Useless Facts

I am still waiting (with nail-biting nervousness) on my next round of edits…or whatever it is my agent has for me to do. I am very tired and have nothing particularly insightful to say, so I have decided to post a string of useless facts for the sake of…uh…being productive? Sure.

1. Unlike most people who try to get books published, it never occurred to me that I might want to be a writer when I grew up. I wrote stories all the time and could sit still for hours in daydream, but never drew from this any conclusion towards a hopeful career.
2. Actually I wanted to be Peter Pan when I grew up, which is to say, I didn’t want to grow up. The reason for this was because I never saw adults climbing trees and this seemed to me a miserable state of affairs.
3. I speak a few languages. In order of fluency: English, Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish. Spanish used to be second-highest to English and I used to use it all the time, but it has fallen into disrepair.
4. I have galloped around Giza, hiked through a wadi in Israel, and crossed the Tigris in a 7-ton ferry. These experiences have strongly influence my writing.
5. I do not know how to use GIFs, but I wish I did, and I mean to figure it out someday.
6. Coffee. No sugar, no cream, no weird flavors like “chocolate.” Just coffee.
7. I love running, except when I hate it, which is often. Especially when it’s cold.
8. I believe that if a recipe calls for garlic, you should automatically double the quantity. Same for garam masala and most other spices and aromatics.
9. The other day I felt a strong impulse to shout “BUMBershoot, BUMBershoot!” at the top of my lungs. However there was a sleeping baby in the back of the car, so I refrained.
10. A bumbershoot is an umbrella, for those of you who did not know. The only reason I know is because my nieces and nephews watched an episode of animaniacs.

There. 10 useless facts for you today.