NEWS FLASH! BARBARIAN THUGS GO BERSERK AND VANALIZE IWSG!

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts: Jemima Pett, Nancy Gideon, and Natalie Aguirre!

This month's question is: Do you remember writing your first book? What were your thoughts about a career path on writing? Where are you now and how is it working out for you? If you're at the start of the journey, what are your goals?

I wrote many, many partial and incomplete novels all through my teens, but my first completed novel was written in my mid-20s. I still have it. I haven't looked at it in at least 30 years. I know parts of it are ok, but most of it is a steaming hot mess of you know what. I worked hard to get better and to write and publish the three books I did. I'm happy with what I've done. If I get any other books published, I'll let you know!

Origins: a recurring post in which I delve into the history of a word or phrase.

Today's words are: Berserk, Vandalize, Thug, Barbarian, and Babbling.

I know, I know. FIVE words? But they're all kind of related and I couldn't separate them, they would have been traumatized.

                                         

This may depict a one-eyed Odin
guiding a berserker.

Berserk comes for the Old Norse words bjorn, meaning "bear" and serkr, meaning "shirt." It literally means bear shirt. Old Norse was spoken before 1350 CE. At some point someone mistook bear shirt to mean bare shirt, as in "without clothes." Ancient Scandinavian warriors were known to "go berserk" in battle, the confusion is whether they fought naked, weren't wearing any armor, were wearing bear skins instead of armor, OR were magically transformed into bears. Whatever they did, when they went berserk, the warriors were filled with a mad and wild frenzy and it was believed they couldn't be wounded. Apparently women could go berserk, too.

The Vandals sacking Rome.

Vandals, on the other hand, were an ancient Germanic people. They went berserk and overran Spain, North Africa, and Gaul - present day France. In 455 they arrived in Italy and sacked Rome, destroying many buildings and monuments as they went and bringing about the final end of the Roman Empire. Hence we have the verb "to vandalize."

I wonder if there were any thugs among those berserk vandals? Thugs were professional robbers and murderers in India. Their trademark was to strangle their victims. Thug comes from the Hindu word thag which means "thief." Thag comes from two Sanskrit words, sthaga, meaning "rogue" and sthagati, meaning "to cover" or "conceal." Translated that means sneaky thief. Thugs were finally put out of business by 1840. By the way, Sanskrit is one of the oldest languages in the world.

Those thugs can be real barbarians. Barbarous comes from the Greek word barbaros, which means, "foreign, rude, or ignorant." It's similar to another Sanskrit word, barbara (not to be confused with the name) meaning "to stammer." In this case the stammer is used for a person speaking a language in which they are not fluent. They are speaking unintelligibly, which is another way to say they are "babbling" incoherently.

So there you have it, babbling barbaric thugs go berserk and vandalize IWSG.

LoanWord: A word adopted from a foreign language with little or no modification.

Today's loan words are from Hindi and Sanskrit. Loot, Pajamas, Bungalow, Shampoo, Khaki, Bandana, Bangle, Cot, Cushy, Dinghy, Dungaree, Punch (as in a drink) Veranda, Basmati, Avatar, Guru, Cashmere, Chintz, Deva, Jungle, Jute, Tank (as in a cistern/water catchment) and Ganja (a word the Rastafarians have pretty much claimed as their own.)

Being Thankful

Today I am thankful for another couple of Dribbles being accepted by Vine Leaves Press. I recommend subscribing to their Dribble a Day. The stories are so varied and unique. I'm also thankful that I was inspired to write a story (well actually to rework an old story) for a contest called Fractured Fairy Tales put on by the Institute for Children's Literature (now called The Institute for Writers) - I took all their courses years ago and learned SO much about writing for children! Years ago I won first place in one of their contests with my Anansi story "Why Dogs Beg" which led to the eventual publishing my book Anansi and Company. Lastly I'm thankful that I got the second round of edits finished on my grandmother's cookbook and sent it off to my cousin and sister for their second reading.

What are you thankful for today? Do you remember writing your first book? Was it terrible or what?