Thursday, March 17, 2011

Koo Koo Ka Choo

My new novel has 41 instances of the word "egg." My new novel which is not, I should be clear, about eggs.

This seems like a lot to me. Fully .06% of my novel is the word "egg." For reference I should tell you that my novel is in many ways actually about magic, but the words "magic" and "magical" only appear a combined total of 106 times.

For continued reference, I could add that my novel contains 75 mentions of cereal, and this is not accidental. But it also contains a whopping 2,502 instances of the word "and," YET IS NOT ABOUT CONJUNCTIONS.

No doubt some of you have a favorite word and are now wondering how many times it appears in my novel, and whether I could be persuaded to slip it in there if it doesn't. I invite your comments.

31 comments:

David said...

The obvious question: how many times does the word 'walrus' appear?

Kelly Polark said...

Eggs and cereal? Is your novel about breakfast fairies?
If so, can I have one whip me up some eggs benedict tomorrow morn?
Interesting because a leprechaun left my kids a box of Lucky Charms this morning.
(by the way, I'll be humming that Beatles song in my head the rest of the night. Not that it's a bad thing.)
Lastly, I'd like to see the word puerile in your book.

Adam Rex said...

Oh yeah–I guess I invited that. Well, I'm afraid there are zero walruses in my novel.

I'd like to see the word puerile in my book too, Kelly. As long as I could make its meaning clear through context–this IS a middle grade novel. I'll see what I can do.

And yes, it is about breakfast fairies. Though I don't think any of the egg mentions are breakfast-related, oddly enough.

McLean Kendree said...

I don't know that I have a favorite word, but I LOVE the number 12. You know, I mean, whatever.

Adam Rex said...

Five twelves. None of them written numerically, though–hope that's okay.

Holly said...

No novel is complete without the word "nugget".

Adam Rex said...

You must be a fan of Tony Diterlizzi, then–I think "nugget" is practically his daughter's middle name.

Zero nuggets in my novel, though. I'll try to work it in.

Ted Terranova said...

This reminds me of something we did in college during crits. We'd get together and assign each other strange words that you then had to somehow shoe-horn into your presentation in front of the professors and class. If you pulled off using a really crazy word you received tons of respect and praise.

How about "drizzle". It's fun to read and say and seems so odd to adults and yet as a kid you say it all the time.

Brian Biggs said...

Adam I mean to tell you that I took Wilson to see Battle: LA last week (which is a fun, bombastic, scary, CGI-enhanced film about an alien attack on Los Angeles) and halfway through it he turned to me and said "This reminds me of Smekday."
I nearly fell off my chair.

Kaethe said...

Magic and breakfast: I like it. I am a particular fan of the words "spleen" and "defenestrate". Yes, we talk about throwing organs out the window all the time at my house. If you do fit those in I'll buy two extra copies.

Amy Timberlake said...

Cantankerous. Obstreperous. And I love kumquat. 'Kumquat' is the perfect punctuation at the end of any sentence, surprises you and makes you happy!

MotherReader said...

Just. I have to go through just about everything I write and take out the word "just." Like that "just" before the word "about." Didn't even try to do that it just happens. Dammit!

Mr. H said...

Our middle school Guys Read club meets Fortnightly, just because it sounds cooler than every other week. Could you get Fortnightly in there?

Sarah Romano Diehl said...

I am so a fan of cereal, it is a diet staple. I am curious to know if you mention any varieties of the breakfast meal? There are so many delectable kinds.

Adam Rex said...

This is an unexpectedly popular post. Okay:

Ted: No drizzle. Seems like a reasonable request, though. We'll see.

Brian: I WIN! You know what also might remind people of Smekday? "Mars Needs Moms," which apparently also features a mom-kidnapped-by-aliens premise. And is apparently a flop, unfortunately.

Kaethe: I LOVE the word "defenestrate," but good luck. No "spleen," but there's a lot of talk about appendixes. Is that close enough?

Amy: None of those are in there, but I think "cantankerous" is a possibility. Had to look up "obstreperous."

MotherReader: Word tells me that I have 314 justs, though I think at least two of those are actually "justice." And I know what you mean–that word is like the literary "um."

Mr. H: I already have two instances of "fortnight!" I know, I'm just as surprised as you are. No adjectival or adverbial forms of the word, but still that's gotta count for something, right?

elephanta: I mention all sorts of brands of cereal, but they're all fictional. Including Honey Frosted Snox!, which actually had its debut in The True Meaning of Smekday.

JARED ANDREW SCHORR said...

I don't think any middle grade novel should be without the word flabbergasted. Maybe a cereal. FLABBERGASTERS!!

Anonymous said...

I'll settle for two appendixes, because I'm sure to like the book. And I'll throw out Veronica's favorite word: curiouser. Natasha is more bloodthirsty, "defenestrate" is currently her favorite, too.

Adam Rex said...

Ooh, good one Jared.

One curious, no curiousers, Vera. That's a hard one to pull off without sounding self-consciously Wonderlandish.

Kaethe said...

How about "quab"?

Adam Rex said...

Now you're just making things up.

Lebowski's Rug said...

I'm guessing the word "spackle" does not appear in your novel. I plan to boycott this and all future works of yours until this oversight is remedied. Perhaps you already hear protest chants. . .Spa-ckle! Spa-ckle! Spa-ckle!

Adam Rex said...

If I insist "spackle" IS in my book won't you have to read the whole thing to prove me wrong? I'm comfortable with that.

Unless you just get your hands on a searchable e-version, I guess. Stupid technology.

vampire12b said...

ok i have a totally unrelated question i literally finished fat vampire 5 minuets which i got earlier this afternoon and i have no idea what the ending means does he die or live

vampire12b said...

your the guy who wrote smekday wow i didn't relize that untill now i love when that happens you grab a random book (smekday) and love it then like a month or two later you grab a interesting looking book (fatvam) and relize there written buy the same person and your like wow cool

Adam Rex said...

Hey, vampire 12b.

I'm happy to answer your question, but I've decided to do it on a comment thread for a post about Fat Vampire. So check the end of the comments here:

http://adamrex.blogspot.com/2011/02/fat-vampire-banned-somewhere.html

Adam Rex said...

Oh, I love that too. Glad you liked Smekday!

Kaethe said...

I only make things up in my evil alter ego as Ms Information. No, "quab" shows up in The Superior Person's Book of Words which my Offspring are studying attentively. It's a freshwater fish, as well as a useful Scrabble word.

Anyway, I've loved both your novels so far, so I'm sure I'll enjoy this one enormously, regardless of the strange words that might or might not appear within.

Surfer Jay said...

Ooh, ooh, I gota one I got one. come on man, my arm is starting to hurt.

I actually keep a seperate word document used for the sole purpose of jotting down favorite or cool new words of mine as i write. The first word on my list, i will spare you from hearing, as i don't want another disgruntled parent to ban your book from another school library, albeit funny and probably free advertising for you, but i shall refrain.

My other three top favorites are:

'Cacophony' - (say that one three times fast and try to tell me a young teen wouldn't want to see that in a book.)
'Debauchery'
'Prostrate'
ok and I have to add 'Conniving', simple because it creates the perfect term when added to the first word on my list which I refrained from writing here. as in a conniving blankard.

Use one of those awesome words and I vow to buy my local schools library a copy of the book.

Adam Rex said...

Aha. My dictionary widget didn't recognize it, Kaethe.

Jay–I already have prostrate! So now I guess you have to buy it. I'll try to slip cacophony in there too.

Sandy Beach said...

A word like 'dinnyhaser' might be fun. Don't hear it very much so you could use it lots of times in your book to dazzle readers with cleverness.

Karen (: said...

Kinda late to comment but I couldn't resist. Do you have the word 'implode'? It's not too complicated but still remains unique. I guess that's why it's my favourite word!