The Dystel " Goderich Agency has this great post of New Year’s Resolutions for writers. Check it out.
***Don’t read the rest of this post if you’re offended by 16th century vocabulary.***
On February 10, 2007, a number of authors and I will be doing a book signing at the Dublin Barnes & Noble. The exciting thing is there will be actors reading a 6 minute scene from each book. Someone in my local RWA chapter has connections to actors, real deal actors, by the way. Hopefully, I’ll get the announcement page up soon, because he’s gorgeous and so is she. Wow! Plus, she looks just like I imagined Hell Marshall looks. I’ll be providing a scene from DX in Shards of Crimson but seeing as it’s a novella and given the nature of the story and the plot, I was hard pressed to find a scene that was safe. I’m probably going to have to sanitize a bit, or better, just tell the actors to substitute less Anglo-Saxon words if they deem it necessary. Although, as an aside, I’ve heard but have not personally confirmed via the OED, that the F-word is NOT Anglo-Saxon, that it didn’t come into use until the 1500’s. But I don’t think the earl of Rochester was using a new word, so one of these days I’ll go look it up for myself.
OK, just did that. As a verb, the OED has the F word placed in 1503: Be his feiris he wald haue fukkit. As a noun, the usage is even later: 1680, wherein one finds reference to the infamous Rochester: Thus was I Rook’d of Twelve substantial F*cks. And by the way, I recommend reading his poetry at least once. It’s great poetry but so plainly he was a troubled, troubled man. The sheer violence of the phrase f#cking post will probably never leave my mind. And to then read Aphra Behn right after, honestly, you’ll never look at the 16th century in the same way. And then there’s the lovely young and in love John Donne, who was so passionate about his wife. Back to the F-word. I suspect that the word was in verbal use for some time prior to 1503, though come to think of it Chaucer was swyving, not f%cking. I should go check my Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology. OK, alas there, Barnhart goes from fuchsia to fuddle. Effing chicken.
Um, anyway, speaking of my f’n career, as I was saying, there’s this book signing on Feb 10, and there will be honest to goodness real actors reading from DX (among other find works) and they may, or may not, use the language of Shakespeare.
I will not hit my minimum word count tonight because I’ve been here, f@cking off.
