Follow Friday--What's in a Name?

Welcome to the Writer’s Follow Friday Blog Hop! Not sure if you qualify? If you have a blog to add, guess what, you’re a writer! So check out the rules, grab the link and join the hop! We’re small for now, but we hope to continue to grow.

This week's question is Shakespeare asked What's in a name? But we all know better. So let's talk about names, specifically our blog's name. How did you come up with yours?

My answer is:  in the first novel of my series, I have a character say, "Fate and faith will put you where you need to be."  It's something I believe in my personal life and her sister needed to hear it at that particular part of the story. 

Please join in in welcoming Paige W. Pendleton from Gustatus Similis Pullus, this week's featured author, with her answer.

Okay! I'm laughing.

It is Latin for tastes like chicken. I wanted something irreverent, and phrase seemed to fit. I've since looked it up, and found ""Tastes like chicken is also used for incongruous humor, deployed for situations which have no real relevance."

Yep. That worked. Perfectly.

How do you join in the fun? So glad you asked. It’s really quite simple.

The rules

1)      Follow me, Elizabeth Sharp, the originator of this hop

2)      Follow the featured author of the week, Paige W. Pendleton.

3)      Go to Sharp words and copy the image code found there and paste it in your blog. Add your name to the link at the bottom of the post while you are there.

4)      Copy and paste the rules in your blog, as well as this week’s question.

5)      Answer the question

6)      Follow, follow, follow. This is about networking, people, making connections with people in your community. So talk to us. We don't bite!

7)      If someone stops by, says hi and follows you, the polite thing to do is follow back.

8)      Comment here and introduce yourself and you just might find a new follower or two.

Breaking it down, here, in this box, is the code for the snazzy quill link to the hop. Copy it and paste it into your own blog.

<center><a href=" http://somesharpwords.blogspot.com/search/label/FF" target="_blank" ><img border="0" src=" http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m54/minako97/pen.jpg " /></a> </center>

Copy and paste these rules to your blog (they’re a little different than mine and designed to help your blog)

The rules

1)      Follow this blog.

2)      Follow Elizabeth Sharp, the originator of this hop

3)      Follow the featured author of the week.

4)      Go to Sharp words and copy the image code found there and paste it in your blog. Add your name to the link at the bottom of the post while you are there.

5)      Copy and paste the rules in your blog, as well as this week’s question.

6)      Answer the question

7)      Follow, follow, follow. This is about networking, people, making connections with people in your community. So talk to us. We don't bite!

8)      If someone stops by, says hi and follows you, the polite thing to do is follow back.

9)      Comment here and introduce yourself and you just might find a new follower or two.

Next click this link bar to add yourself to the list.

This is the blog hop for the writing community. Every Friday writers who blog come together and hop! Leave your name and URL of the FF post and we'll come visit you too.

1.	Elizabeth Sharp	11.	Julius Cicero
2.	Paige W. Pendleton	12.	Suzy Turner
3.	Gabrielle Bisset	13.	Victoria Denson
4.	Kristi Bernard	14.	J. A. Titus
5.	Liz Schulte	15.	Louisa Paarsmarkt
6.	Pam Asberry	16.	Nichole Chase
7.	Robyn Sadler	17.	Nadja Notariani
8.	MG Ainsworth	18.	Pamela V Mason
9.	Nora B. Peevy	19.	Julee J Adams
10.	M.D. Christie

(Submissions close in 6d 7h 23m)

Top of Form

URL:	(URL of your blog post)
Name:
Email:	(Not visible)
	Trouble linking up? Try here

Bottom of Form

Link tool by inlinkz.com

There was a little girl

Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good, she was very, very good.
When she was bad, she was horrid.

Guess what I saw when I looked into the mirror just now?  For five seconds, I debated whether to go down the street for a haircut.  I then took another look and decided it was in that in-between growing out stage where it looks kind of cool and I'd let it go for another week or two. 

A few years ago, I fell and hit my right elbow on a concrete curb.  The doctor suggested it would've healed faster if I'd actually broken it (great...), but there really wasn't anything they could do about it.  It was then I realized I was so very right handed.  I'd always tried to do things with my left hand, because I'd heard it encourages creativity and just in case of this exact event, but there are routines and habits that were created and had to be dealt with.  One result was I got my hair cut very short.  We're talking boy short here and I kind of liked it.  I didn't have to mess with a hair dryer, it was easy to maintain and that was all good, because I couldn't raise my arm above my chest. 

I still keep it pretty short, because to be honest, I've never liked to mess with hair products.  This did not set well (sorry for the pun) when I worked at a beauty supply house many years ago.  The manager felt I should be putting all this goop in my hair since I was selling it, but the hairdressers (it was wholesale, not open to the public) often came in looking like train wrecks.  I compromised and tried to keep my nails nice, since we sold those products too.  But, my point is:  in talking with hairdressers, everyone seemed to agree that no one is ever happy with what they have.  Here people pay hundreds a year on products and services to get the  curl and body I have naturally and I just cut the stuff off.    In high school, I wanted straight, long hair.

Ah, irony.  You can probably date the picture by the movie camera and the size of my glasses--well and by the fact I'm not wearing heifer cow sized clothes and my shag haircut.  Welcome to my high school nerdiness. 

Yes, we're usually not happy with what we have.  The grass is greener on the other side of the fence, etc.  I'm saying it's usually an optical illusion.  What someone has seems idealized to you.  Someone is always better or has more than you. 

A critical point in my life came when I took a job as a trainer for a government agency.  I was thrown into an already established team, with skill sets and knowledge I could only aspire to.  I took a great leap of faith, realizing I did not have to be the smartest person in the room and I was okay with that.  Rather than rolling in and being obnoxious or jealous, I carved the majority of my ego off and handed it to God. 

So, what does my laziness about getting a haircut and this other stuff have to do with writing?  Other people will always be more successful than me.  Other people will always have a better looking blog/page/whatever than me.  Rather than being hateful or snarky or trying to make myself feel grander by cutting them down, I will do my best to learn from them and by being encouraging.  Hating never worked anyway.  It's such a waste of energy.  I've tried to learn this and tried to teach it to my characters.  So, congrats to all--please share your successes and I will celebrate them with you.  Then, I may ask you for advice or commiserate with you on those goals we fall short, so we can learn and improve. 

On character development and my twisted mind

I'm currently obsessed with a novel-length story I want to write for the Harlequin Memorial Day challenge.  It is a romance (of course) that involves two of the unit mates of my hero for the first novel in the series.  Don't have a title for it yet and the characters don't even have last names, but between my three notebooks, I have enough for a good length book.  I'd planned for this to be a nice little scene in the third novel and how lucky I am that it's blossomed. 

The heroine is a petite red-head named Harry.  Actually, it's Haroldean (they expected a boy and those are family names), but she is Fierce.  Well, of course, she's a Marine.  Unfortunately, she's been blinded and is back in the States to try to start her new life.  While she'd had a kind of a crush on the hero from my first book in the series, she realizes the man she'd considered just a friend was her real love. 

Back to reality for a moment.  A friend called and mentioned something her husband said that upset her a bit.  She knew if she mentioned it to him later, he would say, "That's not what I meant."  I can't tell you how many times in my almost 23 year marriage that has happened.  But, my friend and I are sighted.  We have cues from our husbands, even if it's only an eye roll or teasing grin, that my character Harry would not have.  I also put together several pieces of information I had from a class I taught that included interpreting non-verbal cues in improving customer service. 

Thus, I have a second major conflict/misunderstanding/obstacle to keep my hero and heroine apart.  Can't make it too easy, can I?  That's what I've really enjoyed about the first two books is that I keep throwing challenges at my characters and they keep overcoming them.  After all, my heroes are smart, funny, handsome and wealthy--a lesser woman would collapse at their feet immediately.  But, that wouldn't be any fun at all for the characters or for the reader. 

So, what have we learned from this, kids?  There is a purpose to playing Jewel Quest III, because it allows you to put these various ideas together, scribble them down in your notebook and string them together in the computer to make a narrative for the enjoyment of all.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.