Taryn Rose Frazier

Writing SFF and contemporary | Words in @apexmag @PodCastle_org @DailySF @EnigmaticMirror @ApparitionLit @CosmicRootszine

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

@Gloam71119760 @owenbroadcast An interesting assembly of famous Swedenborgians: WB Yeats, Helen Keller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Brownings, Eliza Tibbets, Howard Pyle, Jorge Luis Borges… Swedenborg was a holdhold name in the late 19th century.

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

@_gail_guerrero @TranslunarTL Thank you!

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

@JmeBoyd (I’ve been neglecting Twitter, but thank you belatedly!!!)

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

@danooli_dani ✨

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

So exciting to hear this story brought to life! Thanks, Dani!

[PodCastle @PodCastle_org]

#pc801 Point of Order by @TarynRoseWriter, narrated by Dani Daly. A #PodCastleOriginal!
Rated PG-13.

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

@JmeBoyd Thanks, Jamie!

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

One of my favorite stories I’ve written showing up in a really cool publication. https://t.co/vEo8UjoI6e

[Translunar Travelers Lounge @TranslunarTL]

What's that in the sky? It's a bird! It's a plane! It's--fourteen new stories ready and waiting for you in the Lounge! https://t.co/leKnkHFgBK

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

What the hell is an ampersand and why does it look like that?!

The first thing you need to know is that "&" used to be the 27th letter of the alphabet...

But there are three parts to this story. And the first begins over two thousand years ago in Ancient Rome with a single word: et. It's the Latin for "and". At some point Roman scribes started combining the two letters of et into a single symbol, which was the ancestor of our modern &.

The earliest example of the "et" symbol is actually from graffiti in Pompeii. In any case, it did not disappear with the fall of the Roman Empire.

Latin survived as the language of the Catholic Church and of scholarship in Medieval Europe. Scribes during the Dark Ages continued to use the & symbol. It evolved down the centuries, in places losing any semblance of the letters e and t whatsoever.

The second part of the story is that during the 18th and 19th centuries, as education and the teaching of literacy spread, & was added to the end of the alphabet as a sort of 27th letter.

On a related note, although "et cetera" is now usually just abbreviated as etc., for a long time it was instead abbreviated as "&c". The & was for et and the c for cetera.

The third and final part of the story is about how the alphabet was taught to children — and how it was read out loud.

As this 1822 Glossary of Words and Phrases explains, it had been normal during the Renaissance, when speaking the alphabet, to add "per se" before any letter which could also be a word on its own — "per se" means "by itself" in Latin.

Take the letter A, which can also be a word of its own. When reading out the alphabet people would say "A, per se A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, per se I..." and so on. O was also considered a word of its own.

Which means, when people got to the end of the alphabet, with & being the 27th letter, they would say: "S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, and per se &."

When this old way of reading the alphabet was taught to children in the 18th century and they were reciting it aloud, they would garble "and per se " into what eventually became... ampersand.

A Dic­tion��ary of Slang and Col­lo­quial Eng­lish from 1905 relates some of the many other pronunciations school children apparently came up with:

"Am­persand. The sign &; am­persand. Vari­ants: Ann Passy Ann; an­pasty; an­dpassy; an­parse; aper­sie; per-se; am­passy; am-passy-ana; am­pene-and; am­pus-and; ampsyand; am­pazad; am­siam; am­pus-end; ap­perse-and; em­per­siand; am­perzed; and zumzy-zan."

Well, of all the many pronunciations that might have stuck, it was "ampersand" which came to be accepted and is now the official name for &... rather than zumzy-zan. So, from hurried Roman scribes to unruly school children, that's where "&" came from.

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

@reverieandink @TaylorLGrothe I second checking for Lyme. I live in an area with a high incidence, and it really can look like anything from flu to fibromyalgia to schizophrenia.

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

@JmeBoyd Great list!

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

@JmeBoyd @TheFilipMagnus So kind

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

Thanks, @TheFilipMagnus!

[Filip Magnus 🐀 lousy role modelee @TheFilipMagnus]

Every Shade of Healing by @TarynRoseWriter is a beautifully written piece of flash fiction, once more published in the pages of @apexmag 136! Ink that creates beauty from the scars of old trauma - I just love this idea.

Read my thoughts here:
https://t.co/sMzVJ3HeES

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

@TheFilipMagnus @apexmag Thanks very much for this kind review.

[Michael Wehunt @michaelwehunt]

As authors, we talk about writing every day. But one of the vital aspects is often glossed over: the value of time. A decade+ into my dream of being an author, here are my thin pencil shavings of wisdom about Writing Time. Maybe the solidarity will help someone feel seen. 🧵 1/16

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

@thy_lyre There is a Brambly Hedge Twitter account??? 💕

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

@embarnettauthor 💕💕💕💕💕🍀

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

I’m over the moon for @embarnettauthor ✨

[Emily Barnett @embarnettauthor]

Now for the ✨NEWS✨

I’m thrilled to now be represented by @AndreaAgency at Writer’s House!!!

Andrea’s care and excitement for my story about a manic and magical botanist and a girl who feels too much, floored me. I can’t wait to see where it goes! 🌿😍

#WritingCommmunity

[Taryn Rose Frazier @TarynRoseWriter]

@embarnettauthor @AndreaAgency Oh my goodness, my friend!!!!!!

[Apparition Lit @ApparitionLit]

May Flash Fiction Winners!
Zone Cook Mechanism by @altstartrek is the best kind of weird bizarre quest tale
https://t.co/WjZDXPhRDR
&
We Interrupt This Program by @TarynRoseWriter is GBBO with a hint of post-apocalyptic tension & a pinch Pythonesque humor
https://t.co/GoChAsFFht