Author: Doug

Them

Last month I wrote about “They”. This month I took on “Them”.

And the feel of that statement is what the newsletter is all about. Them as part of us, instead of them against us. Take a read and let me know what you think of the Newsletter.

They

My newsletter this month (found here) is about the word, they, which has taken another step towards being accepted as a singular pronoun. As part of my newsletter I wrote a story using the American Dialect Society winners and runner ups in the categories of: word of the year, most useful word, most creative word, most unnecessary word, most outrageous word, most euphemistic word, most likely to succeed word, and least likely to succeed word.

Go read the news letter first, then you can read the amplified version here so you can figure out what all the words you didn’t know are.

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Jet walked through the quad, taking in the post momentum behind the candidacy of Bernie Sanders of the dispersing crowd. Jet heard someone say, “Bernie really made a definitive end to the discussion after making an impressive point with that comment about Trump needing to pick up a paper or at least hire someone else who would.”

Jet smiled to him or herself when he or she spotted the man holding the “A sarcastic expression in which a person pretends to blame Obama for a problem for trying to take away my guns. Now I have a reason to use them.” If he didn’t have such a flabby physique of a typical dad or look so small in extent, in a subtle manner, Jet might have sent out an alert for potentially distressing material to all his or her friends on Twitter, but this guy was obviously just going to go home and put in some time with his device that rewards his sedentary lifestyle. He was really only someone who loves firearms in a fetishistic manner when he was with his close circle of friends.

Jet passed the new campus organization organized in response to a black student union, its sign promising amazing, exciting or fun for all who came in. Reject was all that went through Jet’s mind, Jet was in no mood for the subtle form of racism or bias of the self-righteous rich kids who had their parents donate the money to build it, even if technically Jet was one of them.

Then turning the corner there he or she was. All of the momentum behind the candidacy of Bernie Sanders was gone. The country didn’t matter. This was personal. Praise looked up. Their eyes met.

“Did you see him?” Praise asked.

“Sure did, Jet said. “He’s one put together, impeccable, well-arrayed guy. He’s let his hair grow out a little and he had it in a bun. The protesters in the audience where posing with expressions with cheeks sucked in and lips slightly apart when he insult, criticism or disrespect, in a subtle or clever manner, Trump, not that that’s hard.”

“Did you see me?”

Jet’s smile disappeared, replaced with unblinking eyes.

“I saw you, standing with admiring term of address for a woman seen as a mother figure. Not a care in the world. You’re so lucky.”

Jet smiled again, “You mean Julie. Expression of excitement, approval or strong agreement, she behaves like a grownup doing everything. You know, she’s only nineteen. I know a lot of guys who would like to take her home and have sex with her.”

“How about you? I saw you looking at her and not seeing me.”

“I. I wasn’t looking at her. I was listening to Bernie.”

“And holding Bernie’s hand?”

“I wasn’t holding anyone’s hand.”

“I know, my hand was just hanging there being subtle in manner, like I had been listening to some guy deceptively marketing a services as it were sharing to me about how this product by a startup is seeking to emulate Uber in different tech sectors, in this case friends is going to change my life. How it’ll be a self-balancing motorized skateboard for my love life, when all I’m thinking about is how you abruptly end a relationship by cutting off communication, especially online with me.”

Jet’s smile was defeat soundly. Jet stood there looking at the ground. A long moment stretched into a too long one. “I didn’t abruptly end a relationship by cutting off communication, especially online with you.” Another long moment passed. “I just… Someone was insulting, criticizing and disrespecting, in a subtle or clever manner me online. I didn’t know what to do. It was so un-amazing, unexciting and un-fun. I so wanted to feel put together, impeccable, well-arrayed, but I felt like a bun on some flabby physique of a typical dad. I was defeat soundly and thinking about just giving up.”

Jet looked up into Praise’s eyes.  “I would have, too, if it hadn’t been for Julie being a term of address for a woman who is mired for seeming as a mother figure. She told me that my posse or close circle of friends wasn’t online, that I should just cut the cord, so I did.”

Praises expression softened.

In a very quiet voice Jet said, “Are we really over, question tag expressing that something may not occur?”

Praises reached out and pulled Jet into a hug. “question tag expressing that something may not occur!”

Jet returned the hug.

“You really didn’t reject me! I feel like such an idiot. I just thought, you know, Julie is such a admiring term of address for a woman seen as a mother figure, anyone would be lucky to be with her.”

“She’s not my type. Hey, you want to go back to my place and have sex?”

Praises had a smile that was almost blinding, “Expression of excitement, approval or strong agreement.”

—-

For the list of words, visit http://www.americandialect.org/2015-word-of-the-year-is-singular-they and for the full article about the word of the year visit http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34901704

December 2015 Newsletter

Two months in a row now I’ve finished my newsletter in the middle of the month and before the major holiday.

Signup now so you won’t miss the next issue

This newsletter has some details about my novel, The Rise and Fall of the Human Race. It also has a Christmas story from the book. I hope you find both interesting.

If you think any of your friends might be interested in the novel or would enjoy the story; please forward this newsletter to them. I would love to get my subscription base into the triple digits and I can only do it with your help.

Merry Christmas to all,

Douglas Clarke

Unremembered_Loss_Issue_76.pdf

Trash to Treasure Cover

Another milestone on the way to have a finished book – the cover.

I found a woman living in Indonesia to do the cover. She is on Fiverr, Juliannaputri, which is a web site where people offer to do things for $5. I ended up paying $20 for the picture, in high resolution and with the publishing rights.

Still cheap.

Emma and I are going to work on it some this weekend to hopefully finalize it. Next post should have a picture of the cover.

Trash To Treasure

The first of three anthologies that I’m editing and publish is getting close to being ready. The milestone I reached this week was the receiving of all of the authors’ Afterwords and Licenses. This means that I have all the textual pieces I need to complete the book – I wrote the forward this week, too.

I completed the basic layout this week. The paperback version is 116 pages. The iBook version is 66 pages. I’m still working on the Kindle version.

I’m shooting for a mid-July release. Sometime between now and then I’ll be looking for a couple of beta readers for each format. If you would like to be one of them, let me know which format and I’ll put you on the list. I am also working on the audio version of the book so if you’ve like to be a beta listener, let me know that as well.

 

 

Time To Focus

I’ve found myself doing lots of things and because of that I’ve lost some of my focus. I am attempt to fix that I’m going to start posting again.

Here is a list of projects that I’ll be posting on in the coming weeks:

  • Status on the first book that I’m publishing – target for a July release
  • Status on the Steampunk project.
  • Updates on the “Rise and Fall of Man” book
  • Updates on the “Unremembered Loss” Book

Here is a list of topics that I’d like to write about:

  • How magic works in my world
  • Bring God into fiction
  • What is evil?

Notices when my other pages are updated

  • Character blogs from Unremembered Loss

If there is anything that you, my readers would like to talk about, please drop me a line at doug@douglasgclakre.com

 

 

Words and Sentences and Paragraphs, oh no!

This last month I wanted to use a tool that would count my letters per words, my words per sentence, and my sentences per paragraph. I couldn’t find one so I wrote my own. I like it so much I’m going to let everyone use it.

To find out more about it you can read about it in my newsletter or just jump over to the website.

I hope you find it useful.

Doug