episodes as a series of novelettes in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
And soon I hope to return to Barbarians of the Beyond, the authorized sequel to Vance's iconic Demon Princes quintilogy. It fell into hiatus because of the pandemic.
Cool. More good reading to look forward to! I don't subscribe to F&SF, but maybe there were reprints?
The original Baldemar novelette, "The Sword of Destiny," appeared in Gardner Dozois's The Book of Swords. It was set near the end of his career. All the rest, but one, were prequels to that story. The last one, "The Glooms," will run in the November/December F&SF.
Thanks! I missed that Dozois anthol -- and miss Dozois too. I met him just once, but have since gotten to know Michael Swanwick pretty well. He held Dozois in very high regard, especially as a "story doctor". I faithfully read most every Dozois Years Best SF doorstop, and own most of them. He died too young.J. Strahan is taking over the Dozois Years Best gig, I hear:
https://reiszwolf.wordpress.com/2020/...
Strahan's good. But Dozois was Dozois. He bought a lot of stories from me, both for his anthos and at Asimov's. I was particularly proud that he saw me as someone who could write him a story in short time, when somebody invited into one his anthos failed to deliver.I never met him, and I regret that.
https://www.hoopladigital.com/play/11...