Random House Word Menu
Stephen Glazier
ISBN 978-0345414410

Blurb:

The critically acclaimed Random House Word Menu is the ultimate language reference: a reverse dictionary, thesaurus, almanac, and compendious glossary, all in one. Only the Word Menu organizes language the subject matter, the way we understand and use it, and from the general to the specific, so it’s easy to use.

For example: you’re can’t come up with the right word for the part of the wall you’re about to paint. A regular dictionary won’t help; your thesaurus isn’t specialized enough. Look in the Word Menu, first under "The Home," then under "Interior Structure," and then under "Structural and Decorative Element." There it is: dado, the lower part of wall separated from upper part by rail, moulding, or border.

Review:

What can I say about this book, other than… what a fantastic way to organize a dictionary of sorts!
It is laid out easily and aids finding the right word quickly. You start off by going to the section you need, then the sub section — and before you know it, you find the word you were after. Well, most of them, anyway.

I was looking for a word describing the loose gravel you get on mountainsides. It wasn’t under landscapes and seascapes. So I looked under geology. Materials, formations and substances. Did I find it? You betcha. Right there it was: Scree. Loose rock debris, talus.
Finding this word would have been next to impossible without the Word Menu book.

I can’t stress enough how every writer should have a copy of this on their shelf. It’s an invaluable resource.

However, if you get the paperback edition… a magnifying glass is another invaluable resource. The type of the paperback edition is tiny.
I’m not kidding. It’s minute and very hard to read, because it is so small.
4 stars from me, because of the type setting. I’m sure the hardback with it’s larger typeface would have been a resounding 5 stars.

I’m told the hardback has bigger type, so if you want to save your eyes — get the hardback copy of this.

I’ve blogged about Backups and things over on Passionate Critters.

Go check it out! (You won’t regret it, I promise)

Tags: Backup

I used to read (still do, occasionally) Edgar Allan Poe.

When I was in school, we were given a choice of poets, and he was the one I picked.
I don’t think I’ve found any poem I didn’t like.

However, every now and then I trip over something I like (and I’m a morbid person, so watch out) and add it to my favorites collection.

One of the ones I like, and think people should read at least once, is "The Bridge of Sighs" by Thomas Hood (1789-1845) (I like quite a few of his.)
Another is "The Sleeper" by Edgar Allan Poe. I’m sure everyone knows the famous Raven, but how many know The Sleeper?

There are many others out there, which ones do you like?

Tags: Poets

Today I found myself writing a letter to someone I’ve never met, to someone I don’t know.

The guys at FPN (The Fountain Pen Network) decided it’ll be a good idea to put our pens to work and write… postcards.
Not enough with the postcards keeping the postal service busy, it now progressed to letters.

When all this started, it got me to thinking.

When was the last time I wrote a letter?
By hand?
A personal letter, that is.

I struck a blank.

Then I realized the last real, proper letter I’ve written and sent… was to my other half.
Twenty years ago!
That’s just bloody scary.

Now, those letters… I dug them out over the weekend and read them.
They are love letters. Mine, and his, bundled together, with a ribbon around them.
Yup, we actually wrote proper love letters to each other.
He was in the UK, I was in Germany. For three months, we corresponded by postal mail. This was pre-internet, pre everyone having a computer, or mobile phones, or whatever else you could name.
We’d barely progressed beyond carrier pigeons!

So.
What about today?
People correspond by text messages and emails.
Not very enduring for memories, is it?
There is something about seeing your loved one’s handwriting, knowing he or she took the time to put pen to paper and compose their thoughts, hopes, worries so you can read them. And seeing those letters twenty years later… wow. Amazing. I’m glad, very glad indeed, that my dad kept yelling "Write a postcard" the second I picked up the phone.
Do you think the lovers today, who keep texting back and forth, will still have those text messages in twenty years time? I doubt it.

So lets all just realize something.
The letter you write today is more than just a letter to a friend or a loved one. The letter you write today is a memory in the making, a record of your life, a snapshot in time which would otherwise be lost forever.

Get writing those letters, so my postman doesn’t have to knock on the door and hand deliver a letter with the words "You’re the only person on my round who still gets personal letters, hand written and hand addressed. I just wanted to see who they go to."
That’s the really scary part.
The postman noticed!

Tags: letters, Mail, Memories, Pens, Postcards

The nice people over at Exaclair sent me a Quo Vadis Minister to review.
First of all — thank you very much, Karen, for allowing me to check out the planner, even at such short notice.

First impressions:

The diary is about A5 in size (16 x 24cm / 6½ x 9½) and approximately 15mm thick (20mm with the cover).
Mine came in the Soya Cover in Lavender (Blue)
The cover is soft and flexible, not too thick and covers the diary well.
There is no ribbon and no elastic band (which I would personally have liked. Looking at the range, the Habana version is the one I’d go for next time.)
The paper is smooth to the touch and superb quality. Not thin, or flimsy, but rather nicely weighted and solid without feeling like it’s a "fat" page.
There is an address book in the back, slipped into the cover.

The layout is very well done, one week to two pages, with priority spots at the top of the page, a space for phone numbers, Fax/Email, See/Do, Pay/Receive and Note spaces on the side.
Sunday is at the bottom of the pages, across both pages.
You also get:
International Telephone Access Codes
Average Temperatures
Chart of International Holidays
A "Year at a Glance" Planner spanning two pages, with holidays marked. 2009 at the front, 2010 at the back.
Maps
Several pages for receipts and payments
Note pages.
The diary covers December 2008 – January 1st 2010 with a weekly, timed layout, and January 2010 with a daily layout, covering the month.
Corners are perforated for easy marking where you’re at.

10/10 for first impressions, although I really would have liked a moleskine-like elastic band on the cover, like the Habana version, since I cart the diary around with me.

Usability:

Let me just say one thing — The paper in this diary is fantastic.
Quo Vadis use Clairfontaine paper, which is acid free and pH neutral. It’s opaque, doesn’t bleed, feather or smear. And the finish is so smooth to the touch, it’s hard to believe it’s not coated with something. You just want to keep touching that paper when you get your hands on it, it’s so nice to the touch.
I’m a fountain pen user and my Herlitz Tornado glides over it like a dream. There is no bleed through even with my troublesome Noodlers Le Coleur Royale, which tends to dry slowly and soak paper. My Shaeffer Imperial behaves nicely with Diamine Aqua Blue, as does the P51 with Diamine Washable Blue. None of them bleed through, no feathering and all dried quite quickly. The paper isn’t scratchy against the nib and allows the pens to glide smoothly across the page.
Not only that, but the colors come out bright and clean too!

I find the page layout of the Minister slightly on the narrow side, if you use a medium nib size, but I had no problem with my F nib P51. Still, you have room on the side if you need to make additional notes.
The "Year at a Glance" planner is great. I use it for my word count.
The hour type is relatively small, so if you are a bit challenged with reading — you might want to get your glasses out. I had to. I didn’t find it a disadvantage, because you sort of get a feel of where in the day you are, anyway. Plus, I also tend to write the exact time into the meeting/event I put in, anyway.

The corners tear cleanly, and don’t seem to fray.

The address book is useful, if you’re like me, and you tend to forget where the heck you put an address / phone number.

8/10 for usability. Mainly because I found sometimes there wasn’t a lot of room for an appointment note if it only took half an hour.

Overall:

The pricing for this planner is about $23 (£20.50) in Soya or Habana, but you can get it in Nappa Leather as well. You need to pretty much double the price then, from what I saw, but you get a leather cover.
The refill and address book is about  £14.63 (I didn’t see the bundle in US shops), the refill alone is $8 (plain) $16 (Gold Edge) (£12.33), the address book alone was $5 (Plain), $7 (Gold Edge)

Do I think $23 is expensive for this planner?

Absolutely not. I think the paper alone makes this a superb planner, since it won’t give out on you half way into the year. (Most of my diaries gave up by about June and fell apart.) This one will survive a year easily, and if you need to keep it for the record, it’ll last through that as well.

Final Verdict:

If you are looking for a diary that will serve you well throughout the entire year, looks clean and has a no-nonsense layout — then this is the one for you.
If you use a fountain pen… then this is definitely the one for you!
I am going to enjoy using my Minister until next year, when I will most likely replace it with either another Minister, or one of the other Quo Vadis planners. Habana cover that time round, because I like the look of it.
But my 2010 diary is absolutely going to be another Quo Vadis!
Not only that, I will most likely get one of the pocket versions for my other half, who uses and abuses his diaries like you wouldn’t believe. He generally ends up having to replace his diary mid year, because it falls apart. A Quo Vadis might just survive his treatment of it.  

Tags: Diary, Quo Vadis, Review

I would love to share a photo of my aunt Gisela with you.
I can’t.
I don’t have one.

My aunt Gisela died over thirty years ago. I was eight and I remember it vividly.
I remember, because everyone thought at eight years old, I had no concept of death.
I remember, because everyone thought at eight years old, I couldn’t possibly understand.

I understood, all right.

I understood that my aunt Gisela’s head had become the watermelon.

I should explain about the melon.
My uncle used to shoot handguns as a hobby.
He once showed us why we should never pick up a gun.
The demonstration included a melon. You know, the big green kind, with the red flesh.
He shot the melon. There was a neat hole in the front.
The back of the melon was splattered all over the wall.
It wasn’t a very pretty sight, but it certainly was impressive and shocking enough to make us completely aware that touching a gun was not a good thing.

Accidents happen.

What does this have to do with drawing from memory?
Everything.
I don’t remember my aunt’s voice. I remember she had dark brown hair, almost black. I don’t remember her face. Or only vaguely.
I remember the dark rose satin dress she wore to the ball. The one she promised to have a duplicate made of, if there’s enough fabric left over.
The one she died wearing.
I did get the duplicate. Years and years after Gisela was gone, the dressmaker asked very tentatively if she should deliver the dress she’d made for me. She knew I had long outgrown it, she knew I couldn’t wear it, she thought it might hold sentimental value.
She delivered it.
I have never touched that dress. As far as I know, it still exists, somewhere, in a box.
Perhaps that dress is the reason I don’t like pink. Maybe somewhere in the back of my mind I associate pink with death.
I don’t know. I just hate pink.

So, since I don’t remember clearly, I have to draw from memory. But when I do that, it also makes me remember the pain. Makes me remember how much everyone hurt, how lost everyone was. I couldn’t tell you what went through my dad’s mind at the time. Or what my cousin felt. He didn’t just lose his mom. His dad pretty much abandoned him at the same time.
Guilt? They were his guns in the house. I don’t know. I guess that was part of it.
I don’t remember anything my gran did.
I remember that I wasn’t allowed to go to the funeral.
I remember people talking, saying how they’re glad we didn’t understand what had happened.
Let me disabuse you of that notion. I knew pretty damn well what was going on, and what had happened.
I’d have had to be deaf and blind not to understand.

Now, what does all that have to do with writing?

When you create characters, you get to create their past. You get to make them grow up and you get to shape them through their past, into the people they are today. Everyone comes with baggage. Some more than others.
If I had to create a character who loathed guns, I’d need a reason for that loathing.
How do you think I feel about guns?
I’ve clued you in that I hate pink.
Both are direct results of what happened when I was eight years old. Both are a part of me, an irrational, deep seated hatred I cannot shake.
So when you create your characters, look into yourself. See what made you the way you are, why you love some things, and completely loathe others. Use your memories to shape your characters. Know what happened to them to make them who and what they are. Why did your heroine decide to become a cop? Why is your hero a drifter? Why does your heroine hate ice cream? Or maybe just a particular flavor of ice cream? A song? A smell? A color?
If you know the past of your characters, you are less likely running the risk of them acting out of character. They’re going to be far more consistent, because of the restraints you established.
I know what happened to my guys and girls. I know it down to the smallest detail.
Hardly any of it makes it into the story. It’s not necessary for the reader to know where they went to school, or who their high school prom date was. It doesn’t matter (to the story) that her first kiss was sloppy and wet and she hated it. Or that her date groped her and they broke up in the parking lot.
The reader doesn’t need to know. But you do.
If you know how she felt about this, her reaction to the hero trying to make out in the parking lot is going to be far different to someone who had the time of their life and loved every second of that prom night. And because you know about her past, about how humiliated she felt, you can write it with conviction and it will be believable.

You’re drawing from memory.
Your character’s memory.

And yours. 

Are you a limited point of view writer, or are you an omnicient point of view writer?

What’s the difference? A limited point of view lets the reader experience a scene through the eyes of one person, and one person only.

An omniscient point of view lets the reader experience a scene through several persons.

Basically the difference is that with a limited point of view you see into the mind of one person. With the omniscient point of view you see into the minds of several (usually two) people while they interact.

I used to write omniscient point of view, but like many people, I was told I’m headhopping, and I’m doing it all wrong. The trouble is, I like seeing into the minds of both my characters.

Other people do it, why can’t I? Why am I not allowed to write how I’m comfortable? Is one way better than the other? I’m told the reader gets confused. I don’t think so. There is headhopping, where you go from one character to the other, switching over and over. And there is omniscient point of view, where you slide smoothly into the view of the other person.

Is it wrong?

I find love scenes much easier to write when I can convey the feelings of both people involved. Their doubts and fears. On both sides. Is that headhopping?

Truth is, I don’t know.

I just know I find it very difficult to stick to limited point of view, and I find myself telling, instead of showing, because I feel I’m repeating myself.

What do you think?

Tags: Headhopping, Point of View, POV

I’ve blogged about New Years Resolutions on Passionate Critters today.
Mainly because I never stick to them, but this time I’m determined to succeed.

In more ways than one!

So if you want to read my musings… Head on over.

Tags: Lists, New Start, New Year, Resolutions