Jean Henry Mead gave me the Stylish Blogger Award. 🙂 I’m supposed to tell seven obscure things about myself and pass the award to someone else. I may be supposed to send it to multiple people, but I’ve given up sending awards to multiple people for Lent.

1. I’m a little bit dyslexic, especially with numbers. Numbers jump around and swap places and do square dances.
2. When I was little, I had a crush on Jiminy Cricket. It was his voice, which was provided by Cliff Edwards aka Ukulele Ike, a popular crooner.
3. I love to do cryptic crosswords. I think regular crosswords are too hard. With a regular crossword, you either know the answer or you don’t, but cryptic crosswords are puzzles, and sometimes you can figure out the word by solving the puzzle.
4. I used to belong to the Barony of the Flame in the Middle Kingdom of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval recreation and study group. I was Lady Maude McEwen, a poet.
5. When I was about 13, I started cooking for my mother and myself. After I had been shopping for a while, I realized it was cheaper to buy a whole chicken and cut it up rather than buy chicken pieces. So I bought a whole chicken and cut it into pieces and breaded it and fried it. And my mother picked up the back and laughed and laughed. She said, “People usually cut the tail off. You left the tail on!” So the next time, she laughed even harder. I was like, “What? You said to cut it off.” She said, “Yes, but most people throw it away; they don’t bread it and fry it and serve it.” Well, ha-ha, because I’ve since learned that people used to do exactly that. It was called the Parson’s nose. So now you know.
6. The first story I ever completed, when I was in high school, was called “The Comrade and I”, about an American airman who crash landed in Russia and escaped with the help of a Russian general. Write what you know.
7. My cat, Katya, is the reincarnation of my first cat, Tiffany. Tiffany used to jump up on the back of the rocking chair; she had no weight, and the chair didn’t move when she jumped on it. The first time Katya jumped onto the back of the rocking chair, she looked more surprised than any cat ever looked.

So now, I’m passing the award to Pat Bean, whose beautiful travel blog is my home page, so I can start every day with her. 🙂

WRITING PROMPT: Have your main character tell you seven things you didn’t know about him/her.

MA