Hodge Podge No. 7, RIP Terry Jones and Hope Dellon, Hiraeth, IWSG Day, and ROW80

odge-podge post!

I've had six hodge podge posts to date.


The first, unnumbered hodge podge post was simply about editing Out of the Water and featured a snip.

The first of the numbered hodge podge series featured character faces for Summer Fire and some knitting projects.

Hodge Podge No. 2 featured picture prompts for writing, an Insecure Writer's Support Group Day post, and an RIP for Peter Sallis.

Hodge Podge No. 3 featured images related to Druid's Moon, and a snip! Also featured was Cthulhu and some krakens.

Hodge Podge No. 4 featured my 30 Things I Want To Do list, an ROW80 update, an RIP for Dolores O'Riordan, and recipes.

Hodge Podge No. 5 featured photos, Johnny Marr, editing motivation, and a prelude to the Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth exhibit at Oxford (which I still haven't blogged about properly).


This month's hodge podge first corrects an oversight. I've blogged before about one of my favourite words, wariangle, but I was trying to find an old blog post to tweet for Saint David's Day the other day, and it looks like I've never blogged about another favourite word: hiraeth.

Hiraeth is Welsh, roughly equivalent to sıra haslığı in Turkish, cianalas in Gaelic, and saudade in Portuguese. All of them are a form of longing, for home, but tinged with nostalgia; home as an ideal, set in a past that has gone and possibly cannot be captured. The longing is felt by one who is away, and possibly may never return.

Saudade, Cesaria Evoria

Chi Mi'n Tir, Donnie Munro

Next in the hodge podge are two quick tributes:

RIP Terry Jones
I couldn't figure out which Monty Python skit to share without going down the rabbit hole of rewatching every episode from every season ever, so here's the first skit that popped into my head:

How to defend yourself against fresh fruit

He's also got the brilliant Medieval Lives series, which I'll need to rewatch, as I'm editing Captive of the Sea, which is set in 1470...

RIP Hope Dellon, long-time editor of Louise Penny's books, among others. I knew of her through Louise Penny, and enjoyed following her on Twitter. In her latest newsletter, Penny says: "There's so much more to say about Hope. And if I loved her less, I might be able to talk about her more."


Today is Insecure Writer's Support Group Day!

This month's question: Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories?

Good question! I can't remember if I've done so. I don't think I have. The closest I've come is in Larksong, which features Alice's grandmother's aviary, and part of the plot involves the importance of the birds to Alice and her memory of summers with her grandmother.

The awesome co-hosts for this month are Jacqui Murray, Lisa Buie-Collard, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and Shannon Lawrence

ROW80: Edits! Square brackets galore! The emotional heart of Captive of the Sea seems all right, and the arc seems to have the right feel, the necessary ebb and flow. But oh! the gaps in research! I need to learn so much more about life and customs and food and transport and London streets in 1470. I need maps! I can't wait to do a deep dive in the Edinburgh University library.

What are some of your favourite words?