Ten Things You Don't Know About Me

Hey, Gin, thanks for having me. I'm with some excellent company here, although I admit, I'm a wee older and from an entirely different century.

I stopped in to tell everyone ten things they don't know about me (and were afraid to ask). So, remember, you heard it here first on "Dishin' It Out"!

From the Secret Annals of Raine Brinsley, heroine from Sojourn With A Stranger.

I’m one who must know what makes people tick. My grandfather Lewis says I should have been a solicitor . . . if only I had been born a male. Here they are, and not necessarily in order of importance:

1. The truth is, I never worked a day in my life until I was forced into servitude and found it necessary to seek employment as a house servant. More’s the pity that I selected an ostentatious abode in Norfolk, VA where the Lord of the Manor is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. More about the cad later.

2. My favorite things: Playing the piano, flowers, and the sound of ocean waves rolling into shore.

3. My favorite quote: “Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.” ~ Voltaire

4. I'm an only child and you know what they say about them: Early 17th century theologians classified them as pampered, lonely and insecure, yet later studies indicated they have been shown to have a slightly higher intelligence level and their achievement levels appear to be higher without a sibling to compete with. I like to concentrate on the later studies.

5. My weakness: I gravitate toward the tormented, the downtrodden, thus my determination to help the ghost wandering the halls of Stafford House. I knew from the onset it was Derek Stafford’s late wife, Lucinda, but couldn’t fathom what the restless soul wanted. Knowing my penchant for assisting those in dire straights, of course she sought me out the moment I took up residence in the great manor.

All right. I admit to one other weakness. Derek Stafford. If only you could see him, you would understand my plight.

6. My paternal grandmother, Brisen, taught me to play the piano; Beethoven, Mozart, all the great masters, and my grandfather Lewis can heal the sick with a laying-of the-hands.

7. The males in my family are marked with a quarter moon on their shoulder. Some say it’s a curse; others a blessing.

8. It’s true I signed a contract to bear Derek’s child. As I mentioned previously, I was in dire straights and it was imperative I return to my ailing grandfather in Maine. But woe is me, like many ill-gotten schemes, it went awry. You shall have to read my account of the story if you hope to gain full disclosure.

9. My grandfather is a dyed-in-the-wool Scotsman and instilled in me a strong sense of family. At an early age, I learned the meaning of the words dearest to his heart: Cuimhnich air na da oine o’n d’ thainig tha - Remember thy people from whence you came.

10. Only fairytales have happily-ever-afters. Don’t they?

A sincere thank you to Kat Bryan for making my interview possible.

K. Celeste Bryan, www.kcelestebryan.com

Read my full account of Sojourn With A Stanger here: New Concepts Publishing, NEW CONCEPTS PUBLISHING