It’s pronounced El-free-da Bee-zhoo.

The ‘zh’ is the tricky part; we don’t do that when we speak English. Imagine saying “sh,” but begin with a ‘z’ instead of an s. Or, use a soft ‘j’, like in the French name Jean, or Georges. Like in the name ‘Zsa Zsa.’ The ‘x’ is silent. If you insist on pronouncing it, I’ll know you’re a tourist.

This blog was originally a place to show my new jewelry designs. It’s now a writing blog. Fiction sells, beaded jewelry doesn’t, for some reason I don’t yet understand. I like writing better, anyway.

If you think about it, making things from tiny beads and writing are two ways of doing the same thing. In both, you use basic building blocks–beads or words–to construct something larger. What you end up with depends on how you arrange those blocks, how many you use, what kind, and how you secure them together. Knowing how to make something out of (next to) nothing really helps.