WHAT'S SO QUIRKY ABOUT MICHELLE PICARD?

Although I'm sticking in my own picture at the top of my "What's So Quirky About" blog, I thought I'd add a picture of the hero in my current work in progress above to spice it up. Two for the price of one. Kyle was the vampire character star of the short lived TV series called Blood Ties based on the kick-ass novels of Tanya Huff.

So now, like the others, I'll wow you with a list of peculiar, completely unasked for minutia from my life. Here it goes:

-Wrote a poem in fifth grade about capybaras, the largest member of the rodent family, and a sure first sign of literary genius.

-Pet two baby Bengal tiger cubs at eight years old (without losing my fingers).

-Produced and narrated a radio show about Possums including a segment recorded live during a release from captivity into the wild. Not so riveting as the medium of sound does not work well with Possums who don't make loud noises. (I'm sensing an animal trend here, ya think?)

-Named her first tropical fish after Aayla and Jondalar, the protagonists of Jane Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear series.

-Played trombone (badly) her freshman year of high school. And aren't we all glad I stopped after that?

-Wrote, produced and video taped a short play about WWII air force veterans. (Definitely not an instance of "write what you know.")

-Was the only teenager on a six week volunteer summer program for adolescents to Antigua that did not take the trip because of the lack of a drinking age on the island. Go figure.

-Was about the only soul who graduated from the University of Michigan who saw just two football games the entire four years I attended.

-Was asked to pose as a model wearing only a toga for a photography major at college because I had the classic roman nose for the shot. (No, this wasn't a twisted pick-up line. The photographer was female.)

-Participated in a riot in Ann Arbor the year when Hash Bash and a Grateful Dead concert intersected with U of M's team winning the NCAA championship. (No, I didn't turn over any vehicles or smash any windows. The police don't monitor these blogs, do they?)

-Got my Masters in Social Work after being warned by the five other social workers in my family that I might want to go into another line of work.

-Was tricked by my husband, who planned our honeymoon, when he told me we were going to London, but surprised me by taking me to Italy instead. Apparently I was the only person in the universe who had considered it reasonable to be flying to London from the east coast of the US via a change of planes in Germany. Don't worry, my husband told me our true destination when we arrived in Germany and I tried to ask for the connecting gate to London.

Okay, quirky facts done.

SHAMELESS PLUG: Remember, RULING EDEN will be released soon at Crescent Moon Press. Probably sometime in late October. It will be available in e format and then, a month or so later, available for order in print copy from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.