Tag: Carol Baxter

Contributed By Carol Baxter. Visit her on the web at Tales of a Lifetime and Garden Bug Books.

My bruncle named the one-quarter St. Bernard three-quarter Sheepdog he brought home as a gift to me Socrates. A year later, he brought Socrates a mate, Xanthippe. At age 11, I never thought to ask him how he knew her name – My bruncle was an art student at the time so, perhaps it was an art history study of Socrates, His Two Wives and Alcibiades by Reyer Jacobsz van Blommendael. Completed in 1675, the painting depicts the famous Greek philosopher Socrates with wives, Xanthippe and Myrto, as well as Alcibiades, long before he was a statesman. (You can see the painting on Wikipedia – Xanthippe is pouring water on Socrates’ head as he oogles Alcibiades.

You may have heard, as I did, that Xanthippe was a shrew, based on no evidence other than the word of a couple of dudes, but that is another blog post entirely.

Imagining what if and/or unboxing your feelings using your medium of choice is part of creating. Maybe the latter is what van Blommendael did when he repeated that Socrates’ wife Xanthippe was ill-tempered back in 1675.

What if the painter’s lover had just told him, “Nay. I deny your pleasure to rut. Thou reeketh of smoke from the Golden Ram. I can see the wine spilled high enough on your doublet that the barmaid must have sat upon your lap whilst pouring. To encircle my voluptuous figure with your arms is a reward no statesman can ever grant.”

Perhaps after Xanthippe set the water jug down, she told Socrates, “May Alcibiades and his skunk-striped cur infest you with fleas. Myrto and I are off to the Temples of Themis and Dike to pray for the right to vote. The Oracle at Delphi predicted it would be nearly three centuries, but we want the right expediently.”

Research is important – there are no skunks in Europe. (Except the men who denied women the right to vote.)

Beyond Xanthippe, what the heck would writers, readers, and alphabet enthusiasts do without the letter X?

• Abbé Faria and Edmond Dantes were excited about the “X” on their pirate treasure map just as Indiana and his pop were thrilled to find the X in The Last Crusade.
• I can now mark “x” on my longer-than-it-needs-to-be to-do list next to write about X for Writer Zen Garden. (Annette Grantham’s F is for Friction)
• The kiss in kisses and hugs! (I’ve used “xo” singly to mean “Kiss off.” Don’t tell my secret!)
• Which leads me, because there is always a tune track live in my head, to a favorite song by Elle King, Ex’s and Oh’s.

Do you have an adventurous list of excellent words? Here’s mine for X:

• Xylophone – Again, music!
• Xenolith – A rock within a rock.
• Xenogenesis – The fancied production of an organism altogether and permanently unlike the parent. (I fell into Tina’s “rabbit hole of research” to find this word.)
• Xylem – The vascular system of plants is important to a couple of my novel drafts.
• Xerox – How I would distribute a copy of this essay back in the day.
• X used as a name signature by the unfortunately illiterate.
• The “X” of the Elder Futhark Runes stands for “g” in our modern alphabet and means gift.
  • I guess the meaning follows true because the words xenial and genial mean similar things, hospitality and friendliness. Here’s to Rune X, invitations and hellos.
• There is a left-slanted X in the Elder Futhark Runes. It means need, constraint, or hardship.
  • Drew Davies told Author Nation 2025 attendees that writing constraints are a good thing.

Contributed by Carol Baxter

Vinchristine – I have always thought this word sounds like a fancy title or the name of a ship. (Tis an alkaloid derived from periwinkles.) As a writer, I could take liberties with the spelling as well as the character, hmmmm…

Veracity – what we seek from our critique groups when they read our not-quite-final draft.

Validation – the support we get from belonging. Thank you, Writer Zen Garden!

Vicarious – one of the reasons we read, to live another life.

Vulnerable – an emotion we tap into to help make our characters real. Maybe an emotion we feel when looking at the blank page.

Veritas – Truth. Write yours. Vociferously!

Vivid Versatile Visualization – Waves crashed over the bow of The Vin Chrystine as she raced towards the setting of the planet’s largest moon. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ … but wait, should it be: The Vinchristene stared at the waters where she was to meet her demise as a sacrifice, or emerge winged and victorious. No one ever emerged winged and victorious. The tribe did not believe in infinite possibilities, but she did.

Vacillate – it did not work for Hamlet, so as the Greek Goddess Nike said in the late 80s, just do it. (And by do it, I mean write the story.)

I think “win” defined as “victory-lite” means that a bunch of wins (Tina Holland’s B is for Bravo) lead to VICTORY. Guess VICTORY of finishing a novel would not feel like such a win if it were as easy as writing a themed blog post about the letter V.

Now is the time for me to volti and get back to work on my novel.