Jersey Dare?

Wait, I thought the state flower was the dandelion, the state dance was real estate development, and the state dinosaur was New Jersey Transit.

I was wrong?

Daring to live for the impossible.

O.O When and where did you learn that? :D And there are plenty of violets in NJ, tis just that the dandelions are more noticeable. :D

--
Nanowrimo 09: Rocks of Opportunity.

Won:
Screnzy: 07: The State of Orange; 08: The State of Green; 09: The State of Indigo.
NaNoWriMo: 06: Dragons in the Bathtub; 07: Sidhe PD; 08: Flabbergast!

LOL!!! we should include something about our ridiculously high property taxes.

Jess Fong. Pyro.

"Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand." ~George Orwell

We have to have a Regional Dare, or the other regions will laugh at us and call us names! Also they're fun.

Last year we had to include a scene in a diner, and the year before that we had to use the line "What's your exit?" As for this year, I like the dare to use one of the official state things in your novel. It's simple and not too difficult to include in some of the more obscure genres.

Anyone have any other ideas?

'04 - Here's to You, Ms. Robinson ~ 23,000
'05 - Copycats - 50k!
'06 - Name ~ 39,000
'07 - Recurse - 50k!
'08 - A Sword Called Rona - 50k!
'09 - ...

At the kickoff we all liked the idea of making the Haunted Coffee Pot be the regional dare.

Daring to live for the impossible.

considering I'm setting part of my novel in NJ, this'll be easy.

I thought the NJ dinosaur was the NJDot.. don't they put potholes in the roads just to test our reflexes?

( http://soli.inav.net/~catalyst/Humor/jersey.htm )
( http://northjersey.tribe.net/thread/882a5cec-a2e5-4e5b-9ce7-c4fd4b4d75eb)

(http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/6859.htm)

03 - Stealing Joy - Win
04 - Guardians of the Night - Win
05 - Beauty of Deception - Win
06 - Elemental Passion - Win
07 - Premonition - Win
08 - :(
09 - Labyrinth

I like the state info idea. I missed out on the dare last year because the plot of my novel was extremely personal so I didn't chat so much on here. =] This year I'm not so attached...yet...

<3

2008: Magnolia - won with 54,000 words three days early. Began again and finally finished it as a whole with 101,300 words this past August.

2009: Lapis Lazuli - on going

what about porkroll? You can't go wrong with porkroll.....

Not "porkroll" but "Taylor Ham."

I was once in a New Jersey diner with some friends from out of state and Taylor Ham was on the menu. When my buddy asked the waitress, "What's Taylor Ham?" she replied, "Oh, it's just glorified pork roll." My friends spent the rest of the morning trying to think of ways to glorify pork roll -- "Does the chef sound a trumpet as the waitress carries it out on a little red velvet pillow?"

sorry double posted

So are we having a jersey dare and I missed it, or are we just ignoring it?

...but Taylor Ham is a brand name of pork roll...?

When my brother was about 3 years old, he went through this weird phase where he wouldn't eat anything but pork roll and corn and peas. I remember my mom buying these little red square boxes of Taylor Ham brand pork roll.

Of course, I wasn't much older, so I could be wrong.

My other argument on the subject is, I'm from central Jersey, and I call it pork roll, and most of my friends are from north Jersey, and they insist it's Taylor Ham. Maybe it's just a regional thing? (south Jersey doesn't care because they're too busy going to WaWa and Sonic)

Also, isn't our state bird the deer, and state flower goose poop?

okay so what is our official dare? :) i vote for something having to do with porkroll. because pork roll is cool and i too have fond memories of childhood with pork roll.

2009 - Tales of a Mattress
2008 - Too Many Questions (made it to 23,844)
2007 - Forgiveness WINNER
2006 - Cold Confuzion WINNER

I'm new...What is the Jersey Dare?

Living the Dream.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Pork roll is a type of sausage-like meat product commonly available in and around New Jersey. In North Jersey it is usually called Taylor Ham.[1] The product, as it is made today, was developed in 1856[2] by John Taylor of Trenton, New Jersey, though several firms produce their own versions.

see also: http://www.jerseyporkroll.com/products.htm

You know, it's kind of halfway through the month, we might want to decide on the Dare soon, so that we can actually include it in our novels. :D

As I said before, I like the state info because even the fantasy people can have a small, purple flower in their novels, even if it isn't called a violet. :D

Of course, I suppose they could also have porkroll without saying porkroll. I'm fine with either dare, but we should chose it soon, don't you think? :D

--
Nanowrimo 09: Rocks of Opportunity.

Won:
Screnzy: 07: The State of Orange; 08: The State of Green; 09: The State of Indigo.
NaNoWriMo: 06: Dragons in the Bathtub; 07: Sidhe PD; 08: Flabbergast!

ok, I went with both the pork roll and the violet. This is my fifth nano and every year my characters have at least one scene in a diner, so that made it easy. I don’t plan it that way, it just happens. I guess I am a Jersey Girl after all. Also, special thanks to Ronarfel. I loved your line so much, I stole it!

“No. Not Tanya,” he said as the waitress approached to take their order. “Two eggs over easy, hash browns and pork roll, dry wheat toast.” he ordered and Janie looked at him with a grin. “What?” he asked after she had ordered.

“I thought you were Mr. Healthy.” Janie remembered the time she had asked him about the pros and cons of joining a gym and he responded with an emailed lecture about the importance of nutrition and eating right and how he gave up all alcohol and junk food ten years ago. “I never thought I’d catch you ordering pork roll. That’s not even real meat.”

“Yeah, well, it tastes good and after what we’ve just been through…” James cocked his head and squinted one eye in an awkward wink, “I’m not in the mood to be careful.”

“So what about that?” he asked indicating the bruise on her forearm that peeked out from under her sleeve.

She rolled up her sleeve to show him and he grabbed her arm to examine the bruise more closely. All of a sudden, his touch on her arm made her feel weirdly shy. She reached out with her other hand and touched the fake plastic violet in the vase that sat next to the ketchup and sugar dispenser, looking at it intently.

“The violet’s our state flower, you know,” she told him.

“Really? I thought the state flower was the dandelion, the state dance was real estate development, and the state dinosaur was New Jersey Transit.”

“Ha ha. Funny,” Janie said with an exaggerated grimace. Janie tried to pull her arm away but he was still staring at the bruise.

“It looks like a Picasso Face,” James told her and she stared at him, surprised. He released her arm. She reached for a Splenda for her coffee but it was too far. Just as he was about to hand one to her, a packet popped out of the little holder next to the violet and shot into her hand. It was only a couple of inches and she hoped he hadn’t noticed, but he did.

“Holy &^*%! How did you do that?”

Wow, I'm honored that you used my one-liner in your story. I now have a vested interest in you finishing, so that maybe if my novel never turns into anything, at least something I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2009 had some value. Maybe I can reciprocate: Would it be okay if I stole your Picasso face line? It tickles me.

Daring to live for the impossible.

I'm afraid my novel is not going anywhere after Nov 30th. This may be my worst one ever. But it really helps to have someone vested in my finishing so I'll take it! :-) Picasso Face is my title and it is absolutely yours to use too.

Here's to the last week!