Embrangled

The Times just published a list of some of the fabulous words Collins Dictionary compilers are considering for retirement. Some are without equivalent in our modern lexicon. Take 'griseous', meaning 'somewhat grey', for example. Is there a better word to describe English weather? Or the onomatopoeic 'skirr', a whirring or grating sound, as of the wings of birds in flight.  Poet Laureate Andrew Motion announced on the Today programme that he plans to use it in everything he writes between now and February.
 
There are other delights, such as 'fubsy' for 'short and stout', and 'niddering' for cowardly. I feel obliged to include a fubsy, niddering character in my next novel effort. But of all the words listed,  my personal favourite is 'embrangle' - to confuse or entangle. For a crime writer a word that conveys both getting embroiled in a mystery and entangled in a crisis is heaven. How did it ever fall out of use?
 
The rest of the list and a chance to vote to save your favourite can be found at: http://www.timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2008/09/vote-to-save-a.html

Published by Elizabeth Saccente on Monday, Sep 22 2008. Comments (0)

Colour symbolism and the Tokyo Boom

The Japanese (in contrast with Westerners) grasp colours on an intuitively horizontal plane. Colours are identified not so much on the basis of reflected light or shadow, but in terms of the meanings or feelings associated with them.

For Tokyo Boom, my designer used brand, typography, and colour as the visual key to the series, with colour symbolism forming a large part of the development of the artwork. The cover designs use the same brand and typography, the differentiation coming from the colours which represent the essence of each book:

• the deep purple used for Ikumo represents mystery, cruelty, arrogance, and mourning
• the blood red used for Pax Japonica symbolises strong emotions (danger, passion, revenge, and aggression), and is associated with man's most profound urges and impulses
• the yellow used for Sacrificial Fish symbolises dishonesty, cowardice, deceit, and hazard

Published by Elizabeth Saccente on Monday, Sep 1 2008. Comments (0)

Ikumo e-book available for preview

The opening chapters of Ikumo*, the first novel in my Tokyo Boom series, are now available in e-book format from this website. Ikumo was short-listed for the 2006 Debut Dagger Prize for unpublished novelists. In this dark, passionate thriller, high-powered investment analyst Gina Knight is forced to seek the help of her ex-lover, British-educated Tokyo Metropolitan Police Superintendent Kei Shimizu, when her closest friend and colleague disappears. Together they uncover secret after explosive secret and are sucked into a violent vortex of greed, jealousy, betrayal and revenge that challenges their love and threatens their lives.

Published by Elizabeth Saccente on Friday, Aug 15 2008. Comments (0)