Anyone else ever start reading something in their head with a specific, outrageous accent and can't stop?
Well, now that you've mentioned it, I can't stop the outrageously fake Russian accent in my head as I read this.
Now would be a good time to ask Charlie Jane Anders questions about her new book at reddit for the 4 p.m. live Q&A. https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/46lpoo/im_charlie_jane_anders_author_of_all_the_birds_in/
So here I am writing my Colonial mystery and twice I've caught myself putting in things from my fantasy into a historical fiction setting. Either my brain hasn't veered completely off the fantasy track to my historical mystery so there's an adjustment period where I'm gonna have to keep watch on what I type before I have my Colonial Mystery MC have a serious discussion with my Fantasy MC or...this is some serious Freudian slip going on. Meditate on this, I must...
I was just in the middle of a character sketch for a character I hate and realized 3/4 of the way through that she was sexually abused as a child and now I feel really bad for this person that only exists in my head.
That's called cynicism/pessimism and everyone feels like that sometimes. Life is confusing and had quite a bit of darkness. Shit is troubling like that. You just have to deal with that. Whether you move away form feeling troubled is up to you, there's reasons to maintain that feeling, but personally I think it's better to make the best of life. Otherwise it feels ungrateful to me, especially considering my life is pretty great relatively. To each his own.
The fast started yesterday. My new strategy of not getting up before sunrise is working out quite nicely but I'm still probably going to have headaches. I've also had to clear it with all my professors and supervisors to be able to break fast at sunset. Working during the deadzone is going to be a trial all on its own though.
It's just a name. And, culturally speaking, it's an old name. Like being named Heathcliff or Beauchamp or Beauregard. Growing up in the American Midwest before moving to Hawaii in 1980, I'd've given anything to be a simple Pablo or Pedro or Miguel. My name seemed impossible for teachers of the 1970's to pronounce.
I became a parent a couple of years ago, and I'm about to double my brood. My partner's not English, and I don't live in an English speaking country. I can't tell you the headaches we had trying to find a name that both nationalities would pronounce similarly and more to the point, that we both liked! Anyone else had any naming nightmares?
My nightmare had two variants: 1) English speaking adults who, upon trying to pronounce my name, seemed to suffer a minor seizure, and 2) significantly more spry and linguistically deft children who turned my name into Ray-tardo, Ray-nerdo, Ray-farto....
"Right away, your lordship. I do apologize for the tardiness as regards afternoon tea, m'lord. It behoves me to inform your lordship that Rupert, the under-butler, and Nigel the footman are both out with the croup. I have subsumed both of their duties."
There's a great site for name etymologies that I use a lot for generating character names -- Behind the Name -- some of you may be familiar with it. If you bang in Reginald (or Reinaldo) and then follow the trail back to its roots, you find that: "From the Germanic name Raginald, composed of the elements ragin "advice" and wald "rule". The Normans (who used forms like Reinald or Reinold) brought the name to Britain, where it reinforced rare Old English and Norse cognates already in existence. It was common during the Middle Ages, but became more rare after the 15th century." Quite appropriate for a forum administrator, don't you think?
As I grew older and more "adult" dynamics became part of my personal paradigm, I learned that I could deliver my name with a certain roll that, when added to a coy smile delivered up through dropped lashes, had way of making sure that I rarely lacked for bedtime accompaniment.
