Month: March 2017

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Word Of The Day 3-31-2017

Xenization

Definition

To walk as a stranger, or to exist as a stranger. Often invokes the sense of a melancholy or loneliness one might feel as a person alone in a foreign land.

Example

The man walked through the town with a feeling of xenization.

Origin

“Xen-” comes from Greek xénos, which as an adjective means foreign or strange; as a noun, it means a foreigner or a stranger.

“-ize” means to convert or change into.

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Word Of The Day 3-30-2017

scripturient

adjective
Popularity: Bottom 30% of words

Definition

having a strong urge to write

“A simple gift of a fountain-pen, triggered her scripturient passions that manifested in the next book in the series.”

Origin

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Word Of The Day 3-29-2017

hamartia

ha·mar·tia \ˌhä-ˌmär-ˈtē-ə\
Popularity: Bottom 40% of words

Definitioin

tragic flaw – a mistake in judgment committed by a tragic hero. While the character’s intentions and personal flaws play a central role in this process, this word specifically refers to the character’s erroneous action. This error may be the result of a lack of knowledge or moral flaw, and it generally brings about the sorrow, downfall, or death of the hero. The results are usually the direct opposite of the character’s expectations.

Examples

That is not unmotivated, however; it is of Aspatia’s own choosing and of Amintor’s hamartia. Francis Beaumont: Dramatist Charles Mills Gayley
The pathetic devotion of Aspatia is essential to our understanding of Amintor’s tragic weakness, his hamartia. Francis Beaumont: Dramatist Charles Mills Gayley
Hamlet’s tragic flaw in Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” determines his tragic downfall. Hamlet’s hamartia is his indecisiveness. He cannot make up his mind about the dilemmas he confronts. https://literarydevices.net/hamartia/

Did You Know?

Aristotle introduced the term in the Poetics to describe the error of judgment which ultimately brings about the tragic hero’s downfall. As you can imagine, the word is most often found in literary criticism. However, news writers occasionally employ the word when discussing the unexplainable misfortune or missteps of über celebrities regarded as immortal gods and goddesses before being felled by their own shortcomings.

Origin and Etymology of hamartia

Greek, from hamartanein to miss the mark, err.

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
https://www.britannica.com/art/hamartia
http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-hamartia.htm

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JSW Prompt 3-28-2017

Feel free to jump in and tackle the prompt yourself. Please keep your posts under 300 words. If you link back to this post, I will re-blog your post to my site. This JSW Prompt goes until Sunday.

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“It wasn’t a question?”

“No? Then why did you put the question mark at the end?”

“You can’t see that when I talk.”

Lucy cocked her head. “Yeah, I can. I’m magical like that. So let’s start again. Is that blood?”

Think quick.  “Yes, it is blood, Lucy, but, sadly to say, not nearly enough to bleed me dry.”

“Whoopee!”

“Both of you, shut up,” Marcus commanded, looking at his two… companions. It would be too much to call them anything else. Yet.

“Come here,” he ordered John. He quickly checked the man over, determined there were no other wounds, and field dressed the cut in his leg.

“How the hell did you do that?” he asked.

“Hum….” Think quicker. “I fell on a thistle.”

Lucy snorted laughter.

Marcus glared. “Okay, can we get back on track or do we need to listen to the ‘John and Lucy Show?'”

He signaled for Lucy to go right, John left, to either side of the building before them. He hunkered down where he was, tracking the two as they moved. Awkwardly. Clumsily.

Time to come to Jesus.

Aiming carefully, he shot both in the chest.

Hallelujah!

Lucy sat up a moment later, fingering the hole in her jacket. With a curse, John did the same.

“What the…” he scowled. No way were they supposed to get shot, but thank god for body armor.

“Amen,” Marcus said and walked away.

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Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers 3-28-2017

photo-20170206154748327

photo-20170327143644962Photo prompt provided by Louise with The Storyteller’s Abode.

Guide for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers

1. A prompt photo will be provided each Tuesday to be used as a base to your story. Please include photo prompt with your story.

2. Linking for this challenge begins on Tuesday and runs to the following Monday evening.

3. Please credit photo to photographer.

4. The story word limit is 100 – 150 words (+ – 25 words). Please try to stay within this limit.

She stood tall and straight before the piano, Archibald playing and their daughter, Maureen, turning the pages. She couldn’t count all the times they’d been like this, one happy family, surrounded by things they loved.

Most of all, she loved the picture of the Blue Woman. In her foolish times, she sometimes pretended she was the Blue Woman. Wondered about her life, her home. Her hopes and dreams. Wondered if, somehow, they mirrored her own.

She’d had dreams before marriage. Visions of singing opera on the stage to applauding crowds, flowers falling at her feet. But her father brooked no such nonsense, nor did her husband. She loved Archibald, but something inside her was being crushed by the very reality of her existence.

Something, she could not ignore.

It was late at night when she left, crying for the loss of her daughter, her husband, her family, but something pushed her on. Refused to let her go back.

Stepping into the horse-drawn carriage, hooves clattering stone, she sank back, peering out the curtain as she left her home forever.