– Definition: adj. 1. strongly reminiscent or suggestive of 2. fragrant or sweet-smelling – Used in a sentence: This halvah is redolent of faded rose-petals. – Why: One can never have too many adjectives for describing the senses.
Tag: creating
Making stuff: up, real, and nicely.
Unless you are at home in the metaphor, you are not safe anywhere.”
— Robert Frost
Words To Bring Back: “Desultory”
– Definition: adj. marked by lack of definite plan, regularity, or purpose – Used in a sentence: Except for my relatively brief writing career, my life has been a desultory yet full one. – Why: I think it characterizes much…
Death steals everything except our stories.”
— Jim Harrison
Metaphoraging Roundup: 2018
IF A GOOD FRIEND HADN’T died this year and cured me of a years-long writer’s block, I wouldn’t be posting this. But he did, so I am, proffering 2018’s Top 10 Viewed Pages and Posts at this writing: 1. Home…
Eats: Freeform Chicken Meatballs with Carrots and Yogurt Sauce
THIS COMES FROM EPICURIOUS.COM, A foodie website whose daily emails are proffered hand-in-glove with that other Conde Nast staple, Bon Appetit. Their recipes are a something of a cut above basic cookery, just challenging enough to stretch your fledgling cook-wings…
Words To Bring Back: “Trenchant”
– Definition: adj. 1. vigorous or incisive in expression or style. 2. sharply perceptive – Used in a sentence: What we need is more trenchant male characters, unlike Peter Jackson’s Aragorn or the ubiquitous “Bumbling Dad.”. – Why: These are…
Points of Honor, Literary and Otherwise
– STUFFING SENTENCES TO JUST UNDER their carrying capacity. – Never starting a blog post with “I.” – Writing exactly to required or desired length. – Being there on time. – Repeating verbatim anything someone wants said to another. –…
The (Other) Giving Tree
BY A PATH IN SONOMA’S rustic Mountain Cemetery stands an oak tree bearing the creative goodwill of self-selected and diligent passersby. It began a few years ago, with three small figurines — a white winged angel, a faceless blue woman…
Words To Bring Back: “Proffer”
– Definition: v. t. To offer for acceptance. – Used in a sentence:To you the reader, I hereby and humbly proffer my Cook For Any Price stories. – Why: It implies a social contract somewhat different from its rhyming synonym;…
First Graf: Understanding Comics
THIS BOOK WILL CHANGE THE way you think about (as author Scott McCloud concisely defines it) “sequential art.” McCloud takes us inside the art form to explain how and why comics/graphic novels work. He tracks the 3,000-year history of Sequential…
Words To Bring Back: “Cubit”
– Definition: n. A unit of measurement; the distance between one’s elbow and middle-fingertip (approximately 18 inches) – Used in a sentence: My cat is almost exactly two cubits long, including his tail. – Why: Sure, we could always double…