All of my life I have loved to read and write. In 5th grade, my best friend and I decided to write a book similar to the Betsy, Tacy and Tib series (anyone else out there a Maud Hart Lovelace fan?!) Because her last name was Pence and my first name was Kathleen, "Penny and Kitty" seemed to be perfect names for the main characters. I even went so far as to advise my family (6 siblings at that time) that I wouldn't answer to "Kathy" any more (that was before I changed the spelling of my name to Kathie .. which occurred in 8th grade .. but that's a story for another day). I told them to call me "Kitty" if they wanted me to respond to them.
Bless their hearts, my parents and brothers and sisters did that for a while. To this day, one brother still periodically calls me "Kitty," bringing back fond memories of being a 10-year old aspiring author.
Penny and Kitty didn't last too long. We moved quickly into being more interested in boys and make-up, than writing stories. So now my writing is pretty much limited to boring my family and friends with a very long Christmas letter every year. Every now and then fans of the letter (a few) will advise me to take up writing for a living. Critics (a few more) claim they don't have enough hours in the day .. or eyes strong enough ... to read the small-sized type I must use to cram all of my words onto a single sheet of paper (double-sided of course). One friend gets honorable mention in the letter every few years if I feel I have succeeded in reducing the annual missive. So far, he hasn't acknowledged that success.
My husband has encouraged me for years to write a mystery novel. He even has the plot all laid out for me! The problem is the plot and all that goes with it is in HIS head, not mine. I think he's just interested in having me become the next Danielle Steele and visualizes how he is going to spend the millions of dollars we'll be raking in when I start churning out those overnight best sellers.
I recently retired (like just 3 weeks ago!) and now find myself needing to identify a "task" that will hold my interest and utilize my brain ... otherwise, I'm afraid I will become a vegetable sitting in front of the computer playing Free Cell games (in order!) until I reach #30,000. I'm only to 7,601 and that's taken me 10 years and probably a million brain cells. I really have to find something a bit more productive to do with my time.
Why not "write" I thought? So here I am ... starting a blog. I struggled with the name ... wanting to find something that really defined me ... I'll share with you a few of the potentials that made it to my list. First I must tell you, I am an inveterate 3 a.m. worrier. I sleep for about 4 hours a night and then wake up and worry about, or try to solve, every possible problem or situation that is occurring in my life. To date, I can't claim a great deal of success for solving .. but I'm a world champion at the worrying part.
Once I landed on the blog idea, my 3 a.m. worry time became devoted to possible blog names. When I arose at 7 a.m. each morning, I would try to remember what, at 3 a.m., had seemed like the perfect name for the blog, only to find that most of those perfect names had fled my memory. (Another 3 a.m. worry is that I have Alzheimer's and this is proof positive of it as far as I'm concerned.)
I started jotting down the 3 a.m. name ideas as soon as I got up, rather like good dream interpreters advise you to do. Among the rejects were "I'm Not a Diva," "The Split Infinitive," "A Conspiracy of Friendliness," "Living with the Holy Spirit Guy" (another story!), and "Random Utterances." None of them really seemed to define me or what I thought the blog might be about (which is actually nothing at this point). And looking at them now, none of them were very good anyhow!
Last night (or early this morning), the name K Squared came to me. My first name starts with a K and both my maiden name and my married name start with a K. So I've been KK all of my life (never assuming the triple K initials for obvious reasons). Thus, K Squared seemed to be the most fitting descriptor. I've been called that by a couple of people in my life, including the friend who suggested I write this blog, so it just seemed right.
This adventure is the precursor to the day that might arrive when I decide to write a novel. Dave, my "Christmas letter friend," might say I already have quite a few chapters complete!
If I do decide to write the "Great American Novel," I figure I should get some exposure to writing for the public .. even if the public consists of family and friends who already know me and will say (for the most part) "Well done, Kathie," and those unknown people who will stumble on this blog and say, "What DOES this woman think she's doing writing for the public?" Either way, I will have gotten some exposure and some feedback that I'm sure will be helpful.
Thanks for tuning in. I'll try to add items of interest now and then that will cause you to want to come back. No guarantees, but if you see or read something you like, please let me know. I'm happiest when I'm relating to people .. through the written word or otherwise.
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