Magic Vision Writing Course (online)
At last – The Magic Vision Writing Course is here! Where Creative Writing meets the Law of Attraction I’m excited to share with you a set of simple but powerful tools from the creative writer’s toolbox with which you can craft an inspiring festive vision for anything you want – for yourself, for your community, […]
News Update
Hello. I’m back, taking stock. What on earth have I been up to since the wins I posted back in 2017? I finished my first novel – a crew of eccentric characters now in search of a literary agent. And working ‘officially’ on the second one. And, just today, submitted two stories to a flash […]
Story News
UPDATE My short story ‘Hotel Catatonia’ was Highly Commended and a runner-up in the 2017 Victoria Literary Festival writing competition (Canada). It was published in the competition anthology which you can buy here. And ‘The Rainbow Collector’ made it to the quarter final of the 2017 ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Contest.
Stuff Catalans Do
Welcome to Stuff Catalans Do. Here, for easier reading, I’ve combined all the Stuff Catalans Do posts from April 2017 into one. You can read the Intro here. Do you have any Catalonia stories, anecdotes, clangers, to share? Please do so in the comments at the end of this post. You can also join in […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Zumzeig
Zumzeig Aka the joy of research. To tell you the truth, I was stumped. There aren’t that many Z-words in Catalan, at least not native words. Most are international ones from Greek and other languages – like zebra, zènit, zoo, zombi, zona – and country names and their adjectives like Zàmbia and zambià, Zaire and zairès. […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Yperita
Yperita My hefty (dead-tree) Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana has only one word with Y – yperita (the y is pronounced ‘ee’) It doesn’t even have its own page, but is lumped together with Z. So I could simply miss Y out, especially as I’ve already overshot the ‘official’ April A to Z Blogging 26-day […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Xiuxiueig
Xiuxiueig Did you freak out when you saw this word? People tend to when they see a piece of text in Catalan because of the liberal sprinkling of ‘x’ s, and they tune out thinking that it’s a weird and unpronounceable mish-mash. In fact xiuxiueig is one of Catalan’s most lovely onomatopoeic words. Repeat after […]
Stuff Catalans Do: W
W is not really a ‘native’ letter in Catalan. The only words in the W section of the dictionary are those of foreign origin, from wagnerià through waterpolo and watt to whisky to wulfenita and wurtzita. I misread this last one as wurstita and, thinking it was some kind of sausage, I checked it out […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Verdaguer and Vermut
Verdaguer Maybe the first thing that springs to mind is that metro station in Barcelona whose name you can’t pronounce. The Verdaguer monument is close by, unreachable in the centre of a major road intersection. In fact Catalonia is jammed with streets and squares, schools and other institutions (and monuments) commemorating Jacint Verdaguer. So who […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Ullastret and Ulldecona
Ullastret and Ulldecona From ancient Iberian settlements in the north to rock art and ancient olive trees in the south, the history of Catalonia goes way back. Ullastret (oolyaSTRET), a town in the Baix Empordà region (inland from the Costa Brava), is home to the largest Iberian settlement so far discovered in Catalonia, dating to […]