What's on the Night Stand: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood & The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larson

What's on Pandora: Adiemus, by Karl Jenkins from the album: The Journey--The Best of Adiemus

Save the Words word of the Day: Panchymagogue (n) medicine purging body fluids from the body. 

100 Things about Me, okay 56 because I couldn’t think of 100 things.

You must know, obviously, if you read the “posted” by in the blogs, my name is not really MV Merchant. It is of course a pseudonym.  It’s not because I’m trying to hid my identity – far from it. This industry disallows the luxury of living like a recluse.

As much as living Kaczynski-style (I am somewhat shocked that spell check knew how to spell Kaczynski) appeals to me, I chose a pseudonym because my name is very common and I kind of like the androgyny of the name.

Talking amongst peers, they laughingly said it took a while for them to realize my name wasn't really MV. This is perfectly okay with me. I am an intensely private person, which is probably why I blog only once a month. I swear it’s not because I’m actually a private agent and will have to kill you once you discover my very boring, normal life.

So, perhaps it’s time I actually SHARED some things with you. This will be a process for all of us.

Without further ado with no particular order of importance:

  1. I used to not be so private. This became an issue.

  2. I have been blogging for almost 10 years.

  3. I own a soap business. This is not my Day Job.

  4. I think I have ADD.

  5. I’ve been writing since I was eleven (that is over 20 years ago). My first story was a short in 5th grade about how I met my best friend. We met over killing flies on a hot summer day in class.

  6. I was an awesome speller before spell-check made me lazy. I even won contests.

  7. I also won a hula hoop contest when I was the same age winning spelling bees.

  8. One time, I had a dream about Ulterior Motive being published, and I loved the cover. Simple, maroon, glossy, and trade-book size.

  9. In my senior English class, we had a word of the day where every student had to find a word, put up it’s definition and use it in a sentence with context. I turned the assignment into a short story. While my English teacher was amused, I think I annoyed her with my enthusiasm.  She also refused to call on me when it came to our critiques and thoughts of our assigned reading.

  10. I got my pseudonym with the first initials combining my and my patient husband’s first names. The last name is that of one of my favorite characters in a book by a favorite author of mine.

  11. I am overly creative. I do lots of crafts.

  12. My characters Cole Brady in Tree of Life and Joshua in the Gingerbread Man, are characters I have a crush on.

  13. Cole Brady was initially modeled after a real-life friend, someone I’m no longer friends with and I went back and had to rewrite the character. It came out better that way.

  14. Paul Archer in Ulterior Motive is based on a real person.

  15. Cheryl, the wookie office manager in the Gingerbread Man is based on a real person I used to work with. Actually all of the office girls are. The real-life person passed away and I considered removing that whole section. Might still.

  16. I think best about stories when lying down.

  17. I have tried to fashion funny, snarky blogs about my Corporate Life and each time I start to build the sites, they crash or are mysteriously “deleted”. I think this is fate/karma or something telling me not to do this. So I stopped trying. 

  18. When I watch a movie I have a hard time not viewing it as an insider. Set design, lighting, key grip and best boy are all things I’m looking at, including the writing and dialogue. It takes the magic out of the movie. I don’t know why I do this.

  19. When I read a book, the same thing happens.

  20. My grammar sucks.

  21. I personally doubt I’ll ever get published, but that won’t stop me from trying.

  22. When I ask myself WHY I write, because it’s not for the fame or the glory, or the money, I know the answer. Because I have a story to share.

  23. I’m okay with not getting published.

  24. I’m intimidated by other writers.

  25. I’m also extremely paranoid and don’t like to post full things or provide full manuscripts. Have YOU ever read Envy by Sandra Brown? If you’re a writer, YOU SHOULD.

  26. I have 3 cats. I used to have just one and he was my baby. I miss him so much. He would help me write by sitting on my lap and purring.

  27. Most days I don’t bother to put on makeup or do my hair. I get dressed and consider that a huge accomplishment. When I saw the trailer for Limitless and a homeless-looking Bradley Cooper’s character’s narrative said, “I have an excuse for looking like this; I’m a writer…” I laughed out loud in the theater and scared people.

  28. I have a Non-Sequitor comic strip clipping that shows  two people sitting at tables signing autographs. There is a large line of people clamoring for the autograph of the man whose sign says, Bit Part Actor Who Starred in movie adaptation of novel. The other table is of a lonely man of whom no one is standing in line for and his sign states: Author of book movie was based on. Isn’t that the truth? Makes me smirk every time.

  29. I am verbose.

  30. I never feel like my characters are deep enough or the story is strong enough. Yes, I realize we are our own worst critics, but THIS IS MORE THAN THAT.

  31. I believe writing from experience is the best way to write.

  32. When I write, I always start out with an outline, then a timeline, then I build character profiles, then I write the key points of the story, then go back and fill in the rest later. This makes for much rewriting.

  33. I find the delete key very liberating.

  34. I type fast.

  35. But I use the backspace key more.

  36. The muse always strikes me at the most inconvenient time. Like driving, or at 2am.

  37. I used to be technologically savvy. Now I barely care enough to update my computer. I blame my Corporate Job.

  38. I am very opinionated.

  39. I have never taken a formal English writing class.

  40. I went to one writer’s conference and it will probably be my last. Seriously. The cost versus benefit? No.

  41. When a peer asks me to critique their stuff I get super nervous about providing ANY feedback.

  42. I dislike elitists of any kind, but would like to be one. (Who doesn’t?)

  43. My father is a writer.

  44. So was my grandmother. But she wrote music and has a song copywrited in the Library of Congress. It’s a love song.

  45. I play the piano. And I don’t know how to play my grandmother’s song.

  46. Romance novels make me gag. But since 36% of the market share of new novels is romances, I might start writing them.

  47. I love the smell of bookstores. And books.

  48. I hate the feel of paper. And cardboard.

  49. I wish I was smart enough to write hard science fiction.

  50. I grew up watching Dr. Who. We even went to Who-Cons. (Well, my DAD went, we just tagged along)

  51. I have a bad habit of leaving transitive verbs out of my sentences making it mean almost the exact opposite of what I’m trying to say. Same with contractions.

  52. I strongly believe double contractions should be acceptable. (Like, I wouldn’t’ve)

  53. In college, our APA style wouldn’t let us use contractions so I did just to see if the instructor was actually reading our boring papers. They weren’t. I don’t blame them for that.

  54. My senior project senior year? Most of the references and statistics were fake. And in the middle of the paper I wrote “All work and no play makes me a dull girl.” I got a 100% on the paper. My previous paper fell short one page and I got a 0. And on THAT paper, everything was 100% accurate. Go figure.

  55. I’m addicted to fonts.

  56. When I am struggling with writer’s block, I RP the characters in games and creative writing sites.