Wednesday Word: Till

till 1 |til|preposition & conjunctionless formal way of saying until .ORIGIN Old English til, of Germanic origin; related toOld Norse til ‘to.’USAGE In most contexts, till and until have the same meaning and are interchangeable. The main difference is that till is generally considered to be more informal than until. Until occurs much more frequently than till in writing. In addition, until tends to be the natural choice at the beginning of a sentence: : until very recently, there was still a chance of rescuing the situation. Interestingly, while it is commonly assumed that till is an abbreviated form of until (the spellings 'till and 'til reflect this), till is in fact the earlier form. Until appears to have been formed by the addition of Old Norse und (‘as far as’) several hundred years after the date of the first records for till.
I predominantly use till in speech, and so it's not surprising that it pops up a lot in my writing, where it regularly gets me in trouble with critique partners and editors alike. However, I refuse to give it up. If till wasn't too esoteric for Ursula K. Leguin to use, it'll do for me too.

Monday Men: Men of Winter

I love these guys with their identical nerd-glasses. There is an inscription on the back:

Wednesday Word: Turbid

turbid |ˈtərbid|adjective(of a liquid) cloudy, opaque, or thick with suspended matter : the turbid estuary | figurative a turbid piece of cinéma vérité.DERIVATIVESturbidity |tərˈbiditē| nounturbidly adverbturbidness nounORIGIN late Middle English (in the figurative sense): from Latin turbidus, from turba ‘a crowd, a disturbance.’USAGE Is it turbid or turgid ? Turbid is used of a liquid or color to mean 'muddy, not clear': : turbidwater. Turgid means 'swollen, inflated, enlarged': :turgid veins. Both turbid and turgid can also be used to describe language or literary style: as such, turbidmeans 'confused, muddled' ( : the turbid utterances of Carlyle), and turgid means 'pompous, bombastic' ( : a turgid and pretentious essay).
I so want to use both these words in an intentional piece of purple prose. How does turbid skies sound? How about turgid clouds?

Monday Men: Mr. Moustache

He's a handsome gentlemen and well groomed. The ladies must have swooned.

Sluggish Sunday

I have three books in various stages of editing, but for the moment I'm in a lull while waiting to hear back from editors, beta reader, and crit partners. I should use this time to do the many things I've been neglecting. My writing desk is a mess, old photos and postcards are waiting to be scanned, paperwork needs filing, and so on.  I also have to write a couple of blurbs. I got as far as making a list.

I blame my inertia on the weather. It's wet and gloomy, making me want to curl up under a blanket with a warm cat and a cup of hot tea. Fark it. I'm taking the day off.

Wednesday Word: Nascent

nascent |ˈnāsənt; ˈnasənt|
adjective(esp. of a process or organization) just coming into existence and beginning to display signs of future potential : the nascent space industry.• Chemistry (chiefly of hydrogen) freshly generated in a reactive form.DERIVATIVESnascence nounnascency nounORIGIN early 17th cent.: from Latin nascent- ‘being born,’ from the verb nasci.
This word hisses at you from dark alleys. Psst, over here, I have vocabulary for you right here. You know you want it. What does it have to do with sailors during inspection? I have no clue.

Monday Men: A Cornucopia of Sailors

What's the collective noun for sailors? Brigade? Troupe? Flock?

Sexy Sunday Sailors

Here is the reason for my recent obsession with sailors, not that I need a reason. I have a story in this erotica anthology, and so does my friend, Jo Myles.  I got the print copies in the male two days ago. The paperback is on sale on Amazon, while the ebook edition will be available on November 13. For some weird reason they have different covers. Maybe you can't put a guy in his underwear on a print cover? I don't know.

A couple more sailors from my private collection:

Wednesday Word: Scend

scend |send| (also send) archaic
nounthe push or surge created by a wave.• a pitching or surging movement of a vessel.verb [ intrans. ](of a vessel) pitch or surge up in a heavy sea.ORIGIN late 15th cent. (as a verb): alteration of send 1or descend . The noun dates from the early 18th cent.

Monday Men: Hello Sailor!

There will be more sailors coming this week and next. I have a whole collection of them.

Seven Sentence Sunday

From a WIP I'm hoping to publish in December:


When I put up the flyers at the nearby campuses, a roommate was all I was looking for. Preferably a socially inept nerd. Someone to pay half the rent and cause no trouble.

The day after putting up the ads, the first email inquiry arrived from someone called Lea. I sent back a brief reply telling her to stop by after three. If she didn't mind sharing apartment with a guy, I had nothing against her.

Five after three the bell rang but when I opened the door I found a skinny guy standing at the threshold. The first thing that struck me about him was how his short, blond hair stuck out in every direction--as if it was trying to escape his scalp.