Collectively speaking - Karen Bush

No, we are not a pack of dogs.
Try again ...

I was thinking the other day about the collective nouns given to birds. A gaggle of geese sounds just about right when the beastly things are in hot pursuit of you, and a flamboyance of flamingoes is spot on too. I love a bellowing of bullfinches and an omniscience of godwits is just sublime, but a murder of crows seems a bit unfair and unnecessarily name-tarnishing. But it turns out that you can also have a parliament of crows - although it can be confusing as you can have a parliament of owls too. And going by our own parliament that's not exactly a compliment of any kind either. 

There are some truly wonderful group names, which are not confined solely to birds either - whoever came up with a bloat of hippopotamuses or a fluther of jellyfish? And did you know that the old English term of venery for a load of kittens was a kindle? Think on that next time you switch on your e-reader ...

All this pondering naturally led me to thinking about collective terms for groups of authors. I know it's an idea which has been thought about before, but since many birds and animals actually have more than one collective noun, why shouldn't we? 

A scribble of writers for example, for those who prefer to get the first draft done with a good old fashioned pen (or even a pencil) or a clatter of typists for those who refuse to be parted from their cherished Olivettis, Smith-Coronas and Olympias ... 

And then there are all the different genres to consider: in my own specialist area, I'm thinking of a ride of equestrian writers - or should that perhaps be a canter? Some genres have sub-categories that could be further defined - within my own horsy purlieu, a piaffe or maybe a passage of dressage writers, a leap of showjumping writers, a hammer of farriery writers (yes, they do exist) and of course, a gallop of racing writers ...

Looking wider afield, how about a curse of horror writers? A scream of ghost story writers? A mystery of whodunnit writers?   A whirlwind of romance writers? And there are still dozens of others - gangster, fantasy, historic, comic, Western, courtroom, murder, epic, superhero, zombie, adventure, cops'n'robbers ...

Of course. A snuggle of whippets.