1 05, 2017

Six Ways to Be a Better Wordsmith

By judythemorgan|2017-04-30T14:50:05-05:00May 1st, 2017|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

Our ability to “create meaning from words” –– wordsmithing–– is such a wonderful gift. (In case, you’re unfamiliar with the word, it means skilled in using words.)

I agree with J.K. Rowling. Words are magic and that magic is found in how we choose to use words.

When I write, I seek not just any word but the perfect word to convey my meaning. For example, when describing a character’s departure, I could say

He left.

He stormed out.

He ambled away.

He darted away.

He wandered away.

Each sentence suggests a different departure. I select the most appropriate one based upon the contextual meaning I want to convey to my reader.

Too often, such care is not given. If you spent much time on social media, I’m sure you’ve noticed this.There’s definitely not much wordsmithing happening in some of the FB posts on my feed. Evidently, others feel the same way. Many of my FB friends have deserted because of all the negativity.

Unfortunately, being a good wordsmith is a choice. And, we can only control our choices, not the choices others make.

We do need to remember what Yehuda Berg saysPoor or careless word choices can inflict damage both physically and emotionally. Using the wrong words can be construed as bullying, harassment, and/or slander and there are laws against bullying, harassment, and slander.

We need to make our word selections carefully. How? Try these six things.

Filter your thoughts before you speak them. Thoughts that might bring negative feelings or trouble—eliminate those. Choose instead to use words that create serenity.
Commit to no complaints and no gossip about anything or anyone, including yourself. You’ll be amazed at how much better you’ll feel.
If a complaint is unavoidable, find words to express appreciation first, no matter how small that thing may seem. Positive words have the power to change a situation.
Communicate with constructive and affirmative words. When your speech contains optimistic phrasing, you’ll discover others are more likely to respond the same way.
Make a concerted effort to say thank you more often. Kind words generate happy feelings in you and those to whom you are speaking.
Share happy stories and good news often. When you come from a place of gratitude, others will be joyful with you.

Can you add anything else to the list?

24 04, 2017

Sometimes English Isn’t English

By judythemorgan|2017-04-23T21:52:10-05:00April 24th, 2017|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

English isn’t always English.

I learned that many years ago from my British partner in our antiques business. With his King’s English and my Texas-English, communication was frequently a bit of a challenge.

As we traveled the English countryside on our quest for merchandise for our shop in Houston, I quickly learned his bobbles and bits were my smalls. My chest of drawers was his bureau. What he thought rubbish, I thought garage sale.

Chip Butty

The first time we circled a round-about to catch a chip butty truck I wasn’t sure what I was getting. By the third day, I was searching for the trucks myself. (If you’re not familiar with the English treat, it’s french fries on buttered white bread. Add a splash of ketchup and it truly isn’t bad. Carb overload, but who’s counting?)

This GrammarChek infographic highlights some of the other U.S.-British English differences we worked our way through while in business together.

Source: www.grammarcheck.net

What about you? Have you ever had English-speaking differences with someone?

17 04, 2017

A Writer’s Dilemma – Drama and Suffering

By judythemorgan|2022-10-22T06:24:32-05:00April 17th, 2017|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

We all dislike negative, unhappy things aka drama.

Who wants to suffer and be unhappy? I sure don’t.

But – reality is drama, though unwelcomed most of the time, is what life is all about.

Our puppy’s reaction to hearing thunder for the first time.

Happy drama is a very different thing.

I love the drama our new Old English Sheepdog added to our world. If you’ve ever had a puppy, you can relate. He changed our lives dramatically while adding so much laughter and love.

As a writer, I have such a difficult time being hard on my characters. I don’t want them to suffer or be unhappy. Unfortunately, that makes for a dull, uninteresting story. Drama is an integral part of real life so fictional characters must suffer.

After attending the BONI Intensive Seminars where Donald Maass stresses Tension (drama) on every page to engage readers fully, I finally understood the need to create more suffering for my fictional characters.

Readers expect drama and want to become emotionally involved with our characters. When drama and suffering are absent, readers fail to connect with our characters. They won’t read our books.

If you need a nudge to add drama to your writing (as I did), let me suggest:

1. Read The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass
2. Attend a Breakout Novel Intensive Seminar
3. Visit One Stop for Writers website where you’ll find loads of resources like The Emotion Thesaurus

Or you can watch the news or read news blogs. There’s always drama there!

10 04, 2017

Do April showers bring May flowers?

By judythemorgan|2017-03-06T14:46:40-06:00April 10th, 2017|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

It wouldn’t be right to blog in April without referencing the old saying, “April showers bring May flowers.”

The phrase probably came from the General Prologue found in The Canterbury Tales:

“Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote.”

These words – March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers – can be found in The Dictionary of Proverbs by George Latimer Apperson and Martin H. Manser

Another version can be traced to the 1557 collection of writings by Thomas Tusser, A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry. For April, he wrote:

Sweet April showers
Do spring May flowers

Tusser’s rhyme is a short poem, which fits nicely since in 1996 the month of April became National Poetry Month. For ways to celebrate poetry this month, check here.

The writer in me can’t resist sharing the poetic meaning behind “April showers bring May flowers” – even the most unpleasant of things (in this case the heavy rains of April) can bring about very enjoyable things, i.e.an abundance of flowers in May. A lesson in patience that remains valid to this day.

But, do April rains truly bring May Flowers?

Not according to botany and biology research that says, for most species, first flowering is more closely tied to temperature than to rain.

According to Libby Ellwood, “The plants may not be aware of this proverb, but they rarely have to worry about having enough water in the spring to start growing and producing flowers. … But the water itself isn’t dictating flowering times the way that temperature is.”

David W. Inouye, a biology professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, studied bloom times in the Rocky Mountains. He concluded the Alpine flower blooming season, which used to run from late May to early September, now lasts from late April to late September because temperatures in the Rockies are becoming warmer. That means a longer wildflower viewing season for mountain hikers.

Perhaps, if climate warming more closely controls flowering, the proverb should be re-written to read “Warm temperatures in March bring April flowers.”

Somehow, that doesn’t have the same ring, does it?

3 04, 2017

Why April Fools’ Day?

By judythemorgan|2017-03-03T14:53:32-06:00April 3rd, 2017|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

Last Saturday was April Fools’ Day or All Fools’ Day when jokes, hoaxes, and silly things are allowed and welcomed.

The tradition, celebrated in many different cultures, has been around for several centuries, but its origins remain a mystery.

Some say it dates back to 1582 when the Council of Trent required the French to switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.

Because news traveled so slowly in those days, many people continued to celebrate the New Year from the last week of March to April 1 and became the butt of jokes and hoaxes. Many found a paper fish placed on their backs to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person or “poisson d’avril” (April fish).

Another theory links April Fools’ Day to the ancient festival Hilaria. A feast celebrated in Rome at the end of March where people dressed up in disguises.

Historians speculate the holiday is tied to the vernal equinox or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere when Mother Nature’s unpredictable weather fooled people.

Check this site for other detailed theories.

Whatever the origin, by the 18th century, April Fools’ Day celebrations began to spread throughout Britain. A traditional Scottish festivities involve a two-day event, beginning with hunting the gowk (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for fool) where people are sent on phony errands. The next day, Tailie Day, fake tails or “kick me” signs are pinned on people’s derrieres.

These days, newspapers, radio and TV stations and Web sites participate in the tomfoolery of April 1 with the reporting of outrageous fictional claims to fool their audiences.

One of the most famous is the 1957 BBC report of Swiss farmers’ record spaghetti crop. Footage of workers harvesting noodles was shown.

Sports Illustrated tricked its 1985 readers with a made-up article about Sidd Finch, a rookie pitcher, who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour.

Fast-food restaurant chain Taco Bell claimed to have purchased Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell in 1996 and planned to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell.

Burger King advertised a new “Left-Handed Whopper,” in 1998. All the condiments rotated by 180 degrees “thereby redistributing the weight of the sandwich so that the bulk of them skew to the left” and reducing spills for lefties. Scores of clueless customers requested the fake sandwich.

In 2013, Twitter announced a free “Twttr” version that would not support vowels and only allow tweets with consonants. “Twitter” would be a $5 per month service supporting any letter. The letter Y would always be free to everyone.

How’d your April Fools’ Day go? Were you the brunt of any jokes, pranks, or hoaxes this year?

20 03, 2017

44 Words That Can Weasel into Writing

By judythemorgan|2017-03-03T08:18:06-06:00March 20th, 2017|Make Me Think Monday, Writing Craft|0 Comments

Writing’s hard work. Ask any writer. Good writing is harder. Sometimes weasel words can slip in.

Weasel words are “favorite” words that pop up when a writer is being lazy or rushing.

I first heard the term in a workshop with Margie Lawson. She expanded weasel words to include phrases, overused word, throw-away words, clichés and opinion words that might draw a reader from the story.

Her solution is to keep a personal weasel word list for every manuscript and when you do the edits, remove the weasels.

Grammarly created this infographic of frequently overused words to help writers eradicate such words. Margie and I would call it a weasel word list.

Source: www.grammarcheck.net

13 03, 2017

How to sound Irish on St. Paddy’s Day

By judythemorgan|2017-03-13T20:24:04-05:00March 13th, 2017|Make Me Think Monday|2 Comments

****Please note the correction to the blog title. I have been duly notified that I’ve made St. Paddy into a burger. A very special thank you to Donal Walsh for sending me the tweet. I’ll not be making that mistake again. :)

To learn more about the Its Paddy not Patty Irish clamp down, click here. ****

Now back to the original blog…

Everyone claims to be Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s tradition.

Whether you have an ancestorial blood claim or you’re pretending, here are some Irish sayings you might use to impress friends and family.

Should you be challenged, there’s a brief explanation of the origins to help you out.

What’s the craic? Any craic? or How’s the craic?

It’s basically a greeting like we say in the states “How are you?” Sadly, since the spoken word sounds like “crack,” using the phrases can lead to misunderstanding. Be careful!

A typical Irish response would be “divil a bit,” which means “not much.”

Story horse?

A shortened version of “What’s the story, horse?” It’s how you ask someone what’s up. In response, an Irishman is likely to dive deeply into what’s been going on in life with a witty, long-winded tale.

Acting the maggot.

If someone is acting like a fool – messing around, being obnoxious, paying more attention to their phone than you – compare them to the wriggly white worm and they’ll get the message.

Look at the state o’you!

Heard around inner Dublin, it means you question a person’s attire, personal hygiene, intoxication level, or general demeanor. If it’s a drinking companion who is overly inebriated, he’s said to be in a “bleedin’ state” or “wrecked.”

I’m on me tod.

Means you’re on your own, alone at the bar or party, or in general.

The phrase comes from the story of Tod Sloan, an American jockey whose mother died when he was young and his father abandoned him. Tod moved to the U.K. and was ridiculed for his Western riding style which ultimately ended his incredibly successful horse-racing career. After that, Sloan was always said to be “on his own.”

It’s an example of Cockney rhyming slang. The phrase construction involves taking a common word and using a rhyming phrase of two or three words to replace it. “On my Tod Sloan” rhymes with “on my own”; but in Cockney fashion, the word that completes the rhyme (“Sloan”) is omitted.

And lastly, my favorite…

Sláinte!

An Irish toast to use as you clink your glasses of Guinness. Sláinte (pronounced “slaan-sha”) literally translates as “health” and is a shortened version of “I drink to your health!”

6 03, 2017

March – A lion or A lamb?

By judythemorgan|2017-03-01T10:13:47-06:00March 6th, 2017|Make Me Think Monday|2 Comments

March Comes in like a Lion, goes out like a Lamb.

Briton Rivière – Una and the Lion

This proverb has been around since its mention in a 1732 work titled Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British.

Such weather proverbs and sayings have many origins. This one probably came from observations and a desire for accurate weather predictions.

Historically Old Man Winter reluctantly allows Spring its turn at the climate. That’s because March is a pivotal meteorological month with an unpredictable seasonal pattern. March can arrive as a lamb then turn lion-like in the end making the proverb an unreliable forecasting guide.

While the adage most likely refers to the weather, other sources trace its origins to the stars.If you look to the western horizon this time of year, you can see the constellations of Leo the Lion and Aries the Ram (or lamb).

Leo the Lion rises from the east in early March, meaning the month is coming in “like a lion.” By the end of the month, Leo is almost overhead, while Aries the Ram (lamb) is setting on the western horizon. Hence, the month is going out like a lamb.

Another theory claims the saying is biblical and the animal references symbolic. Jesus’s first appeared as the sacrificial lamb, but returns as the Lion of Judah. Problem with that theory is the lion appears first, which is theologically inaccurate.

Perhaps the best solution to what the saying – March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb – means is to take it at face value. March may well start with fierce weather, but it’s always a clear signal spring is on its way.

Here in the mountains, strong winds and snow thunderstorms marked the last day of February. March 1st we awoke to this.

As far as I’m concerned, three degrees and six inches of snow on the ground is definitely lion behavior that validates the saying.

How did your March begin?

Want to know whether you can expect lion or lamb weather in your area? You can find the Farmer’s Almanac long-range weather forecast, here.

27 02, 2017

Mesothelioma Cancer – A personal tale

By judythemorgan|2017-02-13T18:26:40-06:00February 27th, 2017|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

I first learned about mesothelioma cancer two years ago when Heather Von St. James, a mesothelioma cancer survivor, emailed with a request to share her story as a guest blogger.

If you aren’t familiar with mesothelioma cancer, it’s also known as asbestos cancer. Every year doctors diagnose an estimated 3,000 cases of mesothelioma in the United States because mesothelioma can take from 20 to 50 years after asbestos exposure before symptoms appear.

That’s what happened to Virgil Anderson, my guest blogger for today. This is his mesothelioma story.

Virgil Anderson – A Personal Tale of Asbestos and Mesothelioma

You can find a lot of statistics and facts online about the dangers of asbestos and the poor outcomes of being diagnosed with mesothelioma. What I hope to offer is a more personal story that may serve as a warning to others.

Asbestos is not used as often as it once was, but it is still out there in older buildings, in cars, in industrial settings, and other locations. I only hope my story will help protect others from the same fate.

My story begins in my hometown of Williamson, West Virginia. I was born and raised in this small town and my prospects for college or a career were limited. I took the initiative and started working and earning as early as I could.

Starting in high school, I worked in demolition. I helped to tear down old buildings, sometimes with machinery and other times with my bare hands. I did this back-breaking work in a swirl of dust and debris.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that dust contained toxic asbestos fibers and without protection, I was inhaling them.

From demolition I moved on to more skilled and specialized work that was not nearly as physically demanding. I started working with cars. One of my early jobs was removing the hood liners from older cars.

Again, what I didn’t know was that these hood liners had asbestos in them to insulate against heat and protect against fire.

Later, I moved on to working as a mechanic, which included dismantling and replacing brakes and clutches, and you probably guessed it by now: these too contained asbestos.

As happens with many other people who work around asbestos without knowing of the risks, I received my diagnosis of mesothelioma many years later. This terrible type of cancer sits latent in the body, showing no signs and causing no symptoms for decades.

By the time, I knew something was wrong it was too late. I was diagnosed with advanced pleural mesothelioma.

I am over 50 years old and living with symptoms like shortness of breath, a terrible cough, and pain in my chest when I breathe. I can’t move much anymore and although I am not that old, I am severely limited in what I can do. Just getting out of bed is now difficult for me.

My treatment options are limited because of the advance stage of the disease. I am not a good candidate for surgery, but I have been able to receive chemotherapy. It helps, but it is not enough to cure me or to extend my life by much. I need help just doing normal, everyday activities, but I am still glad to be alive.

I am most glad to be alive so that I can share my story with others. If describing what I have been through helps just one person to be screened early for mesothelioma or take steps at work to be protected from asbestos, I feel that I have done some good.

As Virgil says, we share his story to encourage others to be tested and aware of the dangers of mesothelioma.

20 02, 2017

Three Presidential Love Story Quotes

By judythemorgan|2019-02-03T20:50:06-06:00February 20th, 2017|Holidays, Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

It’s President’s Day. I thought it might be fun to look at love stories/quotes of presidents. In my day, we had holidays for Lincoln’s birthday (February 12) and George Washington’s birthday (February 22) instead of the singular day to honor all presidents. For that reason, I begin with Lincoln and Washington.

Teddy Roosevelt’s story touched my romance writer’s heart so I had to share it too.

~~Abraham Lincoln to Mary Todd Lincoln

Mary Todd, the daughter of a successful merchant and politician, attracted the attention of up-and-coming politician and lawyer Abraham Lincoln. Her family did not approve of the match, but Mary and Abraham shared a love of politics and literature and a deep love for each other. When Lincoln won his Congressional seat in 1846, Mary joined him in Washington. Something unheard of at the time.

“My wife was as handsome as when she was a girl,” Lincoln once told a reporter. “And I, poor nobody then, fell in love with her, and what is more, have never fallen out.”

~~George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis Washington

The romance of George and Martha was hardly a wild passionate romance by today’s standards. By the time their engagement was determined, they liked each other a great deal. Eight months after their marriage, George Washington wrote to his agent in England.“I am now I beleive fixd at this Seat with an agreable Consort for Life and hope to find more happiness in retirement than I ever experienced amidst a wide and busthng World.”

Eighteenth century marriages were formed for ease of living. George and Martha chose wisely, perhaps more than they realized at the time. According to historians, they shared forty years together during which they grew to love each other with true devotion.

~~ Theodore Roosevelt and Alice Hathaway Lee RooseveltAlice was Teddy Roosevelt’s first wife. He wrote of her: “Sweetest little wife, I think all the time of my little laughing, teazing beauty, and how pretty she is, and how she goes to sleep in my arms, and I could almost cry I love you so.”

Unfortunately, their love was short lived. On Valentine’s Day in 1884, Roosevelt suffered a double loss. His mother died of typhus and his beloved Alice in childbirth. His diary entry for the day is shown above. Later, he penned this private tribute for his sweetest little wife.

She was beautiful in face and form, and lovelier still in spirit; As a flower she grew, and as a fair young flower she died. Her life had been always in the sunshine; there had never come to her a single sorrow; and none ever knew her who did not love and revere her for the bright, sunny temper and her saintly unselfishness. Fair, pure, and joyous as a maiden; loving, tender, and happy. As a young wife; when she had just become a mother, when her life seemed to be just begun, and when the years seemed so bright before her—then, by a strange and terrible fate, death came to her. And when my heart’s dearest died, the light went from my life forever.

How does your love story compare to these presidential love story and quotes?