Twenty Random Facts

            Mel accused me the other day of being ungrateful for my new blog.  “You haven’t posted anything new.”

            “I know.  I’ve been busy trying to help you get ready for your first eBook, and trying to help you finish two more.  My brain is starting to melt.”

            Mel claimed hers felt the same way.  I recommended that since the public would soon get to know her pseudonym, they might be interested in the woman behind Kate Russell.

            Surprisingly, Mel agreed, and the list below has been approved by her.  I hope you enjoy getting to know her a little better.  Sometimes she over shares, but deep down she’s a very private person.

            Until next time,

            Cordelia 

Twenty random facts about Mel that you probably wish you still didn’t know:

1. When Mel was seven years old, she fell in love with Timothy Dalton in Flash Gordon, and decided she would marry him.  Sadly, he didn’t wait for her.
2. Mel read Gone With the Wind in second grade.
3. Mel’s To Be Read pile comes naturally.  When she was small, her mother read a stack of books to her every day.
4. The only book that Mel and her sister (who normally hated reading as a teenager) both loved was The Count of Monte Cristo.
5.  Every single time Road House comes on T.V., Mel watches it.  Every single time.  It may be one of the absolute worst movies ever made, but Patrick Swayze is in it.  Duh.
6. Mel likes to eat dinner for breakfast.  Lasagna, meatloaf, chicken and rice—it really doesn’t matter.  She also likes to eat breakfast for dinner.
7. Squirrels are her arch enemies.
8. Sometimes Mel’s characters’ looks are based on actors and actresses.  No, she won’t tell you which ones.
9. After meeting Mel for the first time, her future mother-in-law asked Mel’s now-husband what country she was originally from.  Later, she would be tempted to change out “country” for “planet”.
10. In relation to the Harry Potter series, Mel is a cross between Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood.  However, when she’s grouchy, she channels pure Bellatrix Lestrange.
11. Mel loves red hair.  As a kid, she would soak her hair in vinegar and sit outside in the sunlight, trying unsuccessfully to turn ginger-haired.  She later acquired a mother-in-law and two nieces who are redheads, and a husband who’s a strawberry blond.
12. Mel learned to drive in the desert.  That explains a lot.
13. In high school, Mel learned many things, including how to make checkers.
14. Mel loves the movie Tremors.  Sometimes she makes guests watch it with her.
15. Mel’s favorite flower is the hyacinth.  She dislikes carnations because they remind her of funerals.
16. Mel used to know how to imprint Bibles.
17. One of her upcoming books began with a bizarre dream she had in middle school.  No, it’s not the vampire one.
18. Instead of English, Mel almost majored in History and Political Science.
19. In tenth grade, despite braces, questionable foundation and blue eye shadow, stepping on her dress and getting stuck on a fake bridge, and completely screwing up her Q&A session, Mel somehow won 4^th Runner-up at her school’s Beauty of the Orient pageant.  I know, I can’t believe it, either.
20. Although several authors have been kind enough to write back when Mel sent them fan letters, her favorite one is a handwritten note and envelope from Lloyd Alexander a few years before his death.  She cried when she read it.