I'll Show You My Secrets If You'll Show Me Yours

Recently, Rebecca Camarena of Chitchat and All That tagged me to write 8 things about myself and my writing that others may not know.

This is difficult since after 8 years of doing a weekly e-newsletter and a year of blogging, I feel like readers know just about everything about me. But here goes …

1. I recently took on a project for Texas State Technical College. They assign me articles for their planned book called TechCareers. My first project is on the Biomedical Tech career. I knew nothing about Biomedical Technicians and what they do. But that was one thing that drew me to the project – the chance to get to learn about the field.

2. I’ve written a variety of things in my lifetime from screenplays to short stories to books. In the past ten years, I settled on books. But in the last few months, I’ve been toying with the idea of doing freelance. Another reason for taking on the TSTC project.

3. Yesterday I joined Freelance Austin, at the urging of a friend. Making moves down this freelance path I’ve stepped onto.

4. Haven’t given up manuscripts, though. I’m constantly looking for character names. I see them in road signs, town names, on TV show and movie credits, names of people in the news. Quirky names, funny names, descriptive names. When I find something that strikes me, I write it down.

5. I have to have quiet to write or, more specifically, to think. If the TV’s on or my husband is upstairs on the phone, I keep drifting off to the outside noise. The TV has to go off. I close my office door. Even music bothers me. I start singing along and totally lose my thoughts.

6. Probably like everyone else older than 30, I started out writing longhand on paper. Not on a typewriter and certainly not with a computer. As computers became prevalent, I knew I was hopelessly stuck on paper. If I wrote it longhand, I could then transcribe it. But to think as I typed? No way. Ideas flowed from a pen, not a keyboard. Now I do all my writing by computer. And, as a result, my handwriting that as a kid I practiced diligently and made soft curlicues and loops – gone, kaput, transformed to chicken scratch.

7. I’ve written for as long as I can remember. In high school, I wrote books, one hand-written page at a time. I don’t have any of them, though. As I wrote a page, friends would take it and read then pass it on. Back then, I wrote what was probably romance, except all my stories had tragic endings.

8. In college I wrote poetry. Yeah, just like everyone else. Angst ridden. Anti-war. Love gone wrong. Love gone good. Can’t remember writing a lick of poetry since.

Now, here are 8 other writers I tag to tell us about themselves and their writing. I’ve listed a couple who don’t have blogs. They’re welcome to post it here on mine.

Redneck Crime -- http://redneckcrime.com/

Chez Robert Giron -- http://chezrobertgiron.blogspot.com/

Diane Fanning -- http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=203736407

Writing the Westward Sagas -- http://www.westwardsagas.com/blog/

Lila Guzman -- http://www.lilaguzman.com/

Writing Thoughts -- http://www.writingthoughts.com/

James V. Lee -- http://www.saladopress.com/

Exile on Ninth Street -- http://exileonninthstreet.wordpress.com/