On the Hot Seat

TIME TO PLAY WDC HOT SEAT!!

Today's King of the Hot Seat 🔥 is our very own Fivesixer ! Please post your questions below. ANY question as long as its E rated. Our King will answer honestly but has the option to fib two of his answers and tell us a tall tale! Can you spot which is which? "Note: 🕰 🔥 🤹 🕰 🔥 🤹 🕰 🔥 🤹 🕰 🔥 🤹 🕰 🔥 🤹🕰 🔥 🤹 🕰 🔥 🤹 🕰 🔥 🤹 🕰 🔥..."

Schnujo's Doing NaNoWriMo? asked: What was your most and least favorite thing about becoming self-published? Do you have a company you recommend? Are you planning a new publication for the future?

Fivesixer : 1) Doing most of the work myself as far as editing and formatting was the worst. The best part? When it was all done! 2) For self-publishing? Amazon KDP (because it's the only one I'm familiar with, but I'm sure there are others). 3) Yes, but I'm hoping to find a publisher first over self-pubbing.

Schnujo's Doing NaNoWriMo? : You're hilarious, recommending Amazon KDP, but then saying you're looking for someone else first. Thank you for the answers! I don't know if you plan to fib on any (I forgot that was an option lol), but I'm sure that #1's answers are true.

Fivesixer : SPOILER ALERT!! I didn't fib once, I don't think! We'll see as the day goes on.

Pumpkin Spice Sox asked: If you were any animal, real or imagined, which celebrity would you want taking care of you?

Fivesixer : I'd be a human and I'd want to be in the loving arms of Stevie Nicks. I had a hard time with this one cuz I wanted to answer quickly...first I thought "monkey", but then realized it'd be a celeb and I'd probably wanna hook up with them . Then I had to pick someone, and my mind went blank. I hopped over to Twitter (@aikinnorb) and Stevie Nicks was trending...and I do have a huge crush on her, so I went with it.

ruwth said: Norb, I followed the link you gave yesterday to the Picky Bookworms page but I could not figure out how to listen to your interview. I only found a preview/intro and it never got to you. My question: How do I get to the actual interview and hear what you have to say?

Fivesixer : That's a good question Ruwth ...I'm having problems finding it too. I'll have to contact the person who ran the podcast and find out what's up.

ruwth : Norb, New Question: Does this link work for you? Picky Bookworm Interview with Norb/Fivesixer  

Fivesixer : Yes it does, Ruwth!! Thank you so much!!

s asked: Where does the handle "fivesixer" come from?

Fivesixer : It's my height, 5'6". That's the short answer, because I've told this story many times. It comes from my playground basketball days, when you'd bring your ball and your boombox to the court. I'd been drillin' 3-pointers all day, and A Tribe Called Quest's "Buggin' Out" came on. Phife opens with "Yo, microphone check one, two, what is this?/The five foot assassin with the roughneck business." and someone asked me my height. I told them I'm 5'6" and someone said "Fivesixer"...to me, it stuck. I've used that for emails and socials ever since.

Lornda asked: You've written many strong emotional poems, and when I read them, I feel your pain. If you had to choose just one (or two ) favorite emotional poem(s) of yours, which would it be?

Fivesixer : Oh geez Lornda...I expected better from the Queen Of Comedy!! But I appreciate this question so much, so thank you for it. I promise I'll have an answer for this later this evening. (I'm watching a hockey game right now.)...and I apologize for not getting a proper answer to this sooner. Of anything I've done recently, I'd have to say it's one about my late brother, "Not Named" . And if I had to go back a little further, I'd probably say "And Then" , which is about the start of my brief time spent homeless. But if you ask me again tomorrow I might have a different answer...I could spend all day going through my port to find something that really hits me.

Lornda said: Well, I was trying to "sound" intelligent for a change. I'll leave this here, then: Do you like riddles? A cowboy rode into town on Friday. He stayed for three nights and rode out on Friday. How is this possible?

Fivesixer : I enjoy a good riddle or pun. How did the cowboy do that? His horse was named Friday. I'm actually impressed with myself by how fast I figured that out. I'm usually the "takes a minute" type. And by "minute" I mean something probably much longer.

Angelica Weatherby- Bday mom15 asked: Lions or tigers? Fish or birds? Jungle or rainforest? Your favorite cat is a ____ which is friends with ______ living in a ______.

Fivesixer : 1) Lions. I'm a Leo. 2) Birds. They're tastier. 3) Ummmm, neither. 4) My favorite cat is a dude named DMFM who is friends with my boy Adam living in a cold, snowy WNY. All true. See, no fibbing so far!!

LMs❤️BrewinMagic asked: Were you a ornery little boy growing up?

Fivesixer : At times, yes...but it wasn't my general nature. I grew quite nicely into an ornery old man though!

LMs❤️BrewinMagic said: Well, I figured that you were a mischievous little guy and grew into the ornery man you are today. That we all know and love. ❤️

Fivesixer : I can attest to much mayhem and mischief along the way to becoming a depressed, oversized adult child.

Petra Pansky asked: Why is it that no matter how careful one is putting away ones ear buds, the next time one goes to use them they are *always* hopelessly tangled up?

Fivesixer : I have Beats wireless sports buds now that are connected behind the head, so no tangles. But before that, it was a given that the buds would tangle into a spaghetti-like mess. Now all I have to worry about is keeping my ears clean so the wax doesn't build up . OMG the sheer amount of cheap buds I've gone through in the ten years or so since I've lived in Cortland is ridiculous. I'd get a pair from CVS, save the receipt, and just exchange them like every month because they'd fall apart in one way or another. And I swear, they'd tangle all by themselves, untouched by human hands, in the middle of the night just sitting on my dresser. Like a Tangle Fairy comes by an the middle of the night and just runs 'em through an egg beater or somethin'.

Carol St.Ann asked: Norb, Norb Norb...Erm, why is it we don’t see you around here much anymore? Have you found a writing place you like better? Are you . . . cheating on us, Norb? Just tell us. We can take it. *sigh*. Ps: the link worked for me too! Thanks, Ruwth!

Fivesixer : It's a combination of things. I'm always lurking here, usually late at night. I got into a rut lately with time-sinks, like stupid online games, but I've scaled back on that. I hope that'll let me work a little more, so I have more to contribute to WDC. That's basically the short answer; maybe I'll have more to add later....and adding to it, getting a book ready to be published can be time consuming. Not that I've been doing that a whole lot lately either, but books don't just appear outta thin air (though it would be nice). And while I'd never cheat on WDC, I have to admit Twitter is my side chick.

Beacon's Anchor asked: I have a question for you, how many years have you been writing? I started my writing journey back in 2012.

Fivesixer : Great question...I've been on WDC for over two decades now and before that it's easy to say I've always been writing on some level. I think after I graduated high school is when I really began taking it seriously, so sometime around the summer of '93? Makes sense to me. But I definitely have a small stash of bad teenage poems from before that.

Thanks for all the great questions everyone!! ...I've got a little something for you all coming shortly!! And congrats to Petra Pansky for her winning question!!