Betcha didn’t know…
T
rivia about As If Being 12¾ ISN'T BAD ENOUGH, NOW MY MOTHER IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT!
1. My feet are size 9½, just like Vanessa’s.
2. Vanessa’s stuffed donkey is named Carter after President Jimmy Carter. Our older son’s middle name is also Carter because we admire President Jimmy Carter and all the good work he does.
3. The poem that is slipped into Vanessa’s locker was actually given to me on Valentine’s Day by a boy in my 6th grade class. His name was Michael. And I still have the poem he gave me.Here it is:
G.I. Haircuts
G.I. Hats
G.I. This
G.I. That
G.I. Like you
G.I. Do
G.I. Hope you like me, too.
4. Like Vanessa, I used to play Scrabble with my mom. And like Vanessa, I lost to my mom. I still have the Scrabble set I used to play on with Mom. Then one holiday, hubby and I each got each other brand new identical Scrabble sets. Great minds think alike, I guess. We returned one of the sets to the store and had a good laugh. We enjoy playing on the Scrabble board because it spins so no one has to look at the words upside down, and there’s a nice pouch to hold the letters. (Mom’s old set is tucked safely on a closet shelf.)
5. The restaurant Grandma takes Vanessa to is called Hurricane Jeanne’s. That’s because my friend since we were fourteen-years-old is named Jeanne. “Hi, Jeanne!”
6. My tenth grade English teacher was Ms. Durlofsky, just like Vanessa’s Language Arts teacher. I loved Ms. Durlofsky so much that I still keep in touch with her. “Hi, Ms. Durlofsky!”
7. Elyssa Rothrock has two assistants — Kyle James and Nicole Matthesen — those are the names of my niece and nephew. I have lots more wonderful nieces and nephews, so I’ll have to sell lots more books to sneak their names into.
8. In the novel, the Democratic National Convention takes place in July. Something really sad happened to Vanessa’s dad in July, too. And something really cool happens in July in real life – it’s my birthday month – July 5th, to be exact.
9. A character in my novel named Carilynn Winser is absent one day when she’s supposed to read the part of Juliet in Language Arts class. Carilynn is the first name of a dear friend here in Florida and Winser is one of my sister’s last names.
10. Reginald – the clod! – steps on a the foot of a girl named Holly Stevens. Holly is the name of a good friend, and her hubby’s name is Steven. (We sneaky authors can do things like that for our character’s names, so it’s probably a good idea to be nice to writers. You wouldn’t want us to name a character after you and have something dreadful happen to him!)
