Blog Question: Were You a Tomboy or a Princess Growing Up?

One of the fun things about writing as the guest on someone else’s blog is answering random questions that never occur to me when I’m writing on my own blog. Sometimes I think these questions seem very off-topic, considering readers are tuning in to find out about a favorite author or book. But the more I read similar guest blogs by other authors, the more I appreciate the random acquaintance that is formed.

Discovering something about an author’s childhood, their favorite TV shows or how/why they started writing gives me an insight into them as people and a greater appreciation of what is written.  So today I’m starting a continuing series called ‘Blog Questions’ where I’ll answer a random question I found on another author’s Guest Blog.  I hope you’ll find these fun and informative...but also, if you have a question put it in comments and I’ll answer it the next time.

So...just for starters, here’s a short one to kick us off: Were you a Tomboy or a Princess growing up??

Definitely a Tomboy! Though my mom sewed me many wonderful dresses when I was little, my preferred activities required tougher clothes! We lived near the ‘Mighty’DuPage River and along its banks grew huge willow trees. My friends and I created many imaginary scenarios in those trees, including submarine hunt, airplanes, apartments and hospitals. Each branch had its own purpose, from control tower at the top to operating room in the middle to torpedo room below.

When we weren't manufacturing alternate realities we might pass lazy summer days weaving jewelry out of willow strands, or hop down and wade across the river (don’t tell Mom!) to the other side and, perhaps beyond to visit friends over there.

In the winter that river froze nearly all the way across and became a skating pond.  The neighbor’s hillside formed a fearsomely steep toboggan run, frozen thickly with buckets of water toted from where the river ran free beside the far bank.  We flew down it, past the willows and stopped, teetering, where the flowing river broke open from the ice. I never ended up on the wet end of that gamble...but it was close!

That river and those trees were only part of my childhood adventures, but together they are serving to create a background for a future book of mine entitled ‘The Lottery’.  Inanimate though they are, the trees and the river play as much a part of that story as any character. ’The Lottery’ is an on-going project that I turn my attention to between other books, but it is a work of love that, soon, I will will tackle full speed. I look forward to its publication in the not too distant future.

Well, that’s my ‘Blog Question’ for today. I’d love to hear from you-what was your childhood like? And remember, let me know what question you’d like me to answer in the future!