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About David A. Woodbury
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Blog postQ: Is Henry Clay in the novel named for the 19th century speaker of the house and secretary of state, Henry Clay, Sr.? Wasn’t the historical Henry Clay associated with slurs about Indians? Why would an Indian be named after him? A: Yes, he is named for the American statesman, Henry Clay. There were two major contenders in the 1832 presidential election, the incumbent Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, the challenger. Jackson, the first modern politician who had carefully crafted an image for
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Blog postIn Cold Morning Shadow, Cyleine and Garnette become keepers of words, notably homophones but they made lists of other words with something in common as well.
During the nine months or so I spent writing the novel I made the lists that comprise Chapter 27. I jotted a pair as it came to mind, as I heard a word in conversation, or caught one anywhere else words are encountered. I avoided pulling them from the internet or from books of lists (if there are some; I don’t have any).
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Blog postRefer to this chart to determine what category a pair of similar words might belong to.
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Blog postSeveral songs are alluded to throughout Cold Morning Shadow, beginning with two hymns sung in Latin and continuing with American country, folk, and pop music as late as the 1960s. Some of these are only casually mentioned while others bear significantly on the story. A reader who did not grow up hearing them or who cannot now call one to mind could miss the influence, particularly the emotional impact, that a song holds for the story.
Therefore, I offer here a list of songs referred t -
Blog postIs English the Author’s Native Language? Comment: Reading Cold Morning Shadow made me wonder whether the author’s first language is something other than English. It doesn’t sound as though it was translated from something else, and it doesn’t sound British. It just seems more formal than most American books I’ve read. -K.B.
Answer: American English is my first language.
My Parents My mother was born in Ohio in the 1920s and, other than hearing some Pennsylva -
Blog postWith five books now published under my name and two more which I edited for other authors, it may interest some to know what rules I follow when I write. In another article I’ve addressed what makes me an expert in my native language, American English.
Presented as a countdown, here are 25 rules on style, word selection, and grammar that comprise the core of my discipline while writing, whether it’s an email message, a social media post, or a novel. These rules are in no p -
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Blog postThey pop up in various places throughout the novel — eight poems of varying length and tone. One is attributed to the character, Wilton: the song, “Always Loving You.” The next six are attributed to one or more of the other characters, and you’ll learn who that might be as you read the story.
Here they are according to the sequence in which they appear in the book.
Spider eyes stare down at me. I stare back at eight with two. What in my world do those eyes see? And with six more, -
Blog postChapter One of Cold Morning Shadow begins with a quiz. Not a quiz for you, the reader; it’s for the characters in the book who were sitting in eleventh grade English class. The instructions for the first-day-of-school quiz were written on the blackboard: “For each letter of the alphabet, or for as many a letter as you can, list a pair of homophones that begin with that letter. No credit will be given for proper names, such as Derry paired with dairy. Credit given will
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Blog postIn the story, Cold Morning Shadow, a deaf teenager warmly and confidently perseveres in stitching two families together. Deafness creates challenges in communication but doesn’t prevent it. Words are the units of language and can be written as well as spoken (and heard). If hearing is partially restored with hearing aids, then a deaf person can relate words on paper to words in the air — but often with difficulty.
Someone thus challenged can develop special skills with language if pro -
Blog postWhy did I create DamnYankee Publishing Company (DamnYankee.com) in 1999? My experience with the novel Cold Morning Shadow serves to answer that. I wrote the book between January and September 2019, all 300,000 words of it — (299,468 to be exact, not counting introductory material that is outside the story itself).
I next trolled my sample chapters in front of a couple dozen literary agents starting in September 2019, crafting each query to the agent’s (or agency’s) format -
Blog postThe fly wants the credit.
Around twenty thousand years ago, sheets of ice thousands of feet thick lay over northern reaches of Europe and Asia, and over all of Canada and New England, spreading as far south as Ohio, the Dakotas, and Washington state. When this ice was at its greatest depth, perhaps a mile in thickness, the water in the oceans worldwide was about 300 feet lower than today.
This is commonly called the ice age, although geologists and climatologists tell us it wa -
Blog postFrom Eliza Wyman (Porter) Sweet (1807-1881) to her son, Andrew Jackson Sweet (1837-1892), lamenting that, at age 17, he has left home to roam.
Dear Son thou wast my hearts delight
The morn of life was gay and cheerly
That morn has rushed to sudden night
Without thee thy fathers house is dreary
I held thee on my knee dear son
And kisst thee ore and oer again
But ah thy little day of love is done
Thou art thy own man roaming
Dear lovel -
Blog postMY 80 FAVORITE BOOKS, A LIST
actually many more than eighty, but that’s what it set out to be
Readers like to share books. Some readers collect them too. One wall of the biggest room in our house is all books. But there are as many more, altogether, lined up on random shelves in other rooms.
Beth and I are readers. We each have some books that we will never part with, although we might lend them. We pick up new ones almost every week — thank -
Blog postThe asterisk: I sometimes append the asterisk when referring to myself.
I describe myself as an activist for individual rights, an advocate of peace through mutual tolerance if not acceptance, and a champion of social justice through personal responsibility. As a pacifist, I nonetheless support an individual’s right, with whatever force it might take, to defend himself immediately and decisively from physical assault or affront to property or liberty. To put it in the conv -
Blog postLaïsha and Kolyek
Pinea
At last I raised my head. Simonos stood before me and raised outstretched arms to receive me. I was almost too drained to rise. But I did, we hugged, and he kissed my cheeks. Behind him stood Euthymios. I hugged him, too. I was afraid to look at Laïsha, but finally I glanced at the bed. No Laïsha. She had moved to stand behind Euthymios. She was leaning on Simonos and he on her.
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Blog postThe Dregovichian Hunter and the Pig
Perenemansk and Pinea
“There are things I have to tell,” I said when I could make myself talk.
“Wait first, please.” It was Simonos. “I think we must give some thought to the things that —” he stumbled for a name “— that Marhya-Laïsha has said. See how she sighs with relief after her confession? ‘A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.’”
Euthymios agreed. “L -
Blog postMarhya and Abru
Kiev and Pinea
Laïsha rose from the bed that morning, and sat with the brothers and me at my workbench, which also served as a table, and the four of us enjoyed a jolly time at breakfast. Simonos had been entrusted on the journey with a block of sweet beeswax, and the remainder of this was divided among us against Laïsha’s protests and mine, for even though we both craved such a delicacy, it did not seem right to take it from those whose journey i -
Blog postEuthymios and Simonos
Pinea
I knelt and peeked through a crack low in the door. Two men stood just outside, robed in furs, laden with packs and dragging a litter burdened with more packs. With heads thrown back they were bellowing a song that was mournful, and, if better sung, might have been truly beautiful. I thought I discerned a few words of Greek in their lyrics. I doubted that they saw me peeking, so I rose and eased open the door. The larger -
Blog postSadruk-the-Physician and Kolyek-the-Physician
Pinea and Greece
We had been warm in the night, since the fire had been kept up by the intruders, and also since we had warmed one another by sharing the same bed. But it was truly cold when at last, about mid-day, I left the bed and left my “wife” soundly sleeping.
I built up the fire, of course, and prepared a breakfast for us, and then slipped outside to see what I could determine.
They had departed, for cert -
Blog postRaznoy, Bugra-dezhu, and the Wolves
Pinea
Laïsha was stooped over the fire until we were all inside, then she straightened slowly, and with a hard, silent look at the intruders, shuffled lamely to the window. While the intruders busied themselves warming their hands and sampling the stew, Laïsha pushed open the as yet un-boarded felt curtain and look in the direction of the horses. She let out a weak moan, and I felt sure that here were the seekers of Davno
Books By David A. Woodbury
Babie Nayms: (Baby Names): thousands of suggested first names for whitish babies without strong ethnic roots
Mar 25, 2011
$3.00
Other Formats:
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