Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Come in through the hawse-pipe

 As I head to Seattle for the Left Coast Crime mystery conference this week, it seems apt to highlight a fairly obscure (to me, anyway!) nautical expression that I bumped into while writing The Secret in the Wall: Come in through the hawse-pipe.

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I no longer recall where I first read this term, but do remember being befuddled. I had no idea what a hawse-pipe was, and as an expression, come in (or up) through the hawse-pipe clearly meant something idiomatic, although it wasn't at all clear to me what that meaning was. However, since the expression was nautical in origin and popped up in 19th century writings,  I really wanted to use it in my book. But first, I had to track down the meaning!

According to an article about nautical language on the Scarborough Maritime Heritage Center website, a hawse-pipe is a pipe in the ship's bow for the anchor cable to run through. The entry continues, "Anybody who has risen to Captain from lowly deckhand is said to have come up through the hawse-pipe." A page on the USS Constitution Museum site also provides the same definition :

... A person makes officer by "coming up through the hawse hole (or pipe)". Meaning, that person rose through the ranks from the lowest rating as an enlisted individual to that of a commissioned officer.

If you want more information about hawse holes (or pipes) and the restoration of the USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides"), please check out the whole article.

And with that, it's time for me to set sail, er, that is, hop a flight and head north to Seattle!

There's a hawse-pipe there, somewhere...
Portrait (circa 1895) of the full-rigged ship Canada, painted by Antonio Jacobsen (1850-1921). Portrait is part of the collection of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax, Nova Scotia, accession number M96.43.369. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

NEWS FLASH plus Wednesday's (regularly scheduled) Random Slang-o-rama: Dark Horse

NEWS FLASH!! —> I have a double dose of wonderful news to share from Silver Rush country... The Secret in the Wall is a finalist/nominee for two more awards: The Macavity Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery (that's one! See all nominees for all Macavity categories here) and the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best Mystery (that's two! See all finalists for all Silver Falchion categories here).

I'll admit, looking over the lists of nominees, I felt a bit of a dark horse to named and honored among them.

Which brings us to the Slang-o-rama phrase of the week...  

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Merriam-Webster provides this definition of dark horse: "a usually little known contender (such as a racehorse) that makes an unexpectedly good showing." 
The Phrase Finder—always a good source for dates of first use and origins—notes that dark horse originated in horseracing, and was used to describe a horse that was pretty much unknown and thus difficult to place odds on. The phrase used in the figurative sense seems to have first appeared in the 1860s in the academic world. The Phrase Finder offers this example from Sketches of Cambridge, published in 1865: "Every now and then a dark horse is heard of, who is supposed to have done wonders at some obscure small college." 

The phrase has quite the air of mystery, yes?

Image by Bénédicte ARROU-VIGNOD from Pixabay

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Hurricane deck

 I was ignorant as to what hurricane deck meant when I first heard it, and if not for the venue in which the term came up, I would've guessed it was a nautical term. But since hurricane deck was mentioned at the recent Western Writers of America (WWA) conference in South Dakota, I deduced it had more to do with cowboys riding the wide-open ranges than shipboard life....

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According to my hardcopy of Dictionary of the American West by Win Blevins, hurricane deck is "the saddle of a bucking horse." (Blevins then adds that this is a "nicely descriptive term," leading me to guess he has some experience with this particular phrase!) Green's Dictionary of Slang lists an early appearance of hurricane deck, meaning "the back of a horse or mule," in 1864's Down in Tennessee by Edmund Kirke.

Yee-haw, and hang on tight!
Image by gay2016 from Pixabay

... Now I've not ridden a bucking horse (thank goodness... I'm sure I'd be flat on the ground in no time), but I definitely felt like I was "riding high" when I received the WWA Spur Award for best traditional novel for the eighth book in my Silver Rush series, The Secret in the Wall. I am honored to have been chosen for this award. 

Thank you, WWA!

... You can view a list of all the winners and finalists here ...

A near-speechless Ann Parker receiving the Spur Award from Spur committee chair Bob Yoho.
Photo by Johnny Boggs 

 

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Galluptious

I have galluptious news to share with you! The news being...

.... Well, let's define galluptious first.

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According to Merriam-Webster Online, galluptious (or less commonly spelled galoptious or galuptious) means "wonderful, delightful, delicious." Take your pick. I think I'll go with "wonderful" this time around. I don't see a whole lot more about this word, so will proceed directly to the news:

The Secret in the Wall is a finalist for the Will Rogers Medallion Award in the Western Mystery category, which is galluptiously delightful indeed! I am honored beyond words...

More will be revealed at the Award Ceremony on October 21. You can view all the finalists in all the categories right here.

Goodreads giveaway of SECRET

 I'm off this week at Left Coast Crime, but good things are brewing in my absence!

The folks at Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks are offering 15 copies of THE SECRET IN THE WALL in a Goodreads giveaway! To enter, go here, click on the "Enter Giveaway" button, and fill out the info.

Note - The clock is ticking: The giveaway ends on March 25, so don't dither too long!

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: On cloud nine

I recently learned that THE SECRET IN THE WALL won the 2023 Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Traditional Novel** and is a Foreword INDIES Award finalist in the Mystery category***, and I am (yes, you guessed it from this post's title) ...

~~ on cloud nine! ~~

This being Slang-o-rama day and all, I started wondering: Why does this phrase, which means blissfully happy, reference the ninth cloud, and not the first or second or hundredth or...? And could my protagonist, Inez Stannert, say she was on cloud nine in the 1880s? 

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The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer notes this colloquial term appeared in the mid-1900s. As for why nine, it's pretty much a shrug: "The exact allusion of nine in this term is unclear, and different figures, especially seven (perhaps alluding to seventh heaven), are sometimes substituted."

The Times (UK) has an article from 2016 about the phrase's origin, but gosh darn it, the story is mostly behind a paywall, except for this opening paragraph:

An unlikely combination of a Victorian aristocrat and an international meteorology meeting 120 years ago led to a well known phrase describing a state of euphoria. In September, 1896, cumulonimbus, the greatest cloud in the world, was listed as Cloud 9 in a new cloud classification, and so to be on cloud nine became like floating on the tallest cloud on Earth.

Thank goodness The Phrase Finder comes to the rescue with an abundance of information about cloud nine, cloud seven, cloud ten, cloud thirty-nine (!!), and more. All in all, it looks like Inez won't ever be on cloud "pick-a-number", unless she manages to reach at least 80-years-plus in age:

...The early references all come from mid 20th century USA and the earliest ... is in Albin Pollock's directory of slang, The Underworld Speaks, 1935: "Cloud eight, befuddled on account of drinking too much liquor."

The Phrase Finder adds that on cloud nine only became popular much later, noting, "George Harrison adopted the term as the title of his 1987 album and, more notably, The Temptations' 'psychedelic soul' album of the same name, in 1969."

And with that, I shall blissfully float away for now...

Image by Ana_J from Pixabay

** Read about the 2023 Spur Award winners and finalists in this WWA news release.

*** See the list of all INDIES Award finalists here. Winners will be announced June 15.

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Agog about award noms

 I missed a week of Slang-o-rama, and I blame it on being agog re: nominations left and right. 'Tis the season when various organizations start putting forth their nominees for various awards, and I always devour those lists avidly. But before I offer the ones that have me all agog, let's take a quick Slang-o-rama look at (you guessed it!) agog...

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The Online Etymology Dictionary has this adverbial entry:

agog: "in a state of desire; in a state of imagination; heated with the notion of some enjoyment; longing" [Johnson], c. 1400, agogge, probably from Old French en gogues "in jest, good humor, joyfulness," from gogue "fun," which is of unknown origin.

Wiktionary also defines the Old French en gogues as "in a merry mood" and also points to the Italian agognare (“to desire eagerly”). Plus, it additionally defines the adjective agog to mean wide open (eyes), which is actually the definition that first popped to my mind. Merriam-Webster also has a very nice entry that dives a little deeper into the word and provides adjectival synonyms "eager," "agape," "astonished," bustling," and "replete." MW also provides different "first use" dates, with 1663 as an adverb and 1664 as an adjective. 

Now, to the lists!

Nominees for various mystery/crime fiction/nonfiction awards are starting to roll in:

• Nominations for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards are here
• Left Coast Crime has its Lefty Award nominees here (and to add excitement to my agog, THE SECRET IN THE WALL is a nominee for the Lefty award for Best Historical Mystery!)
• Malice Domestic has announced the nominees for the Agatha Awards here

Congratulations to ALL nominees, everywhere, and a special shout-out to good buddy Mary Anna Evans who is up for an Edgar and an Agatha for her nonfiction book The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie, co-authored with J. C. Bernthal. 

A good place to get the latest greatest news in the mystery corner of the world is Janet Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare blog (plus Janet runs fun cartoons that make me laugh, such as this one about the difference between dogs and cats.)

Stepping out of the world of mystery, let's not forget the Oscar nominations! Along with being an avid reader, I love movies, and am glad to see some of my favorites from last year listed. If you have any favorite films you're agog over, leave a comment and let me know...

Eyes all agog (and a marvelous hat!), circa 1880
By C & R Lavis, Eastbourne - Family collection, Public Domain, Link

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Derring-do

Antonia Gizzi, the young ward of my Silver Rush protagonist Inez Stannert, dreams of living a life full of derring-do.

But wait.

Can she? In 1882? When did derring-do first come into use and what's its origin, anyway?

Slang-o-rama shall save the day, galloping to the rescue of derring-do (which, according to Merriam-Webster, means "daring action").

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According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, Antonia certainly could think of derring-do, since the term made its first appearance in the 1570s, long before the 19th century! OED adds some interesting background, which shows its roots go back way before that:

...[O]riginally (late 14c.) dorrying don, literally "daring (to) do," from durring "daring," present participle of Middle English durren "to dare" .... Chaucer used it in passages where the sense was "daring to do" (what is proper to a brave knight). Misspelled derrynge do in 1500s and mistaken for a noun by Spenser, who took it to mean "manhood and chevalrie;" picked up from him and passed on to Romantic poets as a pseudo-archaism by Sir Walter Scott.

The Phrase Finder has a nice post following the disintegration of the original phrase to the one we know so well, saying in part: 

The earliest form of 'derring-do' in print is found in Geoffrey Chaucer's Troylus And Criseyde, circa 1374: "In durring don that longeth to a knight." Chaucer was using the two words 'durring' and 'don' with their usual 14th century meanings of 'daring' and 'do'. This line in his work translates into 20th century language as 'in daring to do what is proper for a knight'. The poet John Lydgate, paraphrased Chaucer in The Chronicle of Troy, 1430, and his 'dorryng do' was misprinted in later versions of the work as 'derrynge do'.

 In reading the above, the celebrated Tudor poet Edmund Spenser appears not to have realised that derrynge was a misprint of durring, the meaning of which he would have been familiar with, and interpreted 'derrynge do' as meaning 'brave actions'. That was the way he used it in several of his late 16th poems, including his best-known work, The Faerie Queene, 1596: "A man of mickle name, Renowned much in armes and derring doe."

Last, but not least, make way for that inveterate plunderer of historic language, Sir Walter Scott. His use of 'derring-do' as a single word in the hugely popular novel Ivanhoe, 1820, cemented it into the language...

So, Antonia is allowed a little swashbuckle and derring-do, etymologically speaking. Although, since she is a girl, late-19th-century society would no doubt frown upon her doing so.

Yo-ho-ho and a touch of derring-do!
By Edward Mason Eggleston (1882-1941) - artmight.com Treasure Princess, Public Domain
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89375904

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Allotriophagy (and a dose of what's coming up... so to speak)

If you've been following me for a while, you may know I'm galloping along through a Great Escapes virtual book tour (February 15–28) for the newest book in my Silver Rush series, THE SECRET IN THE WALL. Heads up: The tour includes a raffle, in which I'll be giving away copies of the book and Starbucks gift cards. You can enter the raffle on any of the stops, or on the main page of the tour, through the 28th. 

Speaking of Starbucks....

... In an interview I did for the Cozy Up With Kathy blog site, I bumped up against a question that was new to me: "Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry."

I readily confess I lean heavily on coffee and eatables at the "snackety-snacks" end of the food spectrum. My dependence on snack items to get me through the day now has me wondering if I suffer a bit from allotriophagy.

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This alarming 19th-century word is defined in The Little Book of Lost Words by Joe Gillard as "a strong urge or desire to eat food that is abnormal or unhealthy." Now, I don't think my particular cravings are "abnormal"—I don't have an urge to ingest baking soda, for instance, or dishwashing liquid (yuck!), examples given by the Psychology Dictionary for allotriophagy. Still, maybe I should keep a closer eye on my afternoon potato-chip binges...

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... In the meantime, I want to let you know that I'll be speaking with mystery author Donis Casey about my newest book in a Poisoned Pen Bookstore virtual event on Monday, February 28, 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Everyone and anyone is invited! The links are as follows (note that you don't need to be a "FaceBookie" to watch; there's a YouTube alternative):

• www.facebook.com/thepoisonedpenbookstore/live
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTbRuLNmD8EhT4WrGGMVW-w

If you're curious to hear me chat about my book (and maybe witness my cat take a stroll across my desk in front the camera), please join us!

Virtual book tour underway, starting with a contemplation on cats

 Travel with me on my virtual book tour from February 15–28. Doesn't require hopping a plane or doing anything other than clicking a link now and again! To see all the stops, just go here.

Yesterday, I popped over to Diane Ascroft's blog to talk about the cats in my series, including Lucky and Eclipse, who make their debut appearance in THE SECRET IN THE WALL. (My own feline, the #DivaMissMia, doesn't get a starring role, but don't tell her that!)

Lucky on the left, Eclipse on the right.

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Frisco?? Oh no!

 I was mindlessly paging through my hardcopy of Americanisms, Old and New by John Stephen Farmer (1889) when my gaze landed upon this entry: "Frisco—An abbreviation of San Francisco." 

My immediate reaction (as a native of the San Francisco Bay Area) was to groan, "Oh no! Not Frisco!" And then, I began to ponder. 

When did Frisco start being used as an appellation for San Francisco? Sure, my series set in the 1880s had a character named "Frisco Flo," but I had picked that mostly because the alliteration appealed to me, not really because I was thinking of the nearby city by the bay....

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And then I got curious. What might be some of the other historical nicknames for San Francisco might have appeared in the timeframe of my historical fiction?

Americanisms to the rescue, once again! This time, I went to the online version, so I could do a quick and easy search.

Under the entry for "City," there is a long list of various cities and their alternate names. For San Francisco, we have:

• City of the Golden Gate
• Frisco
• Golden City
• City of the Hundred Hills

If you'd like to read about more recent monikers for the city that is the setting of THE SECRET IN THE WALL (#8 in the series! to be released next Tuesday!) check out this 2019 article, titled "Don't Call It Frisco: History of San Francisco Nicknames."

Don't call it Frisco, indeed.

"Frisco" was the City of the Golden Gate long before there was the bridge.
By Daniel L. Lu (user:dllu)Camera location37° 49′ 39.52″ N, 122° 29′ 56.17″ WView this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69855772

THE SECRET IN THE WALL - get your signed, personalized copies here

Hello all! Want a signed, personalized copy of my newest Silver Rush historical mystery? It can be done! Even during pandemic times. Just place your order through my local, lovely independent bookstore, Towne Center Books, they'll call me, and I'll head over and sign it for you. Click on the image below and proceed from there. Questions? Just let me know in the comments.

~~Publication date for THE SECRET IN THE WALL is February 15~~

Reviewers say THE SECRET IN THE WALL is a "delight"

Interrupting Slang-o-rama this week to announce that Santa arrived early for me this year with two wonderful reviews of THE SECRET IN THE WALL from major review publications Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly. Kirkus Reviews sums up with:

"A convoluted mystery, based on true events and replete with rich period detail, that’s a delight to read."

(You can read the full Kirkus review here, but be aware: spoilers lurk within.) The Publishers Weekly review (also containing some spoilers) notes:

"Appealing characters match satisfying puzzles. Historical fans will be delighted."

"Delight" seems to be the watchword for this, the eighth book in my Silver Rush series. And truly, I could not be more delighted!

Can be pre-ordered from all the usual places (release date: mid-February 2022).
Go to my home page and scroll down for "buy" links.

THE SECRET IN THE WALL - Cover and copy (and a sea shanty, just because )

 Interrupting the usual slinging of slang to offer a preview of the cover and back-cover copy for the eighth book in my historical mystery series, THE SECRET IN THE WALL. And so, without further ado...

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(... well, maybe a little ado...)

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(...think of this as a stage curtain slowly drawing open...)
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... TA-DA!! 

Does this whet your curiosity? Look mysterious? Well, when you flip the book over, this is what you'll read:

Sometimes you can’t keep your gown out of the gutter… 

Inez Stannert has reinvented herself—again. Fleeing the comfort and wealth of her East Coast upbringing, she became a saloon owner and card sharp in the rough silver boomtown of Leadville, Colorado, always favoring the unconventional path—a difficult road for a woman in the late 1800s. 

Then the teenaged daughter of a local fortune teller is orphaned by her mother’s murder, and Inez steps up to raise the troubled girl as her own. Inez works hard to keep a respectable, loving home for Antonia, carefully crafting their new life in San Francisco. But risk is a seductive friend, difficult to resist. When a skeleton tumbles from the wall of her latest business investment, the police only seem interested in the bag of Civil War-era gold coins that fell out with it. With her trusty derringer tucked in the folds of her gown, Inez uses her street smarts and sheer will to unearth a secret that someone has already killed to keep buried. The more she digs, the muddier and more dangerous things become.

She enlists the help of Walter de Brujin, a local private investigator with whom she shares some history. Though she wants to trust him, she fears that his knowledge of her past, along with her growing attraction to him, may well blow her veneer of respectability to bits—that is, if her dogged pursuit of the truth doesn’t kill her first.

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Hats off and three cheers to the crew at Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks for their tremendous job creating the lovely cover and back-cover text!

THE SECRET IN THE WALL is scheduled for release in February 2022, so there is a while yet before you can dive into Inez's next adventure. Meanwhile, if you haven't already, please consider signing up for my newsletter. To do so, click here and scroll to the bottom of the page. The newsletter comes out occasionally and at random intervals, so shouldn't overwhelm your inbox. I will say this: one is in the works right now, so do sign up soon! I'll be offering fun tidbits from my research and a random drawing for books from authors I admire.

Now, your reward, for reading all the way to the end of this lengthy post, is this delightful sea shanty, "Leave Her, Johnny." Enjoy!

Here is another rendition of "Leave Her, Johnny," WITH LYRICS, because one just can't have too many sea shanties:

News Flash: Silver Rush book #8 has a title!

 Taking a break from Slang-o-rama to announce some bookish news: the eighth book in my Silver Rush historical mystery series has a title!

THE SECRET IN THE WALL

Photo by Ann Parker
Location: Bodie, California

It's early 1882 in San Francisco, and Inez Stannert has forged a partnership to purchase an abandoned house that needs work, but has "good bones." Renovations begin, and, uh-oh, what do they find lurking in the darkness and the shadows, behind the weathered planks? I'm not telling, because...

... it's a secret. 😉

Look for THE SECRET IN THE WALL to come your way in February 2022, courtesy of the good folks at Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks.