Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Slang-o-Matic Extravaganza by Guest Author Randall Platt

Please welcome honored guest author and serious slang aficionado, Randall Platt (aka "that Platt woman").  So just who is this Randall Platt?

Taking the words right from her mouth: She writes fiction for adults and young adults and people who don’t own up to being either. A three-time winner of the WILLA Literary award for young adult fiction, she has been a finalist for the Washington State Book Award three times, in addition to winning several other state and national awards. Check out her three latest novels, all dripping with slang! 

INCOMMUNICADO 

THE GIRL WHO WOULDN’T DIE 

PROFESSOR RENOIR’S COLLECTION OF ODDITIES, CURIOSITIES, AND DELIGHTS 

Her books are available at bookstores everywhere and online outlets galore, but, as Randi points out, it sure is good to support your local indie bookstore. She adds, "I am on Facebook, but only as a real person, not a writer—not that a writer can’t be a real person, too. I guess." www.plattbooks.com

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Thanks for the guest spot, Ann! 

When folks learn about my passion for slang and the resulting interactive database I created, which I call Slang-O-Matic, the first thing they ask is, ‘How did this monstrosity all come about?’ Honestly? It all came about with a book review. The reviewer had questioned some terms I used in my first novel, The Four Arrows Fe-As-Ko (1992) about four mentally and physically challenged adults running the largest cattle ranch in Eastern Oregon. I did my due diligence and researched the heck out of the language of the day, the situation, and the people. From that point on, I decided I would create a database of the terms I used, especially since that novel was the first book in a three-book series. I was able to keep the language and the slanguage consistent from book to book. Handy, huh?

Gosh, I sure like Slang-O-Matic. I can’t wait to say THAT to Mom!

Well, as with many things in a writer’s life, my database took on much larger proportions and grew with each subsequent novel involving other eras and situations. I finally trademarked my tag line:

Slang-O-Matic—for the color of our speech.

Because we don’t speak,

nor should we write,

in black and white. 

What’s interesting to me as I explore the ‘history’ of a term, is how the internet and social media and of course, television and film, changed how a term can come into being and spread in an instant. Slang from the 19th Century and earlier took about ten years to ‘make the rounds.’ Today, a word can come in and out of favor within days. And of course, we writers need to be aware of that and make sure our readers of tomorrow will understand the slang of today. Conversely, readers of today might not understand the slang of yesterday. Proceed with caution. Everything needs to be in context.

Wow, according to Slang-O-Matic, there are over 174 references to coke
and not one of them referring to what’s in my hand.

Take for instance the common word ‘bug.’ According to Slang-O-Matic, there are 135 slang entries that contain ‘bug.’ It can mean anything from a bribe, to annoy, a crazy person, a cheating device, a jockey’s weight allowance, a tie pin, a bad student, a germ, to a strong desire to cheap tobacco. 

It seems the more taboo a subject is, the more slang surrounds it—take for instance the lower portions of one’s body. I count 221 terms which might be medical slang or street slang or child-speak for such areas and their functions. I will never want for a great slang term for one’s behind or procreation apparatus.

Why call a cab when you can call a ramble, a trip, a coffee grinder, a cracker box, a flapdoodle, a jarvey, or a jar box? Why call a drunk a drunk when you can choose from alki stiff, belch-guts, blossom-nose, boozington, bottle baby, croak, dipso, gin head, glow worm, light-house (big glowing red nose), soak, swillpot, malt-worm, drain pipe, or my personal favorite, a lush merchant? 

Folks usually wonder how I use my database for my own work. Since I have eight fields of information for each of my 43,000 (and counting) entries, I can easily manipulate the database for my needs. For instance, I am current working on book which takes place in the 1930s and my characters are from the fortune telling trades, the banking trades, the radio trades, and the con artistry trades. I have broken terms down to hundreds of categories - so, for this book, I call up slang and cant from the banking, carnival, con artist, and radio industries. Then I sort the terms by the date and my database returns a list of the terms used from 1920 to 1940, to cover the approximate timeline of my novel. So, if my conservative banking character needs to delicately refer to a woman as a whore, I can chose from my list of over 375 terms for ‘whore’: 

• pro skirt 
• QT cutie 
• trick babe 
• charity girl 
• soft lady 
• two-by-four (rhymes with ‘whore’) 
• soft lady 
• B-girl 
• behavior problem 
• boulevard woman 
• clever girl 

 Now, my con artist character, being much more worldly and of the streets herself, might refer to that same whore in much less charitable terms, such as 

• artichoke 
• blisterine 
• blowser 
• brass nail 
• hat rack 
• jump 
• mudkicker 
• notch girl 
• round heel 
• scupper 

See the difference? Fun, huh?

 

So what began as someone questioning some terms I used decades ago as anachronistic, has evolved into those editors, writers, and book reviewers coming to me with their questions. I am certainly not the world’s foremost expert on slang, but I sure as heck know a thing or two by now. I always welcome questions regarding this along with any idea as to how to exploit all this work. 

Help! Before I slang again! 

Oh, dear. Billy’s been reading Slang-O-Matic again!

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: 1940s slang (by guest author Camille Minichino)

Please welcome good buddy and guest Slang-o-rama blogger, Camille Minichino. Camille is the author of 28 mystery novels in 5 series, plus many short stories and articles. All her names, blogs, and publications can be found at www.minichino.com. Her latest, “Murphy’s Slaw” is available here.

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Over the years, a coffee order went from a cuppa mud (1940) to a venti, decaf iced, sugar-free, vanilla latte with soy milk or a grande, quad, nonfat, one-pump, no-whip, mocha (yesterday).

How did this come about? Sorry, that’s above my pay grade.

Oops, an inadvertent segue into a phrase that has its origin in the military, when each rank had a certain pay. Above each pay grade, solutions were someone else’s problem.

Here are other words and phrases that date to the forties or thereabouts.

• beef, as in “I have a beef with you.” Goes back to the Old West and arguments over grazing land for cows. 
• hold a candle to, as in “His writing can’t hold a candle to Ann Parker’s.” Stems from a time when an apprentice was expected to hold the candle so a more experienced worker would be able to see what she was doing.
• gobbledygook: Origin: The New York Times, May 21, 1944. How’s that for on the nose*? A Texas lawyer/congressman coined the word to indicate the obscure language being used by his colleagues, imitating the gobble of a turkey.
• on the nose: From the early days of radio broadcasting. The theory is that it came from the engineer in the control room who would place a finger on his nose as a signal that the program was running on schedule.
• through the wringer: Give someone a hard time, from the old washing machine part. Would my eleven-year-old grandniece know what this is?

Since I don’t want to stiff you (from 1939 restaurant workers, because dead people pay no tips!), I’m including a long list of 1940s slang, lingo, and phrases.

How about phrases that originated in the 21st century? Many abbreviations!

FAQ: 1982 (earliest year of use, not total Scrabble points)

Who has time for a 3-word phrase, or a 4-syllable word? So we have:

• convo for conversation (an application (applo?) of the older demo and info).
• retweet: Not just for Twitter anymore. It stands for I agree with you.
• boomer: Originally those born between 1946 and 1964, but now used for “old,” like geezer (not cool, in dis-guise (geez)).

What? You haven’t had enough? NP. Here are 110 texting acronyms. Imagine—we now have 109 more acronyms than in the days when ASAP ruled the roost (self-explanatory).

TY to Ann for sharing her blog space. TTYL.

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Limey (by guest author Camille Minichino)

Please welcome today's guest, author and good buddy Camille Minichino, she of many authorial pen names, including her latest, Elizabeth Logan. Her (that is, Elizabeth's) newest book is MURPHY'S SLAW in her Alaskan Diner Series. For more about Camille and her work, check out her website at http://www.minichino.com/

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Uh-oh, another rather unpleasant medical story, after last week’s collywobbles! 

 Here’s a reminder of our susceptibility to disease throughout history: the story of scurvy, and eventually, the origin of the term limey to describe an Englishman.

 Early explorers called scurvy the "scourge of the sea." The disease was widespread during the Victorian era, causing ulcers, gum disorders, and blackened skin from internal hemorrhaging. According to historian Stephen Bown, scurvy was responsible for more deaths at sea than storms, shipwrecks, combat, and all other diseases combined.

The precise cause had been a mystery until Royal Navy surgeon James Lind stepped in.

In May of 1747, the Scottish doctor began groundbreaking clinical testing and showed that diet, specifically vitamin deficiency, was involved. He saw to adding lemon or lime juice to the sailors’ diet. Lind is credited with the successful treatment and cure.

 By the 1800s, the term limey was used for British sailors, then English immigrants. It eventually made its way to the U. S., where its use was extended to describe any Englishman.

As an example of its non-derogatory use, an 1824 Chicago Tribune article used the term to describe Professor William A Craigie, an editor of the OED.

Still, it might be wise to refrain from using the term unless you’re sure whom you are addressing.

"ACK! Scurvy! We need citrus and we need it now!"
Nocturne by James Abbott McNeill Whistler - Artdaily.org, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11704020

Dr. James Lind: "Orange you glad to see me??"
By Sir George Chalmers, c 1720-1791 - [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32922810 

You Talking to Me? by Guest Author Camille Minichino

Please welcome today's guest, author and good buddy Camille Minichino, she of many authorial pen names, including her latest, Elizabeth Logan. Her (that is, Elizabeth's) newest book is FISHING FOR TROUBLE in her Alaskan Diner Series. For more about Camille and her work, check out her website at http://www.minichino.com/.

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One great thing about Ann Parker's Silver Rush blog is that even a part of speech is acceptable for a topic. Guests like me don't have to come up with a thesis sentence or ten pages on Compare and Contrast, as if we were back in English 101.

We don't even have to stick to mysteries, which gives me permission to talk about a work of nonfiction: "The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words say About Us," by J. Pennebaker, a social psychologist and language expert.

 Doesn't that sound worthy of a blog hosted by an author who slings words around magically, transporting us flawlessly to another century?

I was especially interested in Pennebaker's chapter on how men and women "speak" in books and movies. Which writers have both men and women sounding like men? (Shakespeare and Quentin Tarantino, it turns out.) Both men and women sounding like women? (Gertrude Stein and Woody Allen.) Men sounding like men and women sounding like women? (Sam Shepard and Thornton Wilder.)

Now I need to know where my books fit. Do my female characters use more personal pronouns, as suggested by Pennebaker's research? Do my male characters shy away from social words, in favor of action words?

My research for dialogue doesn't involve computers as Pennebaker's, but I do try to pay careful attention to the patterns of men and women of all ages and walks of life—the ones who populate my life, anyway. I query a friend's 35-year-old son ("Do you call everyone 'Dude' even when I'm not around?"); my 50- to 60-year-old friends ("How much Net Lingo do you use in everyday life?"); and my 9-year-old grandniece ("What do you say when you think something is pretty? ugly? tastes bad?")

I'm luckier than Ann Parker, of course, since she can't eavesdrop or quiz folks like Inez Stannert and her crew. But maybe she's the lucky one—the language of 1880 is not going to change. It is what it was, to twist a popular phrase, whereas my techie buddies might come up with a new word or phrase before I finish my query.

Consider Net Lingo, characterized by abbreviations and acronyms, such as LOL and BTW and IDK; letter/number homophones—gr8 and b4; nonstandard spelling, like luv and cuz. I fully expect one of my younger relatives to LOL when I use ROTFL past its prime.

Wonder if the use of the subject pronoun will go the way of romance languages, thus disrupting Pennebaker's thesis. I often sign off an email, "Hope all is well." In Italian, "I hope" is simply "Spero." No one uses the "io" for "I."

Like most readers and writers, I enjoy the endless discussions of words, their origins, their evolution, and their telltale patterns.

I wonder if writers of an earlier day fooled anyone by using initials only, or pen names of the opposite gender? Or were readers counting the number of personal pronouns in George Eliot and saying, "Aha! Too many I's and we's. I'll bet this is really a woman."

Camille's second Alaskan Diner mystery FISHING FOR TROUBLE is now available!
Read more about it and find "buy" links here.

Diner Lingo by Guest Author Camille Minichino

Please welcome guest author and good buddy, Camille Minichino. Camille authors several cozy mystery series under a variety of pseudonyms. Mousse and Murder is the first book in her most recent series, the Alaskan Diner Mysteries, written under the pen name of Elizabeth Logan. Camille notes that her idea of a gourmet dinner is a grilled cheese, fries, and a shake. (That’s a Jack Benny, frog sticks, and one in the hay.)
For more information, check out her website at minichino.com.  
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Who invented the battery?

A middle school science student would probably raise her hand and answer, “Volta!” maybe laughing at the confluence of the name and the unit of electromotive force. And for all practical purposes, she would be correct. It’s too cumbersome to go back to the Parthian Empire of 2000 years ago, and what’s known as the Baghdad battery. It’s beyond our grasp to name all the giants of engineering, ancient and modern, who brought us to where we are now, so we summarize and attribute the battery to Volta.

 I run up against this wall whenever I try to find the beginning—of a battery, of a revolution, even of something as large and concrete as a diner.

 The best I can do is go back to 1872 and credit Walter Scott, a horse-drawn wagon in Providence, Rhode Island, and a menu designed to feed night owls, whether workers finishing the late shift, or revelers looking for an off-hours meal.

The wagon evolved into “rolling restaurants,” with a few seats added inside, and then dining cars and finally, around 1924, permanently located “diners,” most maintaining the train-car look.

With a new style of restaurant came a new set of phrases, or “diner lingo,” the way a short order cook might communicate with her staff. Some call it shorthand, but diner lingo is often longer than the regular term for the menu item.

“A side of bad breath,” for example is not as succinct as “with onions.” And “a stack of Vermont” is longer than “pancakes.”

My guess: it’s more for adding fun to a job. Who doesn’t want to do that?

Probably among the best known call-outs are “Adam and Eve on a raft” (two eggs on toast) and “Battle Creek in a bowl” (corn flakes).

Other favorites of mine are:

• “Burn the British” (toast an English muffin)
•  “Cowboy” (western omelet)
• “Cops and robbers” (coffee and donuts)
• “In the alley” (on the side)
• “Butcher’s revenge” (meatloaf)

A few phrases have been assimilated into our language, no longer recognized as diner-related, like sunny side up, BLT, OJ, and 86 it.

Post your favorites. But whatever you do, don’t be a camper*!

*One who stays at the table or counter for a long time, depriving the server of new tips.

"Kitten Britches" and other Southern slang by Guest Author Jane Tesh

Please welcome guest author Jane Tesh! A retired media specialist, Jane lives in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, Andy Griffith’s hometown, the real Mayberry.  She is the author of the Madeline MaclinMystery series featuring former beauty queen, Madeline “Mac” Maclin and her con man husband, Jerry Fairweather, as well as the Grace Street series, featuring struggling PI David Randall, his friend Camden, a reluctant psychic, and an ever-changing assortment of tenants who move in and out of Cam’s boarding house on Grace Street. (You can buy the 6th Grace Street book, Death by Dragonfly, here.) Her mysteries, published by Poisoned Pen Press, are set in fictional North Carolina towns and are on the light side with a little humor and romance. She is also the author of four fantasy novels, Butterfly Waltz, A Small Holiday, The Monsters of Spiders’ Rest, and Over the Edge, published by Silver Leaf Books.  When she isn’t writing, Jane enjoys playing the piano and conducting the orchestra for productions at the Andy Griffith Playhouse.

For more about Jane and her books, visit Jane’s website and her Facebook page. She also blogs and occasionally tweets.

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What in the world are "kitten britches?"
Image by Edwin Valencia from Pixabay

I’ve lived in North Carolina all my life, and I grew up with lots of Southern sayings. I didn’t think much about them until my friends from other parts of the country would say, “Um, Jane, what do you mean ‘tight as a tick’?” or “Why do you say you ‘might could’? You might and you could, but ‘might could’?” and “What in the world are ‘kitten britches’?”

As a writer, I love words, and I realized my Southern heritage had bequeathed a goldmine to me.

When I started writing my Grace Street Mystery Series, I knew I wanted one of the characters to be what we in the South call a Good Old Boy. A Good Old Boy is a big old friendly fellow you can always count on if your tractor breaks down or you need help moving heavy furniture or getting the crop in. You can find them hanging around gas stations and repair shops, chewing tobacco and having a beer or two, chatting about hunting and fishing. This type of man often looks deceptively slow but has a razor sharp wit and a fondness for Southern slang. My Good Old Boy is Rufus Jackson and he’s one of the tenants in Camden’s boarding house at 302 Grace Street in the fictional city of Parkland, NC.

Happy goat!
Image by christels from Pixabay

Having a boarding house allows me to move characters in and out as the series progresses. My PI, David Randall, is also a tenant and has his office in the downstairs parlor. Cam is psychic and helps Randall solve his cases. Sometimes Rufus helps out, too, but he’s mainly there to provide the color commentary. Here are a few of my favorite sayings, so they are Rufus’s favorites, too.

My mother had two favorites that I borrowed. One is “He’s as happy as a goat eatin’ briars.” (My brother raises goats, and they are happy eating anything.) The other is “It’s a poor dog that don’t bury a bone.” I think she wanted her children to prepare for the future!

I’m sure most of you have heard “The porch light’s on but nobody’s home” to describe someone who might not be very smart. “Not enough buckwheat in his pancakes” or “A pickle short of a jar.” There are so many sayings like this I couldn’t list them all.

• “He’s so dumb, he couldn’t find his ass with both hands in his back pockets.”
• “Her cornbread ain’t cooked in the middle.”
• “He’s got a hole in his screen door.”
• “She’s parked too far from the curb.”
• “His belt don’t go through all the loops.”
• “Got a hole in her screen door.”
• “The cheese done slid off her cracker.”
• “If brains were dynamite, he wouldn’t have enough to blow his nose.”
• “He’s three gallons of crazy in a two gallon bucket.”

Then there are the “so” sayings for folks with special talents or attributes.

• “She’s so tall, if she fell down she’d be halfway home.”
• “He’s so stingy he wouldn’t give you air out of a jug.”
• “She’s so cross-eyed, when she cries the tears roll down her back.”
• “He’s so narrow-minded, he can look through a keyhole with both eyes at the same time.”
• “She’s so late, she’d hold up a two-car funeral.”
• “I’m so hungry I could eat a raw dog backwards” or “I’m so hungry I could eat the stuffin’ out of a rag doll.” (Neither option sounds appealing.)
• “I’m so poor I can’t afford to pay attention.”
• “There’s so much food here it’s more than I can say grace over.”
• “I’m gonna slap you so hard when you quit rollin’ your clothes’ll be outta style.”

And my all time favorite saying which describes someone who looks unwell is “She looked like Death eatin’ a cracker.” Why a cracker, I don’t know. I’ve also heard “She looked like Death suckin’ a sponge.” But I prefer eating a cracker. I can just imagine the Grim Reaper chomping on a Saltine.

As for “Kitten britches,” this is one my Mother always used. After a storm, if you see enough blue sky to make a pair of kitten britches, then the storm is over.

If you have a favorite saying, I’d love to hear it. Perhaps Rufus will use it in a future Grace Street adventure. And be careful if you’re having too much fun because “Sometimes whee is a rat in your pocket.” 

Genre Hopping: Past, Present, and Future by Guest Author Michael A. Black

Please welcome back prolific guest author Michael A. Black. Michael is the author of 34 books and over 100 short stories and articles. A former Army Military Policeman, he entered civilian law enforcement and became a decorated police officer in the south suburbs of Chicago. He worked for over thirty-two years in various capacities including patrol supervisor, SWAT team leader, investigations and tactical operations before retiring in 2011.

Michael has a BA in English from Northern Illinois University and a MFA in fiction writing from Columbia College. In 2010 he was awarded the Cook County Medal of Merit by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. His Ron Shade series featuring the Chicago-based kickboxing private eye, has won several awards, as has his police procedural series featuring Frank Leal and Olivia Hart. He has written two novels with television star Richard Belzer and is writing The Executioner series under the name Don Pendleton. His current books are Blood Trails, the forthcoming Legends of the West, and his newest Executioner novels are Dying Art, Stealth Assassins, and Cold Fury. His novel Fatal Prescription won the Best Original Novel Scribe Award given by the International Media Tie-In Writers Association in 2018.

You can contact Michael at: DocAtlas108@aol.com 

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It has always been my goal as a writer to be published in as many different genres as I could, and recent events have worked out in my favor along these lines. Between October and December I’ll have hit three different genres, western, sci-fi, and thriller, with four published works.

On October 16th, my historical western, Legends of the West, was released by Five Star (Cengage Publishing). It’s based on an actual historical figure, Bass Reeves, who was a legendary lawman in the latter decades of the nineteenth century. I’ve long been fascinated by Reeves, who was born into slavery before the Civil War, and went on to become a United States Deputy Marshal. Reeves reported to the famous hanging judge, Isaac Parker, who was based in Fort Smith, Arkansas. During this period in our history the area that is now the state of Oklahoma was known as the Indian Territory. The various Native American Indians were relocated to this region and the territory was divided up between the various tribes. The area was policed by a group of Indian law enforcement officers known as the Lighthorse, but they only had authority to arrest other Native Americans. Consequently, the region became a haven for outlaws and Parker sent his band of federal marshals into the Indian Territory to enforce the law. Reeves was one of these men, and he would often take members of the Lighthorse with him on his missions. My story, while totally fictional, has Reeves squaring off against a limerick spouting outlaw who’s as fast with a gun as he is with a rhyme. I was able to pay homage to my late friend, David Walks as Bear, who was an expert on all things Native American. He was one of the smartest men I’ve ever known, and I gave him a role as Reeves’s Lighthorse companion. Legends of the West is available in hardcover.

Also in the western genre is Gunslinger: Killer’s Choice, which has an official release date of November 15th. It’s part of a series written under the name A.W. Hart and features fifteen-year-old twins, Connor and Abby Mack who roam the West under the guidance of wanted gunslinger, River Hicks. This gothic style western series has an intricate overall plot, but each novel in the series can be appreciated on its own. The two preceding novels, Gunslinger: Killer’s Chance and Gunslinger: Killer’s Fuse, introduce the characters and start them on their adventures. My entry has them rescuing a Chinese national from a lynching party, and coming into conflict with a power-hungry strongman who envisions himself as some sort of western royalty. The Chinese man is trying to rescue his fiancée from human smugglers, and the exploitation of the Chinese workers who built the western network of railroads in the late 1800’s is also touched upon. Gunslinger: Killer’s Choice is available in both e-book and trade paperback form.

In both of these books I tried to keep the writing historically accurate, while still embracing the traditional aspects of the western mythology upon which the western genre was built. I feel I’m in good standing to do so because famous western writer Zane Grey was purportedly a distant relative of mine.

 As I’m sure Ann would agree, writing something set in the past is always problematic. Not only did I have to do a lot of research on the time period, but language usage was also a challenge. Learning the terminology and slang terms of the era was a withering task, as was trying to come up with appropriate descriptions and metaphors. It made me realize how much has changed in today’s world, compared to a little over a hundred and fifty years or so.

I had an opportunity to leap from the past into the future when the opportunity to do a sci-fi novella arose. I set my story, “Hybrid,” in the “near future” where an alien presence has established a strange phenomenon in the African desert. The area has quickly been divided up by the major powers (The United States, China, France, England, etc.) and each is vying for acquisition of the nouveau riches the phenomenon offers. My novella is in an anthology called Star Noir, and I’m honored to be in the fine company of such well known writers as Gary Phillips, Mike Baron, Eric Beetner, O’Neil De Noux, and Jean Rabe, to name a few. The anthology was edited by Paul Bishop, whose work I’ve admired for years. Star Noir is available as an e-book.

And as the year draws to a close, I’ve been fortunate enough to have my eleventh novel in the Executioner series, Cold Fury, being released on War Against the Mafia. The protagonist, Mack Bolan, is a soldier who returns to the U.S. from Vietnam to find that his family has been destroyed by the mob. He then embarks on a campaign as an avenger, taking on the Outfit in various locations. Through the years Bolan evolved into an ageless hero who has now morphed into the American James Bond. My Executioner novel, Fatal Prescription, won the Best Original Novel Scribe Award in 2018 given by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. I am honored to be among the pantheon of writers who have worked on this series. Ironically, when I was in basic training in the army, the GI in the bunk above me was reading one of the Executioner books, and said he would give it to me when he was finished. We shipped out and I never got the book, but now all these years later, I’m writing them. Cold Fury is set in Seattle, Alaska, and Vancouver and has the redoubtable Mack Bolan battling some rogue Russians who are smuggling in a human cargo unknowingly infected with a new strain of bubonic plague. With over 500 books in this series, the publisher is now releasing them as e-books.
December 1st. The books are all written under the name of Don Pendleton, who created the series in 1969 with his novel,

I would like to thank Ann for her gracious offer to allow me be a guest on her blog. It brought back a lot of pleasant memories of our old Ladykiller blogging days.

The Voice of the People by Guest Author Camille Minichino

Please welcome my guest this week: author and long-time friend, Camille Minichino.

Camille received her Ph.D. in physics from Fordham University, New York City. She is currently on the faculty of Golden Gate University, San Francisco and teaches writing throughout the Bay Area. Camille is Past President and a member of NorCal Mystery Writers of America, NorCal Sisters in Crime, and the California Writers Club. Camille has published over 20 novels and many short stories and nonfiction articles. For more about her and her works, please visit her website: http://www.minichino.com/index.html

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt lived down the street from us in Revere, Massachusetts. He was the best friend our family had. Or so I thought growing up in the early 1940s.

"Roosevelt gave me this job," my father would say, tapping a small brown envelope of cash, his week's wages.

"If it weren't for Roosevelt and the WPA, you wouldn't be getting new shoes for school," my mother would remind me.

I pictured a benevolent Mr. Roosevelt driving the old truck that picked up my father and his cronies, day laborers, from the corner of our street, taking them to the construction site of the day. I imagined the WPA, whoever they were, helping my mother shop for my school clothes.

My parents, as well as our neighbors and friends, were acutely aware of House Speaker Tip O'Neill's All politics is local. My father's (metal) social security card was a prized possession.

It seemed to me that every year was an election year, every election important to us. My mother especially was always campaigning, urging people to sign this or that petition, to vote, vote, vote. Our front window was never without a sign, RUSSO FOR MAYOR, AVALLONE FOR COUNCIL, SIEGEL FOR SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT.

And it all came together on the Fourth of July. Independence Day and Voting Day were the biggest holidays in our lives, competing with Thanksgiving and Christmas, but better because there was no back-breaking food prep or lugging a tree up the stairs. My father died on July 4, 1981—I've always felt that he timed it that way, going up with the glorious fireworks on Revere Beach.

Following politics, debating issues, voting, are still a priority for me. Being invited to contribute a story to LOW DOWN DIRTY VOTE has been a highlight of my year. Thanks to Mysti Berry and the grand array of colleagues in this anthology! And thanks, Ann Parker, for giving the Independence Day slot to me!

I'm thinking of making a poster of the LOW DOWN DIRTY VOTE cover, and propping it on my lawn.

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: All hat and no cattle, by Guest Author Camille Minichino

Please join me in welcoming guest blogger and fellow author Camille Minichino, who is going to treat us to a slang phrase she just recently discovered! 

Camille, a retired physicist turned writer, is the author of 25 mystery novels in four series. Camille is on the faculty of Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California, and teaches writing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Website: www.minichino.com.
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I'm not the first person who comes to mind when delving into conversation about the Old West. Or even the New West, for that matter. But I do have a stepdaughter who is a prize-winning horsewoman and here's what she said about a newcomer to the ranch.

CC: He's all hat and no cattle.

Me: Huh?

 CC: You know, he talks big, but no action.

So there it is. The West creeping into my personal lexicon. Here's a bit (so to speak) of its history:

Originally used in reference to people imitating the fashion or style of cowboys. These people wore the hats, but had no experience on the ranch -- thus, all hat, no cattle. Similar to talking the talk without walking the walk, also used in reference to wannabe gunslingers. 

 It's going to be hard not to use this newly learned phrase.

Camille, "home on the range" and photobombed by two four-footed strangers, all thanks to her awesome Tech/Photoshop expert!

In Search of Healing by Guest Author Kat Seaholm

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Please welcome fellow guest author Kat Seaholm to today's special post.

Kat lives on a small acreage in Colorado along with her family and way too many cats. The cats also happen to be her hardest critics and push her to improve her writing along with adding more mice and cats to her story. Besides writing, Kat’s other hobbies include traveling, karate, and several needle arts.

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Hi everyone, Kat here. Ann has generously allowed me to share about my newest book: In Search of Healing, book two of the Seeker Files. In book one, In Search of Justice, Agent Aletta Sheridan and Agent Lirim Bosk are partnered together in Human-Supernatural Investigation (HSI). Book two is about Aletta’s story.

When I first started writing The Seeker Files, it began as a personal dare. I was afraid of sharing my writing with the world, despite having been told that I write well. I challenged myself to write a mystery in October and publish it in time for Halloween. So, imagine my surprise when I sat down and a six-book series sprang to life in my imagination. I managed to write In Search of Justice in a little under a month and published it. I’d never been so exhausted in my life, but I was elated at the same time.

In the first book, Aletta and Lirim form their partnership and learn how to work together. This second book takes a deeper look into Aletta. When I first met Aletta in In Search of Justice, she was sulking at her desk. She’d been sitting at that desk for three weeks, refusing to accept a partner. I immediately knew that this was a fiery woman who was fiercely devoted to her job. In In Search of Healing, I was privileged to be invited into Aletta’s life.

A case has drawn Aletta face to face with her former life, that of the opera. After an accident three years ago, Aletta walked away from the opera world and never looked back. She is happy with her career at HSI and settling into her partnership with Lirim. However, her whole world is flipped upside down when Captain Jones calls her into his office. Someone is targeting the Canticum Company and because of her familiarity with the opera, she and Lirim have been chosen to go undercover. Added into this is her struggle to master her newfound gift. Between trying to figure out who’s behind the attacks and master her gift, will Aletta and Lirim be able to piece everything together or will they run out of time?

I invite you to journey with Aletta as she faces her past and her future, the opera and her gift, in this second book of The Seeker Files: In Search of Healing

Want to see how the Aletta and Lirim’s partnership started?
Check out book one of The Seeker Files: In Search of Justice
 
Or come and visit me at my blog: https://katseaholm.wordpress.com/

Police Slang By Guest Author Michael A. Black

Please welcome fellow author Michael A. Black. Black is the author of 30 books, the majority of which are in the mystery and thriller genres, although he has written in sci-fi, western, horror, and sports genres as well. A retired police officer with over 30 years’ experience, he has done everything from patrol to investigating homicides to conducting numerous SWAT operations. Black was awarded the Cook County Medal of Merit in 2010. He is also the author of over 100 short stories and articles, and has written two novels with television star, Richard Belzer (Law & Order SVU). Black is currently writing the Executioner series (Fatal Prescription, Missile Intercept) under the name Don Pendleton. His latest novel under his own name is Blood Trails.
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Cops speak their own language and many times it’s a bit rough. You’ve heard of swearing like a sailor? Well, cops are no strangers to bad language, either. I remember when I first started in law enforcement I attended training programs in which they basically stated that sometimes an officer needed to get down and dirty with his or her language in order to communicate with suspects who wouldn’t understand anything else. Now keep in mind this was way before the advent of body cams and cell phone videotaping capabilities. With these technological developments it became obvious that using such language made the officers look unprofessional. While it could be argued by civil libertarians that this is a First Amendment issue, and officers should be able to say anything they wish, the fact remains that an officer should be held to a higher standard of conduct, especially when dealing with the general public.

But what about when officers are communicating between themselves? Special slang is often used in these cases. For writers who want to imbue a sense of realism into their works, including a dash of slang is like adding a bit of salt to a pot of soup. Too much can spoil the broth, but too little will leave it tasting flat. So let’s take a look at some common police jargon.

The first thing to keep in mind is that police jargon varies from region to region throughout our great country. In New York, for instance, it would be common to hear the bad guys referred to as “Perps.” The term “perp walk” is commonly used when referring to a line of arrested subjects being led in view of the news cameras. Going west from there, things change a bit. “Perps” become “Offenders” or “Suspects” as you enter the Midwest. Moving to the West Coast, an LAPD officer would refer to a “Subject” rather than a “Perp.” Usually the smaller departments follow the jargon of the larger ones in the vicinity. The use of radio Ten Codes varies from region to region as well. And officers might also refer to a criminal statute number to designate particular crime. In California, the statute number for homicide is 187, which is also used to designate a murder by officers. “We’ve got a 187, sarge,” an officer might say as his supervisor pulls up to a dead body. A 187 tattoo on the arm of a gangbanger might also advertise that he’s a real bad dude who’s been arrested for murder. Other statute numbers might also apply. In Illinois the charge for a Driving While Intoxicated is 728 ILCS 11-501. An officer might shorten this to advise his partner that he’s got a “Five oh one,” or an intoxicated motorist. Or he could use the ten-code and say, “We’ve got a 10-55.”

 Why would an officer use such terminology? For one thing, it has to do with communication and speaking in a manner that the general public doesn’t immediately recognize. Thus, police develop their own language to effect a semi-private communication.

Remember I mentioned the ten codes? Many times these are used to facilitate officer-to-officer communication as well.

Let me give you a quick example.

I was working a plain clothes unit and we received a call of some suspicious people in a shopping mall. The trio, two males and one female, had been observed going from store to store using a credit card to purchase large quantities of fine jewelry. The sales were all going through, but their conduct and the large purchases, which were being quickly done, raised some red flags with the store security personnel. We were dressed in regular clothes so it wasn’t apparent that we were the police. Our radios were clipped on our belts, under our shirts, and we had ear mics so we could silently monitor transmissions. We were in the center area of the mall, and it was very crowded.

A female store security guard, who was also dressed in civilian clothes, had followed the trio to a vehicle earlier where they’d stashed some of the jewelry they’d bought before returning to the mall for more shopping. The three of them had split up, but we had them all in sight. The security guard gave me the license plate of the vehicle and I covertly ran a check on it. I was ascending an escalator, watching my two partners on the upper level. Two of the suspects, a male and a female, were in front of a jewelry store on the upper level, and the third, another male, was briskly walking toward them. Their body language indicated to me that they might be getting ready to rabbit. (That’s another bit of police slang.)

The dispatcher’s voice sounded tense when she called me back: “Twenty-one-oh-eight, are you clear?” This was radio protocol telling me that the plate I had run was coming back with some sort of warning attached. I responded for her to go ahead with her transmission. She then informed me that the vehicle was wanted in connection with a homicide investigation and that the occupants were considered to be armed and dangerous.

I got to the top of the escalator and one of my partners met me there. Our other partner, who had probably picked up on the same rabbit vibes that I had, was walking about ten feet behind one of the male suspects and looked ready to stop him for questioning.

“Did you hear that?” I asked my partner by the escalator, wondering if he’d heard the armed and dangerous tag.

“Hear what?” he said.

I then saw that he hadn’t inserted his ear mic. My other partner wasn’t wearing his either and was closing in on the guy fast.

I had to communicate the danger in a quick and effective manner, letting my partners know of the possible danger, but not also alerting the suspects.

“Possible 10-32,” I yelled.

That’s the ten-code for “Man with a gun.”

My partner immediately grabbed the suspect’s arms and took him to the ground. With the large amount of civilian shoppers in the vicinity, we had to take measures to secure the suspects and prevent any possible danger to the general public. My other partner and I moved in and grabbed the other two. It was over in a matter of seconds, and no one was injured. The suspects were using the credit card of a murdered woman. One of them was her son, who had a severe drug problem. He subsequently admitted to having strangled her in a dispute over money, which he wanted to use to buy drugs.

So the bottom line is this: check the type of jargon used by the police in the area in which you set your story, and sprinkle in a bit here and there. Just make sure you get that regional speech right, and remember, in Chicago you’ll never hear a copper calling a suspect a “perp.”

Win a copy of the first in the Silver Rush mysteries or the most recent—your choice!

I tried something new with the guest post "A Rude Awakening to a Day in the Life of Inez Stannert," now live at Dru's Book Musings—writing Inez from first-person point of view (I, mine, etc.). My "comfort zone" in writing Inez is to use close third-person point of view (i.e., looking at the world through Inez's eyes, but still in third person (she, her, etc.).
Experimenting is a good thing, right?
If curiosity is not enough to make you click the link, there's also this:
I am giving away a copy of SILVER LIES (the first in the Silver Rush series) or WHAT GOLD BUYS (the newest, just-released fifth book)... All you have to do to enter the drawing is leave a comment with the post at Dru's by September 15.

So, what are you waiting for? Check it out and see what yanked Inez out of a deep slumber... a rude awakening indeed!

... a few minutes later: "What's that noise??"

Where Do Your Ideas Come From?

A guest post today from author Marilyn Meredith! Under the name of F.M. Meredith, Marilyn writes the Rocky Bluff P.D. series. The latest is No Sanctuary from Oak Tree Press. She is also the author of award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series as well as over twenty published novels. The latest entry in the Deputy Crabtree series is Kindred Spirits from Mundania Press. You can visit her here and find out more about her and her series. So, Marilyn, tell us, where do you get your ideas?
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. . . That’s a question I often am asked, along with the one “Are you writing about yourself?”

For the first question, the ideas for my Rocky Bluff crime series come from many places. In the beginning, it was my police officer son-in-law who first piqued my interest in law enforcement. After his shift, he’d come to my house for coffee and tell me about his exciting adventures.

Once he took me on a ride-along, after making me promise to not tell anyone I was his mother-in-law. I admired the way he was able to calmly talk down volatile situations.

When we moved into the first home we could afford to buy, we found that the neighborhood was populated with police officers and their families. After becoming friends with them, I soon realized how the job affected their family life and what happened in the family affected the job. That is a theme I’ve focused on throughout the Rocky Bluff series.

Since then, I’ve been on other ride-alongs with a small department including one with the only female officer. From 3 a.m. until 6 a.m. she didn’t receive a single call. We drove around and she told me all about how difficult it was to be the only woman in such a male oriented job, and the trials of being a single mother. Some of what she told me has been a part of the main character, Officer Stacey Wilbur, in the latest book, No Sanctuary.

I’ve been a member of Sisters in Crime for years, and in fact was one of the founding members of the San Joaquin chapter. In No Sanctuary there is an incident about a pedophile that I borrowed from a case described by a female vice-officer at one of our Sisters in Crime meetings.

In fact, I’ve used a lot of information I’ve learned from other law enforcement officers, coroners, profilers and other experts who’ve spoken at the chapter’s meetings.

Fortunately, I’m also a member of the Public Safety Writers Association, which was organized by police officers who were also authors. They welcome any writers who are writing fiction or non-fiction about any area of public safety. Over the years I’ve become good friends with many of the members who are very generous about giving me information.

Onto the second question as to whether I’m writing about myself—or is there any resemblance to my main character and me. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a great-grandmother and look it. Except for being female and a mother, I have nothing in common with Stacey Wilbur or any of the other women who populate my books.

However, when I’m writing about one of my characters, whether it be Stacey or someone else, I get inside that person and look out through their eyes—experience what is going on as they are experiencing it so I can describe the scene and the action as the characters see and feel it. For me, it’s the only way to get the emotion and action right.

No Sanctuary is also about two churches, two ministers and their wives. Since I was child, I’ve been a regular church goer. Churches, like their leaders and the people who attend, seem to have their own unique personalities. I’ve never attended churches exactly like the two in the story, though there are similarities. And fortunately, never have the ministers of the churches I’ve gone to acted quite like those in this novel.

A reviewer for the previous offering in the Rocky Bluff series, Smell of Death, said, “The cops of fictional Rocky Bluff PD have lives that extend beyond the chase and the crime scene. There are no CSI magical antics to be found here, there are no courtroom theatrics, and no hyper-intuitive detectives, just hard working cops doing the sort of methodical spadework that probably solves most real life crimes.” That pretty much sums up what I’ve tried to do with this series.

As an added note, as a great believer that there should be a touch of romance in every book of fiction, whether it be a mystery, science-fiction, or fantasy, the romance between Officer Stacey Wilbur, despite her vow to never date anyone on the Rocky Bluff PD, and Detective Doug Milligan does heat up a bit—though there are obstacles.

Thank you, Marilyn!


No Sanctuary is available as a Dark Oak Mystery from http://www.oaktreebooks and from Amazon, and autographed copies from the author at http://fictionforyou.com