The Deep Six?

This is the story behind the creation of “The Deep Six."  It all started in early 2010 with the title that I wanted to use for my first ever NANO attempt. November is national novel writing month, and although I’d known about the challenge for some years, I’d never managed to remember to start my project at the time when I needed to. That is to say, that usually around November tenth or so I remembered the challenge. Too late for me to start a fifty thousand word project which is the minimum necessary to have a document considered a novel. So while the event was taking place in 2009, I made a vow not to miss the next challenge. Once my account was set up, and my title submitted, I waited for the glorious day when the writing would begin.

If you’d like to learn more about NANO or join in the fun, you can visit: www.nanowrimo.org

The idea behind the title was to tell a story about a mine accident from the perspective of the families above ground rather than of the miners below ground. Having grown up with the term the deep six, which to me meant something buried under the ground, I thought it was an apropos name for a book provided I had six miners trapped during the accident.

You can see the definition of deep six here: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deep six

However, during the months before the challenge began, I pondered the idea for the story. That’s when I realized the loved ones I’d be writing about were experiencing their own struggle. Not only would they need to deal with the terror of what happened underground; they'd have to deal with the situations in their own lives, which had trapped or buried them. These people had let the muck of life smother them. How would they ever be able to survive this additional trial? They needed someone to help them and lead them out of the darkness. They needed someone each could trust and believe in. They needed someone in tune with a higher power. This person turned out to be Joyce Pennington.

So that is how “The Deep Six” came to be. If you’d like to read part of the book, you can click on the book's cover image, and you’ll go to Amazon.com where you can enjoy the beginning.

Until next time, I hope you have a great day.

Will that burn?

I guess I’ve always been intrigued by words. Without question I’d have to attribute this to my mother who on many occasions would read stories to me and my brother before bed. I know this had a great deal with my love of reading and it always amazed me then how fast she could read a book. I attribute this to the time I checked out “Robinson Crusoe” from the school library. It took me two weeks to read that book, but my mother read it in a single evening. She was an avid reader and when she went blind losing that ability pained her more than anything.
 
It was on a trip from my grandmother’s house that we ended up behind a fuel truck. On the back of the tank with all the placards and warning signs was the word inflammable in bright red letters.
 
“What does that word mean?” I asked pointed past my mother toward the letters.
 
“It means it will catch fire. That’s a gasoline truck. It’s hauling gasoline.”
 
“So why did they spell it that way?” I asked, not entirely sure I’d hear an answer I’d find satisfactory.
 
“That’s just the way it’s spelled.”
 
“Well it just seems to me that something that will catch fire should be called flammable instead of inflammable. Because doesn’t the prefix “in” mean not?”
 
My dad agreed with me, but my mom took the high road. “Why don’t you look it up when we get home, then you can tell us what you find out.”
 
Great I thought. I ask a simple question to question what I’d learned in school and end up doing homework. Needless to say I opened our dictionary soon after arriving home and looked up my questioned word. To my horror I discovered the use of the word had been correct. That troubled me then, but now the word flammable is the preferred word for such warnings. Due to the fact that the prefix “in” can be confusing to some people and lead them to believe the item is not flammable or nonflammable.

Still if you look up both words, flammable and inflammable, you’ll find they have the same definition.

Have a ball

Since the ball is in my court, I thought I’d get the ball rolling and run with the ball.  I must admit, I felt as if I’d put myself behind the eight ball. Not wanting to drop the ball on my first attempt, I did some research. Now I think, I can carry the ball and will proceed to play ball with this post.

So let’s talk about the word “ball”.

In written records, the usage in reference to a spherical object traces back to the twelfth century. Evidence suggests that the use of a round object to play games dates back centuries earlier.  The Mayan civilization dates back to 2000 BC and they constructed courts in their cities in which to play a game with a ball.

The reference to a ball is almost always associated to some aspect of play. Whether used in sport or simply for entertainment doesn’t matter. Even today, the majority of sport requires the presence of a ball before game play can start. In ball games, players and coaches want to control the game so they design set plays to score points. So when players play a game they use plays to play the game. If they are playing a game, then why do we call what they’re doing plays?

I went to a play recently. My wife and I enjoyed the performance. The actors did a marvelous job, but I know it didn’t come easy for them. They must have spent countless hours rehearsing their lines and movements on the stage.

 

In sports we call this practice, and we all know that practice makes perfect. Sports teams spend countless hours practicing their plays so when they perform them on the field they can score. I’m not talking about a musical score for a play. I’m talking about putting points on the scoreboard. This is what we want to see. We want our team to score.

 

Okay, I hope I didn’t ball the Jack too much on my first time out. I’ll try to keep the ball rolling in future posts. If I keep my eye on the ball I’m sure I’ll be able to keep up. In the meantime I must go, that’s just how the ball bounces. I hope you had a ball reading this post. I did during its writing.

Welcome to Navarre Word Sushi. I can hear you now. What is Navarre Word Sushi? It is my blog. A place where I can expose some of the thoughts I have from time to time. It happens. Not very often, but sometimes when the juices get to flowing and the blood rushes to my brain the gears start to turn, and things form. Ponderings and such that make me ask questions like: Why did they do that? What does that mean? Or does that make any sense at all?

Okay first thing let’s look at the title of this blog.

I like words. I use them every day to communicate. They are important and if you want to, you can make them do wonderful and amazing things. A few simple words can express and describe beauty, love, and awe.

That brings us to the word sushi. I like sushi. Add soy sauce and a touch of wasabi or some chili sauce. Ah good. Now what does it have to do with this blog?

Sushi is a Japanese word which originated sometime between 1895 and 1900 to describe the Japanese dish consisting of cold rice and various types of raw fish. The literal Japanese meaning of this word is: it is sour. Sour, sweet, hot, or spicy when you take words and put them together in a sentence, a paragraph, or a large collection you get word sushi.

Finally, we come to the word Navarre. Once upon a time it was a kingdom in Southwest France and Northern Spain. Today it is the name for an unincorporated community with a population of about 30,000 people. I’m one those, and I love it here.

So to review, Navarre Word Sushi is me and the words I roll around to make pretty things. Come back and visit again soon.