1. my age. I've never looked my age. When I turned 21, my family took me out to dinner - and I was CARDED and the restaurant refused to serve me drinks. On the other hand, at this same dinner, my younger sister was served without question! This kept happening to me until I reached my 30s. When I reached the age when everyone younger than me had hair turning white while my hair stayed brown, I decided that maybe this looking younger than I actually am is a GOOD thing.
2. Mrs. Schroeder, the English teacher in my Junior year of high school was the first person who thought I was a good writer. I only wish I could have shown her my published books, the first of which happened 30 years later.
3. I often say that I was a 10-year overnight success - between the time I began writing seriously and the publication of my first book. Which proves that you have to be stubborn and keep on writing. This obviously overlooks the fact that I was writing for magazines and the local newspaper during those 10 years.
4. Everyone in my family loves seafood - except me. So who married a guy who lived by the ocean? me. (My parents and my sister did manage to move close to the Gulf later, joining my brother who was stationed there. But my baby sister has always lived in the middle of the country, far from the ocean. Which is probably why she vacations at the ocean. My poor brother, however, now lives in the desert where everything is brown.)
5. I used to sew most of my children's clothes, up until they began school. Couldn't manage to sew jeans, though, so limited myself to tops and swimsuits after that.
6. I have no dining room in my house. The condo I bought only has 2 bedrooms and no extra rooms, so I took over the "dining room" space in the condo and turned it into my writing office.
7. I am not fond of dogs. Or spiders. (hmmm. people who really know me, already know this last fact.)
8. Although I wrote a book about the celebration and history (and riddles and a party plan) about Groundhog Day, I never managed to get to Punxsutawney to meed Punxsutawney Phill. Nor did I meet the other famous groundhogs mentioned in that book. But I did get great pleasure whenever people walked up to me at conventions where I was signing copies of this book who were convinced that I didn't have their groundhog in the book to be able to open the book and show them the page where their special groundhog was mentioned. Oh, the benefits of doing extensive research when writing a book.
8. Although I wrote a book about the celebration and history (and riddles and a party plan) about Groundhog Day, I never managed to get to Punxsutawney to meed Punxsutawney Phill. Nor did I meet the other famous groundhogs mentioned in that book. But I did get great pleasure whenever people walked up to me at conventions where I was signing copies of this book who were convinced that I didn't have their groundhog in the book to be able to open the book and show them the page where their special groundhog was mentioned. Oh, the benefits of doing extensive research when writing a book.
