I was reading The Secret of Spellshadow Manor today by Bella Forrest, when I came across the word
—susurration—
meaning soft murmuring or rustling sounds.
It’s not a word I read or use every day. I enjoy coming across a cool word when it happens once in a while.
I don’t like it when an author goes out of his/her way to use uncommon words. I like the book to read well (for me).
But when the best word to use happens to be uncommon, the ‘best’ word is still the ‘best’ word.
When I don’t recognize the word and the author includes a little clue to help deduce the meaning, I like it even better.
In the case of the book I was reading today, it was great: The book is quite readable, the word felt (to me) like it belonged, and I could tell what it meant from the context.
(If you want to check out Bella Forrest’s—who I expect has never heard of me, and who certainly has no idea that I’m writing this post—novels, I recommend that you start with The Gender Game.)
Please share a cool word that you read in a book recently, including the title and author of the book. Surely, the author deserves a little publicity for helping you enjoy the word.
Write happy, be happy. 🙂
Chris McMullen
Copyright © 2017
chrismcmullen 
Incubus in Olivia Helling’s Nocturnal Lessons. Had to Google it. 🙂
Thank you for sharing. I like the title of that book. 🙂
Frisson, a sudden strong feeling of fear or excitement. A friend of mine used it in a story years ago, but it stuck with me.
That is a cool word. Thank you. 🙂
Widgeon ~ Silly person, used in Regency times. I read it in one of my favorite Regency author’s books and endeavor to use it at least once in each of my books.
That’s a neat word. 🙂
Just remember, when writing, that there are words which shouldn’t be used more than, say, once a book, or once a trilogy.
I always love it when I get to use the perfect word – and then have to remind myself that ‘gerrymandering’ shouldn’t be used more than once in a novel. Unless there is a very specific political plot.
It would be neat for gerrymandering to be the perfect word in a novel. That’s a good point about not overusing certain words in fiction.