Friday, September 23, 2011

Lofty Lobster Loquacity

LYRIC O’ THE DAY:
Things have been dark for too long.
--Don’t Change, INXS

Happy Friday to all!!  I am thrilled to say I have been given some Crustacean love by the fabulous Kathleen at Writing, Reading, and Life.  Thank you so much!  Liebster is from the German for sweetheart, but thanks to my four year old, I will always think of lobsters!  Given this week I am sort of into bizarre animal facts, I have found a few interesting things about lobsters.

1.  To distinguish a male lobster from a female, there is a set of appendages on the first segment of their body.  The appendages of females are feathery; males’ are bony. 

2.  Lobster blood is clear.

3.  Lobsters exhibit “handedness” and have a preferred claw.

4.  Klingons were modeled after lobsters.  OK, that’s totally not true, but I think a valid comparison:

Today I am also taking part in Rachael Harrie’s Platform Building Campaign Second Challenge.  For this one, we had to write a piece of flash fiction (200 words) using the words "oscitate", "synchronicity", "miasma", and "lacuna".  And don't forget "imago" in the title.  Uhm, it was difficult, but here goes:
The Librarian’s imago
Caitlin pushed her black plastic frames up her nose, frowning.
“Jackson, you are a blathering idiot behind a testosterone miasma.”
A lazy smile spread across Jackson’s lips.  “I love when you talk dirty, Cate.  I don’t know what the hell you just said, but coming from those rosebud lips, sounds like poetry.”
A hot blush hit her cheeks.  Traitorous hormones.  She forced herself to oscitate.  “Like you ever read poetry.”
“I know a few good limericks.  There was an old man from Nantucket. . .”
“Stop.”
His smile got wider.  “Apparently you know that one.”
“Why are you here, Jackson?  Libraries are for people who can read.”
“Heard you were back.  Little Miss Graduate Degree, working in the stacks of a rundown backwoods library.  Here to educate us hicks?” 
“It’s none of your business why I’m back.”
“I think you missed me.  I used to be your favorite low entertainment.”
“There’s a lacuna in my memory about that.”
Jackson leaned over the circulation desk until she could smell the clean spice of his aftershave.  “I don’t believe anything happens without meaning.  You and I, we’re together for a reason.  That’s called synchronicity.”
“Where’d you learn that word?”
The Police.  1984 World Tour.”


Happy Friday, everybody!!

44 comments:

  1. LOVE LOVE LOVE your flash fic! LOL! Very cute. ;)

    Congrats on the Lobster, er, Liebster Award.

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  2. Yay! Happy Friday! Love the FF, and i would've totally bought that Klingon/Lobster fact

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  3. This was great, I can really sense the tension between the two of them!

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  4. This flash is fantastic!! Thanks for sharing -- love it! Jackson is totally my type, unfortunately. *sigh* Why can't we stay away from bad boys? No, seriously. Why?

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  5. Love it! "The Police. 1984 World Tour." Priceless. Great job getting those words in there :)

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  6. Your entry is funny! And Worf is offended by the lobster comparison.

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  7. I love this. It's light-hearted and well written. Being a librarian makes it natural for her to know the words.
    Well executed!

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  8. Ooh, already some good tension between those two. Good back and forth dialogue.

    Congrats on the Lobster award!

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  9. Congrats on your lobster! I liked your argumentative story...it's funny. And oscitate is a real word after all. I thought it was a typo and she meant oscillate. I didn't join the contest but will post a story for it on Monday. Great job,Julie. :)

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  10. Oh, and thank you. I had to go back and fix oscillate to oscitate...now no one will wonder, except of course anybody who reads your blog. :)

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  11. Great entry - and congrats on the award! :)

    Have a great weekend!

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  12. Klingon lobsters? I'd buy that :-)

    Nice use of some tough words there.

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  13. Is it true that lobsters mate for life??

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  14. Count me as smart as a four year old. When I first saw the word liebster, I thought it was lobster too.

    Fun lobster fact #5: For some reason warm melted butter make lobsters slowly disappear.

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  15. Like the sparky dialogue between the two characters. Thought you captured the dynamic between them very well.

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  16. I love this. His arrogance is dripping all over me!Mine is #29

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  17. Absolutely excellent! Although now I will be listening to INXS for the rest of the afternoon!!

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  18. I loved this! Liking it. Loved the dialogue, their interaction, everything.

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  19. I have an irrational fear of lobsters. Well, it's not a fear, actually, just a very strong negative reaction to them. Knowing, now, that their blood runs clear, only reinforces my odd response.

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  20. What a fun post! The characterisation is great. I love the way the characters bounce off one another.
    Mine is #3.

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  21. Now all I can think of are Klingons with one giant claw.

    Happy Weekend!

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  22. I love your entry! It flows effortlessly and I love how it's practically all dialogue. U rock.

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  23. Hehe. LOVED this. Very creative usage of the given words for the challenge. And Poet really liked the reference to limericks and poetry, of course.

    There are left-clawed and right-clawed lobsters?
    So who determines which one "pinch" hits?

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  24. I just loved your entry! I could see the blush creep up her cheeks at Jackson's wise-arrrssss comeback in my mind's eye. I already love Jackson...just a bit! Ha! ~ Nadja

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  25. Nice idea of using a dialog exchange to work in the challenge words!

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  26. I absolutely love the way you tackled the challenge words. Job well done!

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  27. Ah, this is a good story! Made me smile in places.

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  28. Maybe there is a good reason that they are exes? Want to read more. Great job!

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  29. I enjoyed the tension between those two. And congrats on the award.

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  30. Lot of fun and great character development for just two hundred words. Like it a lot - off to vote :)

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  31. wonderful! Love the dichotomy of the two characters! :D

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  32. Wow! I can't believe you threw The Police in there. How amazingly creative, and a pleasant read. I'd totally read on.

    Great job, julie! :)

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  33. I love it, Julie! What a great story. I giggled when I read, "a blathering idiot behind a testosterone miasma"!

    I'm # 157

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  34. That was fantastic! I love the tension between the characters. Steamy. Great use of the words. :)

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  35. Great interplay between the two characters! And making her a librarian gives a perfect excuse for the big words, with a great punchline of an ending.

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  36. Brilliant! Love the flow of the dialogue. I like that picture of the productivity Bermuda Triangle in your other post...

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  37. That was a really fun read. Thanks.

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  38. Excellent. Brilliant. Fine writing. Great word usage.

    #188

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  39. I love your piece it flowed well and gave a lot of info about the characters in such a short piece. Great job!!

    #189

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  40. OMG! Flash fic talent that I can only dream of!

    I want to read the whole story now ;)

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