Who Really Invented Bar-B-Que and, Why Are Buccaneers involved? A Dribble for AOM and Being Thankful.

This is TWICE my posts have not been published on the date and time that I set them for!

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:  PJ Colando, Kim Lajevardi, Gwen Gardner, Pat Garcia, and Natalie Aguirre!

This month's question is: 99% of my story ideas come from dreams. Where do yours predominantly come from? 

My stories have all come from my imagination. Often it's a single sentence that pops into my head, or it's a character that won't leave me alone that sets me on the path of discovering the rest of the story. My novel A Lizard's Tail, is a prime example. I was working for a friend who had a ceramics shop where she made wholesale souvenir items, like pirate mugs and stuff. In our spare time when we weren't busy pouring slip, glazing, and packing orders, we played with clay. One day I made a lizard. One of the guys who helped with deliveries was a funny young man who's name was Marvin. So that's how my little sculpted lizard got it's name. And he immediately had a story to tell. The sculpture was with me many years and I wrote many, many pages of notes of possible stories. Finally, some 30 years after I had made the sculpture, Marvin P. Tinkleberry, in all his vain glory, came into being. Unfortunately, as is the way of things, the little ceramic lizard lost it's battle with gravity and was broken beyond repair. However, his story now lives in print and I think he would be pleased.

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

Today's words are BUCCANEER and BARBECUE:

It's July, what better month to talk about buccaneers and barbecue? But how could the two possibly be related? Places like Texas, Missouri, Georgia, North Caroline, and Tennessee (to name just a few) all think they not only have the best BBQ, but that they invented it. They are, of course, wrong.

Sit back and enjoy the story.

I bet you think of buccaneers as pirates. It comes from the French word boucanier. Boucaniers were 17th century hunters who lived in Haiti (the western half of the island of Hispaniola) hunting wild boar and cattle. A boucanier made barbacoa which is Spanish for barbecue. The boucanier cooked his meat on a boucan which is French for the Brazilian word buccan. A buccan was a kind of grill on which the indigenous peoples (ie Caribs) roasted human flesh and other meats. 

The island of Hispaniola. Haiti on the left,
Santo Domingo on the right. 

Eventually those French hunters must have gotten tired of barbecuing meat in the heat of the tropics, so they decided to try robbing ships on the high seas instead. Thus, from a buccan, a cannibal's roasting pit, we get barbecue and buccaneer. Now, at your next family BBQ see how many you can gross out with a story about cannibals and their buccans.

LoanWord: A word adopted from a foreign language with little or no modification. Today's loanwords come the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, the Taino. They were not the cannibals. Cannibalism has been attributed to the fierce and war-like Caribs, after which the Caribbean is named. However, there is no evidence that they were cannibles. I pronounce it CARE-ib-bee-an as the people were called CARE-ibs not ca-RIBs. Saying ca-RIB-be-an has never sounded right to me. Other loanwords are from indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South American. From the Taino we get: Canoe, Iguana, Guava, Hurricane, Manatee, Hammock, Maize, Cassava, Cay (pronounced kee), and Savanna. From the Indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South America we get: Moccasin, Chocolate, Caribou, Chipmunk, Hickory, Hominy, Moose, Opossum, Pecan, Persimmon, Racoon, Skunk, Squash, Chili, Tomato, and Jerky.

AOM, America's Only Marsupial

Opossum rummaged around in the canoe looking for something to eat. Iguana watched from high in a tree while eating a guava. Opossum found plenty of food but the tomatoes were too mushy, the jerky too hard, the chili too hot. But then he discovered the chocolate.

***

Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for a slight backing off of the heat. 11 days of it being 100 degrees or better was a bit much. The highest it got was 106. We've even had a little much needed rain!

***

So, where do your story ideas come from? Are you surprised by the origin of any of the loanwords? And how about those Caribs giving us barbeque?

Z is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of 
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

Z is for Zoog the Mongoose
 And no I didn't give him a name beginning with Z just to have a Z word for the Challenge!

Do not be fooled by anything you think resembles cuteness. The small Indian mongoose was brought into the Caribbean in the hopes of getting rid of the rats, not snakes which are few and harmless. However the two scavengers live in harmony as rats are nocturnal and mongooses are diurnal.
They are not rodents, but more closely related to civet cats.
 Mongooses are scavengers and, without a natural predator, have been free to decimate many native species of reptile, bird and small mammal.
They live in burrows and I have never seen one climb a tree.

Over the last 20 years or so, there's been a marked decline in their population. I'm not sure of the cause. I've heard (but have nothing to prove it) that there was a disease that radically decreased their numbers. When I was growing up, iguanas were seldom seen but mongooses were everywhere. You'd see them like one sees squirrels. But now it's the other way around. Iguanas have come back because there aren't as many mongooses eating their eggs. However, it also means there are more feral chickens because... there aren't as many mongooses eating their eggs.

The mongoose has gained some notoriety in Caribbean folklore as a sly trickster. He has even had  songs written about him. One I remember from my childhood is this one by Lord Invader. I have included the words.
"Sly mongoose, only dog know your name."

There was a competition in America
With Houdini and Destroyer
Houdini sang Adolf Hitler
And yet they said that Houdini was the winner
What he won?

Chorus:
Sly Mongoose
-all together-
Only dog know your name
-Sing the chorus-
Sly Mongoose
-everybody-
Only dog know your name
Yes, mongoose went into the White man’s kitchen
Took up one of his fattest chickens
Push it in his waistcoat pocket,
Sly Mongoose.

Then he challenge the Growler
And the Growler sand a hot number
Growler told the Houdini
He gonna win him with this melody,
What it was: “Old lady, you’re mashing my toe,”
“Oh lady, stop it isn’t”
And yet he won him with,

Chorus
Sly Mongoose
-all together-
Only dog know your name
-Sing it Macbeth-
Sly Mongoose
Only dog know your name
Yes, mongoose went into the White man’s kitchen
Took up one of his fattest chickens
Push it in his waistcoat pocket,
Sly Mongoose.

So as I’m Lord Invader, I said
“I can’t lose my name in America”,
I entered the competition,
And I sang a hot composition.
What it was: “Prisoner leve [Prisoner arise]
“Mete limier bai [Put a light]
and Yet he won me with

Chorus
Sly Mongoose
-everybody 
Only dog know your name
-Duke of Iron-
Sly Mongoose
Only dog know your name
Yes, mongoose went into the White man’s kitchen
Took up one of his fattest chickens
Push it in his waistcoat pocket,
Sly Mongoose.

Hope you've enjoyed this year's A to Z Challenge!

Y is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of 
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

Y is for Yowl

"Up on the hillside a cat yowled."

Shades of Dylan's song All Along the Watchtower
"Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl..."

It's ominous.

X is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of 
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

X is for eXodus
A bit of a cheat here, but who doesn't when it comes to the letter X?
Long before Marvin was born, a feral cat came to Stone Wall in the Garden by the Sea and there was a horrible massacre. All were killed, save for one lizard.
That one lizard was the very young Prince Leopold.

 He makes the bold decision to go Over the Hill in search of other lizards in the hopes of convincing them to return to Stone Wall and recolonize the Garden.
After a harrowing journey he is successful. The lizards he takes back to
Stone Wall are called The Leaving Lizards.
 It remains the largest and only migration of lizards ever know to have happened.

W is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of 
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

W is for Wild Cat

Every story has to have an antagonist. In A Lizard's Tail it's a wild, or feral, cat that has come into the Garden and threatens the lives of all who live there.
This is not your cuddly pet. This is a dangerous enemy.

V is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of 
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

V is for Vanity
All is vanity.
Vanity is being overly proud in your appearance, qualities, abilities, and good looks.
Marvin is all that.
He's absolutely sure he has a destiny and will be hero.
He is extremely fond of his beautiful long tail.
He boasts and talks about these two things all the time.

U is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of 
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

U is for Unconditional Love

There is one character in A Lizard's Tail who gives his life in order to save the colony of lizards who live at Stone Wall in the Garden by the Sea.
THAT is unconditional love.

There is also the Dragon Spirit, the kind and benevolent Creator Being, that all lizards believe in.

T is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

T is for Tamarind

The Sacred Nursery, where mother lizards go to lay their eggs, is hidden within the log of a long dead tamarind tree that was blown down in a terrible hurricane. Tamarinds can live many 100s of years and were thought of as spirit trees. They were trees where people gathered under cool feathery shade to have resolve issues and tell stories. I've always been partial to tamarinds.

The brown pods are a delightfully sour fruit. They are ingredients in things like 

BBQ sauce and marinades.

 The flowers look kind of like orchid sprays.

S is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of 
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

S is for Stone Wall 

in the Garden by the Sea 

This is Marvin's home, a long abandoned human garden, surrounded by a hand stacked stone wall. It is a safe and Edenic-like place. That is, until a feral cat threatens destruction.

 S is also for Scorpions
Marvin has to always be on the lookout for she-beasts and he-beasts. They are dangerous enemies.

R is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of 
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

R is for Rhyme

There's a little rhyme that Marvin keeps hearing. At least he thinks he's hearing it. It could just be the wind in the palm trees or it could just be in his head. He hears it and doesn't hear it, it's familiar and it isn't familiar. 

"Follow the wind.
Follow the way.
Follow the night
As the night follows day."

What could it possibly mean?

Q is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of 
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

Q is for Questions

Marvin tortures himself playing the what-if game. What if he meets up with a mongoose? Or the cat? What if he can't find his way Over the Hill? What if he can't find the Great Iguana? Or the Dog? Or, what if he finds the dog and the dog won't help?

These are just of a few of the questions our hero asks himself.

P is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of 
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

P is for Prince Leopold

Although we never "see" Prince Leopold, I imagine him as a fine, handsome male with a magnificent ridge. This is how I think Marvin will look once he has fully grown.

P is also for The Palm Tree Forest

A place of restful peace.

O is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of 
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

O is for Old Man Ocean

Old Man Ocean can often be heard muttering to himself. "Wash the shore. Wash the sand. Pile it here. Pile it there. Smooth it out. Roll the rocks. Roll the shells. Wash the shore. Wash the sand." His voice is a constant soothing background noise at Stone Wall in the Garden by the Sea.

N is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of 
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

N is for Nickolas the Nighthawk

As you can see, Nickolas is not really a hawk. What he is, is a solitary bird who flies at night, feeding on insects. Being a loner, Nickolas makes the perfect nighttime guard. 

I remember as a kid as we drove home at night, how excited we would get when we'd see a nighthawk swoop out of the dark to snatch up insects attracted by our head lights. Sometimes a bird would follow us a little ways, but never for very long. Three or four swoops was about all we could expect.

M is for...

This is my 6th year for doing the challenge. To learn more go to The A to Z Challenge Blog.

This year it's all about the 

The A to Z of
A LIZARD'S TAIL

In which I will describe, show pictures of, and otherwise expound on plants and animals mentioned in the novel.

M is  for Marvin
That's Marvin P. Tinckleberry, our hero, who is entirely too full of himself.

M is also for

Melodian

and

Melodia

the Mockingbirds