A serial writer’s notebook ~ from the pen behind Lore of the Underlings, an episodic epic…
Ever notice that the English language is full of painful expressions and potentially injurious idioms? It’s a little troubling really, but also great fodder for a pun-ishing epic like the Lore!
Here’s a quick list right off the top of my head. I didn’t need to rack my brain or tear my hair out (ouch!):
- Pick your brain
- Prick up your ears
- Pay through the nose
- Get your nose out of joint
- Keep your eyes peeled
- Give your eye teeth
- Bite your tongue
- Be tongue-tied
- Cat got your tongue
- Eat crow (pairs well with a fine whine)
- Eat your own words (especially in hardcover)
- Put your foot in your mouth
- Drown your sorrows
- Jump down your throat
- Have a frog in your throat
- Stick your neck out
- Be a pain in the neck
- Weight on your shoulders
- Monkey on your back
- Stab you in the back
- Bend over backwards
- Twist your arm
- Have butterflies in your stomach (if you’re ticklish)
- Hit you in the gut
- Tear at your heart
- Break your heart
- Break a leg
- Shoot yourself in the foot
- Be hoisted on your own petard
- Run into a brick wall
- Sit on pins and needles
- Hit a raw nerve
- Have ants in your pants
- Or a bee in your bonnet
Get the point? I’m just scratching the surface.
My friends and I have long dreamed of publishing an illustrated coffee-table book. Maybe someday… But for now I’ll keep my nose to the grindstone writing the Lore.
Yow!
[Photo: View of the Ottawa River and Gatineau, Quebec, Canada]
~~~ The Lore is available in paperback, ebook, and audio formats ~~~
After falling down laughing at your quotes, I found myself wracking my brain to come up with some clever ones, too. However, after beating my brains out, I give up!
Glad you took a stab at it!