Red dogs: A North American Buffalo/is bison is called a red dog when it born. They have an orangish-red coat. Dog comes from a cowboy term doggie/dogie for a motherless calf, origin unknown.
Posts Tagged ‘writing’
Watch out for those red dogs!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged writing on May 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Tortoise and Hare: more than a children’s story
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged writing on June 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Tortoise and Hare as history: It is one of Aesop’s Fables. Aesop (around 600 BCE) is a semi-legendary Greek story-teller credited with Aesop’s Fables. The ambiguous story about a race between unequals is about doggedness or cleverness or laziness, which is part of the fun—your choice.
Versions of the story occur almost worldwide and likely pre-date Aesop. Other versions feature head starts or trickery such as hitching a ride on your opponent or subbing lookalikes to finish the race. It is a common theme in Native American stories. The Yuchi have a couple, one involving a wolf and hare. Basically, this is an underdog story, similar to lots of sports movies.
Picture book twitter pitch
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged writing on June 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »
#PBPitch will be Thursday, June 9th, 2022, from 8am to 8pm EST!
Twice per manuscript! Likes only for agents/editors.
Optional genres:
#NF = Nonfiction
#C= Concept
#L= Lyrical
#I= Interactive
Other optional: #BVM (Black Voices Matter to be used by black creators)
#POC (Person of Color)
#OWN (Own Voices)
#DIS (Disability subject matter)
Dash it all!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged writing on March 29, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Hyphens, En dashes, Em dashes
Hyphen: hyphenate/join words – (should be on your keyboard)
En dash: separate span of time, range of numbers – (ctrl + minus on numeric keyboard)
Em dash: set phrase apart, add more information — (ctrl + Alt + minus on numeric keyboard)
Read it backward
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged writing on March 15, 2022| 3 Comments »
Hungarian Runes (rovas) are controversial in origin, having been replaced by the Roman alphabet a thousand years ago with the Christianization of Hungary. They are read right-to-left, and some small groups have continued to use them. In recent years there has been a resurgence in their use. (Went to school with a lot of Hungarians, did not know this)
Certified horse lover!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged books, writing on February 26, 2022| 3 Comments »
I love horses (but I am no horseman) so Beware the Blue Lady has a black Percheron stallion, Hellfire, who steals the show!
Lucinda spurns the warnings and rides into the hills of Pea Ridge.
Alvin, son of a wealthy landowner, warns her about Samuel, a known killer.
Then Lucinda meets the Blue Lady.
So you wanna write a car into your story?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged writing on February 16, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Writing cars into stories—the future is here:
Writers need to consider the near future and think about how to write about cars. I rented a Ford Escape that had a pocket transmitter (not sure what the auto term is) that turned your car on—no key, just a start button. A friend bought a 2022 Toyota that starts with their cell phone app.
And consider internal combustion—in 10 years they may be obsolete even for hybrids. It is becoming an electric world.
Lastly, driverless cars may be the norm in 10 years. Some kids may grow up and not need or get a driver’s license. Could a 5-year-old borrow the family car? Or a visually-impaired person have a car?
500 words to change a child’s life
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged books, SCBWI, writing on January 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Some ideas about writing picture books: Picture books are a hybrid animal—Not quite poetry, prose, song, screenplay—a little of each. Flavor it with rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, assonance, repetition, inverted word order, meter, beat, metaphors/similes, to name a few.
Write just it in time, be oh so sublime,
Add some spice, space it out, spell it out,
Or march, march, march, bang that drum,
Go not where others have gone, on your block be the first.
Have fun! This was in response to an online poll: rhyme or prose—as if that covered all the bases, but just my humble opinion.
My new favorite word
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged words, writing on December 22, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Mott: An American word meaning clump/small grove of trees. I love this word. In a weird coincidence, Samuel Mott started Mott Applesauce, no doubt harvested from motts of apple trees. (the word is used by dairy goat farmers)
Writers having fun
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged writers, writing on December 2, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Fun Old Words for a New Age!
Overmorrrow (day after tomorrow) We will meet on overmorrow.
Ereyesterday (day before yesterday) We met on ereyesterday.
Elflock (hair tangled by elves) Take a brush to your elflock
Twattle (gossip) Quit being a twattle!
Yesteryear (last year) Yesteryear was 2020.
C. T. Suddeth 