Tag Archive for: Kathleen Kaska

Do You Have What It Takes to be a Cheese Whiz? Archaic Words

By Kathleen Kaska 
When I worked at Cave Art Press, a small publishing company in Anacortes, one of my tasks was to write the weekly blog posts. It had to address writing styles, grammar and punctuation rules, and the down and dirty of publishing and marketing—and it had to be funny. These blog posts eventually became a tongue-in-cheek book entitled, “Do You Have a Catharsis Handy? Five Minute-Writer Tips.” Here’s one about archaic words and my own take on them.

Thanks to Google, I stumble upon many of my Writing
Tips topics by accident. Here are some archaic (did they
ever really exist?) but entertaining words and phrases
that I discovered while I was researching other topics,
along with some neologisms of my own:

With Squirrel: If you were a woman who lived in the
Ozarks many moons ago and you found yourself “with
squirrel,” then you were expect
ing a child. (Vance
Randolph’s Down in the Holler: A Gallery of Ozark Folk
Speech, 1953).
I would call such a woman Squirrely.

Lunting: I suspect that Sherlock Holmes was into
lunting
i.e., walking while smoking a pipe. (John
Mactaggart’s Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, 1824). I would call people who do this lunters.

The following are from The Word Museum: The Most
Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten, by Jeffrey
Kacirk:

Spermologer: It doesn’t mean what you think. A
spermologer is a columnist! Three of my favorites are
Father Ron Rolheiser; Austin native, John Kelso; and
funny-lady, Lisa Scottoline.
In my world I’d refer to them as wittyosophers.

Queerplungers: An English term for a scam in which an
individual jumped into water
, was “rescued” by
accomplices, and was subsequently taken in by rehab
houses that cared for people who tried to commit suicide.
In the benevolent society of the time, the rescuers were
rewarded with a guinea each, while the person who
“attempted suicide” was sent away with a monetary
donation to make his life less depressing.
Maybe a better word for these folks would be Scam Dunkers. 

Finally, my favorite:

Tyromancy: If you can’t find a crystal ball, use cheese!
One of my Cave Art Press colleagues thought tyromancy
sounds like
a Jurassic love story.” In fact, it is the act of
predicting birth, love, and death by reading the
appearance of a piece of cheese. It is also the act of using
cheese to answer questions: the most obvious answers to
a question are written on pieces of cheese (one answer
per piece). The pieces of cheese are fed to a rat.
Whichever piece is eaten first is the answer to the
question.

I suspect a person who engaged in this method of
prediction and became notable would have been called a
tyromaniac. I would call him a cheez-whiz. 

This is my last post as a member of the Stiletto Gang, but I will stay in touch and follow you wonderfully, creative authors. 

Best always,

Kathleen









Kathleen is a Texas gal. Except for an eighteen-month hiatus
living in New York City after college, she continuously lived in the Lone Star
State for fifty years. Since then, Texas has been hit and miss—a little hit,
but a hell of a lot of miss. There was a time when she thought she would
happily die in Austin, Texas. But circumstances
and weather—especially weather—changed that. Now she spends most of the year on
Fidalgo Island in Washington State with a view of the bay and the mountains.
When she gets homesick, she and her husband plug in the iPhone to Willie—as in
Nelson. Soon they are dancing the two-step, imagining they are at our favorite
honky-tonk in Tokio, Texas, where the mayor is believed to be a dog. Who
wouldn’t miss that?

Kathleen writes mysteries. She blogs about writing,
publishing, marketing, animal rights, birding, and quirky things that come to
mind. Go to her website: Kathleen Kaska and check out her latest blog series, “Growing Up Catholic in a Small Texas Town.”

The Art of Letter Writing

 

Kathleen Kaska

 

When was the last time you wrote a letter or received one?

With texting, tweeting, emailing, and Facebook messaging available as
popular (and expedient) forms of communication, people rarely write letters
nowadays. Why bother, you might ask? I just order the book, Chickens, Gin, and a Maine Friendship: The
Correspondence of E. B. White and Edmund Ware Smith
.
When I saw E. B. White
on the cover, I ordered it immediately. I love his writing. I didn’t pay
attention to the subtitle, so I was surprised to see that it was a collection
of letters between two friends. I haven’t read the book yet; I’m savoring it
for a vacation when I don’t have to focus on a bazillion other things. But it
got me thinking.

I’m fortunate to have a friend who still prefers to communicate this
old-fashioned way. We met several years ago when I interviewed her for a book I
was writing about her father. Although she uses email, she does so mainly for
business. She and I chat on the phone, but we also write letters to one
another. I have kept every letter she has written me, as well as copies of those
I’ve written to her.

Beyond my correspondence with my letter-writing friend, I write a Christmas
letter to my family, though not every year. I write letters to my young great-niece
and nephews, since they live in Texas and I’m in Washington State. I don’t want
them to forget about me.

I think the reason letter writing is rare is that it takes time and effort.
Getting started is especially hard. I could begin with a comment on the
weather, how I’m feeling, or what I’ve been up to, but those topics seem humdrum.
What helps me get past “Dear Stephanie,” is a reminder to start with a quirky
thought that’s been brewing in my brain—something like why
I choose to have two
olives with my martini on one night and three on another. After that first
paragraph is written, I’m off and running with three or four pages pounded out
in a few minutes.

Electronic communication fosters little forethought as to what to say, or
how to say it. “I have a question; here it is.” Or, “I have some information
you need; read this quickly.” I also find that if I send an email with too many
questions, most of them go unanswered. Sadly no one seems to read lengthy
emails. I even had a publisher who consistently ignored most of what I asked. I
soon learned to ask just one question per email.

Letter writing, on the other hand, takes thought, creativity, and
consideration for the recipients of the letters. You don’t want to bore them to
death with mundane information. You want to make them laugh and understand
what’s really going on in your head and your life.

I look back on the first letters I wrote to my friend; most contained
questions about her father’s activities. But after my book was published The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Robert Porter Allen Story University Press of Florida, 2012) we began
communicating on a more personal level, and a true friendship developed. I
enjoy reading her letters, being able to hold them, stick them in my purse, and
reread them. I know she’s put time and effort into her letters to me—and that
makes me feel special. I hope she feels the same way when she receives one of
mine.

I’m not sure what I will eventually do with all our correspondence, but I’m
glad to have it. My friend lives across the country, so I rarely see her. Our
letters keep us close. 

Do you know of other similar books that are collections of letters? 

Kathleen Kaska is the author of The
Sherlock Holmes Quiz Book
(Rowman & Littlefield Publishing
Group). She is the founder of The Dogs in the Nighttime: Holmes Society of Anacortes,
Washington, a scion of The Baker Street Irregulars. Kathleen writes the
awarding-winning Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series and the Kate Caraway Mystery
Series. Her passion for birds led to the publication The
Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Robert Porter Allen Story
.
Kathleen’s collection of blog posts, Do You Have a Catharsis Handy?
Five-Minute Writing Tips
 won the Chanticleer International
Book Award in the non-fiction Instruction and Insights category.

 

Go to her website and sign up for her newsletter. Look for
her bi-monthly blog: “Growing Up Catholic in a Small Texas Town” because
sometimes you just have to laugh.

 

http://www.kathleenkaska.com

http://www.blackopalbooks.com

https://twitter.com/KKaskaAuthor

http://www.facebook.com/kathleenkaska

 

 

Clicking Our Heels – Summer Vacation Preferences


CLICKING OUR
HEELS – SUMMER VACATION PREFERENCES

Can you
believe summer is almost over? Three more days and no more white shoes or white
pants! Before summer ends, the Stiletto Gang members thought we’d share our favorite
summer vacations – indoors/outdoors, beach/mountains, or staycation.

Debra H.
Goldstein
:  The Beach! Something
about the white capped swirling water and glistening sand is my nirvana.

Anita Carter:
Definitely outdoors. One of my favorite vacations was when my husband and I
traveled to Hawaii for 10 days. We island hopped. We had the best time at the
beach and hiking through the mountains and around the volcanos. I’d love to go
again.

T.K. Thorne:
I have to see the ocean regularly or something inside doesn’t get fed. Also, I
live on a mountain, so I get my tree and fresh air fix every day.

Debra
Sennefelder
: Staycation. I really don’t like summer weather. I much prefer
air conditioning.

Kathryn Lane:
My husband and I spend the summers in the mountains of northern New Mexico near
Taos, where we enjoy outdoor adventures as well as watching wildlife drift by
from our cabin deck.

Dru Ann Love:
I like sightseeing various locations, so outdoors. Staycations are good as well.

Kathleen
Kaska
:  It’s the beach for me –
anytime.

Robin
Hillyer-Miles
: Beach or staycation!

Lois Winston:
I much prefer a warm getaway in the winter, but I’m not a beach person. I love
exploring museums, ancient sites, and foreign cities.

Linda
Rodriguez
: Anymore, I’m a stay-at-home person most of the time, thanks to
health issues. In summer, you’ll find me inside in the air conditioning or
sitting on my spacious porch, spinning or knitting and chatting with my
neighbors.

Shari
Randall
: I’m a culture vulture, so I’d love to somewhere with great museums
and theater. I live near a beach, so I’ll admit it, I’m spoiled.

Mary Lee
Ashford
: My summer vacation preference would be outdoors with a beach and a
book! Staycations are fun but since I’ve been working from home since March
2020, I am more than ready to see some walls that aren’t my own.

Gay Yellen:
Mountains. Hiking in a cool mountain forest is the best break from summer in
the city.

Lynn McPhersonI love the beach and the mountains. I’m home most of the
time so when vacation time rolls around I’m ready to go explore new places.

Cathy PerkinsWhat is a vacation these days? When I can travel again, definitely the beach!

You Lie Down with Dogs, You Wake Up in Hot Water: Metaphors Aren’t Antisocial—But They Don’t Always Mix Well

I
love metaphors. When I come across a great one while reading, I write it down
as a reminder to spend time crafting them. Here are some musings on metaphors.
Mixing metaphors—combining two unrelated idioms—is considered a grammatical faux pas. But in the right
circumstances, mixing metaphors fosters a more creative comparison, makes your
readers think, and may even produce chuckles.

·      Don’t
eat with your mouth open for business.  

·      I’ll
ride shotgun in the backseat.

·      Earl
tucked tail and left in a cloud of smoke.

·      When
life hands you a lemon, make an ice cream sundae.

·      Shape
up or sink like a stone.

·      Don’t
count your chickens before you put their eggs in your basket.

·      Beating
around the bush may get you in deep water.

·      Cross
that bridge after you’ve burned it.

·      The
quiet before the storm preceded a blast from the past.

·      Wake
up and smell the writing on the wall.

·     
If you lie down with dogs, you’ll wake up
in hot water.

Finally,
what would a tip on mixing metaphors be without mentioning the master
metaphor-mixer, Yogi Berra? Here are a few of my favorite Yogisms:

·      “Pair
up in threes.”

·      “Why
buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel.”

·      “The
future ain’t what it used to be.”

·      “No
one goes there [restaurant] anymore; it’s too crowded.”

·      “Baseball
is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical.”

·      “When
you come to a fork in the road, take it!”

 

I’m
a Texas gal. Except for an eighteen-month hiatus living in New York City after
college, I lived in the Lone Star State continuously for fifty years. Since
then, Texas has been hit and miss—a little hit, but a heck of a lot of miss.
There was a time when I thought I would happily die in Austin, Texas. But circumstances
and weather—especially weather—changed that. Now I spend most of the year on
Fidalgo Island in Washington State with a view of the bay and the mountains.
When I get homesick, my husband and I listen to Willie Nelson. Soon we are
dancing the two-step, imagining we are at our favorite honky-tonk in Tokyo,
Texas, where the mayor is believed to be a dog. Who wouldn’t miss that?

 

I
write the awarding-winning mystery series: the Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series
set in the 1950s and the Classic Triviography Mystery Series, which
includes The Sherlock Holmes Quiz Book, updated and released
by Lyons Press on November 1, 2020. My Kate Caraway animal-rights
mystery series includes Run Dog Run and A Two Horse Town.
Eagle Crossing is scheduled for release in 2022.

 

Look
for Sherlock Holmes of Baking Street,
an anthology by notable authors and Sherlockians. I’m honored to have a Holmes
short story included.

 

        On my website, you can also find my Five-Minute Writing Tips and blog posts about publishing,                 marketing, birding, and quirky things that come to mind. Kathleen Kaska

 

Just released in May—Sherlock Holmes of Baking Street. I was honored to be asked to contribute a Holmes short story or essay for this anthology. I’d always wanted to try my hand at writing a Holmes pastiche. Finally, this was the nudge I need. My story is “The Adventure at Old Basingstoke.” Also included is my recipe for scones since the theme of the anthology is baking. 

 

 


Untitled Post

 

Police
Blotter Fodder: “To Save Herself, She Bit the Cop on the Leg

Where
to Go for Ideas When You Are Stuck

by Kathleen Kaska

Need an idea for a short story, blog post,
or a novel? Check out the newspapers. I don’t necessarily mean the front page.
In our town, the most entertaining reading comes from police blotters. The
reports are a wellspring of ideas for writers. Some are written
tongue-in-cheek, and I can imagine the fun police officers must have in
crafting them. 

Recently, the police in a nearby city
uncovered a murder-for-hire plot by an inmate in the county jail who was
enlisting the help of a fellow inmate to murder the man responsible for the first
guy’s incarceration. These were the instructions he gave to the would-be
killer: “Wet him with gasoline; dry him with a match.” That’s a pretty good
line; right out of a Mickey Spillane novel. If this guy ever went straight, he
might make it as a pulp fiction writer.

Or how about this one? A few weeks ago, the
police in my quiet, little town were called to a motel where a woman insisted
they arrest her. She was hiding out from her ex-husband and current boyfriend
who, according to the woman, were plotting to kill her. The cops explained they
could not fulfill her wish because she hadn’t committed a crime. With a
that’s-what-you-think attitude, she began pounding on the windshield of the
squad car. When one of the officers tried to restrain her, she bit him on the
leg. At least for the next few days, the woman had the protection she’d
requested.

And another: A guy was shoplifting at
Safeway. When the cops arrived to question him, he made his getaway on a
motorized shopping cart, which he drove down the middle of Commercial Avenue.
The shoplifter received applause from the bystanders who cheered him on as if
he were the Grand Marshall of a parade.

And one more: Several people complained
about a homeless man who was causing a ruckus in a downtown square. The police
arrived and realized the man was arguing and shouting profanities at someone
only he could see. The cops told him to apologize to his imaginary friend. He
did.

End of story.

This is an excerpt from my book, Does Anyone Have a Catharsis Handy? Five-Minute
Writing Tips
.

Kathleen Kaska is the author of The
Sherlock Holmes Quiz Book
(Rowman & Littlefield Publishing
Group). She is the founder of The Dogs in the Nighttime: Holmes Society of
Anacortes, Washington, a scion of The Baker Street Irregulars. Kathleen writes
the awarding-winning Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series and the Kate Caraway
Mystery Series. Her passion for birds led to the publication The
Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Robert Porter Allen Story
. Kathleen’s
collection of blog posts, Do You Have a Catharsis Handy?
Five-Minute Writing Tips
 won the Chanticleer International
Book Award in the non-fiction Instruction and Insights category.

Go to her website and sign up for her newsletter. Look for
her bi-monthly blog: “Growing Up Catholic in a Small Texas Town” because
sometimes you just have to laugh.

http://www.kathleenkaska.com

http://www.blackopalbooks.com

https://twitter.com/KKaskaAuthor

http://www.facebook.com/kathleenkaska

 

The Benefits of Podcasts by Kathleen Kaska

Two years ago, I was asked to host a
podcast for a local business. Excited to take on something new, I prepared by joining
Toastmasters to improve my speaking skills, signing up for a one-day class to
learn the mechanics of podcasting, and taking a Creative Life class on
conducting podcast interviews. Always a big fan of NPR’s This American Life, I was happily surprised when that class was being
taught by Alex Blumberg, NPR’s producer and the show’s interviewer. Just like his broadcasts, he had me
hanging on every word. Saying his lessons were invaluable is an understatement.

 

Using what I learned, we recorded
and aired our first two episodes. One listener commented that they sounded like
NPR interviews. When I heard that, I knew that class had been worth it. Then we
got COVID-ed (metaphorically) while I was in the process of interviewing my
third guest, so the company pulled the plug on the podcasts. Needless to say, I
was disappointed because I loved being a podcast host. Even though that project
fell through, the lessons I learned about podcasting benefited me also as an
interviewee. Since many writers use this medium to promote their books,
learning the nuances of podcast interviews is just as valuable to podcast guests.

Here are
some tips:

1. Be
authentic. Don’t be afraid to look like an idiot. Laugh at yourself.

2. Pause before
punch lines, emotional moments, and important revelations.

3. As
interviewer, don’t ask yes-and-no type questions. Instead, ask questions that delve
into the subject. For example:

“Tell me
about the day you realized . . .”

“What
were the steps that got you there?”

“How did
that, or they, make you feel?”

And my
favorite question-preface (used when the interviewee is not sure how to
proceed, is hesitant, or unsure of what to reveal): “I noticed in your voice .
. .”

4.
Interview people with direct experience, rather than “experts.” It’s more
interesting to interview the passenger of a plane that’s been hijacked than the
airline’s official.

5. Once
you’ve chosen your topic and who you want to interview, create a two-statement
hook to grab your listeners’ attention. Example: “This is a story about a
family who sold everything to buy a boat and sail around the world. Then the
father, “abandoned ship,” returned home, and left the mother and three children
to fend for themselves.

6.
Conduct a short pre-interview to get to know your interviewee and decide on a
course of action.

Keeping this in mind, as
interviewee, rather than giving synopses of all your books, talk about an
interesting story behind the reason you write, how you developed your
characters, or why you chose your setting. Your listeners are more likely to
stay engaged until the end. And by discussing the interview ahead of time and
giving thought to what you want to cover, you will help the podcast host move
the interview in the direction you want to go.

 

Here are two podcasters I highly
recommend: Laurel McHargue’s Alligator Preserve Podcast (
https://leadvillelaurel.com/). Laurel has hosted me twice, on February 18, 2021, and on
February 10, 2019. The links to each follow. Take a look and see how I improved
in the second interview, which occurred after taking Blumberg’s class. You
don’t even have to watch the entire interview to notice the change.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/wkqtbNjBDcM

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf1MpsDeh60

Also,
there’s Linda McHenry’s The Writer’s Voice: (
https://lindamchenry.com/the-writers-voice-podcast/).

You can find my interview (Episode 36, on January 27, 2021)
by clicking on “Listen to All Episodes.”  

 

Awarding-winner
author Kathleen Kaska writes mysteries, mysteries trivia, nonfiction, blogs,
stage plays, travel articles, essays, and poems. Her latest release, 
The Sherlock Holmes Quiz Book, was reissued by Rowman and Littlefield (Lyons
Press). Kathleen writes the Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series and the Kate Caraway
Animal-Rights Mystery Series. Her first two Lockhart mysteries, 
Murder at the Arlington and Murder
at the Luther
, were selected as
bonus-books for the Pulpwood Queen Book Group, the country’s largest book group.

When she is not writing, she spends much of her time with
her husband traveling the back roads and byways around the country, looking for
new venues for her mysteries and bird watching along the Texas coast and
beyond. Her passion for birds led to the publication 
The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Robert
Porter Allen Story
 (University
Press of Florida). Her collection of blog posts for Cave Art Press was
published under the title, 
Do
You Have a
 Catharsis Handy? Five-Minute Writing Tips. Catharsis was the winner of the Chanticleer
International Book Award in the nonfiction Instruction and Insights category.

Website     Twitter

 

Facebook    Good Reads 

 

 

Welcome Kathleen Kaska!

by Sparkle Abbey

We’re thrilled to share that Kathleen Kaska has joined The Stiletto Gang group and will
be blogging on the first Friday of the month starting tomorrow! So we thought we’d
take this opportunity to introduce the award-winning mystery author and learn more about her. 

Q: What do you write?

I write mysteries: mainly cozies, but also traditional
and police procedurals, and some nonfiction. I like to try different styles of
writing.

I write the Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series set in the
1950s. This is lighthearted and humorous in the style of Janet Evanovich’s
Stephanie Plump series. Each book takes place in a different historic hotel. I
also write the Kate Caraway Animal Right’s Mystery Series. I just finished a
hardboiled detective mystery set in 1945 Manhattan and am halfway through a
zany British detective story set on the North Cornish Coast.

Q: What got you started on your writing journey?

I knew I wanted to write mysteries but didn’t know how
to start, so I joined the Austin Writer’s League, now the Writer’s League of
Texas, and started taking creative writing classes. I collected how-to writing
books, subscribed to writer’s magazines, and joined a critique group. In doing
so, I tried my hand at different things. Travel writing, articles about
education (I was teaching at the time), and even became the editor of a local
wildlife organization’s newsletter.

Within a short time, I was asked to be a staff writer
of an outdoor adventure and fitness magazine. A textbook publisher contacted me
to contribute to middle school science textbooks. This didn’t help in writing
mysteries, but I knew I had to start somewhere. Breaking into the world of
fiction writing, and getting published, was not going to be easy, so I started
with nonfiction, writing three mystery trivia books. I landed an agent, and all
three books sold. Only then did I start writing my own mysteries.

Q: Are you a “spoiler” and read the end of the book
before you finish it or do you read cover to cover?

I’m a cover-to-cover reader. I read slowly, often
rereading my favorite passages. If I miss the meaning of a sentence, I read it
over until I understand. I read from the perspective of a reader and a writer.

Q: Did you have a favorite author as a child?

I wasn’t an avid reader as a child until I read The Island of the Blue Dolphins, followed
by The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Then I picked up Agatha Christie. Little did I know that I’d eventually write a
book about Arthur Conan Doyle, and Agatha Christie.

Q. What do you do to unwind and relax? Do you have a
hobby?

I’m a runner and put in several miles every week. This
is my quiet, contemplation time where I work out plot issues in my novels and
design scenes and conversations between my characters. I am also a birder and
enjoy being outdoors with my friends and family. My passion for birds led to
the publication of the biography, The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The
Robert Porter Allen Story
(University Press of Florida).

Q. What are you working on now?

This year will be a busy, exciting year. I’ve started a
new mystery series, I’m just barely into it, and I have a publisher eager to
see it when finished. I have another publisher who’s interested in picking up
and reissuing my Sydney Lockhart series. And I hope my third Kate Caraway
mystery will be released by the end of the year; that’s a big hope.

One of my mystery trivia books, The Sherlock Holmes
Quiz Book
, was picked up, updated, and reissued on November 1, 2020. 

I have podcast interviews coming up in the next few
weeks. My website lists the podcast interviews and YouTube interviews,
scheduled in the next few weeks, as well as previous events.

Where can readers connect with you?

http://www.kathleenkaska.com

https://twitter.com/KKaskaAuthor

http://www.facebook.com/kathleenkaska

https://www.instagram.com/kathleenkaska/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleen-kaska-942aa511/ 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/178776.Kathleen_Kaska 

https://www.pinterest.com/kathleenkaska/_saved/


Connect with Sparkle Abbey 

Website | Facebook | Twitter 

Pinterest Amazon | Goodreads


About Kathleen Kaska

I’m a Texas gal. Except for an eighteen-month hiatus living
in New York City after college, I lived in the Lone Star State continuously for
fifty years. Since then Texas has been hit and miss—a little hit, but a heck of
a lot of miss. There was a time when I thought I would happily die in Austin,
Texas. But circumstances and
weather—especially weather—changed that. Now I spend most of the year on
Fidalgo Island in Washington State with a view of the bay and the mountains.
When I get homesick, my husband and I listen to Willie Nelson. Soon we are
dancing the two-step, imagining we are at our favorite honky-tonk in Tokyo,
Texas where the mayor is believed to be a dog. Who wouldn’t miss that?

I write the awarding-winning mystery series: the Sydney
Lockhart Mystery Series set in the 1950s and the Classic Triviography Mystery
Series, which includes The Sherlock
Holmes Quiz Book,
which was updated and released by Lyons Press on November
1, 2020. My Kate Caraway
animal-rights mystery series includes Run
Dog Run (2017)
and A Two Horse Town
(2019). Eagle Crossing is scheduled
for release in 2021. On my website, you can also find my Five-Minute Writing
Tips and blog posts about publishing, marketing, birding, and quirky things
that come to mind.