Meg Gardiner had sent me this instruction:
“I tag you to write six random things about yourself. Rules on my blog.”
These are the rules:
- Link to the person who tagged you.
- Post the rules on your blog.
- Write six random things about yourself.
- Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
- Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
- Let your tagger know when your entry is up.
I am not as tag literate as I should be but these are early days and some day, I will tag with the best of them. Meanwhile the instruction is to be random and hey, random I can do….
1. I was a teacher (still am at the least provocation) and thought it hilarious that anyone would pay me to tell stories. When I admitted to the nun who was my teacher years ago that I wanted to be a seanachai (traditional storyteller) she said, ‘Foolish child. You can’t earn a living telling stories. You’ll have to be a schoolteacher.’ I did and now I do. So she was wrong.
2. I do not think that I write what comes out of my imagination; I think I write what went into it.
3. I won one medal in my life – all Ireland Volleyball, cadet team. I have a mean serve and my party trick was spinning the ball so that if anyone tried to answer the serve, it skinned her hands. Otherwise, I’m quite nice.
4. I’m ambidextrous and write completely differently with each hand – different style, different content. Typing works because it keep both sides happy but often the words come out backwards. Either that or I can’t spell.
5. I absolutely love the fact that I am Irish.
6. Recently, a man who’d booked me to do a talk, said that he had read THE JIGSAW MAKER. It took him three weeks because three years ago he had a severe stroke and reading was too difficult. It was the first book he finished in all that time. I said, ‘I hope you didn’t feel obliged to finish it.’ He said, ‘No, I wanted to know what happened.’ and he smiled. I felt honoured and humbled.
If there were 7 things, the seventhy would be that I am lucky to know some fine people.
Over to you, Meg.
April 17, 2008 at 3:05 pm
So Adrienne, did you become seanachai, then? The first one I ever met was Juilene Osborne-McKnight–who happens to be a writer and teacher too. I am an Irish wannabe and spent most of my college career writing about the Irish. Thank goodness I was never good enough at volleyball (it’s my favorite sport, but I’m far from athletic) to play against you!
April 17, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I began as an English and History teacher and saw it as a way of telling stories for a living. In 2005, my first novel was published and the following year, the next two. I’m still writing but have developed a career as a speaker on the side – I go along to events and entertain the audience by telling stories about Irish childhood and all the things I learned from the nuns (mainly that what they taught and what I thought were very different…)
Good to hear you’re a wannabe. First trick it to rename yourself. From now on you’re a gonnabe. Then keep writing.
Let me know how it goes.
April 17, 2008 at 4:10 pm
So you’re a mean ball spinner. Don’t know what to make of that.