The Missiletoe Command Arcade & Slushy Bar

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Raventongue

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I hope so, but I did see a spider on this very hand 2 nights ago. But yeah, hopefully it's nothing. I noticed the spot yesterday and it's darkened and gotten a bit bigger since, but there's no pain or anything. i could have had an allergic reaction to something.

It's still very likely the spider walked on his merry way and something else happened to your hand before/after that. Especially if you don't see fang marks (though not all spider bites will have visible fang marks, of course- it's just one indicator). Though my sympathies if it is a spider bite of the not-deadly-but-still-poison variety.

I once saw a wolf spider rear up and sink his (adorable little) fangs into my shin. I didn't even know they could/did bite humans until then. Didn't hurt, but for a week or so afterward you could distinctly see the two puncture wounds, like from a tiny vampire. That's the only impact it had on my life at all.

That said, if you live in an area where fatally venomous spiders tend to thrive, I'd say go to the doctor anyway simply because it's better to be safe than sorry. But the number of people who don't live in those areas and who go to the doctor flipping out thinking a black widow crawled out of a crate of grapes or something to hunt them down is a problem- statistically you're probably more likely to die of some rare disease you picked up off the grapes.
 

Little Anonymous Me

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Thanks Fen! :D


I'll be posting my own to be decimated in a month or so, and I thought I should be an active participant before I beg the populace to tear mine to shit. ;)
 

Kweei

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It's still very likely the spider walked on his merry way and something else happened to your hand before/after that. Especially if you don't see fang marks (though not all spider bites will have visible fang marks, of course- it's just one indicator). Though my sympathies if it is a spider bite of the not-deadly-but-still-poison variety.

I once saw a wolf spider rear up and sink his (adorable little) fangs into my shin. I didn't even know they could/did bite humans until then. Didn't hurt, but for a week or so afterward you could distinctly see the two puncture wounds, like from a tiny vampire. That's the only impact it had on my life at all.

That said, if you live in an area where fatally venomous spiders tend to thrive, I'd say go to the doctor anyway simply because it's better to be safe than sorry. But the number of people who don't live in those areas and who go to the doctor flipping out thinking a black widow crawled out of a crate of grapes or something to hunt them down is a problem- statistically you're probably more likely to die of some rare disease you picked up off the grapes.

I am in the Northeast, so usually spiders aren't much of an issue. I'm just being a whiny baby ;)
 

Crayonz

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Beware the Multi-Quote Button!

:welcome: You'll fit right in.

Mind the the scary creatures. Have a magic refillable glass and watch what you sit on, it might still be breathing.

You had me at cookies. Though the whisky only sweetens the deal.

Welcome aboard food-and-booze-bringing new person! :D

:welcome: We always welcomes newbies to the Cantina! Sit down and let the Cantina devour your soul spend some happy time in the Cantina because we ar—erm, it isn't some malevolent soul-devouring entity that has already made us into its thralls.
But... I like my soul. What's left of it, anyways.

Also, that is the most adorable duckling avatar.
Don't look into its eye too long or you'll find days have passed with no recollection of what happened. :D

Whoo, not the new guy anymore! Hi Crayonz :) :hi:

Crayonz! And whiskey! And cookies! Hells yes!

And, incidentally, crayons. It's Art Hour.

Marry me. Err... I mean :hi: Welcome to the Cantina.
Well, I am single.... :tongue

Hi Cray! Welcome to the Cantina!

Welcome, Crayonz! :)
Raven! V! :hi:

Thanks for the welcome, guys. :D Booze and choc-chip cookies for everyone!

Well, it's happened.

I'm done with this round of editing.
:hooray: :partyguy: :hooray:
 
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Fenika

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Thanks Fen! :D


I'll be posting my own to be decimated in a month or so, and I thought I should be an active participant before I beg the populace to tear mine to shit. ;)

Sounds like a good plan :D

I am in the Northeast, so usually spiders aren't much of an issue. I'm just being a whiny baby ;)

Five points for honesty :)
 

J. A. Rama

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I think I'm gonna do FirstLastBooks. Gmail doesn't do periods or underscores, and LastFirst is taken too. Thanks, guys :)

Congrats on 5000 posts, 10s!

Bobo, tell Ethan to stop being a butthead. Unless it was Oscar. Then tell Oscar to stop bein a butthead.

It was Mike. XD

That's what I get for taking a break to jot down a plot nibble!

Written about 1000 words today.
 

jallenecs

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Hi, Crayonz! Sorry I didn't say it earlier; I've been terribly distracted the last week or two.

I only know about three phrases in French, and one of them is the word for pencil. So every time I read your name, I hear it in an incredibly thick French accent, "un crayone."
 

zanzjan

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I was out of town and away from ze internetz yesterday, so welcome Crayonz!

Went to one day of a science fiction convention yesterday and attended a panel on meta-narrative, and that's been occupying much of my thinking since then. If I've missed anything important, lemme know. :)
 

J. A. Rama

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Reporting 1387 words today.

Maxwell, if it's what I think it is, that's a good address! And woo hoo for joining RWA! :)

Zanz, that's awesome! Any interesting ideas there?

Crayonz: D'AWWWW duckling! *dies of cute* *wakes up five minutes later with no recollection of what happened* *sees duckling* D'AWWWW duckling! *dies of cute* *etc. etc.*

LAM: Yay for critiquing a query! I'm way far from needing to do one of my own right now, but as you seem to be a literate person who's not a spammer, you can't go wrong, right? I mean, even if it's your first or second, as long as you can tell the OP whether their query makes you want to pick up the book, I guess you're halfway there! Hmm. Maybe I should take my own advice, and go critique some in QLH myself...
 
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Crayonz

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Hello new person! I was not here for your official entrance, I believe. :D
:hi:

Hi, Crayonz! Sorry I didn't say it earlier; I've been terribly distracted the last week or two.

I only know about three phrases in French, and one of them is the word for pencil. So every time I read your name, I hear it in an incredibly thick French accent, "un crayone."
No harm, no foul. Hm... maybe un crayonez would be closer? ;)

And ducklings!
Of course! What is a thread without ducklings?


Welcome Crayonz, and I'll relieve you of that whiskey if you don't mind!
I don't mind at all. :) I'm assuming that these magic mugs fill with alcohol along with other writerly (read: coffee, tea, etc.) substances?
I was out of town and away from ze internetz yesterday, so welcome Crayonz!
Hiya!

Bobo - I did warn ya'll not to look at thee duckling for too long... Keep it up and you will find yourself sans brain. ;)
 

zanzjan

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Zanz, that's awesome! Any interesting ideas there?

Yeah. I'm still sort of processing it.

The idea of meta-narrative is when an author has a bunch of novels, short fiction, etc. that are stand-alone works (or series of works) but which has embedded in them little bits and pieces of another narrative arc. I tried to analogize this earlier to being a single puzzle piece in the bottom of a box of cereal -- eat enough cereal, you can put the picture together, but the casual cereal eater won't enjoy each bowl any less for lack of other pieces.

There was discussion about how in some cases it's a true narrative, and in others its shared worldbuilding where the reader can put together a larger history/picture of the author's universe, but it's not a narrative per se. One panelist gave an example where two authors did this cooperatively across their otherwise unrelated bodies of work, which really intrigued me.

I sort of do this, I guess, in that most of my stuff is set in the same universe, but I haven't made much effort to connect the dots for readers per se (though neither have I avoided doing so.) An audience-member suggested that approach was authorial laziness -- reusing elements from story to story -- but I don't think that's true for me. More, I think it's an offshoot of coping with my own fundamental ADDness, where when I'm writing I touch on things where part of me goes Ooooh, shiny! Go off on a tangent with that for a while! and, while exercising some amount of discipline to keep from going completely off the rails, end up sowing seeds that then grow up into different stories, like dandelion fluff infesting the yard next door. :)

I don't think I do it in any coherent way that could be called a genuine meta-narrative, and I'm not sure I feel any strong need to, but maybe at some point my scattershot connections in stories will start to add up to something that has more of a narrative framework. Interesting to think about, anyway.
 

J. A. Rama

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Zanz, that's an awesome idea. I didn't know that's what it was called, but I just realized I'm already doing it in my set of series. I don't think it's authorial laziness -- if anything, such meta-stories actually make the stories MORE complicated, because you have to cleverly weave in all these easter eggs, and make them something you can build on, but also not leave it as a loose end. It also has to be subtle, which is really hard to do. I love it when writers do that, because it makes me feel like it's a real world, and that there will always be something new to discover about it. It's really like another layer of complexity, rather than the same material used over and over.
 

zanzjan

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Ah, yes, easter eggs is a great way of putting it.

I don't think anyone was particularly convinced by the laziness argument, at least none of the actual writers in the room. :)
 

Fenika

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Easter eggs and ducklings. I approve this thread :)

Morning folks. Since Ali isn't in yet, I'll set up the tea bar.

:Coffee:
 

Fenika

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I never finished that book. Even after skipping to the end.
 

Fenika

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Gaiiiiissss

7 working days left! Seven!

Ion, I can't sell my house without taking a big hit :(
 

Lissibith

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*Drags in. Leaves mint tea for any who want it. Tries to wave to newcomers. Lapses into naptime*

Good morning all. I think Monday may have already won. Where is caffeine when I need it? Oh Discordia...

*Meanders off again*
 

CobraMisfit

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