About Never Saying Never

I'm older now and like to think I'm wiser. I think I finally learned to NEVER SAY NEVER.
I'm a multi-faceted person who some people think suffers from multiple personalties. Not really but a high school friend recently contacted me and called me a brainiac and it's true--I like a lot of different subjects and things. I can be the prissy miss in a formal, up-do and low heels. I also like to wear my jeans, hair braid, and motorcycle boots. Both people are me and I like them both.
Being older and hopefully wiser I've learned not to say NEVER. Years ago I hated jeans–now I live in jeans. They are damn comfortable once they are broken in. My mom had short hair and made me have short hair. Now I have hair I can sit on and I say I will NEVER CUT IT again but I have cut it in the past so the saying never thing doesn't apply.

As writers we deal with characters and plots and I foolishly had a lot of NEVERs there. I used to say I'd never write contemporary. Oops-six of the seven stories I sold were contemporaries. I used to say I'd never write children into stories. Oops-a full length Resurrected Love; two uncompleted western novellas; Glenaire's Lady set in Medieval Scotland; and the upcoming Christmas story, A Commander Under the Tree, all contain children. Another taboo was pets–I slipped again, although technically Caesar is a police partner not a pet in Resurrected Love. Oh yeah the I'll never write a Scottish or Medival bite the dust with the unpublished Glenaire's Lady and there is a child in that one too.

Some of the NEVER SAY NEVERs that fell in the past were white-water rafting (bone chilling not only because the water is cold) and rock climbing (the view is nice but the work is done by the legs not the arms) and I flew again. I apologize to Northwest for the indentations in the arm rests. I always said I wouldn't read a regency and I did but it doesn't mean there is a second one out there for me. It wasn t bad. It was good. It was also by a friend Dawn Thompson and wasn't the stereotypical regency with Lords and Ladies abounding to confuse me.

There are some things are ALWAYS SAY NEVER but most of those you know what they are. If you don t write me and I ll tell you.

One of the things I recommend that you do is ALWAYS LIVE YOUR LIFE to suit yourself. You won't be happy otherwise. And put away the NEVER I'LL-while you at it--unless you're talking about brussel sprouts.

Billie Warren Chai