To celebrate the release of her book A Letter from Nana Rose, author Kristin Harper is taking part in our 'seven things' series, so that her readers can get to know her a little better! Here's what she had to reveal...
1. I once worked in a library. I was very disappointed to discover that reading wasn’t one of my job responsibilities.
2. I’m learning to drive a standard and I’m too afraid of destroying the transmission to shift gears, so I just sort of coast around the parking lot in big, slow circles.
3. I used to submit poems and short stories to literary journals and my sister started a tradition of giving me a unique pen if my writing was accepted for publication. So now I have an extensive collection of novelty pens.
I've got all sorts of animal pens, especially fish. I’ve got flower pens. Pens that light up or talk. Bejeweled pens, blown-glass pens and hand-carved pens. I have a race car pen and, for some reason, I have two identical skeleton arm pens.
One of my favourite pens is one that looks like me when I’m under a writing deadline: it’s a blond woman wearing a sweatshirt and a messy ponytail and holding a can of Coke (see #4, below).
4. I've never had so much as a single swallow of coffee in my life. I took a sip once when I was about eight years old, and I promptly spat it out. My aversion to the taste is so strong that I can’t tolerate anything coffee-flavored, either, including candy, ice cream or even mocha frosting. When I need caffeine—and what writer doesn't?—I drink soda. (I know, I know. I’d be better off drinking coffee.)
5. I'm a lefty but, I throw right-handed.
6. I have been known to coerce my passengers into brainstorming plot ideas with me during road trips.
7. November 4th is the latest day in the year that I’ve gone bodyboarding in a regular swimsuit, not a wetsuit, on a Cape Cod beach. So far.
About the Author
Ever since she was a young girl, there were few things Kristin liked more than creative writing and spending time on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with her family. Eventually (after a succession of jobs that bored her to tears), she found a way to combine those two passions by becoming a women’s fiction author whose stories occur in oceanside settings. While Kristin doesn’t live on the Cape year-round, she escapes to the beach whenever she can.
You can follow Kristin on Twitter, @KHarperAuthor.
MORE FROM BOOKS: Seven things I'd like my readers to know about me, by Matt Dunn