Etsy - Etsi - A Latinist Trying to Make a Living...

I heard an interesting report on NPR this morning about the hand-crafted product site Etsy. I have a student who makes incredible knitted products and I was happy to learn that she is already on Etsy and I expect her to eventually make a living wage off her talents.

As I listened to this report, however, I momentarily thought through my thesis, never before published but about to be here, that the Romanian basic conjunctive și (and) is actually descended from Latin etsi (and yet). Some say it's derived from the Latin word sic (thus). But that just makes no sense.

That's quite beside the point. I was intrigued as I heard the report that makers of hand-crafted products have essentially found a way to do exactly what I've done in the publishing world. I could, of course, have persisted in trying to find a traditional publisher for my fiction. But my experience in writing Intermediate Arabic for Dummies convinced me that the future lay in independent publishing. So I created Lingua Sacra Publishing, which has published books by me, David Justice, and Melinda Johnson. 

My latest book is entitled In Saecula Saeculorum. It's the story of four high school students who didn't know it, but their high school was a secret front by the NSA and British MI-6 to prepare them to undertake a mission back in time to save the world from destruction. 

They'll face trials in the areas of attractions, addictions, and overall emotional turmoil. But that only makes them normal teenagers.

In Saecula Saeculorum is a story of triumph and tragedy--victory and loss. These four students are on a mission to save the world. But can they also save each other?