Word Candy

Language is fluid, always changing to incorporate new words and phrases. I’m old school and absolutely refuse to accept new meanings or made-up words in my speech or text. 

• My characters will never refer to each other as Bae.

• They will never call something “adorbs”.

Colorful speech bubbles

I am far less rigid when accepting phrases, especially those in an entertainment context.  I have been known to utter. “I’ll be back,” when it fits the situation. “Do you feel lucky?” is a question my dogs have heard when they refuse to do something I tell them to do. I’ve said   “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” and “We’re not in Kansas anymore”  more times than I want to admit.  “Stay behind me if you want to live,” is sure to elicit groans

Sadly, I’ve not been to see a new movie in over two years.  I have, however, gleefully leapt down the rabbit hole known as YouTube. Consequently, I cannot watch a video by a certain group without hearing the comments of Cameron Phillip K.’s dubs.Not unexpectedly, I’ve picked up many new phrases. 

I now submit to you a list of phrases I use all the time that came from my foray into YouTube over the past year.  I’m not including the dozens of phrases that have come from Prince lyrics (you’re welcome) but I apologize in advance if you’ve been subjected to them or the ones below.  

• Party, party, yeah!

• Jimin-Go back to sleep!

• Jimin’s got no jams!

• In this economy, (followed by a non-sequitur: In this economy, she’s prettier than I am.)

• No, not today!

• Stob it!

• World-Wide Handsome.

• He looks like a boiled dumpling.

• and the one we use most—Socks first!

What phrases have inadvertently entered your day-to-day language?

A Circle of Writers

Writing is hard. Even if the story comes easily, figuring out how to tell it may not. Writing is also lonely. You can sit for hours staring at your computer screen. Sure, your cat occasionally graces you with her presence but it’s not the same thing as having other people with you in the sometimes painful, sometimes gleeful, and always powerful journey.

I currently belong to Marketing for Romance Writers. This is an amazing collection of authors who are happy to share each other’s victories and lament each other’s pain. We don’t convene, but we connect in an email loop and social media. CT Romance Writers is another. I’ve belonged to this group the longest and I credit it with helping me to learn the craft and the ins and outs of submitting manuscripts. Both of these groups are relatively large, and while size has its advantages, it also means that it isn’t very intimate and it is not easy to form individual relationships.

That is where CT Writers Circle comes in. This small group of six wonderful women are my tribe. Each of us writes in very different genres—Thrillers. Poetry. Biographies. Ecological Mysteries. Romantic Comedy—and then there’s me, writing spicy LGBT and rock star romance. What connects us isn’t that we write the same thing. It’s that we are compelled to write, and are willing to support each other as women, as writers, and as colleagues.

No matter you passion, it's important to find your circle. I’m fortunate to have found groups of writers that welcomed me, and who make writing less lonely.

Mercury is in Retrograde, and So Am I

Thankfully, Mercury is retrograde just three more days. It started on January 14 and ends on February 3. “What is this?”, you may ask.

Three or four times a year, Mercury appears to be moving backward, and is thought to cause all manner of communication and technological problems. General advice is don’t sign any important contracts and do not buy technology during this period.

Although I don’t usually seem to be affected by this (and I am skeptical of it most of the time), this year I feel it in my bones. My biggest problem, however, is that the technology I need to use in my classroom is failing me. Every day I have to call in IT to fix the display. They get it running in 20 minutes or so, and assure me it is fixed permanently. If that was the case, why am I calling you every day?

Monday, as usual, I called the techs in again. This time, none of their magic worked. They threw their hands up in the air and exclaimed, “We have to call the manufacturer.”

Seriously.

So I have to now rely on old fashion white boards. Without my regular gear, class could be a snoozefest for my students. I am taxing every creative cell in my body to develop lesson plans that will keep them engaged. Or at least awake.

Three more days.