Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Random Wednesday Thoughts

I had SO MUCH fun with the giveaway yesterday! I loved the funny comments sprinkled throughout the questions and the various guessers of answers! Woohoo! Thanks to everyone who stopped by.

This will be my last chance to post before Christmas, so for those of you who celebrate it, Merry Christmas!

I'll be working through the holidays, but I still enjoy this time of year. I like the lights, and I really like the fact that there's no more traffic on my commute, nor is there a problem parking! Yay!

Luckily, though, I will have more down time than usual in the evenings, and I'll be working on my new novel, whose working title is--sadly--Cyberlama. An equally bad alternative is Let Me Go, Dalai Lama. Yeah, did I mention it took me about five years to come up with the title Rooster for my last novel? I'm excited about this story, though. I feel like I've finally latched onto something after working through about a dozen other story ideas.

124 comments:

  1. I can't wait to read Cyberlama! I'm really sorry you have to work over the holidays, Davin. :(

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  2. I'm glad you've at least nailed the project down enough to work on it. That's awesome!

    Merry Christmas, Pee Domey!

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  3. Michelle, it's not so bad working through the holidays. The pace here is slower and happier, so I'm not complaining too much. :)

    Merry Christmas, TJN!

    Nevets, yeah, it's strange, but some stories just hold my attention while others fizzle away. Intellectually, I can't tell the difference, but my gut seems to like some stories more than others.

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  4. Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a great holiday, and a safe & Happy New Year!

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  5. My friend, I'm sorry to hear about the five-year "Rooster" ordeal. Haha. Happy Christmas and a merry New Year!

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  6. For some reason, I thought you guys were going to do what you did yesterday for five days....

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  7. Justus, Merry happy to you too!

    Yat-Yee, our new business motto is to communicate poorly and to stay as disorganized as possible. That may have been the problem.

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  8. Sorry, didn't mean to accuse...I am pretty sure I didn't read it right. Commenting on it was my sneaky way of maybe convincing you guys would do another day.

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  9. Yat-Yee, I did have one person not claim her prize. I could ask another question today. :)

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  10. I have reason to believe your Twitter publicist is available for another half an hour or so to promote it if you do, Michelle...

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  11. Is our business model affecting our profits?

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  12. Scott, happily, no. We've managed to avoid the recession completely, doubling, even tripling our profits compared to last year!

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  13. Michelle: you're very sweet. If you do it, I'm most intrigued in seeing what conversation your question will generate. The prizes are great but reading the comments was extra-super fun. You guys have gathered a really smart and witty group around you.

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  14. Doing things for free and paying-out-pocket is the one business model that can never collapse.

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  15. Yes, Yat-Yee, I agree! Although I must say I was surprised at the lack of enthusiasm for the Edward Twilight action figure. Guess he's all mine. I won't submit him to anymore ridicule by trying to pawn him off on someone else.

    Let me put together another question. :)

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  16. Michelle, I think every year you should try and give away the Edward doll. We'll see how long it takes! :)

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  17. Nevets, you work so hard for us. Another raise for you! Raises all around!

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  18. With every raise comes more responsibility, so a percentage increase on free matched with a percentage increase of work output... Sounds like Christmas!

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  19. Just talking about getting another question out there has generated a lively discussion. Can you imagine the power you'll unleash if you choose to go bigger?

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  20. All right! For a $5 Amazon card, answer the following question.

    There is one word which has more definitions than any other in the English language. What is it?

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  21. Bigger and better! That's our motto for 2011.

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  22. Just think, Yat-Yee; you catalyzed all this.

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  23. Our blog is like that box that you're never supposed to open, only then someone opens it, and all these winged-Nevetses fly out, all except for the Hope Nevets.

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  24. Bigger eels. Bigger roosters. Bigger butterflies.

    With bigger Vodka for Simon.

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  25. Pandora should be our theme for next year's anthology

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  26. The Hope Nevets remains forever out of reach.

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  27. Um, Jesus wept? No, wrong question. Snow? No, that's some Icelandic language.

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  28. Domey - Cinders isn't a word; it's a character's name.

    *ducking*

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  29. I know, but I just couldn't help myself. It's the darkness in me. Sometimes it just comes out.

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  30. If I had a dollar for every time Nevets had his life threatened over blog comments, I'd be wealthy.

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  31. @Scott - Now *that* would be a viable business plan.

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  32. Is this like one of those riddles what's black and white and red all over?

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  33. I can't kill Nevets. He's helping me write Thirds. Nobody will call Issina "Thirds", will they?

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  34. *resisting the urge to google*

    *thinking, thinking...*

    a verb that is also a noun? A gerund without the ing? a word that only makes sense at 1:17? Edward doll?

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  35. The, Run, Time, No, Hate, Set, Thing

    Just a bunch of guesses. >_0

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  36. I hope not. At least not more than one or two.

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  37. Cee: You got it! "Set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language. At least according to where I looked it up.

    Email me at ladyglamis@gmail.com to claim your prize. :)

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  38. OMG SERIOUSLY? :D I was just thinking "ready set go" in my head and picked that one. XD

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  39. It's not "morphozoology." Unless there are more meanings of that word than I am aware of.

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  40. now im tempted to google that word to see the definitions. How many definitions can it have? @_@

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  41. Congrats, Cee, and congrats, Yat-Yee, for sparking this flurry of fun!

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  42. @Tara - Nor was it osteodontokeratic.

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  43. And just for fun, for KUDOS points because I have no money or prizes left, here's another question:

    What is the longest one-syllable word in the English language?

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  44. Schpluooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorg?

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  45. If we use it enough times, it will become a word. I think you should put it in all your novellas!

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  46. Davin, that would be funny. I wonder where that would fit in Cinders. Hahaha.

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  47. Nevets, do we need to teach you how to count syllables? Put your hand under your chin, and each time it moves you have another syllable.

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  48. The kitchen scene. Har har har.

    "Christina winced as the knife sliced through the duck's back and made a sickening sound: Schpluooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorg."

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  49. Woooo thankies! :D *bounces* Also thanks for the congrats C.N. :)

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  50. @Michelle - that was roughly what I was thinking, yes. lol

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  51. Come on, nobody knows the answer? How about the winner gets to do a guest post for us?

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  52. I need to get going. Good luck! Someone's gotta have Google on hand. :)

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  53. That's right, Nevets, take off when things get tough.

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  54. Hey, I like the title Cyberlama! ;o) Sounds great to me!

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  55. Nevets just informed me there is more than one. Sorry, Cee, "stumped" isn't one of them.

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  56. Haha, Carol. Well, thanks! I doubt it will stick, though.

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  57. Yeah, my source sucks. Well, name one of them.

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  58. It's not fair to those of us that do not work near a computer... :(
    I knew set, 200 fingers tapping, but I would've incorrectly guessed violin.
    However, and the longest word is...
    Smiles. (Two S's separated by a mile.)

    Keep the action figure! lol

    Merry Christmas to those that celebrate!

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  59. Could it be "straight"?

    I had a blast yesterday. Thanks for all the fun!

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  60. There's more than one? Oh rats. Then I vote for "Arggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

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  61. Stephanie, that's the most commonly cited one. Good job!

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  62. Charlie, that's funny! Mizmak, thanks for joining us yesterday!

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  63. The one that's most commonly cited is screeched (nine letters). But there are also scratched, scrounged, scrunched, stretched, and the plural nouns straights and strengths (all with nine letters).

    The 20-volume historical Oxford English Dictionary also has scraughed, scrinched, scritched, scrooched, sprainged, spreathed, throughed, and thrutched. It includes, too, a single instance of the ten-letter word scraunched, from the 1620 English translation of Don Quixote, a novel by the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes.

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  64. I think the word "scraunched" needs to come back into existence.

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  65. Wow, I shouldn't step away from this place, even for a few minutes!

    Fun and merriment: your new blog title!

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  66. Is sprainged what you say when you sprain your jaw and have sinus problems?

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  67. Yat-Yee, I have no idea, but we should check.

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  68. "Arggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

    Now write a book with just one syb words. Damn, it is hard. I can not make it through one post that well.

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  69. I wonder how many one-syllable words there are in English. It would be hard to write much with none but those.

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  70. Impressive effort there, Mr. Bailey.

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  71. Did I miss the answer to the word with the most definitions? Is it "dictionary"? Because that has tens of thousands of definitions.

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  72. The One-Syllable-Word Short Story

    Once, there was a man who wrote a tale which he called “White Male Fowl with Red Comb.” But it was not quite right. The name was wrong.
    “What can I do?” he said to his friend Scott, whom he had phoned from a phone booth in Black Rock.
    “You can stew for years,” Scott said. “And then get it right. Or not. Hey, did you know my new tale is called ‘Eels’?”
    “I do not like eels. They taste odd.”
    “I do not like white male fowl with red combs. So there.”
    “Fie on you, my fowl friend!”
    “Ooh, that is a bad, bad pun. You will pay for that one day!”
    The man hung up on his friend. It was not a good day.
    The next day, he stewed.
    And the next day, too.
    And he stewed for five years.
    He thought of eels from time to time. He still did not like them.
    Then one bright day, he had a new thought.
    “I will call it ‘Bad Day at Black Rock!’”
    This was not a good thought.
    Then his friend Scott phoned him up. “I was mean,” he said. “Don’t hate me. I rue that day.”
    “Roo?” said the man. “What kind of word is ‘roo’? Who says ‘roo’?”
    “Not *roo*. *Rue.* What kind of word is ‘roo’?”
    “Like in ‘Pooh’!”
    “Oh. Well, Pooh to you!”
    The man hung up on his friend.
    “’Roo’ is a fine word,” he thought. Then he went back to stew some more on the name of his tale.

    He still did not like eels. Not one bit.

    The End.

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  73. Bravo, Mizmak! I'll give you a prize. You can guest post for me!

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  74. Mizmak, you have brought sunshine to a rainy day.

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  75. How very clever! Isn't it funny that the word "syllable" ruins the title for being all one syllables?

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  76. Yat-Yee: Thanks! I would love to guest-post if The Literary Lab will have me!

    Michelle: Yes, the title was the one sticking point. But hey, titles are hard, right?

    Happy Holidays, everyone!

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  77. Alex, that was awesme enough that I am posting a comment on my phone in the Target food court while my wife xmas shops what she wants to get me. Well done!

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  78. Oh Mizmak, I'm not in a position to offer you a guest spot on this hot spot; I am able to offer you a spot on my humble abode.

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  79. Nevets, I must say you are addicted to the Lit Lab.

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  80. The "Roo" tale is too good for me. I had hopes that you would work in the last half of the book's name and get "ster" into it in some way. But it was a nice bit of work there, Miss M.

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  81. Alex, we'll take you any time for a guest post! Just let us know when and what you'd like to post about. :)

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  82. Yat-Yee: Oh, sorry, my bad -- I thought you'd won the Literary Lab guest spot prize! I'm happy to guest post at your humble abode!

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  83. I think Stephanie won that prize. She's welcome to post here as well.

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  84. Note to Yat-Yee: I couldn't find an email contact on your blog (which is right up my alley -- I love MG/YA!) so feel free to drop me a line at: mizmak@gmail.com -- I'll try to come up with a guest post over the holidays. Cheers!
    (I *love* Kate DiCamillo.)

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  85. Happy Holidays, Davin (and everybody else too!)

    I thought of the three of you Lit Lab folks today when I saw a mug in a catalog shaped like a lab beaker...

    ~bru

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