Stuart's Daily Word Spot: We're, were or where?

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We're, were or where?

Homonyms (words that sound alike but which have different meanings) cause much misunderstanding amongst those learning the language. They should be familiar to native speakers, but seem to confuse a lot of folk. Here are some suggestions to help in remembering the correct usage for each.

'We're' is a contraction of the phrase 'We are.' If the phrase can be used in place of the word, then this is the one you need.

'We're (we are) all going to march on Parliament to protest about the way MPs have been making fraudulent claims for living expenses.'

'Were' is the past tense of 'are' and is used to describe something that has happened in the past.

'We were going to the Houses of Parliament to protest, but we are now going to the pub instead.'

'Where' is a locational term, in common with 'here' and 'there'. It can be used in a question about the location of something or it can identify the placing of a person or object.

'Where are the houses of Parliament?' 'Here they are; on the banks of the Thames, in London.'

'The Houses of Parliament are where British MPs sit to make laws intended to keep them in power and positions of privilege.'

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Quadriga

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Quadriga: noun - a Roman chariot, pulled by four horses harnessed abreast; a representation of such a chariot in sculpture or on a coin.

'In his shining armour, and standing fierce and proud in his magnificent quadriga, Septimus Maxima was a figure of terror in the eyes of the common folk on conquered Gaul.'

But it'll be Worth it, Won't it?

Having spent the last few days on some domestic labours, I am slowly getting back into the groove of writing. There was the turning bay we had designed for the front garden; a necessity for the future when our daughter, now at university, will no doubt want her own car and somewhere to park it. That little job, requiring the laying of 31 edging stones and 3 tons of gravel, we have now completed.
Then I decided to redecorate and re-organise my study, having been encamped in here for 11 years without change. I've got the new carpet down, the painting all done and the furniture repositioned. Today, I put back the shelves that live two walls and started returning the books to these. But, it struck me that i had lost track of what books I have, so I decided to catalogue them as I was re-shelving them. It's an interesting and worthwhile task as I've discovered books I'd forgotten I had and haven't yet read, and others I have read but had forgotten. So far, I've catalogued just under 300, so a few more to go before the job is done.
Many of you will be aware that I have suffered from ME/CFS for the past 8 years or so, and may be surprised by the amount of physical work I'm doing now. Well, I've suspected that I 'd shrugged off the condition for the past few months, but, having been caught out twice previously only to discover the problem returned with a vengeance, I thought I'd give it a while before I started to test myself. Following the past three weeks, with much physical activity and a week's holiday walking in hilly country, I'm now convinced I have finally defeated the beast. It's a great feeling, as you can imagine. But I've aged 8 years and lost a good deal of strength and fitness along the way, so I need to start a programme of exercise to regain my former physical condition.
But it's truly wonderful to be free of the many symptoms I suffered over those years. I aim to make the best of the years ahead. And, as a start to that, I'm going to join the NaNoWriMo  and attempt to write a popular novel during the month of November. Watch this space for my progress. For those unfamiliar with this challenge, the idea is to write the first 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November.
So, wish me luck and join me here as I detail my progress.

Pic: Wandering way; a public footpath outside Driffield, East Yorkshire.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Pathetic

Pathetic: adjective - bringing about an effect on the emotions; moving, stirring; causing pity or sadness; full of pathos; arising from or expressing strong emotion; passionate, earnest; miserably inadequate, feeble, useless (colloquially); in pathetic fallacy - the assignment of human emotions or responses to inanimate things or animals in art and literature.

'When he was accused of fraudulently claiming expenses to which he wasn't entitled, the politician made some pathetic excuse about his lack of awareness of the rules.'

Jodie turned her back on the man beside her. 'You're a pathetic excuse for a man, John. I don't know why I let you take me in like that. Now, get out of my bed and don't ever come back.'

Pathetic Fallacy:

'Old Man Willow wept copious tears, swelling the stream into which his roots spread, as he contemplated the swan's sorry loss of his lifetime partner to the carelessly discarded fishing tackle left by an angler.'

Pic|: Trout stream in Driffield, East Yorkshire.

Author Interview with Sarah Baethge.

Hello Sarah, please tell us about you, as a writer.

I have always liked Science-fiction and Fantasy, and write primarily to entertain myself. I admit this does result in the creation of many things that I never finish when I see that they take too much personal knowledge I am not willing to share in order to be fully understood, but I figure that if I could not be a fan of my own work, there is little point in spending the amount of time required so I feel like my story is fully told.

Your latest book is ‘The Speed of Darkness’; perhaps you’d you give us some insight into it in a few sentences?

‘The Speed of Darkness’ –my combination of Sci-fi and werewolves. The first book I’ve ever written fully enough that I was comfortable with pointing to a spot and saying: The End.

Excerpt-

   Sam closed and locked his door. With clear disgust on his face, he addressed Nigel.  “Nice,” he said sarcastically. “Nice to know you could have just gotten away easily when I jumped in to help you.”

Nigel fidgeted uncomfortably as he tried to keep himself from meeting Sam’s gaze, “It doesn’t work like-“

“You certainly were able to do it at will just now!” Sam yelled, stomping up to him.

“But Bart-“, Nigel began, gesturing as he spoke.

“Your psycho friends!” Sam thundered in anger as he raised his hands above his head. “Thanks! Can’t forget those two freaks are now after me too. All because I didn’t want to just stand by and watch them cut up some little fruit like you on tape!

“Now I find out that’s what you wanted.” With a sickened look he folded his arms and stepped away from Nigel, who simply looked confused.

“What..?” Nigel called after Sam, as he looked helplessly at the back of the other man, “I never want-“

“Oh, come on,” Sam said derisively, turning around and grabbing Nigel’s shoulder. “Why would someone, who can –FOR REAL- just zip away, stand around and wait for his buddies come at him with a knife for a video?”

Nigel finally met Sam’s eyes and said, (as if it explained everything)”Bart had a flashlight.”

How did you come to write this particular book?

A couple of silly ideas knocking around in my head started to build themselves into a story; as I wasn’t doing much else at the time, I wrote it down until I got sick of it and filed it away for 2-3 years. When I pulled it back out and read it again, I liked it just as much as ever.

Do you have a favourite character from the book? If so, who and why this particular one?

I like Nigel Hunter, my mad scientist who started experimenting on himself when others refuse to let him test on animals any more. When I was trying to decide how he would react to different situations, I let him do what I would like to do, but wouldn’t really dare to.

Where can people buy your books?

Both are here:

http://beta.iwritereadrate.com/books/search-results/?author=baethge

and you can get 1 chapter of the other FREE.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Sarah+Baethge&x=0&y=0

What qualities does a writer need to be successful?

Imagination and determination

What’s your working method?

Do nothing until after lunch, Relax on weekends; don’t get trapped within your own book.

Finish EVERYTHING.

Don’t ever delete anything; just file it away where you can get back to it when you’re no longer sick of it.

Yes, I realize the last two rules are currently eating up way too much space on my computer, but hey :P my crazy laptop has a multi-gigabyte hard-drive.

What’s the single biggest mistake made by beginner writers?

Deleting anything. There is nothing worse than suddenly having the idea to fix where your story flagged out, to only find it’s no longer on your computer when you go to fix it.

To what extent are grammar and spelling important in writing?

If you don’t write correctly, others will have a difficult time trying to determine what you mean.

How much do you revise your MS before sending it off?

I go through it as many times as it takes for me to be able to go through it without making any changes at all.

As a writer of Sci-fi, to what extent do you think genre is useful in the publishing world?

You have to know the name of the genre that your intended audience will look for or you might prevent your future fans from ever finding your work.

Many authors see marketing as a bind. What's your opinion on this, and how do you deal with it?

I’m somewhat iffy on this, I know that without some marketing no one will ever find my work; but because I’m so attached to what I write, I  would almost rather have that no one ever see it before I am tempted to change it for the sake of boosting sales.

What sort of displacement activities keep you from writing?

Reading, movies, and video games

What support, if any, do you receive from family and friends, writing group, or dedicated professionals?

As I am not working any ‘real’ job I live with my dad and stepmother. I receive emotional support from my mother, grandfather, 2 sisters, brother, stepsister, and a good sized list of friends and family online.

Is presentation of the MS as important as agents and publishers suggest?

Save a couple random short stories I’m only self-published, so I wouldn’t actually know.

How long does it take you to write a novel?

The actual writing is probably only a couple of months, but to let the ideas accumulate might take years.

Who or what inspires your writing?

Artwork, real life, TV

Basically anything and everything

If there’s a single aspect of writing you find frustrating, what is it?

Pace; if I stick to writing too much I start to hate it, if I take too much time off I lose the flow and cant continue what I was working on.

Is there a particular feature of writing that you really enjoy?

I like having the control to make exactly what I want to happen, it’s why much of what I write becomes too silly or embarrassing to ever finish.

Do you believe creative writing is a natural gift or an acquired skill?

I think it is a common natural talent that must be practiced to enhance to a worthwhile skill level like running or swimming.

What are you writing now?

I have a couple of modern-fantasy ideas chasing each other round my head, but the question has startled them into hiding to the point where I’m at a loss to describe what the story’s even about. Won’t have a character named Sam though. I’ve had far too many of those.

Do you have a website or blog where readers can visit?

Closest thing I have to a website is here: https://profiles.google.com/u/0/doUreallyWant2see

you can get to my blog off of there

Given unlimited resources, where would you do your writing?

Right at my desk where I’m sitting right now... Somewhere new would just distract me, prevent me from writing at all.

Where do you actually write?

A little desk in the corner of my room on a happy little 15 acre donkey ranch in central Texas. Within easy screaming distance of the cockatiel that has something to say about everything I do...

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Verbal or oral?

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Verbal or oral?

Verbal: adjective- of someone - dealing with or using words, especially in contrast to things or realities; using a lot of words; talkative, verbose; articulate; of or pertaining to words; consisting or composed of words; of the nature of a word; in Grammar -  derived from a verb, of the nature of a verb.

Oral: adjective - performed with or by the mouth as the organ of eating and drinking; in Medication - taken by mouth; involving such administration; uttered or communicated in spoken words; conducted by word of mouth; spoken, verbal; delivered or transmitted verbally; of or pertaining to the mouth, as a body part; sexual activity where the genitals of one partner are stimulated by the mouth of the other, cunnilingus and fellatio; in Psychoanalysis – relating to a supposed stage of infantile psychosexual development, where the mouth is the main focus of energy and feeling.

As you can see, Verbal can refer to both written and spoken communication, but oral is more useful for distinguishing the spoken word from the written.

'The press secretary produced a verbal statement from the politician, in which he attempted to explain, in as many polysyllabic words as he could devise, the steps that had led to his fraudulent expenses claims.'

'Standing on the steps of the cathedral, the bishop made an oral declaration of his intent to root out child abuse by priests, which had been endemic in the parish prior to his appointment.'

'Stanley and Joyce were so committed to oral sex that they rarely achieved orgasm any other way and therefore found it impossible to become parents.' 

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Oats

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Oats: noun -  the grains of hardy cereal plant, Avena sativa, used as food for people in the form of porridge or oat cakes, etc., and for animals, especially horses; the plant as a crop; various wild grasses related to or resembling the cultivated oat; sexual gratification (slang).

'Salina brought her pony into the stable from the cold and fed him a bag of oats as she brushed his shaggy coat.'

'Geoffrey had always hoped to sow some wild oats with Sarah and now, as she performed her slow striptease, it looked as though he might get his way at last.'