Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
Tuesdays with Story
May 13, 2015

He said it . . .

“Timid writers like passive verbs for the same reason that timid lovers like passive partners. The passive voice is safe. The timid fellow writes ‘The meeting will be held at seven o’clock’ because that somehow says to him, ‘Put it this way and people will believe you really know.’ Purge this quisling thought! Don’t be a muggle! Throw back your shoulders, stick out your chin, and put that meeting in charge! Write ‘The meeting’s at seven.’ There, by God! Don’t you feel better?”
– Stephen King (1947-), horror/sci-fi/fantasy novelist

Who’s up next . . .

May 19: Lisa McDougal (chapter 29, Tebow Family Secret), Amber Boudreau (chapter, Stone), Mo Bebow-Reinhard (???), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter, novel), Bob Kralapp (short story, part 2, “Flamingo”), and Jerry Peterson (short story, part 1, “Alone at the Hanging Treee”).

May 26: Jim Salimes (chapter 1, Tones of Home) and Ruth Imhoff (chapter 4, Bridge).

June 2 : Pat Edwards (???), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter, novel), Cindi Dyke (chapter, North Road), Millie Mader (chapter 63, Life on Hold), Alicia Connolly-Lohr (chapters 20, Coastie Girl), and Andy Brown (chapters, The Last Library).

Our May editor . . .

Jerry Peterson is our editor this month for Writers Mail. Send your good stuff to him.

DARE near death . . .

DARE – The Dictionary of American Regional English – a product of the University of Wisconsin and a continuing project since launched in 1963, was forecast to end in the next several months because it was running out of money. Since the story broke, donations have extended the life of the project by another year.

If you don’t know about DARE, as a writer you should. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reporter Mark Johnson wrote a great story on the project for the March issue of the newspaper. Here’s the link to it so you can read it: http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/end-may-be-near-for-dictionary-of-american-regional-english-b99469474z1-297906951.html

Great word . . . What comes after Uber?

From Word Spy Paul McFedreis:

whistlecar
Meaning: (noun) A driverless vehicle that delivers itself for use as a car or taxi when summoned using a smartphone app or similar technology.

Examples:
“Another common excuse for fantasizing about futuristic transport solutions is that non-cyclists just don’t understand how much time cycling can save for most of their city trips between 2 and 10km. … Instead they are limited to fanciful ideas like ‘whistlecars’ – apparently in the future you’ll just whistle (or the smartphone equivalent) and a robocar will materialise in seconds to whisk you to your destination.”
– Adrian Lobo, Transport tech fantasies vs existing cycling solutions, Better By Bicycle, October 23, 2014

“Eventually autonomous vehicles will allow ‘whistlecar’ service, and whether fully autonomous or not, this service is likely to fundamentally change the ownership model of automobiles. Like present-day car-sharing services or taxis, a whistlecar subscription would mean one car could serve the needs of many people, instead of remaining parked most of the day waiting for its one owner to return.”
– Brendon Slotterback, The greenhouse gas benefits of autonomous vehicles, Net Density, July 3, 2013

“Changes in transportation technology have tended to be accompanied by changes to transportation systems, too. Long-time technologist Brad Templeton argues that this will, in fact, be the case. And he’s even got an idea of what the big shift might be. We could enter the age of the ‘whistlecar.’”
– Alexis C. Madrigal, Driverless Cars Would Reshape Automobiles *and* the Transit System, The Atlantic, September 27, 2012

Earliest:
“[W]e might find ourselves with a technology that is trusted to move vehicles at safe speeds on the roads, but not to carry passengers. This could be used to deliver vehicles to drivers on demand, but which are still human driven once the people get in. I’m going to use the term ‘whistlecar’ for these, as the idea is reminiscent of how the Lone Ranger could just whistle for his horse, Silver, and the horse would appear for him to ride.”
– Pierre Marissal, Self-delivering car (Whistlecar), LocalLab, June 23, 2008

Notes:
If the whistlecar is going to be used as a taxi, it’s also known as a robocab or a robotaxi. Driverless cars that come when called (so to speak) are described generally as self-delivering.