Wordy Wednesday: KERFUFFLE

Noun, informal

a disturbance or commotion typically caused by a dispute or conflict

Alternate spellings: curfuffle, kafuffle, gefuffle

I like the way this word sounds and rolls off the tongue, kerfuffle.

It almost sounds like I should say, "God bless you" to someone who says it.

I just find it to be a fun word, and I’m so excited I could use kerfuffle in a current synopsis I’m working on. I have a small group of women getting off a train in 1870 in a town full of men. The men are so excited to see women, that they crowd and push to get a gander at them. In this kerfuffle, my heroine shoots her gun in the air to stop the chaos. I plan to use kerfuffle in the story as well if it gets contracted.

The Evolution of kerfuffle from the online version of the Merriam Webster Dictionary

Fuffle was first used in Scottish English, as early as the 16th century, as a verb meaning "to dishevel." The addition of the prefix car- (possibly derived from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning "wrong" or "awkward") didn't change the meaning of the word considerably. In the 19th century carfuffle, with its variant curfuffle, became a noun, and in the 20th century it was embraced by a broader population of English speakers and standardized to kerfuffle. There is some dispute among language historians over how the altered spelling came to be favored. One theory holds that it might have been influenced by imitative words like kerplunk, where the syllable ker- is simply added for emphasis.

“Holly & Ivy,” my #HistoricalRomance novella in A #BouquetOfBrides, takes place

in 1890, in Washington State. It’s about a young woman who accompanies her impetuous younger sister on her trip across the country to be a Christmas mail-order bride and is helped by a gallant stranger. 

#BouquetOfBrides

#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance

MARY DAVIS is an award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She has five titles releasing in 2018; "Holly & Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection in January 2018, Courting Her Amish Heart in March 2018, The Widow’s Plight in July 2018, Courting Her Secret Heart September 2018, & “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection in December 2018. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-three years and two cats. She has three adult children and one incredibly adorable grandchild. Find her online at:

MaryDavisBooks.com

Newsletter          Blog          FB          FB Readers Group          Pinterest          Amazon          GoodReads          FictionFinder          BookBub

-->

Tuesday Tidbits: ACTIVE or PASSIVE? Or MEDIOPASSIVE?

WHAT?!

As an author and in English classes, it's drilled into us to use active voice over passive. So most sentences fall into one of these two, right? Well that's what I thought until I stumbled upon "Mediopassive."

Huh? This was a whole new concept to me. I never was any good in English class, so to others this might be old hat. It took me some thinking to understand it. The examples helped me more than the English mumbo-jumbo. See, no good in English.

Um, what does a window have to do with this?

Just wait for the little boy.

So here's how I understand passive, active, and mediopassive.

Passive: when an object is being acted upon.
The window was opened by the boy.

Often these sentences use a "to be" verb.

Active: when someone or something acts upon an object.
The boy opened the window.
SOLD! I can see the difference and agree that active is stronger.

This is a cool window. I'd like to have a house with these. Wait. I have digressed.


So what's this mediopassive?

Mediopassive: when the subject is receiving rather than performing the action.
The window opens easily.
So the window isn't performing the action of opening but is receiving the action of opening. And you may argue that in this day and age, there could be self-opening windows. But I disagree. The window wouldn't be opening itself, but a mechanism would be opening the window.

Here are a couple of more examples:
The landscape photographs nicely.
The house sold in four days.
Both the landscape and the house aren't performing the action but receiving it.

I think.

My windows remain closed because it's winter and cold outside. And the little boy has run outside to play in that first window.

I learned about mediopassive from Merriam Webster online and the examples are from there as well at this link.

“Holly & Ivy,” my #HistoricalRomance novella in A #BouquetOfBrides, takes place

in 1890, in Washington State. It’s about a young woman who accompanies her impetuous younger sister on her trip across the country to be a Christmas mail-order bride and is helped by a gallant stranger. 

#BouquetOfBrides

#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance

MARY DAVIS is an award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She has five titles releasing in 2018; "Holly & Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection in January 2018, Courting Her Amish Heart in March 2018, The Widow’s Plight in July 2018, Courting Her Secret Heart September 2018, & “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection in December 2018. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-three years and two cats. She has three adult children and one incredibly adorable grandchild. Find her online at:

MaryDavisBooks.com

Newsletter          Blog          FB          FB Readers Group          Pinterest          Amazon          GoodReads          FictionFinder          BookBub

Wordy Wednesday: Sally

This post took a turn I never could have foreseen, but it was fun. =0)

SALLY
Noun
1. An action of rushing or bursting forth
2. a) A brief outbreak: outburst
    b) A witty or imaginative saying: quip
3. A venture or excursion usually off the beaten track: jaunt

Verb
1. To rush out
2. To set out

First known use 1560

Also a girl's name meaning: Princess
A familiar form of Sarah

Say what?

I never would have guessed that Sally was a form of Sarah. I was talking about this very thing last week with a couple of friends. How do some of these names become nicknames of others? Like Sally for Sarah. They are still both two syllables, so why change Sarah to Sally? Or John to Jack?

I can see how we get Rick from Richard, but what about Dick? Betsy from Elizabeth? I can sort of see Bill from William, but why not go by Will?

Who decided that Jack is a universal nickname for John? And Evan can also be a form of John according to my baby name book.  Except for the letter "n" and each having four letters in them, they have nothing in common.

I'm all for creative naming. I tease that in our family, we only name our pets so that we have something to deviate from. We rarely ever called our pets by their official name. We had a cat we named Scooter. Can you guess our nickname for him? Scoot? No. Scooty? No. Coot? No. Let me save you some time. We called him Nupen or The Pen. I know what you're thinking. They don't even have any letters in common. At the time, we sort of logically got from Scooter to Nupen, but I can't remember what it was. Or maybe it was illogically.

Sometimes this is how I am with a word or an idea. I start in one place and think I'm heading down a certain path, and before I know it, I've ended up someplace entirely different and wonder how I got here. From Sally to Nupen. Yep, that makes sense.

So sally forth, or should it be sarah forth? Hmmm?

“Holly & Ivy,” my #HistoricalRomance novella in A #BouquetOfBrides, takes place

in 1890, in Washington State. It’s about a young woman who accompanies her impetuous younger sister on her trip across the country to be a Christmas mail-order bride and is helped by a gallant stranger. 

#BouquetOfBrides

#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance

MARY DAVIS is an award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She has five titles releasing in 2018; "Holly & Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection in January 2018, Courting Her Amish Heart in March 2018, The Widow’s Plight in July 2018, Courting Her Secret Heart September 2018, & “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection in December 2018. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-three years and two cats. She has three adult children and one incredibly adorable grandchild. Find her online at:

MaryDavisBooks.com

Newsletter          Blog          FB          FB Readers Group          Pinterest          Amazon          GoodReads          FictionFinder          BookBub

Tuesday Tidbits: The Trick to YouTube

I love YouTube. I do a lot of research via YouTube.

Some of the things I've researched are:
How to naturally finish wood. I didn't want to have my character use lacquer or varnish, so in part of my research, I watched videos on linseed oil and beeswax.
How to harness a horse. When writing historical stories and Amish ones, I need to know how to harness a horse and part the different parts of all that stuff is called.
How to make paper
Old T-shirt hacks
Sharpie tie-dye
How to paint a dragon eye

The list goes on and on and on and on . . .

Most recently, I researched how to refinish kitchen countertops and easy to install backsplashes to update the kitchen of the condo we're in. Here are some links to ones I want to try:

Countertops:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4282m_LbrU 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8SIbb77b_E

I love this next idea for making your regular countertops look like cement. I think this would be fun to try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lRaNI2AOEQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1vHUVYi7os

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_-I86Dd8uo

Backsplashes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK76oularY4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHFFjjKbKGk 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3VlbJmkCzk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J-NxU1VhuQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=064siR7x56A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6SRWCWI1TE

Yes, I watch cat videos on there too. They are soooooo cute! They make me smile, and I'm all for things that make me smile.

I can spend hours and hours on YouTube. It's my black hole. I could get lost in there for days and not realize it. But I have found a trick.

Did you know YouTube videos and can be watched at faster speeds. When gleaning information, I like to watch them at 2x the speed to see if they have the information I want or need. I’m impatient when people talk slower than I want to listen. If they are what I want, I can watch them more slowly. To watch at a faster speed, click on the gear in the lower right of the viewing screen. Click on speed and you can speed it up to 1.25x, 1.5x, or 2x the speed.

Happy YouTube-ing. Don't get lost there for too long. =0)

“Holly & Ivy,” my #HistoricalRomance novella in A #BouquetOfBrides, takes place

in 1890, in Washington State. It’s about a young woman who accompanies her impetuous younger sister on her trip across the country to be a Christmas mail-order bride and is helped by a gallant stranger. 

#BouquetOfBrides

#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance

MARY DAVIS is an award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She has five titles releasing in 2018; "Holly & Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection in January 2018, Courting Her Amish Heart in March 2018, The Widow’s Plight in July 2018, Courting Her Secret Heart September 2018, & “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection in December 2018. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-three years and two cats. She has three adult children and one incredibly adorable grandchild. Find her online at:

MaryDavisBooks.com

Newsletter          Blog          FB          FB Readers Group          Pinterest          Amazon          GoodReads          FictionFinder          BookBub

ThrowBACKLIST Thursday: LOVE NOTES

“Love Notes” in Love Letters

I thought, since my most recent historical novella released in January, it would be fitting to highlight my first historical novella published, “Love Notes” in Love Letters, a 4-in-1 generational romance collection published by Barbour in 2007. It is a collection featuring stories with unusual “love letters”.

In” Love Notes", Laurel Rivers has lost her father in a bank robbery of his own scheming. Ashamed of his behavior, Laurel finds her only solace in a sheet of music she discovers propped up on the piano in the church. Each week, a new line of music or lyrics appears, drawing her closer to the writer. But can she bear the truth when his identity is revealed?

So where did this idea for a non-traditional love letters collection come from? At a writers conference, a fellow author asked if I’d be open to co-authoring with a newer author. I said I would. When I met with her, she said she didn’t want to write the story  nor co-author but to give it to someone else to write because she wrote nonfiction. Then she told me her idea of an unusual correspondence between a man and woman that caused them to fall in love. She spoke with such passion about her idea, I told her that she should write it. She said she’d think about it. Over the next few days, I couldn’t get the idea out of my head and felt the theme of unusual love letters would make an nice novella collection, so I queried the editor at Barbour with a basic idea of unusual love letters, and she was interested. The gal who had the initial idea wasn’t interested, so I gathered three other authors and we, together, created the initial collection that went from one generation to the next.

Since it’s original appearance in 2007, “Love Notes” won a Carol Award and has been re-released in two more collections and a German addition: A Prairie Romance Collection (2009), Prairie Romance Collection (2012), and Musik meaner Seele (German addition, 2010)

When I received a handful of the German additions, I couldn’t figure out what they were. It was my name on the cover, but I’d never written anything called Musik meaner Seele, and there was a picture of a  contemporary gal on the cover, and she wasn’t me. I figured the publisher had sent them to me by mistake. I stared at the cover and studied it, trying to figure it out and why it had been sent to me. Since I couldn’t read German, the book held no answers. I finally realized that my story had been published by its lonesome in German. How cool was that!

The original Love Letters volume is still available. It’s also available in the Prairie Romance Collection with eight other stories that weren’t in the original volume.

“Holly & Ivy,” my #HistoricalRomance novella in A #BouquetOfBrides, takes place

in 1890, in Washington State. It’s about a young woman who accompanies her impetuous younger sister on her trip across the country to be a Christmas mail-order bride and is helped by a gallant stranger. 

#BouquetOfBrides

#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance

MARY DAVIS is an award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She has five titles releasing in 2018; "Holly & Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection in January 2018, Courting Her Amish Heart in March 2018, The Widow’s Plight in July 2018, Courting Her Secret Heart (Working Title) September 2018, & “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection in December 2018. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-three years and two cats. She has three adult children and one incredibly adorable grandchild. Find her online at:

MaryDavisBooks.com

Newsletter          Blog          FB          FB Readers Group          Pinterest          Amazon          GoodReads          FictionFinder          BookBub

Wordy Wednesday: FOIST

This week’s word is FOIST

Verb [with object] (foist someone/something on/into)

~Impose an unwelcome or unnecessary  person or thing on: Don’t foist inferior products on others.

~Introduce someone or something surreptitiously or unwarrantably into: He tried to foist a new candidate into the race.

It comes from a Dutch word from the mid 16^th century.

So why do I like this word? Again, I like the way it sounds. I look forward to seeing how I can use foist in one of my stories.

“Holly & Ivy,” my #HistoricalRomance novella in A #BouquetOfBrides, takes place

in 1890, in Washington State. It’s about a young woman who accompanies her impetuous younger sister on her trip across the country to be a Christmas mail-order bride and is helped by a gallant stranger. 

#BouquetOfBrides

#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance

MARY DAVIS is an award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She has five titles releasing in 2018; "Holly & Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection in January 2018, Courting Her Amish Heart in March 2018, The Widow’s Plight in July 2018, Courting Her Secret Heart (Working Title) September 2018, & “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection in December 2018. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-three years and two cats. She has three adult children and one incredibly adorable grandchild. Find her online at:

MaryDavisBooks.com

Newsletter          Blog          FB          FB Readers Group          Pinterest          Amazon          GoodReads          FictionFinder          BookBub

Tuesday Tidbits: Suffrage

   I’ve recently been doing some research on women’s suffrage. The suffrage movement was mainly focused on women gaining the right to vote. They had other issues they were fighting for like equal wages, putting an end to child labor and sweatshops, as well as others. To not dilute their work and spread it across too many causes, the fight for the right to vote became their main battle. Because if you think about it, if women could vote, then they would have more power to fight for the other causes they wanted to see changes in.

   People often think of suffrage as something after 1900. In May and June of 1919 both the House and Senate voted to give women in the United States the right to vote and was ratified by three-fourths of the states in August 1920. So, we are told that women in the United States won the right to vote in 1920. This is only partially true.

   The first Women’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, NY on July 19^th & 20^th in 1848. That’s more than seventy years before women in the United States were given the right to vote, and they were fighting long before that convention, as early as the 1830s and probably well before that. Women actually had the right to vote in the 1700s. By 1807, all states had revoked the women’s right to vote.

   So where were the first successes for women’s suffrage? New York? Some other eastern state? The South? Did suffrage success sweep from east to west? Just the opposite.

   Wyoming was the first territory to grant women the right to vote on December 10, 1869. Their right to vote was threatened in 1890 when the national government wanted Wyoming to revoke the women’s right to vote before granting Wyoming statehood. Wyoming didn’t back down and became the first state to join the Union allowing women to cast their own ballots.

   Washington Sate also gave women the right to vote early on in 1883. They lost the vote in 1887, almost regained it in 1888 and 1898. Then in 1910 most women are given the right to vote.
   All the states west of the Rockies had given women the right to vote well before the 19^th Amendment was ratified in 1920. Around the world, women in other countries were also fighting for the right to vote.

“Holly & Ivy,” my #HistoricalRomance novella in A #BouquetOfBrides, takes place

in 1890, in Washington State. It’s about a young woman who accompanies her impetuous younger sister on her trip across the country to be a Christmas mail-order bride and is helped by a gallant stranger. 

#BouquetOfBrides

#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance

MARY DAVIS is an award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She has five titles releasing in 2018; "Holly & Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection in January 2018, Courting Her Amish Heart in March 2018, The Widow’s Plight in July 2018, Courting Her Secret Heart (Working Title) September 2018, & “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection in December 2018. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-three years and two cats. She has three adult children and one incredibly adorable grandchild. Find her online at:

MaryDavisBooks.com

Newsletter          Blog          FB          FB Readers Group          Pinterest          Amazon          GoodReads          FictionFinder          BookBub