The Termite Queen is a friend of mine–and other things you don’t know about me

I wanted to give a shout out to Lorinda J. Taylor, a follower of this blog, who recently nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award.

You’ll find Lorinda’s blog here.  Lorinda reviews books, analyzes poetry and shares her own writing, which is, intriguingly, often from the point of view of termites.  You know that I’ve been thinking of POV lately, and her work offers a fascinating alien society by going inside of these insects.  Check it out!

She also pointed out that I haven’t said much of a personal nature on my blog, which is true.  Part of the VBA noted above is that I should share 7 things about myself.   So, in deference to the Termite Queen, here goes:

1.  As a child, I was deathly afraid of Praying Mantises.  I know they’re good guys in the fight against bugs (sorry, Lorinda!  not your bugs, of course), but they just freaked me out. At one time, I had a friend who claimed this fear meant I had been kidnapped by aliens, but didn’t remember it.  Apparently, the fear of Praying Mantises is common among abductees. . .

2.  I love astronaut ice cream.  Can’t explain it.  Perhaps when I was kidnapped by aliens, I was rescued by astronauts?

3.  I enjoy many outdoor sports, especially hiking and kayaking.  My trip to Germany for research made me dream of kayaking the Rhine.

4.  I have only one sibling, a sister, who is often one of my first readers for new work.  I also send her new books by other authors when I don’t get a chance to read them myself, and listen to her reviews before I do.  Come to think of it, when we were kids, I used to tell people that I *was* an alien, and that my ship had landed in a particular strange patch of grass out behind the elementary school.

5.  I am addicted to how-to books about writing.  Can’t get enough of ’em.  Would like to find some good blogs about the subject–any suggestions?

6.  I hate talking on the phone.  I would much rather email people, even my family, who think this is a little peculiar.  I usually put off phone calls for a long time.  I once worked in a call center, dealing with angry customers.  Maybe that had something to do with it.

7.  When I was twelve, two men started talking to me, and–to my eye, obviously–had the intention of trying to kidnap me.  My parents arrived at just the right time, and the men disappeared into the city.  I still feel like we should have called the police.  Those two guys had probably done it before, and probably succeeded.  I still think I would recognize them anywhere.  Given the vagaries of memory, I am probably wrong about this.