Wednesday, January 27, 2010

True or False? What Do You Think?

I'm doing it again. I've set aside a big block of writing days in another push to finish this darned first draft. The days are stretched out before me. Five days. Today through Sunday. If I can do it, I'll finally have the manuscript I'd hoped to complete by December 31st.

The hard part is keeping my main character under control. I'm working on that.

Now for the serious business of the day. The wonderful Kaye Barley who blogs at Meanderings and Musings recently received the most excellent "Lesa's Bald Faced Liar (SCRATCH THAT!) 'Creative Writer' Blogger Award" from Lesa Holstine of Lesa's Book Critiques. I was super-pleased that Kaye included me when she passed the award along.

Thanks, Kaye. This is a most distinguished, highfalutin award. I am truly honored. I've included the link back to Lesa's blog and hope other recipients of this award will do the same. If you read books, you'll love Lesa's reviews and interviews. As for Kaye, she blogs about about books and authors and other stuff that's going on in her world. Once you've dropped by for a visit, you'll want to return often.

Okay. On with the fun. This award comes with a few rules. Rules that Lesa Holstine made up. And here they are:

Recipients must -
1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you.
4. Tell us up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.
5. Allow your readers to guess which one or more are true.
6. Nominate seven "Creative Writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
7. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
8. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

Before I get to the tall tales, I'd like to nominate seven bloggers who (hopefully) will enjoy this creative exercise:

Helen Ginger of Straight From Hel
Elizabeth Spann Craig at Mystery Writing is Murder
Elspeth Antonelli at It's a Mystery
Sophie Littlefield at Can't Stop Won't Stop
Terry Odell at Terry's Place
Donna M. Kohlstrom at A Florida Writer's Life
Donna Volkenannt at Donna's Book Pub

These bloggers seem to have a pretty good sense of humor, so I'll be interested to see what outrageous stories they tell us.

So, back to Number Four -- tell six outrageous lies about myself and at least one outrageous truth. Here we go:

1. After I took belly-dancing lessons in the 70s, I performed in public with a troupe of five other dancers.

2. Lee Child bought me a drink at Bouchercon in Indianapolis (2009).

3. The last manuscript I submitted to Five Star was perfect as is and required no editing.

4. When there's no one else in the house, I loudly sing along to music from my favorite singers, including Elvis Presley, Garth Brooks, and Joan Armatrading.

5. I'm obsessive about cleaning house and keeping my office spic n' span -- a place for everything and everything in its place.

6. I never eat lunch.

7. When I was a teen, I visited relatives in Philadelphia and got to dance on American Bandstand.

Now it's us to you to guess which of these statements is true. What do you think?

18 comments:

Donna M. Kohlstrom said...

Pat

Thanks for the award!

Thanks for the giggles from your post! Would I be a liar if I said number 4 is the truth?!

Alan Orloff said...

I'll say number two is true.

Mason Canyon said...

Congratuations on the award. I also see some new links to check out. I'd have to say #4 is true, but I could see you doing #7 and even #1.

Elspeth Futcher said...

Congrats on the award and thanks so much for passing it on to me. As to your list...let's see...I think # 1,2, 4, 6, and 7 are true. If #3 and 5 are true I may spit in envy just a little bit. ( but don't worry, if #5 IS true, I'll clean it up!)

Clementine said...

Hi Patricia, thanks so much for visiting my blog! Wow, your books sound wonderful - I'll have to enter your contest! Now I don't know you, but I'm going to take a guess at your truth statement just for fun. I'll guess that you really danced with American Bandstand! Am I right?

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Wow---thanks for the award, Patricia! I can lie with the best of them, so this will work out great. :) Thank you!

I'm going to say that you sing aloud to music when no one is around...and possibly when people ARE around.

Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen

Jemi Fraser said...

Congrats! Fun award :)

Let's go with #7 'cause that sounds fun!

Anonymous said...

True is #1 and #2. Congrats on your award. You are funny even when you lie!!!

Jayne

Patricia Stoltey said...

Time to tell the truth. Only one of the above statements was true--#1--I made a gorgeous belly-dancing costume with a clingy purple skirt with gold trim, and a top covered with gold bangles. And, of course, we used matching scarves and shawls. I performed with the group twice before I gave it up. I was just too self-conscious.

#4 is not true. I sometimes sing Garth's Friends in Low Places but mostly I just dance around the house with no singing. I never try to sing Elvis songs...I'd rather just listen.

All the rest are completely outrageous lies, especially that funny one about obsessive housekeeping. LOL

Helen Ginger said...

I'm gonna guess #5 is a lie. Not that I don't think you're neat or don't keep a clean office, but just that I suspect you're having too much fun in your life to worry about everything being in place.

Thank you for passing me the award. This is the first time I've seen it.

Helen
Straight From Hel

Natasha said...

The one statement I was sure was not true was the one about being an obsessive housekeeper. Like Helen says, you seem the sort of person who is too busy doing things to bother about that.
And if you were a obsessive housekeeper, you would not think it was outrageous.

Congratulations on the award, and I really look forward to reading what the others come up with.

Sophie Littlefield said...

I just *knew* the belly dancing one was true!!!

Patricia, thank you so very much for including me on the list! I'm honored and delighted to be in such fine company :) You make the internet a fun place to be...

Terry Odell said...

Thanks for the award, Patricia. Things are crazy, but I'll get to it early next week for sure.

Kaye Wilkinson Barley - Meanderings and Muses said...

LOL! I KNEW you'd come up with a fun list!!!! And I am so glad the clean house thing was a lie. Whew!

Patricia Stoltey said...

It's pretty funny that no one believes I'm obsessive about housekeeping, that I always skip lunch, or that I submitted a perfect manuscript to my editor. LOL

I'm looking forward to reading some more outrageous lies. This is fun.

Gary said...

After being impressed by your attractive yearbook photo, I now learn you are a trained belly dancer. Perhaps it's time to take a break from mystery stories and write your memoirs.

Patricia Stoltey said...

Hi Gary, That comment gave me a chuckle. Taking a round of belly dance lessons might be the most interesting thing I ever did -- I'm sure my memoirs would bore most readers to death.

Lesa said...

Loved your list. I read it to my husband, who said, #1 is a lie! I guessed #4 was true, like others did, but I knew you wouldn't be an obsessive housekeeper. (What reader or writer cares that much about housekeeping? We have books to care about!)

Thanks for playing along. I love these lies!

Lesa - www.lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com