I started writing when I was quite young – poetry mostly. I was good in English class and Reading, but I didn’t know enough to be able to write anything more than poetry in the beginning. In the 7th grade, one of my poems was published in the school year book which was a big deal to me back then.

I am a voracious reader when I have the time and the means. When I was much younger, I read a wide variety of genres and styles including Romance. I don’t care for Romance any longer, and the Supernatural/Paranormal Romance is just as bad. If I want to read porn, I’ll read porn and not porn pretending to be something else. There’s nothing wrong with sex in a story as long as it helps move the story along and as long as it leaves something to the reader’s imagination. I don’t need/want an explicit sex scene. Where’s the romance in that??

I am, and always have been, a big fan of Fantasy and Horror in their purer forms. Gothic Horror is now classed as Supernatural/Paranormal, but I still enjoy it as long as it’s well written. Violence is okay as long as it moves the story along, as long as it’s necessary for the story to develop. Even then, less is more since I can imagine far worse with fewer details. I love Psychological Horror where the writer lets you scare yourself with a few choice words and with fantastic anticipation building.

My favorite Fantasy author is J.R.R. Tolkien. I discovered him when I was about 10. I read Lord of the Rings and didn’t read the Hobbit until after I’d read the entire series. I was hooked on his style of writing. His use of words to create fantastic imagery was stirring. I cried during the thrilling scene where the Elves arrive in Helmsdeep just in time to aid the Humans they’d pledged to help so many years before. The final movie rendition of that scene was just as stirring, and I cried for the first time – the previous movie attempts had never moved me. Still, I wasn’t moved enough to begin writing. I just devoured every Fantasy novel I could get my hands on. Weis/Hickman’s DragonLance series as well as McCaffrey’s Pern series stuck with me the most of all of them.

When I was 13, almost 14, I discovered Stephen King. I’d already seen movies by some of the great film makers including Hitchcock, but none of them scared me like reading It for the very first time! Only Jaws came close to scaring me that much. Despite this fear, I kept reading King. I loved he didn’t tell me what I was supposed to be scared of, he just described the monster or built up the scene enough for me to scare myself. His use of imagery, smells, sounds, feelings, is still so vivid and evocative I thrill every time I pick up a new book of his. This said, not all of his books have scared me. Cujo made me sad for the dog. Desperation and Regulators disturbed me because they both had kids as the main focus of the stories. Rose Madder was close to being like a bad acid trip. He was, in the end, the catalyst that moved me to try my hand at writing.

I wanted to blend the two writing styles to create my own. I wanted to describe things with a minimal of words, letting the reader fill in the blanks as they would. I wanted to create vivid action scenes, develop well liked/hated characters who were believable, and I wanted to craft a story people would want to read.

My first three stories were lost over the years – my first was a post Vietnam war story, and the other two were Fantasy stories involving characters in Crimson Knight, the first novel I ever published. Those two stories were the beginning of my world of Padua. I have also written Supernatural Thrillers though my first one was considered a Gothic Horror two decades ago.

Others have had added some flavoring to my writing as well, but none have had the impact those two aforementioned had, and still have, on me and my writing.

What inspires you to do the things you love to do? It doesn’t have to be writing. It can be painting, music, poetry, crafting, whatever brings a smile to your lips and happiness to your heart. I’d love to hear about it!

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Words truly are more than just a collection of letters. Ancient humans used them to help them identify things especially when talking to another human – words for animals and plants for instance. They created words to express their feelings as well.

As communication became more advanced, such as the invention of writing, words evolved and became much more than simply names for things. They began to mean things and do things. They helped record history, record important things for business, to teach a great many important things, and to entertain.

With the advent of story telling, words developed more deeper meaning, and they took on yet another dimension especially when combinations began to form. Phrases, idioms, even descriptive passages began to shape people’s thoughts and feelings, drew them in or shut them out. Words began to paint pictures and create ephemeral experiences.

Words still do this even today in our sophisticated world. We know the difference between truth and fiction, most of us do at any rate, and the majority of us are willing to suspend this knowledge in order to fully enjoy the experiences words give us.

Words are still developing as people learn to use them, manipulate them, in order to create even more vivid ideas and thoughts. Words have become “delicious”, “sexy”, “scary” even “disgusting” depending on how they are used. Words have always been evocative, very little in the beginning, but more and more as humans reacted to them and learned from this reaction.

Phrases from Martha Grimes’ Rainbow’s End:

“…coruscating flash of lightning..”

“…varnished with light…”

“…fire…throwing shadowy beckoning fingers up…”

and from Tami Hoag’s Night Sins:

“A sense of anger and disapproval tainted the moment like a layer of soot on her skin.”

“…thick shroud of gray…dimmer than twilight…”

“…world turned into a hazy place of smoke and mirrors…”

“Their innocence marred like a clean white page streaked by dirty fingers.”

These call up imagery not spelled out in their words, they don’t need to be. They are invoked, created by their collaboration with the reader’s mind and life experiences.

It this interplay and interdependence that drew me into the world of reading when I was not even in school. My late grandfather used to tell the story of how, when I came home from my very first day of school, I was upset and a bit angry. When he asked me what was wrong, I told him I hadn’t been taught how to read. My grandmother, bless her, gave me a chapter book for my 5th birthday. This was a book with no pictures in it, hardly fit for a 5 year old only she knew, like my grandfather did, I was no ordinary 5 year old. Once I learned to read, my reading level shot up and by the time I was 7, I was reading that book by myself from cover to cover. It was Bomba the Jungle Boy, and it was written by Stratemeyer Syndicate under the name Roy Rockwood around 1926. This is the same group who wrote and published Nancy Drew, which I later read as well. It was 1975 when I got my copy of Bomba the Jungle Boy, and I wish I still had the book. It disappeared somewhere along my life’s road, but I plan to replace it now that I know where I can get a copy.

What do you think of the words you read? What words and phrases catch your attention and linger in your mind long after you’ve finished reading?

Do you agree words are more than just a collection of letters?

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!

Curse: utter offensive words in anger or annoyance.

Swear: the use of offensive language.

Both of these definitions fall under the umbrella of Profanity: blasphemous or obscene language.

I have been told that use of Profanity is a sign of intelligence, but my own research has shown this to be false. According to a study conducted by Yale University and the paper later published called The Relationship Between Profanity and Intelligence:

“ABSTRACT. Profanity and censorship are prevalent in our culture. Many negative opinions about
cursing exist, but there is little actually known about how harmful it can be. The purpose of this
experiment was to see if cursing is correlated with intelligence. The hypothesis is that there will
be no relationship between cursing and intelligence. A 28 question survey that assessed cursing
frequency was given to 46 college enrolled participants. After the survey, the participants were
asked to complete the Wonderlic Personnel Test in order to assess their Intelligence Quotient.
After running a linear regression analysis between the factors in the survey and the IQ scores, no
statistically significant relationship was found between cursing and intelligence. There was a statistically significant correlation found between IQ score and whether or not the participant reported that he or she attempts to expand his or her vocabulary. These findings show that although
cursing may not be socially desirable, it is not a predictor of intelligence or the lack thereof. It
was shown that vocabulary and the desire to expand it may play a large role in intelligence. This
should be emphasized in scholastic environments, especially for children before the age of three.
Developing an extensive vocabulary as soon as possible seems to lead to higher intelligence….”

I have always believed profanity is a lazy person’s way of speaking. It was originally used to shock people into silence thus allowing the person speaking to “win” the argument or whatever. Most people use certain profane phrases out of habit and as a knee jerk response when someone makes them mad or whatever.

In the olden days, like the Middle Ages, being profane was actually a sign of intelligence because you had to have a decent vocabulary, and some wit, to properly “curse” someone.

Latin words were translated and used by those with an education while common folks with limited educations would use profanity of a more religious nature. ‘By God’s Body!” was a popular one and was later changed to “By Jove” to make it more acceptable.

Monty Python did some tongue and cheek “swearing” by saying: “Your mom is a hamster, and your father smells of elderberries!” I first heard this as a preteen and didn’t know what people thought it was so funny until an older friend translated : “Your mother is a whore, and your father is a drunk.” Very witty and got past the censors of the time.

I enjoy reading passages where a person spends a few minutes insulting a person:

You bloody pox ridden, pustule covered, flea bitten, mangy, foul smelling, ignorant son of a three-legged ram!” or some such. That kind of insult takes a bit to pull off so a big vocabulary is a must.

Nowadays, big vocabularies mean insulting someone using technical terms for bodily functions as well as scientific names for things and doing things usually ends up with the receiver of such an insult having no idea how burned they are.

While there are many benefits to swearing and using the F word, using it as part of a normal conversation is not a sign of intelligence imho. Using it every other word is plain stupid and shows a serious lack of creativity at the very least. When someone uses profanity in regular conversation, I stop listening to what they have to say because it’s not going to be anything interesting or important – not to me.

When angry, swearing is very cathartic and thus, is useful. Swearing just to do so isn’t.

End of my op ed. Tell me what you think – I promise I won’t use any profanity. I am just trying to get a feel of what others think.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!

I had such fun with the first one, I’ve decided to do it again. The game is simple, read each word and write down the first word that comes to mind. The FIRST one, and it doesn’t matter what it is. Your mind makes associations in many different ways and no two minds work the same way! Also, you can’t use the same words I choose:

1. Victory
2. Honesty
3. Blue
4. Sorrow
5. Truck
6. Dog
7. Child
8. Serendipity
9. Scrumptious
10. Benign

Here are my answers. Please, post yours in the comments and don’t worry about explaining why you used a word. It’s all in good fun!

1. Winning
2. Truth
3. Red
4. Happiness
5. Bronco
6. Malamute
7. Mother
8. Surprise
9. Pie
10. Safe

I look forward to seeing what kind of answers you give me for this little game! 🙂

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

I have a Beta reader! She lives in the UK, but she’s willing to work with me about the time between us 🙂 I am waiting on a friend here in the US to let me know if she’s interested in being a reader still – she just finished some intensive chemotherapy and may no longer feel up to doing something like this.

With L, she’s going to be holding me accountable. I am sending her a chapter a day Monday through Friday which means I have to work on getting it from long hand to the computer before I can email her anything. I’ll be doing to formatting and the rest once everything is on the computer, it’s easier that way actually – for me anyway.

I sent her the backstory including an overview of Crimson Knight so she’ll know where things stand when she begins work on Golden Knave. I also sent her the first chapter of Kitya’s story. I actually thought I had all of Kitya’s story on the computer, but I was way wrong so I’ll be doing that before anything else.

Golden Knave still doesn’t have an ending, but I’m sure once I get to that point, I’ll have it worked out. It would be impossible not to.

I think, I know, Golden Knave will be done before Yule this year as that’s my final goal for this project.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

OH YES!! If you’d like to be a Beta reader, feel free to let me know in the comments below! This is an adult fantasy novel so be forewarned!!