I do not think that word means what you think it does: Blurge

As I purged myself of various disgusting cold-produced effluvia last  night, the word that came to mind was "blurge."  And I began to wonder, as I often do when I have many things to do and not enough time to do them, if "blurge" is an actual word and if so, what it means.
As a matter of fact, it is a word and thanks to the Urban Dictionary, I now know what it means and will never use it again. A "blurge" is a blow job given by a woman who has just vomited.
I know, I could have gone the rest of my life without knowing that.
Who thinks this stuff up?

Book Review: Desert Hearts by Christine Pope

Desert Hearts is the sequel to Bad Vibrations, and the second in Christine Pope's "Sedona Trilogy" of romantic adventures. Set in that beautiful red-rocked city (whish the author clearly adores), Desert Hearts ups the ante in every direction and the stakes are nothing less than saving the world.

Psychic Persephone, the heroine of Bad Vibrations, is back, but this time the focus is on her friend Kara Swenson, whose book store is a hub for UFO enthusiasts (both locals and tourists). Kara is a geek--her dog's name is Gort and he is a terrific character--but working in a bookshop, even one she owns, was not how she expected life to turn out. She's feeling overwhelmed and under-loved when the book opens. And then a handsome, green-eyed stranger shows up and shakes up her life.

If you liked Bad Vibrations, you are going to love Desert Hearts, which can be read as a stand-alone. The characters are all back, including Jeff Makowski, an unkempt hacker who forms a deep attachment to Kara's sister Kiki, Lance the taciturn UFO hunter with a mysterious past, and Michael Lightfoot, who has seen a lot of odd things in his life and is fazed by none of it. This cast of characters is joined by a sexy Man in Black with a sense of humor, Kara's nosy neighbor who is very interested in her house guest, and various and assorted friends, colleagues and villains. The "world" of the story is fleshed out nicely, and the characters have context. We believe these people are friends. And Kara's relationship with her younger sister Kiki feels real and honest. They love each other, but they also know how to push each other's buttons, just like real siblings.

Everything is bigger in this book--the romance, the action, the tension. There are some truly scary scenes here and Pope does a fine job of balancing sex and suspense. (Let's just say Kara does not feel under-loved by the end of the book.) Whether you like romance with a dash of mystery and adventure, or like your adventure leavened with a little love, Desert Hearts is the book for you.

Wednesday Word Snoot: Silly Words

Courtesy of Graphican.com

You may remember that during the run-up to election 2012, Mitt Romney accused Barack Obama of using "silly word games." I half-heard that news report and what I heard was "silly words."  That set off a train of thought that ended, as many of my trains of thought do, with a spot of Googling. (Search engines are the best thing to happen to procrastination since ... crossword puzzles. You can waste a lot of time Googling, as with completing crossword puzzles, but you almost always learn something.)
Who knew there was a linguist who's compiled a list of the "100 Silliest Words in English?"  Check it out here.  My favorite is "bloviate," which means to speak pompously or brag. Some of the words on the list are actually phrases, but let us not split hairs.
Writer's Digest has compiled a list of funny words to help writers write funnier stories. I'm not sure I see the innate hilarity of words like "bulgur" and "knickers," but a fair number of the words on the list not only sound funny but have obscure definitions (which they don't give, I guess assuming that writers will know what they mean). And extra points to you if you know what a "bumfuzzle" is. (If you don't, check it out at dictionary dot com.
Wikipedia has an entry on "Inherently funny words" that's extremely academic but has some interesting pop culture references, including one to a Star Trek: Next Generation episode where Joe Piscopo tells Commander Data that words ending in K are always funny.
But if you want to know what words are really inherently funny, it's best to have a little kid around. If you find them repeating a word or phrase, it's going to be because it tickled their fancy. (My sister, for reasons unknown to the rest of the family, thought the name "Gene Siskel" was hilarious and was prone to using it to punctuate sentences when she was a little girl.) Dr. Seuss was the master of silly words, and his word "grinch" is now a permanent part of the lexicon.
Wouldn't you love to invent a silly word that got adopted by everyone?

Worst advertising slogan ever?

Writing snappy advertising copy is not easy. I've done some copywriting in my day and was spectacularly mediocre at it. But honest to God--Charmin toilet paper (I refuse to say "bath tissue") seems to have hit a spectacular low point with their new campaign featuring a family of blue bears that just love how soft it is.  "Everybody's got to go," one of the bears says, and then the announcer comes in. "Enjoy the go."
Seriously? "Enjoy the go?"
I know I'm the girl who was talking about being inspired to write a story by the contents of my cat's litter box, but eeeeeuuuuuuw.  check out Charmin's home page for coupons.

Eiffel Tower Slide Show on Huffington Post

Who doesn't enjoy looking at photographs of the iconic Parisian landmark? Huff Post has a new slide show of Eiffel Tower photos leading off with one of the Tower overlooking a very snowy plaza. Enjoy them here.

Annika Bengtzon Crime Reporter

Is anyone else watching this? It's a Swedish television show based on the novels by Liza Marklund about a crime reporter named Annika Bengtzon. Marklund is a crime reporter herself and also the co-owner of one of the largest publishing houses in Sweden.
Annika Bengtzon one of the projects from Yellow Bird, which a couple of years ago bought up a slew of Nordic Noir novels to make into movies and television shows.
It stars Malin Crepin as the title character who balances a career with a home life that includes a social climbing boyfriend and two young children. (In the first episode, "Nobel's Last Will," one of the subplots involves bullying and Annika's solution to the problem horrifies her partner but is absolutely satisfying.)
The material is not as dark--at least not so far--as most Nordic Noir stories. which is good because sometimes you just don't want to be left in the dark.
You can watch Annika Bengtzon Crime Reporter on Netflix.

Where do you get your ideas?

I'm always curious about how writers come up with their stories--one reason I really enjoy "How I Came to Write This Story" over at Patti Abbott's blog. Most of the time when I come up with an idea it's because of some sort of collision between something I've read or seen on TV and something that has happened in my daily life.
Right now, I'm writing a story called "Failure to Communicate." It's about a crazy cat lady that thinks her cat is sending her secret messages via the cat box.
The idea came to me one morning as I cleaned up after the cat and found a perfect letter L left for me in the cat sand. Eeeewwww. 
Nothing is ever wasted.