It is still warm, and very dry, here – which makes the title of my story in the current issue of The People’s Friend Special very appropriate.

I love the illustration, especially the inset of Luigi’s restaurant. Luigi is a character from my romantic novel A Year And A Day. He’s a charming and gorgeous Italian who own’s a chain of restaurants. Even though he wasn’t the right man for Stella, I became very fond of him and bring him, or his restaurants, into any stories where a touch of Italian flavour is needed.

The ‘unlikely summer plan’ referred to under the illustration is based on something which happened to me. I refused a date for exactly the reason Becky gives. In my case the person asking never discovered I was telling the truth and he never asked again. I wasn’t a writer back then, but apparently I still seemed like the kind of person who’d make stuff up!

Straight means going in one direction only without deviation. Alternatively it’s used for something level or symmetrical. To straighten is to put into proper order or condition.

Straight up, implies honest and direct, unless it’s a drink in which case it would be undiluted. A straight-laced person is conventional and respectable.

I had my hair straightened once. What do you think? Did it make me look straight-laced? Should I have changed it straight away?

All my books are now available through Kindle Unlimited (except this one which is free). You can find them all here.

For those who don’t know, Kindle is an Amazon subscription service, allowing you to read as many ebooks as you like in exchange for a monthly fee. Often you’ll be offered a free trial for the first month, to see if it suits you. The books can be read on Kindles, or you can download a free app. to read them on your computer, phone, tablet etc.

I’d post the definition of apathy, but frankly I just can’t be bothered.

Not interested in finding a suitable picture either, so here’s something selected at random.

ps not really feeling apathetic, just busy exploring!

Prompt means to act with speed, at once or in a timely fashion. Promptly is how I like editors to accept my submissions, or slowly really – just as long as they say yes.

Wine vanishes with remarkable promptness when it gets near me.

To prompt can also be to incite, inspire or urge into action. I’d like to prompt you to download my free ebook or even buy this one …

A prompter assists a speaker by providing a missing word. A prompt can also be an aid to memory or encouragement to action. Maybe my blog posts prompt you to enter writing competitions?

A skeuomorph is a design feature that’s no longer needed but included because previous versions of the item (often made using different materials or in a different way) had whatever it is.

For example the decks of cruise ships are no longer made from planks of wood (as it’s a fire risk) but they’re likely to be finished in a brown material laid in strips to resemble planks. Modern compact cameras no longer have shutters, but they often make that distinctive cur-lick when a picture is taken, as they have a device added to reproduce it. Chocolates sometimes still come individually wrapped because back in the old days people didn’t always eat a whole tinful in one sitting …

Can you think of any more examples?

Synecdoche is a word I’d never come across until I opened the dictionary at random just now. Despite never having heard of this device previously, I have used it. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have too.  A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which part of something represents the whole.

For example you might refer to a traditional Sunday lunch as ‘a roast’ even though the vegetables and gravy were cooked in another way. It’s generally understood that ‘a blonde’ will have more body parts than just her hair. When we refer to writing a book we generally also mean planning, rewriting, editing, proofreading and trying to find a market, not just bashing out a first draft.

Here’s a picture of a couple of birds – which, I think, is a synecdoche for a picture of a couple of birds and their shadows and a dead leaf, on some grass which has been marked to form a football pitch.

Thanks for pitching up to read my latest word of the week post.

Pitch can mean to slope downward, put up a tent, or the space said tent occupies. It can be to throw something, fall headlong or submit a suggestion to an editor. It’s the movement of a ship in a longitudinal direction, angle of a roof or where cricket is played. Pitch is a quality of sound, the gloop you get from distilled turpentine or where a market trader displays his wares.

It can also be to express something at a particular level – I do hope I’ve pitched this post correctly. I also hope I’ve got everything right and we won’t need to have a pitched battle over my definitions.

The pitch of these steps was so steep that if the ship had pitched or rolled I’d have pitched down them.

Keep is a good word (not least because it gives me another chance to post a photo of a castle – do you know which one?) It means to continue to have something, to save something for future use, store in a regular place (we keep The Sphere in the garage), continue in a particular position or activity (she kept her head down) or to remain in good condition (fresh bread doesn’t keep very long). It can also mean to do something you promised to do (I keep my promises) to provide accommodation and food – or the money for those things (he earns his keep) If you have a friend with enough money you could be a kept woman. You might want to keep up to date, or with the Jones’. Or perhaps you’ll attend keep fit classes (which generally means get slightly less unfit rather to maintain an existing state of fitness in my experience) and of course it’s the strongest part of a castle. Not bad for just four letters, eh?