Terminology and Usage Lesson

Today, terms describing phenomena normally reserved for science fiction, science fantasy or paranormal genre stories also appear in romance, mystery and historical fiction books. Thus, it is important to stay current with terminology and correct usage of trending language and terms, whether you are a writer or editor.

The lesson today centers on the term psi power. It is appearing frequently in literature or articles. From the website wyndology.com:

Psi Power

The term psi comes from the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet and is used as an informal abbreviation for “psychic phenomena.” As such it covers all uses of the mind beyond the reach of accepted science. It is not an acronym and should therefore not be typed as “PSI.”

What Is Psi? What Is ESP?

The term psi refers to any ability to achieve apparently paranormal or psychic phenomena through the power of the mind. There is no generally accepted mechanism in conventional  science by which such abilities could operate.

Although “psi” is sometimes used interchangeably with ESP they’re not quite the same: ESP stands for “Extra Sensory Perception.” As such ESP covers phenomena known as “anomolous cognition”, for example mental telepathy. Psi is a more general term that also covers “anomolous operation”. In other words, ESP is the subset of psi that deals with knowing things – psi itself is a much wider field that also includes using the power of the mind to do things.

New Version of Writing for the Media

When I was younger, it was ambitious to dream of writing for media outlets–newspapers, paid subscriber journals or magazines, or network television. To get such a job seemed impossible–it was grabbing the gold ring on the carousel.

With the major announcement of the merger of a large metropolitan newspaper (in the USA) with a major internet company, a long-standing trend has been confirmed.

According to Preston James, PhD, columnist for internet-based  military and foreign affairs journal Veterans Today:

You cannot easily find any young people going to mainstream mass media TV network news for information, they all go to the alternative news sites on the web like Drudgereport.com, Rense.com, Presstv.ir, whatreallyhappened.com, Veteranstoday.com, rt.com, infowars.com, amtvmedia.com, rinf.com, wired.com (danger room), and so many more fine newsfeed websites like these that it would fill pages.

Today, the reality of attaining  a media writing job is within reach.  Learn more about creating Internet content. Search “writing Internet content” on your favorite search engine. Happy reading!

I Haven’t Quit

Just a quick note to say I haven’t quit on Dead with Envy. The editing has gone much more slowly than I knew it would.

Compound that with life and its complications, and my heart hasn’t been in the writing . Enough said.

Last night I heard a beautiful song. I was mesmerized by the haunting vulnerability of the lyrics. Oh, that I could write with that raw power and simplicity, I thought. So I am embedding it below to serve as a prompt to those of you who like music to inspire your words.