I Don’t Know
I don’t know how much e-books should cost. I’ve read arguments for sliding-scale prices. I know lots of people don’t want to pay over a certain price. I don’t have an answer.
I don’t know whether Macmillan’s agency agreement would be better for authors and readers than some other approach.
I don’t know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop.
I don’t know whether people are going to love Snow Queen.
I don’t know where I get my ideas.
I don’t know when I’ll be able to post the cover art to Red Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon].
I don’t know how long I have before my son stops running up to hug me when I come home from work.
I don’t know if my home has adequate weaponry to protect my family against the zombie uprising.
I don’t know whether I should set Snow Queen revisions aside for a week so I can write up and pitch a new series to DAW.
I don’t know why “Single Ladies” won a Grammy. (But I think it had something to do with the Chipmunks movie.)
I don’t know why I’m so incredibly bad with names and faces.
I don’t know how Randall Munroe does it.
I don’t know how single parents balance work, kids, and sanity.
I don’t know why the catfish in our aquarium keep dying.
I don’t know why religion is ever worth killing for.
I don’t know if I should create a fan page on Facebook.
I don’t know whether an anime-style Snoopy fighting cat-ninjas would be awesome or terrifying. ETA: socchan brings the awesome here.
I don’t know where this post came from. I guess I just thought the Internet would be a slightly better place if people were willing to admit they didn’t know things from time to time.
Sewicked
February 4, 2010 @ 10:17 am
I know of one religion worth killing for; if you follow that faith. There used to be (& might still be for all I know) a cult that believed that killing people, in a certain fashion, would appease a certain god/dess and delay the end of the world. Laudable goal, crappy execution; if you’ll pardon the pun.
As for the fan page, you can put it up with qualifiers &/or link it to your twitter updates.
I don’t know why some perfectly serviceable words are forgotten and lost (I like gawmless & peckish).
I don’t know why some people turn to drugs and other people in the exact same situation don’t.
I don’t know why cats are attracted to people who are allergic to them.
I don’t know why some people are so resistant to using a spell-checker (even if it’s not perfect, it helps).
I don’t know how people with their pants waistband at their hips & the pants’ crotch at their knees can walk.
I don’t know why so many Facebook games are time-sinks.
I don’t know if the English language will ever find a gender-neutral term to use when the sex of a person is unknown.
I don’t know when I’ll have time to sew clothes again.
David Forbes
February 4, 2010 @ 10:34 am
Great list. One minor correction: you can’t have a zombie *uprising* since there are presently no zombies to rise up.
Zombie apocalypse/zombie holocaust/zomcalypse/zombocaust/whatever, but I don’t think uprising is what you meant.
You’re welcome. 🙂
Jim C. Hines
February 4, 2010 @ 10:37 am
Cats know these things. I think they sense it through their whiskers.
I continue to use “they” for the gender-neutral. In my published work, I try to rewrite the sentence to avoid the need, but in general I think “they” is the least obtrusive. Even though I know it’s technically problematic.
I’m leaning toward the fan page, but I think it would be a bit more static — closer to the rest of this web site than to a blog. Still pondering whether I really want to have one more online space to maintain.
Jim C. Hines
February 4, 2010 @ 10:38 am
“…you can’t have a zombie *uprising* since there are presently no zombies to rise up.”
That you know of 🙂
David Forbes
February 4, 2010 @ 10:42 am
Well, true, there is that.
KatG
February 4, 2010 @ 2:20 pm
You’ve started a new meme! 🙂
“I don’t know if my home has adequate weaponry to protect my family against the zombie uprising.”
Have you bought Max Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide? It has checklists.
“I don’t know whether I should set Snow Queen revisions aside for a week so I can write up and pitch a new series to DAW.”
If it will make your editor cranky to get a new pitch before the Snow Queen revisions come in, do the Snow Queen revisions, but make notes in spare moments on the pitch as things come to you.
“I don’t know why the catfish in our aquarium keep dying.”
If these are the algae eating sucker mouth catfish, then I might know. If you have goldfish or beta fish with them in the tank, those fish may be attacking the catfish and nibbling their fins, causing internal bleeding and death. (It happened when my kid had fish.) Or the tank has too many toxins due to not enough of the proper chemicals and the catfish thus finds the algae too toxic.
“I don’t know if I should create a fan page on Facebook.”
Oh yes, you do too know. Put one up. Make sure it features the goblin miniatures.
Jim C. Hines
February 4, 2010 @ 3:22 pm
DAW would be fine with the pitch, so long as I’m on track to make my deadline on Snow Queen. (Which, so far, I should be able to make with no problem.)
These aren’t the algae eaters. I’ll probably be following up with the pet store where we got them. They lived long enough that I don’t think they were sick from day one, but I’m still confused as to why they both died off while the guppies are doing just fine.
As for the Facebook fan page, it’s been pretty much unanimous. I just need to figure out what I want to do with it, and how much time to devote to the thing. Because I’m not online enough as it is, you know 🙂
Sean
February 4, 2010 @ 7:26 pm
After “World War Z” and the Zombie Survival Guide, i am prepared, you should be too….
As for the catfish, how often do you do water exchanges in your tank? If often, or just add due to evaporation, use the product called Prime, my dad breeds fish, i started using it with great results.
If you got from Petsmart, take in your water from your tank and they will tell you what is wrong with it for free.
Peace
Sean
Jim C. Hines
February 5, 2010 @ 10:49 am
Several people have recommended those books. Like I needed even more for the reading pile 🙂 (I’d already been interested in checking them out … just hadn’t gotten to it yet.)
And thanks. We got them from a local pet store with a good reputation. I’ll be contacting them as well.