Tuesday 30 April 2013

ZOSIMUS- who he?



ZOSIMUS is my Z …maybe even zealous....and of course, some ubiquitous ZZZZZZZZs!

Zosimus? Am I joking? Did I just invent that word to have an eye-catching ending to the A to Z Challenge?  No, I really am continuing with my Celtic/Roman Britain AD 71-84 posts.  You could even say I'm zealous about them.

So where did the word Zosimus come from?

As I already mentioned in my 'N for Names' post I like to give my characters a suitable name according to their nationality and/or character traits. In my most recent publication, TOPAZ EYES (an ancestral ‘treasure hunt’ mystery), my characters are of mainly European (Dutch/ German) descent. To find suitable names I looked in baby naming sites. Granted, I do hope that the information I pick up from there is accurate- and occasionally I recheck on alternative sites. I've also used baby naming sites for Celtic boys and girls in my historical novel THE BELTANE CHOICE. My tendency is to choose a name which has a give meaning and thus fits the attributes of my characters..

During the writing of my current historical sequel I needed to have a cast of Celtic characters and a cast of Roman ones. In my sequel I have a particularly 'dense' tironis (raw recruit in the Roman army) who required a fantastic name. While trawling the sites for ancient Roman/Latin names I came across ZOSIMUS.

ZOSIMUS – meaning – one likely to survive, survivor. 



Likely to survive was so NOT appropriate for my ‘slow into action’ lugubrious character that I just had to use it.

And ZEALOUS?


Zealous: filled with or inspired by intense enthusiasm or zeal; ardent; fervent

Whether or not you're interested in my theme period of AD 71-84 Celtic/ Roman Britain I hope someone can say that I've been pretty ZEALOUS in my posts all the way through from A to Z. I've really enjoyed sticking to my theme and have learned a lot along the way. I hope you have, too, if you've followed any of my A to Zs. 

Zosimus? Does that apply to me? Am I a survivor? I definitely am of the A to Z Challenge and I'm very thankful to the organisors for setting up the challenge!


BELTANE is tomorrow- 1st May. For 1 more day (ie April 30th) My historical adventure  - THE BELTANE CHOICE  - can be yours for the bargain price of 77p /99c on Amazon UK/US. 
 

Amazon.com    http://amzn.to/UdT8v0
Amazon.co.uk  http://amzn.to/Rqg7yY
 
And... There's one day left to WIN an ecopy by entering my competition! Check my A to Z blog post of Sat 20th April HERE 

Find the answer to this question...Which Beltane concept did I know I could definitely use in my novel The Beltane Choice? 

...and then email your answer to win@crookedcatbooks.com
Draw will take place tomorrow, the 1st May.
Good luck!




2 comments:

  1. I'm zealous about reading your posts and your books! A to Z has been fun. Check mine out - I went as far from Scotland as one can go - Scots in New Zealand.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Willa! Glad it's over but I loved the challenge.

    ReplyDelete

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