Toad-eater

TOADY, n. My (recently finished!) novel draft has magic psychedelic drugs in it, so I’ve been reading a lot about real psychedelics—or not-real psychedelics, as in the case of this excellent article on psychedelic toads, an excerpt from Kimon de Greef’s book. And there’s a wonderful etymology in it that I just had to share:

At English country fairs in the 17th and 18th centuries, charlatan doctors hawked medicines by feeding live toads to hired assistants, who fainted or became delirious in front of onlookers, only to revive upon swallowing whichever concoction was being advertised. The assistants survived by lining their mouths and stomachs with oil or by consuming large meals in advance. They became known as “toadies,” a word that has drifted from being associated with charlatanism to its modern definition: a sycophant or obsequious helper.

I’m delighted to report that this is real! The OED entry for “toady” is sadly lacking in toad-eating anecdotes, except for a “Cf. toad-eater n. 2” in the etymology section to point us toward the good stuff.

The first definition for toad-eater is indeed the attendant of a charlatan, and then there are second and third definitions, “a fawning flatterer” and “a humble friend or dependent,” with a note that the latter term is contemptuous. Yeah, I didn’t think “toad-eater” was a compliment.

Bonus etymology: my four-year-old, who has appeared in this newsletter on prior occasions, asked me why “breakfast” had the word “fist” in it, so I wrote him his own Word Suitcase.

He read this note, thought about my explanation for a moment, and then said, “Can you write more words and talk less?” In his defense, I’m always asking myself the same thing.

Here’s what I’ve read lately in small-r romance:

The Casefile of Jay Moriarty (trans m/cis m, both gay, contemporary, novellas) by Kit Walker. These novellas take two villains from Sherlock Holmes (Moriarty and his henchman Moran), put them in contemporary London, make one trans and both gay, and set them upon a host of worse villains, including a world-renowned author of children’s fantasy books who is using her wealth and fame to persecute trans people. (Fictional, of course—or, at least, Moriarty and Moran are fictional.) They’re great fun. It’s been a long time since I read any Arthur Conan Doyle, but I have the impression that Walker is remixing elements from the source material—say, a tiger—in interesting ways. I absolutely love the titles of the novellas, too: Sebastian Moran Gets Mauled by a Tiger, Jay Moriarty Has Seen You Naked, Sebastian Moran Inflicts Six Traumatic Brain Injuries. For two hardened criminals, the romance is surprisingly tender—and unsurprisingly very sexy. Indie published; purchased from Smashwords.

A Widow’s Charm (bi m/het f, both cis, fantasy) by Caitlyn Paxson. I asked for “fantasy romance like T. Kingfisher’s” on Bluesky and this was one of the answers. It’s delightful. Hilde finds herself unexpectedly widowed, with her husband having failed to fulfill his promise to bequeath his lands to their tenants. Now his horrible brother is going to make the whole village homeless, unless, perhaps, Hilde can seduce the man next door who’s rumored to be able to bring back the dead with a touch. The man next door, an extremely traumatized bisexual facing down the consequences of all his bad decisions, would very much like to be seduced, but he’s not keen on the resurrection part of Hilde’s plan. There’s a truly heinous villain, a dog who is literally lord of the manor, a very clever lawyer, and an autistic butch lesbian who is, of course, the only one with any sense. (Excited for her to be the heroine of the next book.) Also, a very theatrical sequence where everyone’s trapped in the same house and all night they go in and out of each other’s rooms having dramatic encounters, which I loved. Library ebook.

You, Me, and the Conspiracy (m/f, both cis and het, contemporary) by Emma Barry. Jess is trying to get tenure as a professor of US history and her book gets rejected, which is devastating. She goes hunting for new material in the archives, comes across a coded message, and stumbles upon a conspiracy. She recalls seeing someone give a conference presentation about a conspiracy in early US history, and when she finds him, she discovers that (1) he’s still hot and (2) giving that presentation destroyed his career, because the conspiracy is still operating. Now Jess and Cal are in trouble together, and naturally they have to Kiss to Avert Suspicion, one of the best things. They go on the run, learn how to break and enter, and hide out in Cal’s crackpot friend’s vintage RV, which forces them into such proximity that it becomes almost like another character in the book. Jess and Cal are desperately horny for each other, even though/because they are in mortal danger, which is just how I like my romantic suspense protagonists. Advance Review Copy; available November 10.

In books that are neither Romance nor romance, I read There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood by Rasheed Newson, which is a novel in the form of a tell-all memoir. The narrator, Aaron, worked as a “fixer” in 1950s and 60s Hollywood, hushing up scandals about stars before they happened, so he knows a lot of secrets. Aaron is a gay Black man. He works with Black stars, since the studio’s white fixers can’t inconspicuously follow them into Black spaces. The novel follows his doomed romance with Horace, a Black war hero he served with in the Korean war, and his extremely complex professional and personal relationship with Xavier Barlow, a rising Black star who, as he gains power in Hollywood, starts to think about coming out of the closet and speaking up for gay rights. Aaron’s life and career have made him politically cautious, even conservative, and it’s his job to keep Xavier in line, so they clash. The three men form an incredibly tense triangle—even after Horace’s death, Xavier ends up playing him in a biopic—and it ends in tragedy. This was glamorous and gritty and staggeringly well-researched, blending fiction and reality, and the scenes of gay life in mid-century Hollywood are vivid. I’ll be thinking about this one for a while. Library ebook.

That’s all for this time. I’ll be back in your inbox on October 25.

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