vease a run before a leap. The word is often (well, as often as such a word as this can expect) spelled feeze or pheese … A quotation in the OED from 1675 reads “If a man do but goe back a little to take his feeze, he may easily jump over it.”
– Weird And Wonderful Words edited by Erin McKean.
ABC NEWS – The Pigtails Are Gone: Willie Nelson Cuts His Hair
All the Federales say he could have cut them any day; he only let them grow so long … out of kindness, I suppose.
A boy with hair like some fine vixen pelt
came to Amalgam during Winter’s bite;
he licked the ground and caused the frost to melt
and left a lock for which the priests would fight.
Before I get into the links to publishing pro blogs, let me do a short follow-up on my Lost-inspired “Advice From A Dude” column. I was surprised to find it one of my most well-received advice pieces; I really expected a lot of defensive Lost fans in the comments trashing my trashing of the show’s creators. Thanks for being kinder to me than I was to them.
And thanks to Jade Smith for including me in a Lost-oriented link soup. If I am missing anyone else who linked me up, just speak out!
Also: I am the creator of the parody Lost – Gilligan’s Island graphic used in the article. I consider it covered by the Fair Use doctrine; one of the perks of being an American! Insofar as I have any control over it as an original composition based on sampled (parodied!) pieces, I hereby free it for use to anyone who credits me, John Nelson Leith, with a link.
And now, on to the publishing links! They may seem a little thin this week, perhaps because everyone is busy at Book Expo America 2010.
♣ Speaking of which, MediaBistro‘s GalleyCat is promising all the news and snarks on BEA 2010.
♣ The Author Magazine blog opens up the forum to Deb Caletti, author of The Six Rules of Maybe, who advises writers to be who they are.
♣ The Moby Lives blog follows up on Editorial Ass‘s recent piece on giving your book a title that another book already has. (That phrase just seemed more descriptive than “duplicate titling.”)
♣ Eric at Pimp My Novel offers his own take on the Lost finale, a little peek into the future of self-publishing with Barnes & Noble’s new PubIt service, and a few pointers on writings (and selling) literary fiction.
Also, as a bonus
Today, in the aftermath of the long-anticipated Lost finale, I want to investigate good and bad ways to finish a storyline driven by suspense.
I have to admit up front that I am not a fan of the recently concluded Lost series. I’m not an anti-fan either; I just never watched it.
When the buzz about Lost started really kicking in, and everyone I knew began proselytizing the show like freshly shaved cultists, I started having Twin Peaks flashbacks. There was no way I was going to get psychologically invested in a show about weird goings on that would never be explained.
Once bitten, and all that.
Judging from the reactions of many Lost fans to last night’s finale, my caution was prescient. Despite resolution on a few interpersonal issues between the characters, I have heard from more than one Loster (Lostie?) that the end of the series left most of the questions completely unanswered.
But, looking at this problem as a reader/writer of fiction, it does highlight an intriguing aspect of audience satisfaction.
Resolution of suspense — emotional, narrative, or otherwise — is a hallmark of good writing in any genre. Even when issues are purposefully left unresolved (Is Han Solo Gandalf Captain Jack Sparrow really dead?!) it usually implies a promise of future resolution in the form of another episode.
Here we are at the beginning of another week, on a day that happens to be the anniversary of several significant events in the history of written things.
Four hundred eighty years ago today in London, a list of heretic books was ordered burned. A short 13 years later on this date, Copernicus published the landmark work on the heliocentric model of the solar system, De Revolutionibus.
On this day in 1610, on the 3rd anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Sir Thomas Gates establishes a draconian civil code for the colony. (Fourteen years later to the day, Virginia is declared a failure and its charter is revoked.)
This is also the birthday of magazine and newspaper publisher Samuel Irving Newhouse (1895-1979) and United Press International (1958).
Now, on to the book-oriented side of publishing, with this week’s literary agent links! Continue reading
Am I the only one who thinks the present participles of the words “do” and “go” look like they should rhyme with “boing”?
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[And, that’s not even close to what getting hit with a quarterstaff sounds like.]
It’s that time again in my three-part cycle of link soup.
Just like how, at the cafeteria where you work, the middle of the week means taco bar, the beginning of the Leith Literary soup cycle means links to stuff other writers are writing about! There’s no guac or salsa here, but there certainly is a lot of spicy goodness.
So, set your laptop somewhere it won’t overheat (the cooling vents are probably on the bottom!) and enjoy the following links offering advice and other neat stuff from writers. Continue reading
mossyback. A nickname for a draft dodger who evaded military service by seeking refuge in a swamp or similar refuge.
– The Encyclopedia of Civil War Usage by Webb Garrison with Cheryl Garrison.
Do you guys know how hard it is to come up with these quirky little introductions? After flagging the articles around the web I want to share, devising a compelling preface is often the most difficult part of the process.
The pressure to tap out enough text so that it wraps down below the badge! Something topical, quirky, engaging, and yet not too distracting from the cool links to follow?
The need for a new joke, a new angle, a new … oh, hey! Hmmm, I guess I’m done.
And now, links from publishing industry insiders: Continue reading
