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?