Gusto

Gusto means enjoyment or vigour in doing something. For example, the wildflowers in Patsy's mini meadow seem to grow with gusto.

When gusto is followed by for it means relish or liking. Patsy has gusto for cake. It is also an old term for a form of artistic execution.













If you write sci-fi, horror or fantasy stories with gusto, you may be interested in this short story competition – you have up to 17,000 words to play with.  As usual for those I feature on this blog, it's free to enter and there's a prize. In this case $1,000 for first place (then $750 and $500).

Conflagration

A conflagration is a great and destructive fire. It feels like there should be more to it than that, but apparently there isn't.

I quite like setting fire to things, but only in a small and controlled manner. Not it the manner of a conflagration nor as happens in my novel Firestarter.

Dissect

To dissect is to cut into pieces. Often this means a plant or animal, for the purposes of examination, but cakes can be dissected to. The person carrying out the dissection is known as the dissector (or Patsy, in the cases of cakes).

Not all dissections are physical. the term can also be applied to analysing, criticising or studying in detail. For example a competition judge may have to dissect the entries in order to decide which is most deserving of a prize.

Perhaps you can work a dissection into your entry from one of these two short story competitions from Wordsmag? With themes of Christmas and Murder, it shouldn't be too difficult. Both are free to enter and have a first prize of £50.

Ekphrasis

Ekphrasis is a literary description or commentary on a piece of visual art. For example The Girl With The Pearl Earring is an ekphractic novel, inspired by Johannes Vemeer's painting of the same name.

I'm not sure if there's a word for art inspired by writing, but if there is, it might apply to the cover of my novel Paint Me A Picture. My talented husband Gary created it, using technical witchcraft and digital magic.

Thank you to Marion Clarke for telling me about the Ekphractic challenge, which is a free to enter poetry competition.

Each month, a new piece of artwork will be posted, to act as inspiration. There are two prizes, of $50 each – one awarded by the artist and one by Rattle's editor.

Have you ever used one kind of artwork to inspire another?

Season

Season often refers to a time of year. There are the obvious seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and others such as holiday season, barbecue season and silly season (a slow news period, when insignificant events can become headlines news). 

To be influenced by the seasons is the behave seasonally or in a seasonal manner.





Animals are often said to be in season, which can either mean being ready to breed, or when it's considered acceptable to hunt them.

Season can also mean a proper or suitable time, a time devoted to a particular activity (cricket season), or to flavour food with seasoning. Historically 'the season' referred to the time of year devoted by the rich and upper claesses to social activities, in order to find someone equally rich and posh to marry.

If a person, or object is seasoned, it means they're not young, but generally in a good way. A seasoned writer will know to avoid some beginner mistakes, such as seasoning your work with too many adverbs, seasoned wood doesn't split when it's made into doorframe.

As it's the first Wednesday of the month, it's time for an Insecure Writer's Support Group post. This months optional question is – It's spring! Does this season inspire you to write more than others, or not?

Personally, not. Spring is my favourite season and it does inspire me to write, but also to get out in the garden, to travel, to take long walks, to laze in the sunshine reading a book. As a result, although I may be more inspired, I actually have less time for writing.

How about you? Do you write, or do anything else, according to the seasons?

Sepia

Sepia either means a dark, reddish brown colour, or the lighter and less red tone which was once the only option in photography, but which I was unable to recreate with my digital camera and computer. It's also the fluid secreted by a cuttlefish, the pigment prepared from that, or a drawing created using it.















Don't know about you, but I'd rather have colour at the press of a button, than squeeze a cuttlefish in the hope of monochrome.

Destination

A destination is a place to which a person, or thing, is going.













You already knew that, didn't you? I expect you also realised, as soon as you spotted it, that I'd only picked the word in order to provide an excuse to post more of my travel pictures.










Is the destination of your novel somewhere on the bestseller list? If you think it has that potential, you've already got a lot of it done and it happens to have a theme of new beginnings, you might like to enter it into this competition.


Do you recognise any of these destinations?

Sustain

To sustain is to support, bear the weight of, strengthen, encourage or nourish.

It can also mean to endure or suffer, to decide in favour of something, substantiate, corroborate or maintain.

One who sustains is a sustainer. Do you qualify for that description?

Sustainability is a topical issue, meaning as it does 'avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance'. That's very important of course, but I suspect we're doing even more damage by what we're adding to the planet than what we're removing – plastic, greenhouse gasses and other pollution, nuclear and chemical weapons ... but this is a writing blog, so I won't continue in this theme sustainedly.

Sustaining interest in our writing can be something which makes many writers feel insecure. For some it can seem like they're enduring the writing process rather than being supported and encouraged by it.

For others, the worry is how to sustain a reader's interest, either as they're reading one piece, or in their writing as a whole. 

If any of those, or anything else is making you feel like an insecure writer, then you might like to consider joining the Insecure Writer's Support Group.


For me, the issue making me feel most insecure at the moment is how to achieve a sustainment of sales for my lovely books. I probably need to do some form of marketing, perhaps even make a sustained effort in that direction? 

This free to enter short story competition has the theme of sustainability. The first prize is £200 – if you don't want it, feel free to send it over and I'll recycle it for you!

Hoy!

'Hoy!' is a call for attention, sound made to drive livestock or a way to hail a boat ... apparently.

Personally I'd go for 'Hi' or 'Hello' in the first instance, always used 'cummo-on' to get the cows moving (and was pleased to hear the exact same call used by the people moving these cattle in the Outer Hebrides), and wouldn't be able to resist 'ahoy there' should I ever need to yell at someone on a boat.

Another thing my dictionary claims is that hoy is an Australian game resembling bingo which is played with cards. It's a long time since I played bingo, but I'm fairly sure it doesn't even vaguely resemble cards. Anyway ...

A hoy is a small vessel, usually rigged as a sloop, which carries pasengers or goods for small distances. I can't argue wth that, as I've not yet done sufficient research. Clearly I need another boat trip or two.

Here's a free to enter short story competition with a prize of publication in a glossy magazine and a two night stay in a castle; ideal if you want to get away from the hoi polloi ;-)