I’ve been tagged by Imogen Howson.

The idea of this is that we all write down five interesting facts about ourselves, to provide almost-instant reference points for future book research.

Like Immi, I’m not too impressed by my list, although there is one thing of great significance:

1. My parents have been divorced since I was six months old and I spent a lot of time going back and forth to various places to visit my Dad when it was his turn. In no particular order: Bahamas, California, Australia, Florida, Georgia… I’m sure there is more but who remembers now.

2. I have been singing since I was in Kindergarten and it is my secret passion. I’m not bad and I make a good choir or back up singer. If the song is fairly sappy then I’m good at it, kind of like an Olivia Newton John meets Trisha Yearwood kind of sound, with not quite as much talent. I’m thankful that the worship leader thinks I’m good enough to be up on stage at least once a month.

3. I have a very vivid imagination. If I hear a sound in the house I am sure someone has broken in and is specifically coming to maim me and my family, despite the fact there could be no good reason for this. I can actually concoct the entire scenario in my head and get myself worked up into quite a state. My dh is not impressed by this ability at all. Hopefully, future editors will be (by the scenarios not by me getting worked up into a state!)

4. I do not like bugs, most specifically spiders. No spiders of any kind should inhabit this earth and they really should not come near my house. I saw arachnaphobia, I know what they can do. It is not good.

5. I lost two babies through miscarriage (one mid-term, one early). It was a not a good time in my life. Luckily I am married to the best man on earth who helped me through it all, even while carrying his own grief.

OK, I have to tag someone. I’m going to tag Jenna Bayley-Burke and Laine Morgan. Not sure if they’re reading this blog yet so we’ll have to see.

For the first time, in what I hope will be a long line of requests, I got a request for a revise and resubmit. While I would have preferred a “We love this and are willing to pay you a million dollars to print it right now” LOL I am definitely pleased with what I did get.

I was inspired to write a short story last week. When I say inspired I mean it truly came to me and I typed and typed and typed. I typed over my nursing baby’s head! That is how dedicated I was to this story. It’s an inspirational, which isn’t something I was expecting but there it was. When I finished I was a complete emotional wreck. I didn’t even think about anything, I spell-checked, did a couple more read throughs and sent it off. I worried that if I sat on it too long or thought about it too much I would chicken out so I just sent it. I received my revise and resubmit the next day. I was almost scared to open the email (see a trend here? Things that scare me I must do or maybe I’m just a wuss? LOL) but when I did I was so excited. This pub is so nice to deal with. Very kind in both compliments on the story and in their revision requests.

Originally 5200 words, the story is now sitting at 8500 with the revisions. At first I was worried that adding so much would dilute the effect that I wanted to have with this story but the pub had wanted less abrupt transitions and they were right. In the process of trying to keep my short story short, I had chopped out some of what I thought was extraneous but was actually needed to keep the emotional attachment to the characters.

Again, I did the work, read it over, had someone else read it over and sent it. This story needed me not to spend too much time thinking on it or I may have turned it into something longer. I may have put too much stuff in it. This was not anything I ever expected to write and it has pieces of me and pieces of people I care about in it.

I hope that, if it is published, people will be able to find some healing in it. Or perhaps, and even better, hope.

Nope! I’m still trying even though there is a weird fogginess in my head and I am doubting everything that I type. I’ve decided to keep going and to look at it again when I need to do edits. Otherwise I keep changing the same paragraph over and over again and, like that exam you’re writing where you keep doubting yourself, usually the first guess is the best.

I do seem to find ways to avoid writing when I get to parts that I find a bit boring. Not that there should be boring parts but what I mean is the parts that aren’t filled with action and fabulous love scenes (or romance in this case since I’m writing a tender piece at the moment). You know, the parts where you have to actually give your reader some information. If I cut from action to action with only dialogue in between I’d have a very short book and while intense the reader wouldn’t relate to the characters – it would be more like reading a movie or tv script, I would imagine.

Anyway, I am sitting with my box of kleenex, the baby is finally napping, #2 child is building something quietly in her older brother’s room (for which I hope I don’t catch heck since he didn’t give us permission – LOL) and I have a coffee. I should start writing….now.

Some day I’m going to be an author. Right now I’m still a writer.