A Glossary of Unfamiliar and Archaic Words To Smooth The Reader’s Way…

Posted on May 15, 2018 by Odds Bodkin

The Water Mage’s Daughter is filled with archaic and rare words. Scroll down to learn about the ones that begin with the letter A, from the new WMD Glossary.

A
***abbatoir:*** a slaughterhouse
***abscond***: to steal and run away with something
**absinthe:** a wormwood liqueur
**accolades:** rewards or praises for merit
*accurst*: cursed
***adage:*** a wise proverb or expression
***admixt:*** mixed
***adz:*** a sharp tool for hand-shaping logs into beams
***affiche:*** to attach or affix
***affray:*** a public fight
***agog:*** excited or anxious
***alchemy:*** transforming matter to gold
***aliquot:*** the sum of
***allay:*** to put to rest
***ambit:*** the bounds of something
***amicus:*** a friend in court
***amourette:*** a female lover
**anachronistic:** conspicuously old fashioned or from another time
***androgyny:*** possessing both male and female traits
**animus:** hostility
**annelid:** a segmented worm
*annul*: invalidate
***anomaly:*** an abnormal occurrence
***antipathy:*** dislike
*antipodes*: two opposite poles
**aphorize:** to compose pithy truisms
**aplomb:** self-confidence or courteous correctness
***apostate:*** someone who renounces a belief
*apropos:* appropriate to
***apse:*** a church recess that holds the altar
***arbitrage:*** here, a complex negotiation
**arcane:** mysterious or secret
***archetype:*** a recurring symbol or situation
***armatures:*** armor or supports
*armistice*: a truce or cessation of hostilities
***arrears:*** the state of being late for a payment
***askew:*** tilted or not right
***aspew:*** in a state of spewing
***astir:*** in a state of excitement
**astral:** pertaining to the psychic, invisible plane or the stars
**athwart:** across
***atonement:*** forgiveness for a wrong
**atrium:** a central Roman courtyard
***auger:*** a drill for boring holes
***augury:*** foreseeing the future or fortune telling
**aura:** the energy around living things seen by spiritual sensitives
***aureola:*** the circle around the nipple
***axis mundi:*** the axis or center of the world

THE WATER MAGE’S DAUGHTER epic now comes with a GLOSSARY

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Odds Bodkin

THE WATER MAGE’S DAUGHTER epic now comes with a GLOSSARY

If you’re unsure what a periapt is, or what a hierophant does, the new Glossary for The Water Mage’s Daughter will speed your reading along. At 13,000 lines (512 pages) Odds Bodkin’s high fantasy epic poem is filled with hundreds of what the poet calls “wonder words.” Some are archaic, but they’re proper English words. Others are simply legitimate terms within rare topics, like “ylem”. Ylem is defined as the primordial matter in the universe at the moment of the Big Bang.

At 18 pages, the Glossary is mapped to the text, so as you read, if you do come across a word you don’t know, its definition is right there at your fingertips.

Learn the definitions of:

shabaroon

weald

coruscations

dendriform

bumptious

and more wonder words.

“The words were singing in my head.”–Dean Emmerson, reader

Odds Bodkin’s Complete Works: Audios, Epic E-Book, Video and Pure Music

Posted on April 10, 2018 by Odds Bodkin

Odds Bodkin’s Complete Works: Audios, Epic E-Book, Video and Pure Music

They all come on the MASTER DRIVE, a small electronic gem loaded with magic. An epic poem e-book as long as Homer’s Odyssey, adults only. Symphonic and acoustic musical compositions. A video of The Iliad: Book I. And, of course, this master storyteller’s complete audio collection of spoken-word family tales with music for ages 4 to forever.

A $269 value for $175.

Explore it here at Odds Bodkin’s Shop.

POETIC PUZZLING

Posted on April 4, 2018 by Odds Bodkin

POETIC PUZZLING

What is The Water Mage’s Daughter? Well, it’s an epic poem in English, yes. And sure, it features thousands of rhymes in different schemes. But along with telling a killer story, it’s also a very cool word puzzle. How? Well, by the time you’ve reached page 347, you’ve read heroic couplets and quatrains in Canticles I and II. They’re fun. Canticle III, however, which up until now has featured “whorls” that rhyme from the outside in, throws out some fresh craziness with words. Here’s the spot in the text where I offer the puzzle:

First, through free verse our tale will wend,

Then back to couplets t’ward the end,

Yet each end-word shall kiss a mate

Somewhere––that’s if you take the bait

And feed on fancy, that old stuff

We love…

In other words, every end-word in the canto (chapter) will rhyme with another end-word somewhere. It may be pretty far away, but it’s in there. So if you’re into word puzzles, this makes for an amusing hunt.

It’s not until 60 pages later that the poem modulates completely back to couplets and stays there.

–Odds Bodkin