Seisin

Seisin, which is sometimes written as seizin, is a legal term. It means the possession of land by freehold, the act of taking such possession and that which is held.









We're fortunate enough to own our own home, which I assume means that the land on which it stands and our garden is seisin, or we've seisinned it, or we were seisinning when we took out the mortgage, or something.












What I'm sure of is that the garden grows some lovely flowers. Here are a few examples.

Cento

A cento is a composition made from the quotations of other authors. I can imagine it might be quite fun to create, but that it would be rather disjointed to read – and quite possibly in breach of copyright.

Just in case you fancy a go, here's a quote from my book Leave Nothing But Footprints that I'm giving you permission to include in any cento you may decide to create.

"The action was frozen a split second before the water found its target."

I picked that because I think it could be used in various ways. That's not the case with the paragraph I got just from opening the book at random.

"As Jess made a pot of tea, Eliot said, "I'm going to impress you even more now by showing you the advantages of HDR." As he brought up five images taken inside a church they'd photographed earlier in the week, he explained that by combining over and under exposed images he could capture all the details in the shadows without burning out highlights in the better lit areas."

It's hard to see how you could use that in anything other than a work involving photography. You'd probably be able to leave out the campervan though.

Did you know a cento was a thing? Would you like to read or create one?

Host

Historically a host is a large number of people, or an army. In Christian religion it may be the consecrated bread used to represent the body of Jesus, or the heavenly host may refer to angels or perhaps other bible figures – although the heavenly host can also be used to mean the sun, moon and stars.

A host might be a person who has recieved a donated organ, or any living organism which carries a parasite or disease. The landord of a pub, compere of an event, or person who invites others into their home could all be described as hosts.

This week I'm co-hosting the Insecure Writer's Support Group along with J.H.Moncrief, Tonja Drecker, Chrys Fey and of course our Ninja Captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh. This organisation exists to support insecure writers (as you may have guessed!). This is done through blog posts on the first Wednesday of each month, where members share their anxieties, offer tips only avoiding such concerns and offer encouragement to those who are feeling insecure.

There's also a Facebook group, website and twitter account, so there's always someone available should you wish to ask a question, or recieve (or offer of course!) a word of reassurance.

To join, just click here and add yourself. It's free and all you're committed to is a posting once a month (you can drop out temporarily or leave completely any time.) There's an optional suggested question each time, so no need to worry about being stuck for a topic.

Have you hosted anything? Are you an insecure writer? Are you a member of, or considering joining the IWSG?

Oh, by the way (she drops casually into the conversation) would you like to download this short ebook myself and three friends have created? It's free!