Wednesday Word: Torpefy

torpefy |ˈtôrpəˌfī|
verb ( -fies, -fied) [ trans. ] formalmake (someone or something) numb, paralyzed, or lifeless.ORIGIN early 19th cent.: from Latin torpefacere, from torpere ‘be numb or sluggish.’

From Dead Man and the Lustful Spirit:

While Denton put the coffee on, Bran scooped cookie dough from the plastic tub and rolled it into balls before placing them on top of the parchment paper lining the baking sheet. He kept talking as he went. “A full demon could move about freely, but a demonic spirit needs a host. Which means it is now trapped inside Lenny. I’ll put a spell of torpidity on Lenny to make his body useless to the spirit. Also to protect him.”

“Torpe-what?”

“Torpefy is the same as paralyze,” Bran said. “The grimoires I learned from were rather old.”

This short story is set between Dead Man and the Restless Spirits and the sequel, which I hopefully start writing very soon. It's available free on Goodreads, Smashwords, and All Romance Ebooks, but still costs $0.99 on Amazon. Goddess knows if I'll be able to set it free there too.

Vintage Monday: Madison Square, NY, 1910

The New York skyline changed a lot in 104 years.

I don't remember where I found this unusual size postcard. It was either at the Pasadena flea Market or at a paper fair in Glendale. I'm a sucker for panoramic views.

Die, Bastards! Die!

I hate moths. They eat my sweaters and use the pancake mix as their nursery. That's all.

Wednesday Word: Odoriferous

odoriferous |ˌōdəˈrifərəs|adjectivehaving or giving off a smell, esp. an unpleasant or distinctive one : spicily concocted with odoriferous herbs |an odoriferous pile of fish remains.DERIVATIVESodoriferously adverbORIGIN late Middle English : from Latin odorifer‘odor-bearing’ + -ous .

I'm sticking with stinky. It's much easier to pronounce.

Vintage Monday: BVDs

He has a bit of Burt Reynolds thing going on, doesn't he. And yes, I was around when Burt Reynolds was hot stuff.

Saturday Snippet

Just wrapping up line edits for Temper Sanguine. The book has a fair bit of Hungarian, and I feel sorry for my editors who had to deal with it. Hungarian it's not an easy language, some say it's one of the hardest ones to learn. Harvey is certainly not having an easy time with it:

Thwap! The book hit the wall, bounced and landed on the floor, pages flailing like the arms of men slipping on ice.

“Your language is fucking impossible!” Harvey snarled from his spot on the couch.

Gabe played dumb. “What’s wrong with English?”

“Hungarian! It’s…” Harvey sputtered out in frustration but quickly gathered steam again. “The grammar must’ve been invented by a sadist. Your people simply take a word and stick more letters to it from both ends to make it mean whatever you want. It’s like a syllabic orgy, and there are all these stupid rules about vowels and stuff, and the whole thing’s about as straightforward as three-person chess.” He stood and picked up the book. He leafed through it till he found what he’d been looking for. “Take this, for example. How the hell is elmehetsz supposed to mean you may leave? And the root word is megy! What the fuck? This language is ridiculous.” He flung himself back on the couch.

Status Report: Demons on the Brain

I generally don't like to talk about a work in progress, especially in the early stage, because I'm afraid I'll jinx it. However, I'll take a chance this time. We'll see what happens.

Back in the Dead Man universe, I'm currently tinkering with spirits and demons. I'm almost done with a short story, and will move next to a longer story. The plot is not fully formed yet, but I went for a hike the other day and came back with some good ideas. Some of them sprung from things that happened or were said in Dead Man and the Restless Spirits. If I play my cards right, it'll seem like I always planned things just so.

Interestingly, certain illustrations I recently collected on Pinterest are also giving me inspiration. It's all very thrilling right now—wonderful possibilities abound. I also have a touch of fear, the possibility that I won't be able to pull it off in the end. This is the moment on the rollercoaster when the safety guards lock in place and you're about to take off.

Wednesday Word: Bodkin

bodkin |ˈbädkin|nouna blunt thick needle with a large eye used esp. for drawing tape or cord through a hem.• a small pointed instrument used to pierce cloth or leather.• historical a long pin used for fastening hair.• chiefly historical Printing a pointed tool used for removing pieces of metal type for correction.ORIGIN Middle English : perhaps of Celtic origin and related to Irish bod, Welsh bidog, Scottish Gaelicbiodag ‘dagger.’

The sound of this word don't match the image of a needle in my mind. Imo, it would fit some sort of old style, restrictive undergarment better. It could also be a good name for a small,  mischievous demon. (I have demons on the mind lately.)

Vintage Monday: Sleepover

Gotta love old ads. Nowadays you wouldn't see one like this, unless if it was specifically aimed for a gay audience. Make me wonder how much of the homoeroticism of the old ads was intentional.

I have cover!

(Design by Angie Waters)

So nice to have a cover--it makes the book feel real.

Wednesday Word: Loquacious

loquacious |lōˈkwā sh əs|adjectivetalkative. See note at talkative .DERIVATIVESloquaciously adverbloquaciousness nounloquacity |ˈkwasətē| nounORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin loquax, loquac-(from loqui ‘talk’ ) + -ious .

Hey, wasn't that Cpt. Picard's name when he turned into a borg?

Vintage Monday: Rice Lake, Minnesota

Hey, look at the size of my fish!

Status Update – The Return of Harvey and Gabe

My next book with Samhain will be Temper Sanguine, due out in June. All the content edits are done, and I've even seen a comp for the cover. It's a great feeling to be at this "OMG, I actually finished this thing!" stage. Temper Sanguine is a sequel to Spirit Sanguine and picks up a few months after where the first book left off. Without giving away too much, I can tell that there's some traveling, nasty bad guys, fighting, gore, and a colorful cast of supporting characters.

While Temper Sanguine is a sequel, I wrote it to work as a standalone. It takes extra work sum up the world and the relevant details from the previous book without turning it into an info-dump, but it's worth the effort.

Sometimes I'm amazed I finish anything at all. When I'm in the middle of a project the end seems hopelessly far away and I often despair. Fortunately, I've realized writing is a lot like climbing uphill—all you need to do is focus on your next step and you'll eventually make it to the top.

I wrote this book in layers, more than any other book before. The first draft was incredibly rough and it took multiple passes of edits to fill the wholes and smooth out the rough patches. Now that it's done, I'm truly pleased with the results.

In other news: I plan to publish the slightly re-edited version of Academic Pursuits in early March, and I'm currently working on a Dead Man story.

Wednesday Word: Crepitate

crepitate |ˈkrepəˌtāt|verb [ intrans. ]make a crackling sound : the night crepitates with an airy, whistling cacophony | [as adj. ] ( crepitating) spidery fingers of crepitating electricity.DERIVATIVEScrepitant |ˈkrepətənt| adjectiveORIGIN early 17th cent. (in the sense ‘break wind’ ): from Latin crepitat- ‘crackled, rustled,’ from the verb crepitare, from crepare ‘to rattle.’

Do fireworks crepitate?