Horace

“You will have written exceptionally well if,  by the skillful arrangement of your words, you have made an ordinary one seem original”

From Horace (65-8 BC) Ars Poetica.

Written? In Horace’s time? The original text in Latin is:

Dixeris egregie notum si callida verbum reddiderit iunctura novum. The verb is “to say”, not “to write”. This was the age of oratory, studied and practiced as a component of rhetoric – the art of  persuasion, of moving an audience, with language.

William Shakespeare

And, as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen

Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) in Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Q

As soon as the weather clears a little. What happened to August? And September?

• Two and a half years after we bought this land  and  building a house on  it (in exchange for our share of “Cruz Blanca”, the farmhouse in the mountains that was our home for the past twenty years, plus some more) – the title deed was finally released by the Provincial Registry. It became “legally ours” – so have been able to start untangling the remaining issues …

• We very nearly lost Remy, the other half  the K9 division of our immediate family (two German Shepherds Champ and  sister Remy, both seven).  We had never heard of Bloat , or “Gastric Dilation – Vulvulus” until the Saturday 23d August … and then learned more about it than I’d ever care to know. A rare opportunity to know you dog inside.  Two hours emergency surgery (the duty vets, a couple of lasses, one still in her evening clothes) . Remy is fine now, though will be forever at risk if we are not careful with her feeding. She figured on her own that she’s to take a nap after her meals. Smart.

• In the midst, rearranging my work to accommodate writing full time , as a business – far from real yet, but much more realistic.

“Danzig Daughters” the novel is – work in progress, still in rough draught.
A heartening bit of good luck, I got a third place in a flash fiction contest (at the UK site, Writelink.co.uk for a dark little piece (probably reflecting my mood at he time). First place was way ahead, it did provide some welcome cheer at the moment! Thank you, Writelink & Paola.

“Seventh Aubrey” returned (can be revised, sent again); “Mother Dear” needs working on some more. Then a week ago, I thought it time to get back into the fray with writing friends in the different forums (fora? ). Writers Village U. and the L. Ridge alumni at Storycrafters. At Writers Village University a new round of the six week introduction to basics for writers is starting up, and in November of course, another bout of “writing 50 000 words in a month”, the notorious and totally mad NaNoWriMo

BYKNIGHT.COM will just have to wait a little longer. I’ve got (finally) Dreamweaver, Photoshop and other Adobe stuff and no more genuine excuses for stalling.

So Q rides again. Windmills will remain un-tilted, damsels will have to take care of their own distress’, knaves will stay unpunished for a while.
Sunshine.
Q

The series is getting on quite well and according to Holly Lisle’s schedule I think the next one could be appearing soon. Meanwhile mine, “Firearms“, is doing quite well but it would be useful to give it (and with it, the others ) more exposure. For that, Jean Lauzier (Speckeldorf at Storycrafters) has encouraged me to take the little book on a virtual tour, beginning next month (and I am putting together the material now). This new web log, which I hope can work in tandem with Mostly by Knight, should serve as a more personal account of what’s going on.

In the other web log images wont upload – or they do, but won’t post: Here on the other hand:

The Marlin is a great firearm! And the image loaded just fine: So there is some problem with the WordPress upgrade in the other blog.

Enough for now!

Q