Familiar Legacy cat detective series and etc.

cj Sez: An invitation from the Mad Catters of the Familiar Legacy cat detective mystery series:  “We are going to have a whole lot of fun on Familiar Legacy cat detective mystery series Facebook page - a weekend filled with prizes, interviews, and contests.

   Hosted by Jaden Terrell with help from all of the #MadCatters as well as other authors you can meet and greet! October 5-7. 12-7 p.m. CST. Drop by the page and you're bound to see some shenanigans going on. MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

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Since I’m recovering from knee surgery and can’t spend a lot of time sitting with my leg hanging down, here’s reminder of how fluid and difficult the English language is (from a 2014 post):

   This quote came from fellow blogger, Sol Sanders a few years ago:  “Perhaps the glory of the English language is that it so expressive. Its remarkable heterogeneous origins have given it an almost limitless vocabulary. And American English, particularly, has used that tool with an enormous flexibility to make it the international means of communication. One is able with a minimum of linguistic dexterity to capture every meaning, or almost every nuance.”

   Mr. Sanders’s comments were part of an introduction to his essay on what today’s journalism and media do with the English language. The gist of his blog was that journalism and media people overcomplicate their sentences with words that muddy their meanings—changing nouns into verbs and, perhaps, calling a shovel a “hand-held, earth-moving tool.” My take is that media and journalists employ an old trick of confusing the issue to persuade readers to their (the writer/editor’s) points of view

   The fact is, the English language is a living language. It’s constantly evolving as we create new words and new definitions in response to new technology. The rather sad result is that the generations cease to understand each other at an almost exponential pace. Many times I need an interpreter to understand teen-talk, and I can’t text (a noun turned into a verb because of technology) like my family does for fear I’ll forget how to really spell.

   Still, for me as a genre writer, the gloriously expressive English language is what makes my craft so fascinating. I adore language and anyone who accurately uses a large vocabulary with familiar ease.

   Yes, I use nouns as verbs. Yes, I deliberately obfuscate . . . and add the disclaimer that it’s for the sake of mystery. I am drawn to the syntax, symbolism, and syncopation of a well-drafted sentence that is the hallmark of successful mystery/thriller/suspense novelists. It’s using that “minimum of linguistic dexterity to capture every meaning, or almost every nuance” that appeals to me, and, I think, to readers of those genres. They want to try to decipher the code, find the clues, and solve the crime. Mystery writers like trying to confuse the issue.

   I’m still working on my craft. How are you doing with your genre?

   By the by, as the masthead of Lyrical Pens says, if you have a book you want to promote, let me know. We can arrange a blog date…the only caveat is that this site is PG 13.

   That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. See you next week?

cj

   CHOOSING CARTER and DEADLY STAR are quick reads chock full of adventure with a touch of sassy banter and sweet romance. Get your Kindle copy on Amazon…visit my Amazon Central Author Page = https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj for more information about my stories.

  TO ORDER an autographed paperback copy of CHOOSING CARTER, DEADLY STAR, HOMETOWN HEROES, and/or THE POSSE, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

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