Click on the book cover to take you right to my web page for the book.
You can read the first chapter for free before you decide to get your own copy and read the story. It’s available in all eBook formats as well as in pdf. If you’re not comfortable with eBooks, early next year, I will make available a printed version of the book.
If you liked my ‘Her Client’ series and ‘The Breakup,’ you will love this story. Pure fiction, this story follows the development of a young, intelligent woman in her mid-twenties, who is caught up in an unexpected life of love, happiness, sadness, anger, pain, and anguish.
It’s the gritty, gripping, disturbing, and even terrifying tale of a woman who unintentionally catches the eye of an international human trafficking ring. After being snatched off the streets, she is auctioned off to the highest bidder where she learns to live a life as a slave, suffering torment at the hands of her master, while still finding peace, joy, happiness and possibly finding the love of her life.
The question is, can she survive long enough to escape, assuming she still wants to?
You can only get a copy from my site. I’m experimenting with this book, seeing if I can raise interest in my works without paying exorbitant royalties to the various retailers.
:alert, lookout — used in the phrase on the qui vive
Examples
“All right. Lieutenant Howard, go see how the artillery wagons are managing, and on the way tell Major Mason that I need him again. Stay on the qui vive; you may find evidence of liquor.” — William T. Vollmann, The Dying Grass: A Novel of the Nez Perce War, 2015
“Pasadena Heritage staged its Colorado Street Bridge Party July 16, and Police Chief Phillip Sanchez was clearly on the qui vive at the entrance to the bridge.” — Patt Diroll, The Pasadena Star News, 24 July 2016
Did You Know?
When a sentinel guarding a French castle in days of yore cried, “Qui vive?,” your life depended upon your answer. The question the sentinel was asking was “Long live who?” The correct answer was usually something like “Long live the king!” Visitors not answering the question this way were regarded as suspect, and so to be “on the qui vive” meant to be on the alert or lookout, and qui vive came to mean “alert” or “lookout” soon afterward. Nowadays, the term is most often used in the phrase “on the qui vive,” meaning “on the lookout.”
My Take
Alright. Today’s word I want to say is stupid. It’s not, of course, but I’d like to think it. I know I will never use it. Yet, it does have a place in history. If I ever write a historical novel, then perhaps, I will use it.
From the examples, you will note contemporary uses of the word, and yet, I can’t seem to bring it about to use it. If I want to use a term to mean alert or lookout, I’ll use the words. Perhaps it is used in other parts of the world with more frequency. That’s okay too.
Thinking about the term, I came up with some scenarios that would be an appropriate usage of the term. For example, a city deploys additional security due to a terrorist alert, such as what recently occurred in Los Angeles California at the Universal Studios subway station. An event that is, unfortunately, all too common these days. I was also reminded of a woman on alert walking down a dark street or riding a crowded subway car. If the main character, Avril, in my new book were a bit more alert, perhaps she would have escaped her introduction to the despicable world of human trafficking. Be sure to look for this exciting new erotic thriller due out very soon.
In researching the word, I did find a field hockey club using the word as their team name. I also found a movie entitled ‘Qui Vive.’ I never heard of it of course, but what do I know. I found several pieces of artwork using the title, one of which I have included in this post as my twitter bonus picture. Finally, I did find a picture of a border collie. From its pose, it reminded me of my own collies our family bred growing up. When they alerted to something of interest, you knew the dog was on the qui vive.
Today’s bonus picture, available if you tweet from my page on Twitter is an image pertinent to the theme of the day. I hope you like it.
I love learning the different contexts of these words of the day. Do you? Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.
Have a great day.
Brought to you by Merriam-Webster, Word of the Day.
I’ve sat here, at my desk, or messing around the house trying to decide on what to write today. It’s not the Word of the Day. I can do that. It’s the My Take section that takes so much time. And right now, time is a commodity that is very expensive.
So, I’m going to slow down on the Word of the Day for the rest of the holidays. I’ll publish them, but as time allows or an interesting word captures my interest.
Why am I in a quandary? I’m working hard to put to bed my latest novel ‘The Trafficking Consortium.’ Between getting ready for the holidays, which for me has already started, working with the editor to clean up my manuscript, cover design, website work, and all things related to indie publishing, it’s just a lot to deal with, and I hope you don’t mind the intermittent Words of the Day. It’s good to do, but the novel is so much more fun.
Till next time, this Richard Verry, getting back to work.
Announcing the cover of my latest novel, ‘The Trafficking Consortium.’ Comments and critiques are welcome. There is still time to make minor changes before the release, scheduled in a couple of weeks. If you liked my earlier works, you will love this new one. I am very proud of this story. It’s more mainstream that my other works but still maintains their flavor.
The Trafficking Consortium in 85 words
Imagine, coming to the attention of an international human trafficking ring just by getting your annual physical. Consider what happens after they take you, ship you off, and sell you into a life of slavery. Can you imagine your life as a slave, suffering cruel torments? Can you imagine being forced to choose between a long, torturous, and painful life or a quick but excruciating death? Avril Gillios doesn’t have to imagine it; she has to live it. The question is, can she survive it?
Hello, everyone. I hope today finds you well and at peace with the world.
The last forty-eight has been rough. Two nights ago, I went to bed thinking all was well in the world. Well, in many respects, it was. Just not with my website. Maybe that’s why I didn’t sleep well that night. Maybe those problem tendrils were reaching out from the void and tickled my brain to say, “Hey Bro,” I’m having a problem. Which I ignored. After all, I already had a decent headache going.
When I woke up and after making coffee, I logged onto my site. Only, it was barely responsive. The admin page was for all intents and purposes, unresponsive. The public page rendered only once out of maybe six times. Shit! What the hell was going on?
Eventually, I called my hosting provider for support, only to be told, yes, it was slow but that I had too many plugins installed. Well, I hadn’t added any recently, but I did have about ten that were inactive. They recommended that I delete the inactive ones.
Now, I had them installed because on occasion I would activate them for a short time, perform their magic, and then deactivate them. I didn’t want to have to search for them every time I needed their reason for existence.
Long story short and hours later, I called support again, only to be told, “Oh, yes. We are having a problem on the cluster your site resides on. The estimate is about twenty-four hours before it gets resolved.”
Oh, great! Couldn’t they tell me that when I called the first time? Of course, it took at least another hour on the phone the second time before they acknowledged that they were having a problem. What is it with these people? So, now that I knew that it wasn’t me, I put the site aside and went on to other things.
Which is the good news. After being forced to ignore the website, I went about to create the cover for my new novel. It’s pretty much done. After much research, I decided that the title will, in fact, be my tentative title after all. It’s called…drum roll, please.
‘The Traffic Consortium’
I’m quite happy with the overall look of the cover though I may tweak it a bit before I finalize it. Let me know what you think?
1 : to deceive by underhanded methods :dupe, hoodwink
2 : to confuse, frustrate, or throw off thoroughly or completely
Examples
“Some consumers are so bamboozled by slick sales talk that they pay extra for amazingly bad deals. Just one example, a $49.99, four-year service plan on a DVD player that sells for $39.99.” — Mike McClintock, The Chicago Tribune, 13 Feb. 2009
“We agree with those who filed the suits challenging the wording of the ballot question. We believe it is deceitful—and deliberately so, designed to bamboozle voters into thinking they are voting on a minor issue that simply codifies existing law instead of adding five years to a judge’s term.” — The Philadelphia Daily News, 10 Oct. 2016
Did You Know?
In 1710, Irish author Jonathan Swift wrote an article on “the continual Corruption of our English Tongue” in which he complained of “the Choice of certain Words invented by some pretty Fellows.” Among the inventions Swift disliked were bamboozle, bubble(a dupe), put (a fool), and sham. (Perhaps he objected to the use of sham as a verb; he himself had used the adjective meaning “false” a couple of years previously.) What all these words appear to have in common is a connection to the underworld as jargon of criminals. Other than that, the origin of bamboozle remains a mystery, but the over-300-year-old word has clearly defied Swift’s assertion that “All new affected Modes of Speech . . . are the first perishing Parts in any Language.”
My Take
Well, there are no shortages of images to go with today’s word. So, I picked a few that I thought were appropriate and I hope you do too.
Source: wordnik.com/words/bamboozle
To me, though I don’t use the bamboozle too much, the meaning is obvious. Is it with you?
To deceive, dupe, hoodwink, confuse, frustrate or throw off completely. I probably could think of another pocketful of synonyms for the term, but I believe you get the message.
The image I found most enjoyable was the wall appliqué of a tree scene with dozens of birds sitting on the branches. Nice, but it was the dog staring at the wall, bamboozled by the birds beyond its reach. I can imagine how many hours the dog spent trying to catch one. I must be honest, when I first saw this image, I thought it was a cat, which works even better.
Source: trinbagoviews.com
Another image I found most enjoyable was the cartoon of the honest government worker. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter what country you call home, the sentiment fits. Ain’t it a shame?
Today’s bonus picture, available if you tweet from my page on Twitter is an image pertinent to the theme of the day. I hope you like it.
I love learning the different contexts of these words of the day. Do you? Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.
Have a great day.
Brought to you by Merriam-Webster, Word of the Day.
As the holidays fast approach, I find that it is becoming harder and harder to work with my editor and get my new book ready for publication. Demands upon our respective times are impacting on the ability to coordinate the effort. My editor suggests changes and while in most cases, I agree, getting them into the final draft does take time. I’m determined to ready it for publication by the end of the month, but I can’t say the same for those around me.
The good news is that I found the perfect cover photo for the book. I’ve learned a lot about cover design and formatting in this past year. With the tools and skills I have, I will be designing the book cover for this novel.
Now, all I have to do is format the final draft for publication, create the book cover itself, and publish it. Under normal circumstances, this should be easy for me.
But wait?
What will I title the book? OMG, I need to settle on a title. Time to research again. After all, I want the book to show up on the first page of search engines. That’s harder than one might think. Wish me luck.
In the meantime, have a great day and a better tomorrow.
Happy Holidays everyone!
The speech was filled with so much twisted rhetoric that it was hard to identify any salient points.
“Among the projects: … an $18 million makeover of Freedom Hall, substantial new meeting and storage space, a new ballroom and a new $70 million exhibit hall…. Those were the salient recommendations of a new master plan for the Kentucky Exposition Center….” — Sheldon Shafer, The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), 28 Oct. 2016
Did You Know?
Salient first popped up in English in the 16th century as a term of heraldry meaning “rampant but leaning forward as if leaping.” By the mid-17th century, it had leaped into more general use in the senses of “moving by leaps or springs” or “spouting forth.” Those senses aren’t too much of a jump from the word’s parent, the Latin verb salire, which means “to leap.” Salire also occurs in the etymologies of some other English words, including somersault and sally, as well as Salientia, the name for an order of amphibians that includes frogs, toads, and other notable jumpers. Today, salient is usually used to describe things that are physically prominent (such as a salient nose) or that stand out figuratively (such as the salient features of a painting or the salient points in an argument).
My Take
Source: http://taralen.deviantart.com/
When I’m wrong, I’m wrong. I admit it. I am wrong. I thought I knew the meaning to today’s word. I’ve known the term for many years, but I guess I never understood it. I must have heard it used in conversation somewhere and distorted its meaning in my head.
So, to fix my brain, I need to use it frequently, in the correct context. Let’s begin.
In sports, be it American Football, Futbol (or Soccer as it is known in the U.S.), Rugby, Field Hockey, Water Polo–you get the idea, the team moving the ball, down the field for a score is the salient team. In checkers, the act of jumping or leaping over your opponent’s checker is performing the salient move, removing a piece in the process. A monochrome holiday decoration that has a single brightly colored ornament contrasting the rest is a salient adornment. The person standing out in the crowd is salient.
Am I getting it right? Basically, as I understand the word, it’s akin to a brain teaser “What is different from all the rest?” or “Who or what is advancing better than another?”
I believe in uniqueness, conspicuousness, prominence, and difference. I write stories different from all the rest. Most of them are dark revelations of the human condition. They are meant to make one think, to question. “Could this really happen to the human race?” and “Could this happen to me?” and “OMG, this could happen to my child or me?”
Yes, I tend to write what many call ‘Dark Erotica.’ I don’t see my Mona Bendarova books that way but for certain, ‘Her Client’ and ‘The Breakup’ are.
Source: epthinktank.eu
My new one, coming out in the next few weeks is also in that category. The title is tentatively called ‘Trafficking Consortium’ though that is likely to change in the next couple of weeks when the book goes to publication. The premise being that just by going to your doctor for an annual physical, brings you to the attention of an international human trafficking ring and puts into motion a plan to sell you into human slavery. Sure, there are many stories, real and fiction, over the centuries of stealing people and selling them into bondage. Mine is a new take, and if you like reading these kinds of stories, I believe you will enjoy this one.
Source: slideshare.net/artista33
As usual, I found many images related to today’s term. Products and companies love the concept of trying to stand out from the crowd. Why not? I try to get my books to stand out among the plethora of books out there. Frequent followers of the Word of the Day will know that I look for unique images. Today, I found artwork and a digital representation of what needs to change to make the Barbie doll, ™Mattel, more realistic and proportional to a real human being.
Today’s bonus picture, available if you tweet from my page on Twitter is an image pertinent to the theme of the day. I hope you like it.
I love learning the different contexts of these words of the day. Do you? Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.
Have a great day and a better tomorrow.
Brought to you by Merriam-Webster, Word of the Day.
: an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower consisting of a lofty pyramidal structure built in successive stages with outside staircases and a shrine at the top; also : a structure or object of similar form
Examples
“The building itself is certainly distinctive: The bronze-meshed ziggurat moves upwards toward the sky and into the light.” — Lisa Benton-Short, GWToday (gwtoday.gwu.edu, George Washington University), 10 Oct. 2016
“The opulence remains in Barbara de Limburg’s expansive sets, but the dramatic point is the contrast of the family’s poverty with the consumerist rapacity suggested by the Witch’s lair—not the usual gumdrop-bedecked gingerbread house but a towering ziggurat of brightly packaged junk food….” — Gavin Borchart, The Seattle Weekly, 19 Oct. 2016
Did You Know?
French professor of archaeology François Lenormant spent a great deal of time poring over ancient Assyrian texts. In those cuneiform inscriptions, he recognized a new language, now known as Akkadian, which proved valuable to the understanding of ancient Mesopotamian civilization. Through his studies, he became familiar with the Akkadian word for the towering Mesopotamian temples: ziqqurratu. In 1877 he came out with Chaldean Magic, a scholarly exposition on the mythology of the Chaldeans, an ancient people who lived in what is now Iraq. In his work, which was immediately translated into English, he introduced the word ziggurat to the modern world in his description of the ziggurat of the Iraqi palace of Khorsabad.
My Take
Source: playwelltek.wordpress.com
Today’s word is a new one for me. Ziggurat. It is a building of ancient design, with level stacked upon level and stairs on the outside leading up to the top.
There were no shortages of images of various ziggurats. I chose two that I found interesting. The one built of Legos, well that’s just cool.
What I found interesting was the building style is found all around the world, built by cultures that never intersected with each other. How is that possible?
If you believe what I believe and have believed since I was a youngling, then there had to be an external influence that interacted with the various groups of humans. Where we visited or even seeded on this planet by extraterrestrials? I believe it. The universe is too grand to think that we humans are alone in the universe.
If you share this post from my site on Twitter, you will receive a sexy bonus picture related to today’s word.
I love learning the different contexts of these words of the day. Do you? Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.
Have a great day.
Brought to you by Merriam-Webster, Word of the Day.
: to search out and publicly expose real or apparent misconduct of a prominent individual or business
Examples
Arn is an aggressive reporter, never afraid to ask difficult questions, hound evasive sources, or muckrake when things appear suspect.
“From his groundbreaking days of editing the iconic liberal magazines Ramparts and Scanlan’s Monthly in the 1960s and ’70s to his reliably irreverent columns for newspapers …, Mr. [Warren] Hinckle delighted in tweaking anyone in charge of anything and muckraking for what he fiercely saw as the common good.” — Kevin Fagan, The San Francisco Chronicle, 26 Aug. 2016
Did You Know?
The noun muckrake (literally, a rake for muck, i.e., manure) rose out of the dung heap and into the realm of literary metaphor in 1684. That’s when John Bunyan used it in Pilgrim’s Progress to represent man’s preoccupation with earthly things. “The Man with the Muckrake,” he wrote, “could look no way but downward.” In a 1906 speech, President Teddy Roosevelt recalled Bunyan’s words while railing against journalists he thought focused too much on exposing corruption in business and government. Roosevelt called them “the men with the muck-rakes” and implied that they needed to learn “when to stop raking the muck, and to look upward.” Investigative reporters weren’t insulted; they adopted the term muckraker as a badge of honor. And soon English speakers were using the verb muckrake for the practice of exposing misconduct.
Source: unknown
My Take
Muckrake is a term that I rarely use but understand its meaning. At least I thought I did…till now. I learned that it is an actual tool or the act of raking up muck. Done that often enough and it makes sense. Growing up in the part of the country I did, I came to know it as a derogatory slang term for someone who digs up dirt on other people, just to be mean and hurt them. That’s not quite accurate.
What I didn’t know, was that, in a way, I was right. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt coined the term during the turn of the twentieth century. Fair enough. What I didn’t know was that he used it for political gains, to target his opponents by encouraging everyone to be a muckraker, on the premise that if his opponents short-givings were exposed, it would help advance his political career. Well, I can’t blame him for that.
Source: weebly.com/standards-of-journalism
However, I wonder what our country would be like if we left well enough alone. Up until after the Kennedy era, journalists respected the privacy of sitting officials, allowing them to have their flings, affairs and such, without shouting from the mountain tops their private affairs. Granted, if it involved their public life, then by all means, it was fair game. Private lives remained…private.
In today’s world, the private lives of anyone are fair game to be broadcast around the world, via social media, actual journalism or the pretend journalist outlets, such as the nightly news et.all. If you want to hide something, of if you have a skeleton in your closet, sooner or later, it’s going to come out.
To me, the only way that it won’t matter is if you already lead a life where you, one, don’t care who finds out your inner most secrets, and two, lead a life of an open book. There once was a time where I cared whether someone figured out my inner most secrets. Not anymore. Because one, I don’t care whether you like it or not, and two, ask me anything. I’ll tell you the truth. Just don’t ask me anything you really don’t want the answer. I will tell you and then refer you to number one.
If you share this post from my site on Twitter, you will receive a sexy bonus picture related to today’s word.
I love learning the different contexts of these words of the day. Do you? Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.
Have a great day.
Brought to you by Merriam-Webster, Word of the Day.
Announcing my new novel
