Slang

Slang is a poor man’s poetry. - John Moore

Thanks to my sister I have to admit I started my wish list for Santa already. She emailed me an article from the Wall Street Journal about The First English Dictionary of Slang, 1699, and now I feel I must own the actual book.

I’m aware that each generation develops their own slang. I wrote a blog about modern slang phrases added to the Urban Dictionary. I don’t write historical fiction. Working any of the words or phrases into a contemporary novel would be challenging. However, none of these logical things dampen my desire to add it to my collection of reference books.

Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew was uncovered and recently republished under the new name. Canting, by the way, was the language of thieves and ruffians. The book was to educate the upper London classes in case they found themselves in the ‘wrong’ parts of town. Or perhaps, so that those rich enough to have servants could understand them. The dictionary also includes military slang and colloquialisms.

A few of the words you’ll find are:

Anglers - Cheats, petty Thieves, who have a Stick with a hook at the end, with which they pluck things out of Windows, Grates, &c. also those that draw in People to be cheated.
Blind-man’s-holiday - when it is too dark to see to work.
Blobber-lippd - means having lips that are very thick, hanging down, or turning over
Cackling-farts - Eggs.
Chouter - to talk pertly, and sometimes angrily
Conveniency – wife; also a mistress
Fubbs –a fond word for children
Fuddle – an excellent tipple
Grumbletonians -Malecontents, out of Humour with the Government, for want of a Place, or having lost one.
Rum-bluffer – an excellent host
Rum-bung – a full purse

Another interesting and rather ironic tidbit I got from my internet research of the book is that there is no agreed etymology for the word “slang.” I think I’ll have to make this a topic for another blog.

Before closing, I’d like to thank Stephen Tremp of Breakthrough Blogs for the Supernova Award for simply hosting him during his virtual book tour which was a pleasure for me to do. If you missed his post on Promoting and Marketing, you can find it here.

For any booklovers on your Christmas list, I’d also like to mention that personalized signed copies of The Ride will be available this holiday season for only $20.00. Simply email me at jane@janesutton.com for details.

Are there any reference books you hope Santa brings you this year?

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope to see you again next week.

Tags: John Moore, The First English Dictionary of Slang , canting, slang, Stephen Tremp, The Ride,

Bizarre Characters and General Hodgepodge

I write about real people in disguise. If anything, my characters are toned down-the truth is much more bizarre. – Jackie Collins

I was in Las Vegas last week for our annual get-together with a wonderful group of friends. I didn’t take my computer, so I was completely unplugged from the internet. It wasn’t as hard to adjust to as I anticipated. In fact, to be honest, it was very liberating.

Now I'm home and the fantasy life of Vegas is fading as I switch gears into catch-up mode. When I have lots to do, I tend to go in circles and my thoughts are rather jumbled. The result is this rather eclectic mixture of topics for today’s post, so I'll dive in now.

As usual I didn’t walk away with any big money jackpots. My Vegas windfall is more in the form of character ideas. I can’t imagine there being any better people watching place in the world.

I’m not talking about performers or casino employees when I say some people are so off the charts in looks, actions and voice that I wondered how anyone could turn them into a believable character. Describing these colorful folks exactly as I saw them might have the reader shaking their head and saying, “No way. No one’s this outrageous.”

I find perfect characters boring—I can’t relate to them at all. Is it possible, though, to go too far in the other direction? I ’ve read that if you want a satirical tool your characters can be unrealistically eccentric which leads me to wonder exactly what is unrealistic?

I don’t have the answers to my own questions, so if anyone has any ideas on the topic I’d love to hear them. Tips on writing about unusual characters are also welcome. Who is your favorite quirkiest character in a novel?

On a completely different topic, I like to thank Rayna for featuring me on her blog, Coffee Rings Everywhere, last Wednesday. I’m flattered to be the subject of one of Rayna’s drabbles. A drabble is a story told in exactly 100 words and Rayna has one to offer daily. A resident of Bombay, India, her drabbles are always interesting and educational, expertly showing the similarities and differences between our cultures and lives. I recommend stopping often.

Changing the subject again - be sure to mark your calendar for December 1 when the Indie Books Holiday Giveaway begins. Forty-seven authors are offering hundreds of free print and eBooks. All you have to do is enter and that's super easy.

Next I’d to credit Marvin Wilson with coining the term, “blogcation.” I admit to stealing, I mean borrowing, the word for my last post. I couldn’t remember where I first saw it, but it seems it originated on The Old Silly’s Free Spirit blog. This comes as no surprise as Marvin’s posts are always creative.

Finally, happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the U.S. I hope your day is filled with joy and laughter and lots of good food.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope to see you next week (I'll do my best to stick to a single topic).

Tags: Jackie Collins, blogcation, Las Vegas, drabble, Marvin Wilson, Thanksgiving, Coffee Rings Everywhere, unusual characters,

Adopt a Word

Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done. - Andy Rooney

I’m embracing a term I learned by blog hopping—blogcation. I think most people use it when they are not going to post a blog or two. I’m using in the context that I won’t be visiting blogs. For the next week I’ll be completely offline.

Typing that previous sentence was enough to send chills down my spine, so I have to remind myself it’s for fun reasons. It’s been a while since I’ve been unplugged. It’ll take some adjustment on my part, but I think I’m up for it.

When I get back I’ll be frantically trying to catch up on all the excellent blogs I‘ve missed, so I may have to steal the idea from this cartoon.

Used with permission from Debbie Ridpath Ohi at Inkygirl.com.

The term blogcation has yet to hit the dictionary, but it seems to be making the rounds and isn’t in jeopardy of fading away anytime soon. However, many words are facing extinction. You can help save these words by adopting one or more. Be prepared to feel the tug on your heart strings as the words call out to you in their desire to be ‘saved.’ Go to Save the Words, find the word(s) you wish to save and make a pledge.

The pledge states, “I hereby promise to use this word, in conversation and correspondence, as frequently as possible to the very best of my ability.” The site also has suggestions for other ways to use the words, such as pet names, skywriting or during a scrabble game.

There are little known words such as:
Pamphagous – eating or consuming everything
Drollic – pertaining to puppet shows
Jussulent – full of broth or soup
Avunculize – to act as an uncle

Others are a bit more nostalgic. Ten-cent store is available. For the younger readers, these stores were the predecessors to today’s Dollar Stores. Microcopy is also offered. Again, for younger readers, these were copies produced by microfilming. What’s microfilming? You can find all you want to know and more on Wikipedia.

In my absence this week, I’m hoping many of these words find a happy home.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope to see you again next Monday.

Tags: Andy Rooney, Inkygirl, Debbie Ohi, blogcation, adopt a word,

NaNo Gets Panned

“I am not the first person to point out that "writing a lot of crap" doesn't sound like a particularly fruitful way to spend an entire month, even if it is November.” – Laura Miller

It’s NaNo time again. For you non-writers that stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. It’s been an event since 1999, but I’ve never participated. I think it is a lofty goal and I’d love to write a book in a month, but I have plenty of excuses—such as frenetic writing isn’t my style or it takes place in the busy month of November. However, it most likely boils down to fear of commitment. Or maybe it’s fear of failure.

It’s become a popular thing to do. According to the official NaNo site, the first year there were 21 participants with 6 winners (those who met the goal), in 2009 there were 167,150 participants with 32,178 winners.

My reasons for not participating are based on personal shortcomings and have nothing to do with the actual event. In fact, I respect those who sign up, whether they succeed or not. However, Laura Miller has a different opinion which she voiced in her article “Better yet, DON'T write that novel, Why National Novel Writing Month is a waste of time and energy,” on Salon.com.

Of a sign offering a refuge for NaNo writers in a bookstore, she says, “It was yet another depressing sign that the cultural spaces once dedicated to the selfless art of reading are being taken over by the narcissistic commerce of writing.”

As she is also a writer, I was surprised at her level of hostility toward the event and participants. She says:

“So I'm not worried about all the books that won't get written if a hundred thousand people with a nagging but unfulfilled ambition to Be a Writer lack the necessary motivation to get the job done. I see no reason to cheer them on. Writers are, in fact, hellishly persistent; they will go on writing despite overwhelming evidence of public indifference and (in many cases) of their own lack of ability or anything especially interesting to say. Writers have a reputation for being tormented by their lot, probably because they're always moaning so loudly about how hard it is, but it's the readers who are fragile, a truly endangered species. They don't make a big stink about how underappreciated they are; like Tinkerbell or any other disbelieved-in fairy, they just fade away.”

It seems she thinks these contestants will not edit their work and will force people to read their unrevised “crap.” While instances of this may occur, I think the majority of writers realize revision, revision, and more revision are the most important steps in the writing process.

I also gathered from her article that she thinks the majority of writers are not readers. I have no statistics to prove her wrong, but I believe authors who don’t read are a tiny minority.

While I agree with Laura that we should celebrate the reader, I do think writers deserve some credit, too. After all, what would readers read if there were no writers?

I admit I have read a few poorly written books, but that number is far outweighed by the good ones. Some are written by well-known authors and others by little-known (but no less talented) writers I had the luck to stumble across. Whether their manuscripts were developed in thirty days or thirty years doesn’t diminish their work. As Laura points out, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, started out as a NaNo challenge.

I say, go NaNoers! Who knows what masterpiece may be unleashed this year.

You can read Laura Miller’s article here.

What are your feelings toward NaNo? Do you participate? Do you feel it’s a waste of time? Have you published a book that was written as part of the NaNo challenge? Writers—are you also readers?

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope to see you again next week.

Tags: NaNo, Laura Miller, National Novel Writing Month, Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen,

Promotion and Marketing by Stephen Tremp

“In order to promote yourself and your book, you need to develop an identity potential buyers can relate to and remember.” – Stephen Tremp

I’m pleased to host the author of Breakthrough, Stephen Tremp today. Stephen has a B.A. in information systems and an MBA degree in global management. He is currently completing his doctorate program in business administration. He spent over ten years in consumer finance for some of the largest companies in the industry, holding numerous management positions. After many years of writing short stories and poems, Stephen has taken the last two years to fulfill his lifelong passion: write and publish Breakthrough. Today he is here to give us some advice on promotion and marketing, a weak area for many of us introverted authors.

***
You are a writer. You know it. Others close to you recognize your talents and abilities and have been encouraging you for as long as you can remember. It’s an inherent gift, perhaps lying dormant for years, and you now realize its time to move forward with what you know you have to do. You either have a manuscript, are in the process of writing one, or you want to write. It could be fiction, non-fiction, or your personal memoirs that you want to share with the world and even help other people.

How do you do this? Let’s start with your blogging platform. What makes a good blog, increases traffic, and builds a community of followers? I think this is an area many writers fail in. They have not taken the time to formulate their branding and a series of catchy blurbs, slogans, and one-liners that people can remember.

First, in order to promote yourself and your book, you need to develop an identity potential buyers can relate to and remember:

Branding and Blogging,
Can you tie your blog and book into a one-liner? (Include your name and you have a trifecta). Your Blog Banner should tell a visitor who you are and a little of what the can expect. You can run a contest on your blog and give away a signed copy for the winner. This also engages visitors and helps make your book and brand more than a fleeting memory.

So here is my Blog Banner: Breakthrough Blogs: add murder, mayhem and a wormhole, and you've got BREAKTHROUGH. Welcome to chaos. Helen Ginger and Elizabeth S. Craig are examples of really good Blog Banners.

Also, do you have an image or a word that defines and communicates you, your blog, and your book to your audience? I use Einstein-Rosen Bridges, or wormholes, to help accomplish this for me.

Second: You can develop a handful of catchy blurbs, slogans, and one-liners:
30 second elevator interview describing your book or your blog in no more than three sentences (most people will not listen to anything longer)

Here are two of my one-liners:
“BREAKTHROUGH - An exciting new dimension in sci-fi suspense thrillers."
“Near-future Sci-Fi for Action Lovers”
You can place one-liners on stuff you give away like book marks, business cards, and email signature lines. Place a blurb on the back of your business card – leave them at a table when you leave restaurant. Give them to bank tellers. Ask the manager of your local bookstores if you can hand these out in their store. A blurb with a picture and your name and blog site is all you need.

Third: Can you explain your blog on Twitter in 140 characters or less? Here’s mine: Author of the Breakthrough trilogy - a near-future Sci-Fi action series weaving together theoretical physics and technology with greed, murder, and mayhem.

Do you have an image of your book (or something that relates to your blog) as your wall paper for Twitter? I do. All too often I visit authors and they have something silly as their wall paper. Um … Hello? Upload an image of your book! Then go make some Twitter friends.

Adding Tabs to Your Blog A blog is as important (if not more important) than a static website. Eventually, we may see blogs replacing websites, which is why blogging platforms are adding pages and other features to their blogs. Blogs are essentially becoming interactive websites.

Example: I’m developing a SCIENCE FOR KIDS tab that will debut Wednesday November 10th when I stop by Shannon O’Donell’s blog . This is a great way to promote outside of your niche and genre. I have interest in California, Montana, and Michigan and hope to hook up with schools across the country. This could open more doors for a children’s animated series I’m currently working on too that teaches kids about science in a fun way.

Please join me Monday as I visit Alex Cavanaugh’s blog and we talk about how to write a near-future sci-fi. Due to the proliferation of knowledge, this is an emerging genre that is very popular.
***

Thank you, Stephen. I hope to implement some of your ideas to improve my blog design and Twitter page.

Please feel free to leave your questions or comments for Stephen.

You can visit Stephen Tremp, author of the action thriller Breakthrough at Breakthrough Blogs.

How do you promote yourself and your book(s)? As a reader, what sort of promotion most encourages you to buy a particular book?

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope to see you again on Monday.

Tags: Stephen Tremp, Breakthrough, branding, blog banner, 30 second elevator interview, promoting and marketing,

National Authors’ Day and Other Important Announcements

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. – William James

Whenever I begin to wonder why I blog, something will come along to remind me. I received one such reminder in September when I read an email from Chris Price regarding a post I’d written in 2009 about National Authors’ Day.

It seems that Nellie Verne Burt McPherson, the woman credited with the idea of setting aside a day to celebrate American authors, was her great grandmother. Though she was only five when Mrs. McPherson passed away, Chris described some of her memories. She recalled her great grandmother reading to all the children who would listen. Once, when she read so much she lost her voice, she asked the kids to tell her about the books she’d read to them over recent weeks. According to Chris, “To hear my Mother and Aunt tell the story, it was quite the interesting interpretation of stories read.”

The note went on to read, “Anyway, I just wanted to say Thank You for what you do and be assured that this year, November 1, 2010, I will be reading one of YOUR books.”

I can't think of anything that tops that kind of note.

I found additional information about Nellie McPherson on answers.com.

“The idea of setting aside a day to celebrate American authors came from Nellie Verne Burt McPherson, president of the Bement (Illinois) Women's Club in 1928. McPherson was a teacher and an avid reader throughout her life. During World War I, when she was recuperating in a hospital, she wrote a fan letter to fiction writer Irving Bacheller, telling him how much she had enjoyed his story, "Eben Holden's Last Day A'Fishin." Bacheller sent her an autographed copy of another story, and McPherson realized that she could never adequately thank him for his gift. Instead, she showed her appreciation by submitting an idea for a National Author's Day to the General Federation of Women's Clubs, which passed a resolution setting aside November 1 as a day to honor American writers. In 1949 the day was recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Sue Cole, McPherson's granddaughter, was largely responsible for promoting the observation of National Author's Day after her grandmother's death in 1968. She has urged people to write a note to their favorite author on this day to "brighten up the sometimes lonely business of being a writer." Flying the American flag on November 1, according to Mrs. Cole, is another way of showing appreciation for the men and women who have created American literature.”

I’d like to say thank you, Nellie McPherson! My gratitude also goes to Sue Cole and Chris Price for following in Mrs. McPherson’s footsteps.

I checked local events and still found no mention of what I think should be a major holiday. Hallmark may have missed coming out with cards for this occasion, but that shouldn’t stop us from writing our favorite author or a newly emerging writer in hopes of brightening their day as much as the note from Chris brightened mine.

Are there any celebrations in your area? If you wrote to an author, who would it be?

Though I usually post only on Mondays, I’m making an exception this week. On Saturday (11/6), I’ll be hosting Stephen Tremp, author of Breakthough. I hope you’ll make plans to visit. In the meantime find out more about Stephen and his book by visiting his blog.

One more announcement before I go. Author Darcia Helle of A Word Please is organizing a huge giveaway event that will run through the month of December. It will be hosted on her website and blog. Participating authors will be cross promoting on their own blogs, as well as through various social networks. All indie authors (self-published and small press) are welcome to participate. You can offer as many (or as few) titles and copies as you'd like. Both print and e-books are welcome. She’ll be sending out press releases and doing tons of promotion. She already has about 300 books to give away! I’m looking forward to taking part in this big event. If you’d like to participate, be sure to send Darcia an email at darcia@quietfurybooks.com before Nov. 15.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Tags: National Authors Day, Nellie McPherson, Stephen Tremp, William James, Darcia Helle,