Games | Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers

Lost Words – Games & Hobbies…

February 29, 2016
mandyevebarnett

archery pottery fishing

Today’s words from http://phrontistery.info/clw.html concern games and hobbies. Rather enlightening as to the types of games allowed in times gone by and others that have endured!
Ascoliasm 1706 -1753
boys’ game of beating each other with gloves or leather while hopping
If you think bullies are bad today, look at brutal games of the past like ascoliasm.

Piladex 1897 -1901
game where an inflated bag is hit with hand to keep aloft across a table
From piladex to hacky-sack, pastimes involving hitting objects are known to all ages.

Riviation 1676 -1676
fishing
While anglers are the sort who enjoy quiet contemplation, I find riviation to be boring.

Sagittipotent 1656 -1656

having great ability in archeryThe sagittipotent hunter found himself unable to kill the beautiful white stag.

Tornatil 1661 -1661
made with a wheel; turned on a wheel
The potter was a master of his tornatil work, but many of his pots broke during firing.

My sentence: His over protective mother tried to persuade her son not to indulge in ascoliasm or piladex fearing he may be injured. However, she would encourage riviation, his becoming sagittipotent with a bow or even learn to tornatil in creating pottery.

Can you make a sentence?

And an extra word because it does celebrate today’s special event – Leap Year.

Bissextus February 29th: the extra day added to the Julian calendar every fourth year (except those evenly divisible by 400) to compensate for the approximately six hours a year by which the common year of 365 days falls short of the solar year.

Quotes: This odd day was inserted after the sixth day before the kalends of March, i.e., after the 24th of February, and was not counted as an addition to the year, but as a sort of appendix. Hence the sixth of the kalends of March was called bissextus, or double sixth, which root is still retained in our word bissextile, though the day is now added at the end of February. — E. S. Burns, “History of Chronology,” The Popular Science Monthly, April, 1881 Origin Bissextus comes from the Latin term bissextus diēs meaning “intercalary day.” It was so called because the 6th day before the Calends of March (February 24th) appeared twice every leap year.

Lurid Tales & Violence…

September 27, 2013
mandyevebarnett

Lurid – definition: 1. gruesome; horrible; 2. glaringly vivid or sensational

Base instincts are difficult to confront at the best of times. Unfortunately, we are bombarded with gruesome scenes on the daily news ranging from senseless bombings to murders and violent acts between people. Have we really evolved from caveman mentality? On a global scale, countries are grabbing resources from each other and stock piling weapons – usually in secret or so they think! On a lower level violence has become lessened in its impact with a multitude of games and movies favoring violent acts as the main theme.

How can we teach future generations that there are consequences to such acts when they only see a player resurrected and literally get away with murder? Can we ‘unlearn’ this ‘need’ for violence? Is it possible to show real consequences and ensure our youngsters understand it is make believe unless, sadly the images are on news programs?

Have you written lurid scenes for a novel or story? Care to share? How did you balance the good and evil? Did you become uneasy with the character?

William, a character in my novel, The Twesome Loop, has bizarre sexual practices and I had to think outside my comfort zone for his motivations and desires. Sinking into such a mindset is disturbing to say the least but William had to be true to his personality. His accomplice shares his desires (or claims to!) and supplies William with victims thereby releasing herself from being subjected to his debauchery. Once I had structured William’s base instincts, I was asked what his redeeming quality was. Honestly, I had not thought it mattered if he had one or not, but no-one is all bad. So I had to create a feasible reason for his adult actions. I will not spoil the story by revealing what it was but my fellow writing group members thought it clever and believable.

A Quiddity ..?

May 31, 2013
mandyevebarnett

Quiddity – definition: 1) an eccentricity : an odd feature 2) the essence, nature or distinctive peculiarity of a thing.

If we are honest most of us have some eccentricity. It may not be anything extreme, or for that matter ‘visible’, just something peculiar to us. A habit or preference we take for granted as part of our personality. When we create characters distinctive features or habits help define them and help our readers ‘picture’ what they look like and how they react with their reality. A lisp, a recurring word, a nervous twitch or ‘talking hands’ are all features we can use.

If you are anything like me the first word that popped into your head when you read Quiddity was Quidditch! This is the best known ‘unreal’ sport on the planet. J.K. is a superb world builder and she developed a whole story behind the game and its history. This is the type of dedication that pays off.

Do you have a favorite quiddity from one of your characters?

Whodunnit…Your Genre or Not?

May 23, 2013
mandyevebarnett

Whodunnit – definition: a narrative dealing with a murder or a series of murders and the detection of the criminal

This is one genre I have not yet delved into but there is always time! As a British native the author who comes to mind for me is, of course, Agatha Christie. She wrote 80 detective novels, which in anyone’s books is a lot. There was a formula to her work but it did not deter hundreds of faithful readers from buying her books as well as inspiring numerous TV series and movies. With numerous ‘red herrings’, twists and turns that kept her readers guessing, Agatha was a master of her genre. It is believed she enjoyed reading the genre so wrote ‘what she knew’ to some extent.

Agatha Christie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Interesting titbit:

The earliest archetype for a whodunnit murder mystery is – “The Three Apples” in the One Thousand and One Nights, but the first ‘true’ whodunnit is widely regarded as – Wilkie Collins‘s The Moonstone (1868).

As most of you know I’m not restricted to one genre, having written children’s fiction, romance, speculative fiction and fantasy. I enjoy exploring the differences each genre possesses. Who knows maybe one will ‘click’ with me and I will find my favored genre – or not! Even Agatha wrote other genres, such as romances under the pen name Mary Westmacott and also the famous long running play, The Mousetrap.

Testing out various genres is a good way to find our true voice as a writer. Some may not appeal of course so don’t waste your time struggling with those. Sometimes an idea grows into a particular genre without us consciously driving it one way or the other – these are the fun ones.

So do you dabble or have you found your niche?