in The Writing Life, Uncategorized, Writing Contests 844 Words

10 Random Facts about Myself in 2016, Revisited

In today’s blog post, I am revisiting my blog post from April 8, 2016. I had been asked to share 10 random facts about myself. It is interesting exactly eight years later to reread that post and see that little has changed.

Here are the 10 random facts about myself as I offered them eight years ago today, with new insights and details added within brackets:

1. I have what is called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) in the United States but is known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) in the rest of the world. My energy and stamina are limited, and my memory problems and mental fog make my research and writing tedious and time consuming. I often feel as if I live in a vat of molasses. Nothing comes easily.

2. I started working on the manuscript of my proposed historical novel, The Doubloon/The Spanish Coin, in 2005. I am still tweaking it. [I was startled to be reminded that I started writing The Doubloon/The Spanish Coin 19 years ago! After editing that manuscript down from 120,000 to 96,600 words, I am now concentrating on turning the main character’s backstory into a novel to publish before I publish The Doubloon/The Spanish Coin. The tentative title of that novel is The Heirloom.]

3. As a young adult, I was a “fiction snob.” I thought there was nothing to learn or gain by reading fiction. You can imagine how shocked my sister was when, at the age of 48 in 2001, I told her that I had registered for a fiction writing class! That’s when I started learning to write [and truly appreciate and enjoy reading] fiction.

4. Although my appearance, manner, and personality give the impression that I am conservative, I am a liberal when it comes to politics.

5. After wanting to play the Appalachian lap dulcimer since first being introduced to the instrument as a college freshman, I finally purchased one and attended a four-day dulcimer workshop in 2010. Due to random fact #1, I still don’t play well and probably never will; however, I do play for my own enjoyment. I often listen to dulcimer music while I write. (I’m listening to some as I write this blog post.) [I still don’t play the dulcimer very well, but I am once again trying to practice almost every day. This is for my own enjoyment. A huge “plus” is that learning to play a musical instrument is supposed to be good for one’s brain.]

6. I live on land that has been in my family since the 1760s.

7. I sleep in a bed that my father made using timber from our land in the 1940s.

8. I wish I could sing.

9. I could drive a tractor before I was old enough to drive a car.

10. Taking the fiction writing course and attending the dulcimer workshop were life-changing experiences for me, and I will forever be grateful that I got out of my comfort zone and took advantage of both opportunities.

No matter your age, stretch yourself and follow your dreams.

What do you have to lose?

Since my last blog post

Photo by Janet Morrison at Joara

I participated in my first archaeological dig! I checked it off my “bucket list,” but I hope it won’t be my last one. If you want to read all about it, please subscribe to my every-other-month e-newsletter by going to https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com and clicking on the “Subscribe” button. You will also receive my free downloadable historical short story, “Slip Sliding Away.” I will write about the archaeological dig in my May 2024 e-newsletter.

I submitted a 3,575-word contemporary short story to an international short story competition recently. It was the first time I entered a piece of fiction written in first-person to a competition, so I was pleased when I learned that my story was judged to be in the top 10% of submittals. In spite of that “top 10%” label, I opened the critique with some trepidation.

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

In a nutshell, the critique only had two negative comments: (1) The title (“Someone is Trying to Kill Me”) gave too much away and (2) I wrapped up the protagonist’s dilemma too quickly. The positive comments included, “It’s rare that I tell an author that the story we turned down needs to be significantly longer, because many of our entries drag a very thin, uninteresting idea out for many more pages than it is worth. But I think “Kill” needs to be a lot longer…. Detailed, interesting, step-by-step… this story has ‘detective novel’ written all over it… I’d read that story. It would be far too long for our magazine, but so what? Get it published somewhere else, or publish it yourself on Amazon or he web or something. Finish the story and put it out there.”

What a morale booster!

Until my next blog post

If there is a novel in you that is begging to be written… WRITE IT!

Read a good book or two this week.

Support your local public library and independent bookstore.

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Janet

19 thoughts on “10 Random Facts about Myself in 2016, Revisited”

  1. Very interesting facts Janet and quite a lot of accomplishments. I congratulate you. Your dulcimer is like my guitar, which I could play quite well many years ago but now it mostly sits there watching me do other things. We’ll take good care and continue working on that historical novel which (from its title) sounds very interesting. All the best!

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  6. About that dulcimer… I found out very quickly how tender my fingers were after not playing it for many months. I’m trying to play it 30 minutes almost every day now, which is bringing me much pleasure even though I’m not very good at it. All the best from a rainy North Carolina.

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  8. So many cool facts. The one that floored me is “I live on land that has been in my family since the 1760s” So few people in the US could say that! I hope you’ll tell us more about the archeological dig in the future.

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  14. Thank you, Vicki. The older I get, the more fortunate I realize I am. I feel very connected to my g-g-g-g-grandparents who left Scotland and settled here. When I was able to have a vegetable garden (until the deer made me surrender six or seven years ago), I would often think of Mary Morrison and how she surely had a garden somewhere around here, too. And, yes, the bed! Daddy made it for my older brother around 1946. When he got out on his own, he didn’t want it. I’ve slept very well in it for the last 33 years and hope someone in the family will want it and appreciate it someday.

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  15. I know, Rebecca. That is becoming more of a rarity by the day, I’m sure. I put the teaser about the archeological dig in my blog in hopes of prompting some of my readers to subscribe to my e-newsletter. Nothing else has worked! LOL! Time will tell. If you want to look the place up, go to https://exploringjoara.org/. It turns out the Spanish were in present-day western NC 100 years before the English attempted The Lost Colony settlement on the coast. Very cool!

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  17. Thank you, Barb. I’m torn! My interest is historical fiction. The thought of writing a complete mystery/thriller novel is daunting. I made notes for writing four scenes in my novel this weekend. I just haven’t sat down to slug out the scenes on paper. I’m taking copious notes from a book I’m reading that gives bits and pieces of details that I can work into the book. I can do an hour of research, though, and only come up with a tiny bit of information that needs to go in the book to just add some flavor to the setting to make it more grounded in the 18th century. I know I spend too much time doing research and not enough time putting words on the page. I need someone to wake me up and get me motivated to actually accomplish something. Thank you for helping me stay somewhat accountable.

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