Carly's Ramblings Blog - Style

Money and Authors

Today's blogs...

Blog City – Day 44 – April 16

How did you make your first dollar? Baby-sitting, paper route or..... Have fun with this.
In a work capacity, I would have to say it was babysitting but I will say, from a young age I knew the importance of money.

As a child, maybe five, I remember playing in the living room and my father decided to take a nap on the couch. When he laid down, the coins fell out of his pockets and sprinkled all over the floor. There were dimes and nickles and pennies and even some lovely quarters (there were no loonies or twoonies - as this was before their time). My father left them intending, I am sure, to retrieve them after his evening nap. I, however, had a different plan. I moved over and picked up the little windfall careful to be quiet and not disturb my father and his rest. Once I had collected every wee nugget I skittered out of the room and down the hall to my doggy bank (which I still have, by the way). My father heard my steps on the linoleum and the coins plunking into the bank dragged him awake. I returned to the living room looking all innocent to see him watching me. He grinned and shook his head. Nothing he could do really, the deal was done. That bank can only be gotten into if I break the ceramic it is made of and I have no intention of it. So now, some 42 years later (OMG - that long!) that money is still nestled in that bank along with the coins and bills my parents put in as gifts received from family and friends when I was born. On the bottom of the bank my mother has written who gave and how much. It is priceless really - not the money, but the memory and the fact that it still remains intact and will stay that way for a long while yet. It is neat to read the names of family members long past and the wee bits they gave - at the time is was a good bit, but now - children get more for one tooth from the tooth fairy. Crazy, really.

Welcome To My Reality - Week Seventeen

4. If you had a chance to meet your favourite author, who would it be and what would you ask them?
This is an interesting prompt and I have considered many options. I read a lot of books and have many favourites. But I would have to choose Jill Shalvis. I enjoy reading her blogs and her contemporary romance novels. She seems so real and approachable. Her life is scattered with little 'I love Lucy' moments that makes me realize I am not alone in my own foibles and she is not afraid to share them online.

I would love to visit her place take a walk with her, enjoy some cookies and coffee and go with her to write in her lovely views. Mountains and lakes are her views. I would show up with a fresh batch of cookies - she loves cookies.
What would I ask her? I think we could just talk - not about anything in particular, but everything really. I think it would be a wonderful experience.

Now if I had a second choice... it would be Natalie Goldberg. I have been a fan of hers for much longer. I first read Writing Down The Bones: Freeing the Writer Within in 1989 - I finished it August 17, 1989. I have all her books including her most recent The True Secret To Writing. It is a line she uses when someone comes in late to one of her sessions - she tells them that they were just discussing the 'true secret to writing' but that they missed it and she won't be repeating it. She does this to ensure they are never late again. I love this humour. She is another that seems so real and available. I have always wanted to visit New Mexico - Taos or Santa Fe. We would meet in a cafe - write and talk, share and just experience the day together. I do not have anything I would really want to ask - just the experience would be enough.