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This was a tag from Bella back in the beginning of January, which I'm not finally getting to. (Congratulate me, friend! Two blog posts in March!) It was supposed to be a New Year's Tag, but since I'm so late, it's going to be a "2015: A Summary" tag. So whatever.


1. What was the single best thing that happened last year?

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?


4. What did you get really, really excited about?

5. What song/album will always remind you of 2015?
Josh Groban's STAGES CD. Especially "What I Did For Love" and "Dulcinea."


6. How did you spend your Christmas?
Epicly! (Epically?) We had Midnight Mass privately up near where we live, and we got some pretty awesome snow Christmas Eve, so we had these huge soft drifts everywhere, and there was a full moon that night, so I wished on it.
Christmas is always glorious in our house. We light the Christ Candle first thing and sing Joy to the World, and put Baby Jesus in the manger. My dad always gets a fire going and makes sausage rolls and puts down a pot of coffee, and we open stockings and eat food and drink mimosa and/or orange juice and coffee and pass out gifts and get really, really loud. We had a lot of people over that day, too. We have a friend who moved to Tahoe from Wyoming, and her brothers came for dinner, which was our traditional gnocchi and ham. We also had a snowball fight later that night, and it was pretty freakishly cold out there, which probably wasn't good for all of us with our wicked chest colds. We were all:


8. What were the best movies you saw in 2015?


9.What were the best books you read in 2015?
What Came From The Stars by Gary Schmidt; The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski.

I was briefly hooked on Person Of Interest, then a female character was introduced who sort of usurped my boys, Reese and Finch, and I later discovered she was having a relationship with another female and I lost interest. I restarted 24, though. (Still adore Jack.)

11. Did you discover any new musicals?

12. Did you write any new books?
I am mostly revising books I've already written - namely, DragonFire and Fulcrum. I had been kicking around an idea concerning nightmares, and that one has really taken off this month. I've been actively writing it a few hours each night. I'm pretty excited about it. :-)

13. Did you make any new friends?

14. What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year?

15. Is there some change you will have to go through in 2016?
Gosh, I hope not. Well, I'd like to move. But otherwise... Gosh, I hope not.

16. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?

17. What was biggest thing you learned this past year?
Life is hard, but trust in God. Worry gives you insomnia.


18. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"He will always hate me / No matter what I say / And there is no mistaking the love is gone."
(This is actually a man's song, so I had to change the "she" in the original lyrics to "he".)


19. What are five things you want to do in 2016?
a.) Land an agent. (That makes me sound like I'm hooking a fish. Sorry, agents!)
b.) Buy a piano and start composing music again.
c.) Go to one of the two SCBWI Annual Conferences in either LA or New York (though since I didn't get tax returns this year, that's probably not going to happen this year).
d.) Get a better job.
e.) Move.

20. Describe 2015 in your own words.


Truly, not the best year I've ever had. It had it's ups and downs, and I was mostly very worried and stressed during it. I concentrated on trying to be a bit more trusting and take it one day at a time. I sometimes felt like I was doing good with that, but then someone would say, "Are you okay? You seem sad," and I so I guess I wasn't being as brave as I'd thought I was being.

2015 did have some epic moments - Carmel and WordWave and Christmas were three incredible highlights to the year and I want to go back to check out more of the missions in the very near future. That's a definite To-Do. I also got myself submitting to agents, which is an A+ for me in regards to my courage. (Submitting to agents is scary!)

However, I seem to have grown more antisocial. The best thing in my life is going to my little home and being alone, with no people other than my sisters. And Netflix. (Seriously, guys. NETFLIX.)

And this was my relationship with last year

HERE'S TO A BETTER THIS YEAR!!! :-) 

God bless. 

The Cat

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Maybe the biggest highlight of a fairly eventful San Diego Comic Con was the moment when Congressman John Lewis cosplayed as himself, donning the trench coat and backpack he wore to march for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, 50 years ago. He led a touching children’s march through the halls of […]

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Let’s end up this week in comics with an inspiring event: Rep. John Lewis’s full half appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday. The occasion was the 50^th anniversary of the march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and that by itself is inspiring enough. There was much discussion of the two March graphic novels as well, though. Just think how a graphic novel is being discussed as an influential part of inspiring today’s youth with the history of the civil rights movement…a movement that very much needs to be revived in light of today’s racial inequities…well, comics should be proud.

You can watch the entire segment here.

This is the first time that the Daily Show has ever featured a graphic novel. And it could be the last…

There’s also a tumblr post up with some stills and gifs…and 44,000 notes.

 

 

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Each month we bring you the best new release books in our Book Brief. Get FREE shipping when you use the promo code bookbrief at checkout Fiction Books Touch by Claire North The premise alone of this book is enough to give you goosebumps. The main character, who we become to know as Kepler, is […]

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One big focus on my blog and in my writing is our responsibility towards all life on this planet, so I had to do a post about yesterday’s historic climate  march!  I believe it to be the most important issued … Continue reading →

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By Anatoly Liberman

The names of titles have curious sources and often become international words. The history of some of them graces student textbooks. Marshal, for instance, is an English borrowing from French, though it came to French from Germanic, where it meant “mare servant” (skalkaz “servant, slave”). Constable meant “the count of the stable.” One of the highest officers in Norwegian courts was skutil-sveinn “cup-servant” (the hyphen in foreign compounds is here given for convenience). As everybody understands, only reliable people could be responsible for the king’s stable, cup, bed, or bottle (from bottle we have butler, not necessarily royal). Later, such words became titles divorced from their original meanings, while other people—if I am allowed to pursue the equine metaphor—continued to curry favor with the high and mighty. Herzog means approximately the same as duke, that is, “leader (of the army).” It may have been an independent Germanic coinage, not a “calque” (translation loan) of some Greek noun.

Titles tend to wander (compare marshal, above) and sometimes get entangled in a way baffling to a modern etymologist. There was an old German word gravo (with long a, which means with the vowel of Modern Engl. spa), the name of various royal administrators. Its continuation, Modern German Graf, sounds familiar to English speakers from landgrave (German Landgraf) and the name Palsgrave (from count palatine; palatine “pertaining to the palace”). Although the origin of gravo is not entirely clear, it need not delay us in this story. Alongside gravo, Old Engl. (ge)refa existed. In Anglo-Saxon times, it was the name of a high official having local jurisdiction. It has survived as reeve and can, with some effort, be recognized in the disguised compound sheriff, that is, shire reeve. (Many people mispronounce the word shire: it rhymes with hire, but as part of place names, for Instance, Cheshire or Yorkshire, it is a homophone of sheer.) In late Old Icelandic we find the title greifi, corresponding to German Graf. It could have been a borrowing of Old Engl. gerefa or, more likely, of some German reflex (continuation) of Old High German gravo. The uncertainty stems from a chance similarity of two unrelated nouns.

Titles may reflect jurisdiction over some territory, as is, from a historical point of view, the case with sheriff. This brings us to the origin of marquis, originally the ruler of a so-called march, or frontier district. Once again the word was taken over by English from French, but its homeland is Germanic. A synonym of marquis is margrave, or to use its obsolete form, markgrave (German Markgraf). Mar(k)grave reminds us of landgrave (German Landgraf). The central element in the story of marquis is mark, the source of French marque and a most important term in the legal system of the speakers of ancient Germanic. It meant “sign,” “boundary,” and, by extension, “district.”

Mark is English. When after a long stay on Romance soil it returned to Middle English, it had the form march. Mark and march, in so far as they mean “boundary,” are synonyms and etymological doublets. The verb march “to constitute a border” has limited currency, but it is a living word in some situations, especially when used about countries and estates. This is exactly where I, at that time an undergraduate, first encountered it. A character in Jane Austen says: “Our estates march.” I needed a dictionary to understand the sentence. Either because, in North America, there have never been estates of quite the British type or because fewer and fewer young people understand rare words, when I cite this usage in my courses on the history of English and German, it is always new to the students and causes surprise. In England it would probably, and in Scotland certainly, have been different.

The Old English for mark was mearc, and it appeared as the first element of numerous components. Historically, march is most familiar with reference to the boundaries between England and Scotland and England and Wales. Old Engl. Merce or Mierce were “people of the march,” or “borderers”; hence Mercia, the Medieval Latin name of their borderland. Its inhabitants were Mercians, and their dialect is called Mercian. Those who lived outside the “mark” were foreigners, aliens, as follows from the alja-markir on a rune stone (alja is related to Engl. else).  The use of the word mark in place names and the names of the people who live in such places is nothing out of the ordinary. The county of Mark (German Die Mark) in Westphalia offers a typical example; compare the Mark of Brandenburg. And there were Marcomanni, an old Germanic tribe, obviously, still other inhabitants of a borderland.

Mark “sign” and mark “border” are two senses of the same word. The Century Dictionary says: “The sense ‘boundary’ is older as recorded, though the sense ‘sign’ seems logically prevalent.” There has been some discussion about the order of those senses, but the opinion, just quoted, seems to carry more conviction, though Hjalmar Falk and Alf Torp, the authors of the great and excellent etymological dictionary of Norwegian, thought differently. Mark “sign” occurs also in the compound landmark.

An unexpected sense development of the noun mark can be seen in the Scandinavian languages. One need not know any of them to notice the country name Denmark. Old Icelandic mörk (this is modernized spelling) meant “forest.” In present day Scandinavian languages, mark usually means “a piece of land; field,” but “forest” and “uncultivated land” have also been attested. Jacob Grimm believed that “forest” might be the earliest sense of mark, but it was probably not. Rivers, mountains, and wooded areas used to separate and still separate countries. Although a thick forest is a natural boundary, it is curious that Scandinavian had lost the sense so prominent elsewhere. Yet its close cognate turns up in compounds, such as Old Icelandic al-merki “common land held by the community; commons” and landa-merki “a boundary sign” (but landa-mark also existed!). Denmark may have acquired its name after the forests that covered its territory had been largely cleared. In any case, the same Scandinavian noun (mark) can mean both “forest” and “arable land.”

Some words hold great attraction to foreigners. Germanic mark- was borrowed not only by Romance but also by Finnish speakers: in Finnish, markku occurs in place names. Nor was it isolated when it was coined. Its obvious Latin cognate is margo “margin.” The other candidates for relationship with mark are less certain. The word’s ancient root may have meant “to divide.”

Here ends my story of the marquis, “captain of the marches,” a man presiding over a “mark.” As is well-known, his wife or widow is called marchioness.

Anatoly Liberman is the author of Word Origins And How We Know Them as well as An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction. His column on word origins, The Oxford Etymologist, appears on the OUPblog each Wednesday. Send your etymology question to him care of [email protected]; he’ll do his best to avoid responding with “origin unknown.” Subscribe to Anatoly Liberman’s weekly etymology articles via email or RSS.

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Image credits: (1) Portrait of Madame de Pompadour by François Boucher, 1756. Alte Pinakothek. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. (2) The Marchioness 1889 Dickens The Old Curiosity Shop character by Kyd (Joseph Clayton Clarke). From “Character Sketches from Charles Dickens, Pourtrayed by Kyd”. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The post Marquises and other important people keeping up to the mark appeared first on OUPblog.

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Time for March Books of the Month!

It’s that time again!!! Since last month we held the Winter Reading Games, we skipped one Books of the Month post, but now we’re back and better than ever! At the end of January, we asked you what books you were reading. So many of you are reading different books! There are some clear winners this time, but I’m really excited that we have so many new titles in the running. Keep reading awesome books, you guys!

We’re going to do this again for next month, so tell me in the Comments what books you’re reading right now. I can’t wait to see what new books show up. I’ve got a few new recommendations now, and I’m so excited to start reading! See ya in a month!

— En-Szu, STACKS Staffer

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https://www.etsy.com/listing/94197949/rainclouds-and-rainbows-reproduction

https://www.etsy.com/listing/96758366/baby-bunny-with-easter-egg-original

https://www.etsy.com/listing/124707690/thea-and-her-wishing-tree-reproduction

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In March 2011 I found 16 MG & YA releases, in 2012 I found 4 and this year, 6. Nonetheless, this looks like a pretty impressive list of books! All are very establish authors.

(clicking the image will take you to a description of the book.)

The Keysha Diaries, Volume One: Keysha’s Drama\If I Were Your Boyfriend (Kimani Tru) (9780373091249): Earl Sewell: Books

Flowers in the Sky by Lyn Joseph

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina

Panic by Sharon Draper

Hollywood High: Get Ready for War by NiNi Simone and Amir Abrams

Orleans by Sherri L. Smith

Filed under: New Books Tagged: Earl Sewell, Lyn Joseph, March, meg medina, new POC books, NiNi Simone, sharon draper, sherri smith

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Name: Jessica Silva
Genre: YA sci-fi

For most people, lying is easy. If it were for me, I could say I was on a morning walk. Or pretend I wanted to catch the sunrise, even if it were still an hour off. Maybe I wanted a hot muffin for breakfast, the best table in the library, or the center-front seat for lecture. I didn’t want any of that, but it hardly mattered.

Any of those sorry excuses would fit the image of a valedictorian better than what I was actually doing. Though, as long as I wasn’t caught, I wouldn’t need to lie about skipping my first class of the day. I had a pretty good record—six years of unnoticed truancy. Surely, my last year in secondary education wouldn’t be my downfall.

The familiar creak of the lecture hall’s double doors brought a smile to my face. Stifling a yawn, I slipped into the dark auditorium and shut the door behind me. Motion sensors set gears clicking into place until sparks ignited the Blaugas lighting. I took in a big breath, surveyed the auditorium seating and stage set with just a lectern. Only shadows stared back.

I bit off the last chunk of my apple and threw the core into the compost bin hidden by the velvet drapery on the walls. The same two stairs as last year squeaked under my feet. My fingers slid over the smooth finish on the tables in the third row as I moved to the fourth section. No one ever sat over here. I sank into the last armchair, pushed out a breath, and stilled. After a minute, the lights shut off to conserve the gas.

Now I just had to wait. I clenched my jaw against another yawn. An hour was nothing compared to the year I’d already waited. My hands clutched the lion heads at the ends of the armrests. This would be easy.

Suddenly, the door creaked. I shot under the table as the Blaugas lit again. My hand clasped my shirt over my heart. I would’ve clutched it instead if I could to stop the deuced thumping. So loud. Had someone seen me? Hang it all.

A soft, low hum filled the auditorium. Footsteps climbed down the stairs to the front of the room. Casual, comfortable. If it were a student, I could probably convince them to keep quiet, but if it were a professor, it’d be a bit more difficult. I released a shaky breath. Difficult, but not impossible. If they caught me, I’d just have to tell them the real reason I was here.

I peeked around the corner of the desk. White hair puffed on the top of a head like a cloud. The professor. He shuffled to the stage in full academic robes. His knees cracked, and the sound echoed through the room.

“I guess that’s what I get for refusing those joint replacements last year!” he said to himself. He grinned his way to the lectern on the left side of the stage. His hands opened its cabinet door and started fiddling with the projector’s settings.

I dropped my shirt. Nothing to worry about. The professor wasn’t here for me. My entire body loosened, and I resettled myself under the desk. Closed my eyes. Started my mental countdown.

This professor wasn’t the only one who’d refused to trade out their arthritic joints last year. Premier Castol had, too—and every year beforehand. That old man even wore glasses. He was the only person I knew who did. He insisted he didn’t need prosthetics to be healthy. Most of the professors who’d been born at the end of the war were like that.

The door opened again. Much too soon. I held my breath. Was it someone coming to tell the professor he had a sneak in his class?

“Aren’t you rather early, Eques?” the professor asked.

I choked. I’d forgotten Gavriel would be attending the lecture this year, since he’d become an intern. Even if he’d seen me, he wouldn’t tell, would he? I would hack into the system and fail him in every single one of his classes if he did.

Gavriel’s soft chuckle resounded through the room. It pinched the nerves al

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Take what you can carry  by Kevin Pyle; Henry Holt and Co. BYR Paperbacks; March  MG/graphic novel

In 1977 suburban Chicago, Kyle runs wild with his friends and learns to shoplift from the local convenience store. In 1941 Berkeley, the Himitsu family is forced to leave their home for a Japanese-American internment camp, and their teenage son must decide how to deal with his new life. But though these boys are growing up in wildly different places and times, their lives intersect in more ways than one, as they discover compassion, learn loyalty, and find renewal in the most surprising of places.

Power Hitter  by M. C. Higgins; Darby Creek Pub, March

Sammy Perez has to make it to the big leagues. After his teammate’s career-ending injury, the Roadrunners decided to play in a wood bat tournament to protect their pitchers. And while Sammy used to be a hotheaded, hard-hitting, home-run machine, he’s now stuck in the slump of his life. Sammy thinks the wood bats are causing the problem, but his dad suggests that maybe he’s not strong enough. Is Sammy willing to break the law and sacrifice his health to get an edge by taking performance-enhancing drugs? Can Sammy break out of his slump in time to get noticed by major-league scouts?

Into the wise dark  by Neesha Meminger; Ignite Books, 12 March

Pammi has a Secret–she is an Able. At night, she travels through time to an ancient city called Zanum. She’s been visiting Zanum since she was seven and she’s kept it a secret from everyone–including her own mother. Especially her mother. Everything’s been fine…until now.
On the night of an important Zanum ceremony, Pammi follows her gut instinct and defies an elder’s orders, inadvertently leading evil directly to the door of the city she loves. Now the evil that plans to wipe out the city is coming after her. Can she save herself, and Zanum, before it’s too late? Or will she seal the doom of all Ables and witness the annihilation of everyone she loves?

The girl who could silence the wind by Meg Medina; Candlewick, 13 March