Substantial

Substantial means, of considerable importance, size or value. It also describes something strongly built or made (in the case of my cakes sometimes both meanings apply!) Another meaning is concerning the substantial points of something.

Substantially either means to a great extent, or for the most part.

To say that the substance of my substantial (100,000 words!) novel, Paint Me a Picture, concerns Mavis's relationships with her family and colleagues is substantially correct.

Zymurgy

Zymurgy is the branch of applied science with relates to fermentation in brewing, winemaking and the creation of other alcoholic drinks.

Cheers!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas, jolly holiday, happy hogmanay and wonderful new year.

Tumbledown

Tumbledown means falling, or fallen, into dilapidation. To me it sounds nicer than neglected, devastated, destroyed or ruined.

Oh and coincidentally*, my lovely romantic novel Escape to the Country has tumbled down in price to just 99p/99c until 21st December.

The castle is Tarbert in Scotland. There are a lot of Scots towns and villages with the name Tarbert or Tarbet. That word means a narrow strip of land. It's quite often where two lochs meet.

There you go - two words for the price of one! You can't say I'm not good to you. Well, you could I suppose but I can't hear you from here.

*You didn't really think I planned this stuff, did you?

Logorrhoea

Maybe you've heard, or even used, the phrase 'verbal diarrehoea' for someone who talks too much? Logorrhoea is actually the correct word to use as it means an excessive flow of words. It's prononunced log-oh-ree-a.