I came across the word Ogygia (pronounced Oh-gee-uh) this week while reading. Apparently it’s the island home/exile of Calypso. Now in “Pirates of the Carribbean” she is the rather angry goddess of the sea, but in Greek myths she is the daughter of the Titan called Atlas (yes the one that holds the heavens on his shoulders as punishment for defying Zeus). Odysseus stayed with her for a while during Homer’s “Odyssey”. Some think it’s the island of Gozo in the Mediterrean which I visited many years ago on holiday, but I didn’t spot any goddesses. Others think it may be Atlantis.

Which put me on the track of mythical lands across the sea. They appear to be common to many cultures.

The biggie is Atlantis which supposedly lies at the bottom of the Atlantic. It was probably invented around the time of Plato and even then wasn’t treated as a factual location.

Islands off the West of Ireland

The Irish one is Tir na nOg – the Land of Youth which features in many old stories. Every child is taught the story of Oisin and Tir na nOg in school. Again situated in the West (somewhere in the Atlantic) it was the sort of place that you could live in, but if you visited Ireland again and set foot on the ground, all your postponed years would catch up with you.

Another Irish one (possibly a variant of Tir na nOg) was Hy Brasil – this land could be seen from Ireland on one day in every seven years, but otherwise was shrouded in mist. Anyone who’s seen the many islands off the West coast will see how this could be true! It even appeared on many medieval maps. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with a certain country in South America.

The Isles of the Blessed or St. Brendan’s Island were other mysterious island(s) discovered by St. Brendan on his voyages around the Atlantic, this time off the coast of Africa. St. Brendan, also known as The Navigator, apparently discovered America way before Columbus, or so we Irish like to claim. It has been proven that his type of boat could have made the trip he  described, but we’ll never know for sure. His island again appeared on maps, including those used by Columbus, and the story went that he and his monks stayed five days while the rest of the crew back on the main boat saw the island disppear into mist for a year.

Some of my favourite authors have enjoyed the concept of mythical lands across the sea. The continent of Four Ecks in Terry Pratchett’s work bears a strange ressemblance to Australia and JRR Tolkien had his Elves pass into the West (to Numenor) to a land of peace and perpetual youth. I’ve read that Tolkien intended Numenor as a reference to Atlantis. Both authors spent a great deal of time and effort in mapping their “worlds”, which is impressive in itself. Perhaps the mark of a good fictional land is that readers want to believe that it really exists?

I think it’s very interesting that so many of these islands lay off the misty West of Ireland coast in a huge sea that people struggled to explore. But even though they’re unlikely to exist, I’m glad they exist in our imaginations. We’d all like a secret island to disappear to now and then, right? If you’re curious about the huge list of fictional islands world wide have a look here.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and word fooling,

Grace

  I got my son to pick a name out of the hat from the commenters since last week and the winner of the 2012 Bylines Writer’s Desk Calendar is Noelle Ameijenda. Well done Noelle – I’ll put it in the post tomorrow. Thanks everyone for taking part.

The word for this week is thanks to a great magazine for writers that I stumbled upon recently called Words with Jam. I’ve taken out a free digital subscription and it’s pretty good – they’ve feature interviews with bestselling authors (Paulo Coelho for example), interviews with agents, FAQs, writing workshops, a few contests, book reviews, and they’re currently running a short fiction contest. If you’re a writer, especially in Ireland or UK, it’s worth a look.

The word is logodaedalus and it means “one who is cunning in the use of words”. The plural is logodaedali and the word comes from logos for word and Daedalus the inventor from Greek mythology who designed the minotaur’s labyrinth and created wings to fly, although sadly they didn’t function that well too near to the sun. He turns up as an amazing immortal inventor in the Percy Jackson books for kids, which I enjoyed reading recently.

I’m thinking that all wordfools and writers are logodaedali.

Until next time, happy reading, writing and wordfooling,

Grace

This week’s word is escribitionist (pronounced eh-scri- bit-shun-ist like exhibitionist). I spotted this is “Road Side Crosses”  by Jeffrey Deaver and I thought it was a neat coined word. According to Wikipedia the word sources from English and Spanish and defines someone who blogs solely about their own experiences, rather than discussing wider topics like politics or word definitions. I hope I am not an escribitionist.

However I do have two pieces of writing news this week as well as a word discussion.

The first is to mention “First Kill” by PJ Callahan. I bought PJ’s debut thriller novel at his book launch because he had read a few extracts at our writing group and I wanted to support him. But other writers at the launch who had read more of the book raved about it, so I purchased more copies as Christmas gifts. I’m delighted that I did, because it really is very good. The plot (a case of mistaken identity throws two innocent teenage girls into a race for their lives from secret islands, vicious killers, and corrupt police officers) surges along and his background as a pilot makes the flying scenes just excellent even for a non-pilot like me. There’s even a dog-fight finale. If you like thrillers, it’s worth checking out.

The second is (in a slightly escribitionist moment) to mention that I’ve just been published in the 2012 Bylines Calendar. This is the fourth time one of my personal essays has been featured in the diary/writing workbook and this year I have a spare copy which I want to give away to one of my blog readers here. The ring-bound book works as a page-per-week diary with an inspiring writing essay on the opposite page from writers worldwide. There’s also an excellent set of goal-setting pages, links to useful sites, note pages,  literary holidays, contact pages etc. I find mine very useful – it’s sitting on my desk beside me as I type this.

So – to be in with a chance to win the book, just leave a comment below and I’ll draw the winner at random on Monday 23rd January (noon GMT). I’ll post the result here and mail the book to the winner. Good luck everyone.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace

Despite my best efforts, I missed a few posts here during December. However it’s a new year and here’s a new start on weekly posts.

This week’s word is oliphaunt (pronounced ol-ee-fant).

According to Merriam Webster online dictionary this means elephant or ivory.  Apparently it can be a surname too, which is a fun one. I wonder is there an Oliver Oliphaunt about somewhere?

But my interest in the word begins with the mention of oliphaunts in “The Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien where they are the name Sam Gamgee uses for the war-elephant-like mumakil animals from Harad. He longs to see one and when he does is amazed by them in much the same way elephants astound young children. There’s an excellent article on Wikipedia about all the fantastic creatures in LOTR, if you’re feeling curious.

Since then I’ve discovered its use elsewhere. Did you know that there was a prolific Scottish novelist and essayist called Mrs Oliphant (1828-1897) who wrote more than 120 books during her lifetime?

Oliphaunts even turn up in Chaucer, again in human form “His name was Sir Oliphaunt, a perilous man of deede.”

It may just be an ancient form of the word for elephant, but I like its quirkiness. I hope you do too.

I won Nano 2011

For those of you wondering how my NaNoWriMo  2011 went  – I made it to the 50,000 words on the second last day of November.

Which makes 2011 my third Nano “win” in a row.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and fooling with words,

Grace

Grace (day 24 and mostly on track with 39,657 words written so far)

My second guest blog is up at the Irish Writers’ Centre. A little late as we’re in week three of NaNoWriMo already, but I gather they’ve been swamped with more than 600 entries for their first ever Novel Fair…paper-cuts galore!

Day 17 of Nano – 26,578 words – a bit behind but catching up,

Grace

If you’re curious about how an ML (municipal liaison a.k.a organiser) manages to write 50,000 words as well as manage a region on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) – check out my weekly blog posts at The Irish Writers’ Centre’s blog. There first one is up here.

I’ll be back talking about unusual and fun words in December,

Grace

this week’s word is screever. This is a fairly old word and one that’s still in use today. It has two meanings, one is the profession of pavement chalk artists – those who create temporary art, usually in chalk, and then look for donations in return. The earlier meaning is someone who writes begging letters as their profession and this was mentioned in 1861 in “London Labour and the London Poor” by Henry Mayhew. I think screevers still exist for that meaning too, although nowadays they write spam, and scam, emails instead.

In other news, there are now just seven days left until National Novel Writing Month begins its 13th year worldwide. I’ll be organising Ireland North East novellists again this year (as municipal liaison) and attempting to write 50,000 words of a novel for under-tens in 30 days, or less. As a result WordFoolery will be on a break until December. Unless I am so desperate to avoid novel-writing, that I end up posting blogs instead – which is possible.

To those of you attempting the challenge this year, good luck – it’s crazy, but it’s fun.

To rest of you, see you in December,

until then happy reading, writing and wordfooling,

Grace

This week’s word is discombobulate (pronunciation here). It means to confuse or bewilder someone. According to Simon Heffer’s book “Strictly English” (2010) the word originally meant “the inarticulate utterance of birds, or a vocal sound resembling it”. When I read the word, I imagine the rather garbled mumbles of Mr Bean as played by Rowan Atkinson.

In seeking “discombobulate” in my own dictionary this morning (it’s not in it), I found discobolus. Any ideas? Nope, me neither. It is the term for a discus-thrower. I shall use it during the Olympics next year, just to discombobulate people.

Regular readers will know that I help organise NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in my corner of Ireland every year. Here are four random hints from my writers last year, for any of you attempting to write 50,000 words of a novel this November.

1. Thinking about your female lead – what’s in her handbag, and why?
2. Consider wearing headphones on public transport/in queues, but with the sound switched off, so you can eavesdrop on conversations and get your “dialogue” polished.
3. Use baby name Web sites for character names.
4. Caught without a notepad when inspiration strikes? Type ideas into your phone’s memo feature or text them to yourself.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace

As my posts about colours (Cerulean, Vermillion, Rare Words for Rare Colours etc) are some of my most popular, I couldn’t resist following up with a post about old colour rhymes.

I can’t find a trace of what I believe to be one connected ditty, but I’ve found the following clues – all sourced from women born around the turn of the 20th century. I can’t vouch for the fashion advice contained in these lines and some online sources suggest they have roots in more practical things like lights on shipping lanes, or ways to identify venonmous snakes. I don’t know, I just like them because they remind me of a former teacher who often said such things.

Red and yellow catch a fellow

Pink and green fit for a queen

Brown and blue will never do

Blue and green should never be seen, except with something in between

Or….Red and green should never be seen, except upon an Irish Queen

Can anybody out there add to this rhyme or even confirm if they are all distinct phrases rather than part of a whole?

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace