Friday, March 20, 2020

Latin Death Words - Say Youre Dead

Latin Death Words - Say Youre Dead Here are some expressions from Classical Latin dealing with death. In general, the infinitives need to be conjugated. [The infinitive is like the English form of the verb with to in front of it, as in to die, to kick the bucket or to push up daisies. Conjugation here refers to putting the proper ending on the verb, depending on who is doing the dying. In Latin this involves more than adding or removing a final s as we do in English to change he dies to they die or she pushes up daisies to you push up daisies.] Leave This Life If you want to refer to someones departure from life, you could use a conjugated version of one of the following phrases: [(de) vita] decedere(ex) vita excedereex vita abiremortem obirede vita exirede (ex) vita migrare Give Up the Ghost In Latin you can give up the ghost by saying: animam edere or efflareextremum vitae spiritum edere Before Ones Time Someone who dies before his time dies in these ways: mature decederesubita morte exstinguimors immatura or praematura Suicide Committing suicide can be done in a variety of ways. Here are Latin expressions connoting self-inflicted death. mortem sibi consciscerese vita privarevitae finem facere Suicide by Poison Taking poison for suicide: veneno sibi mortem consciscerepoculum mortis exhaurirepoculum mortiferum exhaurire Violent Murder Killing someone violently: plagam extremam infligereplagam mortiferam infligere Noble Suicide A patriotic Roman death might be described using the following: mortem occumbere pro patriasanguinem suum pro patria effunderevitam profundere pro patriase morti offerre pro salute patriae Source C. Meissners Latin Phrase Book

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Using Contests as Door Openers

Using Contests as Door Openers In a world where its near impossible to land an agent or publisher, and indie publishing appears to be a monstrosity of complexities, it might be time to consider contests. And dont talk about how most of them are scams, either. There are more publishing scams out there than contests, my friend. Why focus on contests when your goal is publishing? Because contests are a roundabout way to open a door to getting published. And you get to toy around with submitting more than that book youve obsessed over. You can also submit novellas, short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. Suggestions on entering contests to aid your career: 1) Stick to contests that result in publication. Whether its a website, a journal, or a publishing house, getting publication credits in your portfolio matters. You need credibility. 2) Extract from your book-length work and create a short piece or two. There are way more short story competitions than novels contests. Take the gist of your longer piece and turn it into a short submission. The point is to make people realize you can write. If you win, THEN tell them you also write novels. 3) Choose reputable contests, not something cutesy and cheap, so that when you win you are respected, not chuckled at. Show that even when you enter contests, you are a professional. 4) Be willing to pay entry fees. They fund the publishing, the judging, and the prize money. Better to pay $25 to enter and win $1,000 than pay $0 and win $50. The latter doesnt look as good on a resume or pitch letter. 5) Consider those contests that offer feedback. Those critiques might right some wrongs in your work. 6) Choose contests where the judges are agents, publishers, or editors. Even if you dont win, you might catch someones eye. Some authors enter contests regularly while still pursuing publication. Theres no point in passing up this sort of opportunity. Especially during a time that writers are a dime-a-dozen and landing attention is like screaming into the wind. While youre planning your query letters or indie promotion, make time for a contest or two each month. It might be the catalyst to take that stalling writing career to a higher level.