Comments for Get It Write

Comment on From Laurens to Laurens by sheilasimonson

sheilasimonson — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:25:10 +0000

Great blog. Do you dream about your house in Laurens? I have a wholly imaginary house I dream about repeatedly. I’d recognize it at once if I saw it, but I’m pretty sure it’s not real. I think it feeds into all the houses that insert themselves into my novels.

Comment on Jangling Jargon by sheilasimonson

sheilasimonson — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:43:23 +0000

You’re absolutely right about the minister’s wife thinking narthex. I’m interested in church history (all churches), and I’ve noticed that each one has its own jargon. Who says ‘christened’ and who says ‘baptized,’ for instance. The writer had darned well better get it right.

Sheila

Comment on Jangling Jargon by Sara Hoskinson Frommer

Sara Hoskinson Frommer — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:22:33 +0000

I’m with you about technobabble, Sheila. And the few mystery bits of it I can think of don’t have much place in a story–whodunnit, for instance. (I saw the other day that Word wanted to spell it whodunit, but I just couldn’t.) Still, a modicum of the vocabulary of whatever the people in the book would actually use is just about necessary. In The Nine Tailors, it’s the jargon of bell ringing, which is gobbledygook to me, but absolutely essential to that story. In Penny’s The Beautiful Mystery, it’s all about monastic life and Gregorian chant. I have some music in all my books, too, and try to use ordinary words whenever I can. But there are times when only the right word fits. I also referred to the narthex of a church in my new one. Calling that space behind the nave (which I didn’t call the nave) the vestibule just doesn’t work in the head of the widow of a minister. She’d think narthex.

I love what Margaret Maron does with the vowels of her character’s speech. It’s absolutely right. That’s not jargon. It’s a great ear.

Comment on Gardening and Dreams by bell735

bell735 — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:51:08 +0000

Lea, this struck a chord with me. My father always had a vegetable garden when I was growing up. He and my mother spent hours canning in mid- and late summer. Now I have a perennial garden in my small back yard. I’ve also put in a path (which leads to nowhere). I was working on shade-loving plants, but this spring the power company took down a tree on a neighbor’s property, so I suddenly have all this sun to deal with. Since I always have to get back to Pliny the Younger, I chuckle when I read one of his letters in which he describes a garden on one of his estates. He has had the gardener trim the shrubs to spell out his name.

Comment on My Life With Horses by laurae95003

laurae95003 — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:38:38 +0000

What a beautiful comment and memory. Yes, some horses are guides. I have had a few like that. And some of these are still with me. Thanks so much for your insight.

Comment on My Life With Horses by Nikki Andrews

Nikki Andrews — Sun, 19 May 2013 20:49:50 +0000

My first word, after Mommy, was “forthy.” My earliest memory is of riding a pony at one of those little places along the side of the road that were all the rage in the 50s. I was 3. There were any number of horses at various riding stables until I turned 11 and met Irish, a buckskin quarter horse mare. My parents worked out a deal with her owner whereby I could ride her when I wanted in return for stable chores and whatever cash I earned mowing lawns or washing windows.
What a blessing she was! We shared some wonderful adventures–I wonder if the coeds at the local college ever got over seeing her big dark eye at their dorm room windows? She taught me more about being a woman than my mother ever did, and long after she died she guided me through the most difficult period of my life. She still comes to me whenever I need her.

Some horses are like that.

Comment on How To Write a Cozy Mystery by Helen Tai Cheng

Helen Tai Cheng — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:33:02 +0000

why can’t a cozy mystery has an infant death eg being poisoned, if it is not a violent death. I have just finishing writing such a mystery, now I am worried about what you said here.

Comment on Deja Whew by shelleysinger.com

shelleysinger.com — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:00:43 +0000

What a relief, huh? Best of all, I don’t remember whodunit.

Comment on Deja Whew by Sara Hoskinson Frommer

Sara Hoskinson Frommer — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:45:00 +0000

I had the same experience, reading my old books before uploading them as ebooks. Worried about all the same things, for the same reasons. It was more fun than I expected, getting a peek into my own former mind by reading the words and thoughts of characters that came out of it quite some time ago. And yes, there are a few words I plan not to use again.

Comment on Deja Whew by shelleysinger.com

shelleysinger.com — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:10:18 +0000

Hi, Camille! Best to let sleeping typos lie.