My new favorite word: "Duck."
Noun or verb, though today particularly the noun.
You see, it’s my son’s first real word.
Yes, Dashiell said "duck" several times this morning, while playing with a couple of his rubber disco ducks (bought at Cost Plus World Market, these things are a riot – they flash disco lights internally when played with. Eerie, but funny. Jan bought them on a lark, and he loves them).
Maybe it’s because we sing two of the three "Rubber Duckie" songs from Sesame Street so often. Or maybe he connects them with bathtime, which is truly his favorite time of the day. Whatever the reason, I now adore the word "Duck."
Which means it’s going into one of the novels at some point.
(Didn’t think I could bring it around to the novels, did ya? Shame!)
Actually, it might be interesting for me to track when something from daily life shows up in the novels. A friend has a weird habit, it sometimes shows up. I do plan to have three close friends placed in minor roles in Books 4 & 5 (also known as "Cesco and the Englishmen" – how’s that for a tantalizing hint!).
But it’s remarkable how much that didn’t happen in MV. There are very few references to real people – my friends, I mean – in this book, or even in the next two. I had one person in mind for the Count of San Bonifacio, but his personality changed remarkably during the writing of the story, and so B.W. is no longer my mental image of the Count.
Another, my friend Paulie, had a habit of referring to a "little blue gnome that operates the libarary in your mind." He had a whole story about that gnome and his duties, and I found it so charming and amusing, I appropriated it for the book. Then, after a couple of drafts, I took it back out. It was feeling forced, and a little too whimsical for Pietro to have come up with. Or even Poco.
"Whimsy." That’s a good word.
But not as good as "duck."
Cheers,
DB
