Fans of Comedy Central’s tv show “Drunk History” may be familiar with the story of Dr. William Minor: The Civil War doctor showed signs of struggling with mental health during and after the war (how could one not), and moved to London for a fresh start. Unfortunately, Dr. Minor suffered from the beliefs that all kinds of people were out to get him, and those beliefs led him to shoot an innocent stranger in cold blood. The American was institutionalized. Concurrently, Professor James Murray was […]
Still couldn’t stop the words from pouring out.
The Great Passage is the first that I’ve actually read of the many, many “Kindle First” books that I’ve downloaded for free in the past year or so since I became aware of the Amazon program. I can’t ignore the opportunity for a free book, but I’ve been so on top of my library queue and meeting self-imposed reading deadlines that I just haven’t gotten to any of these, which I mostly choose either based on the description being the least irritating of the group […]
A Thesaurus for Writers, in Concept Anyway
At a certain point when you’re writing a book that is over 100,000 words you come to the uncomfortable but inevitable realization that you’re using the same damn words all the time. MS Word has an integrated thesaurus but the options it provides are obvious and largely include the words you’re already overusing. So the newly updated Describers dictionary seemed perfect. Need a word for something that smells bad? Take 22: Noxious, rank, noisome, stinking, fetid, miasmic, foul, malodorous, putrid, rotten, offensive, nasty, vile, olid, […]