Being pulled in too many directions at once. I prefer to do one thing until I've finished it, then switch to something else. The more projects I have to stop in the middle, the more stressed it makes me.

It's already banned in restaurants in TN. Bars can have smoking only if you have to be 21 to get in (i.e. an establish which functions solely as a bar).

I don't miss the sting of smoke in the eyes or the stink of it clinging to my clothes and hair after I leave.

When I say "no," you should stop what you're doing.

When I was younger, I thought that I might get a tattoo, but when I look back on what interests I've had over the years--or what sayings have been important to me--I see that I've grown away from all of them.

Karen Kingston, a Feng Shui practitioner, said that at one point in her life, she wore almost nothing but purple. She linked it to the spiritual transformation she was working on at the time. But when she was done, she got rid of the purple and doesn't wear it much anymore. She has "internalized" the power of it.

I feel that's true of the symbols and phrases which represent me at any given time. While I may really be into X at the moment, I will eventually internalize the message that I'm sending myself, and I won't need an exterior reminder of it.

And I certainly don't want to end up like the Jewish convert I know who has a cross tattooed on his leg. He can't afford to remove it, and yet inking over it is a violation of Jewish law (you are not allowed to get tattoos, or scar yourself, or otherwise mutilate the body on purpose).

But what if a tattoo was short-term? What if I only kept one for as long as I kept an interest in X?

I still don't think I would get one--not even a painless temporary tattoo. I just don't think they're attractive on the body. And even if they're growing in popularity, people still make judgments about people who have tattoos.

Yes, because it's not the government's job to legislate marriage.

I am also in favor of plural marriages (more than one spouse, of either sex), so long as all the spouses involved know and consent to the adding of another partner.

Whatever floats people's boats.

A rabbi once described people's personal battles between their good and evil inclinations as WWI trench warfare. If people move their trenches, it's usually only a few feet one way or the other.

But some people do make a breakthrough and completely change. (http://news.yahoo.com/reformed-skinhead-endures-agony-remove-tattoos-162205881.html)

So yes, it's possible for every person to change--whether that's a small amount or a complete 180.

The only thing you can't do is change someone else.

I look around me for inspiration. Stories people tell me, their personal catch-phrases, their personalities, looks, or attitudes--it all ends up in my writing. All of my characters are a mishmash of people I know, with the occasional fictional element thrown in.

I also have a deck of special tarot cards and Deal-a-Plot cards (http://www.storyforgecards.com/DealAPlot.pdf) that can help give me ideas for books. (There's a new version that will be available for sale in July: http://www.storyforgecards.com/Intro.html.) If I want an idea for a story, I just throw out some cards and see what they suggest.

I do sometimes like to have breakfast for dinner, especially as a heavy breakfast does not agree with my stomach first thing in the morning.

Hmm... maybe I'll call my husband and tell him I want some breakfast burritos for supper. I'll have to go to Hell-Mart and see if I can find some turkey sausage, though; the local grocery stores don't carry it. Put some ground turkey sausage and turkey bacon in with some eggs and bell pepper/onion medley and wrap it all up in a tortilla and cover with salsa.... Mmm, that's some good eating.

1. I've recognized that I'm trying to do too much, and I eliminated a lot of projects from my to-do list for the year, narrowing it down to 5. (http://keripeardon.wordpress.com/category/personal-challenges/)

2. I've published a story on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007FF74NO/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk).

3. I started a new serial story on my blog (http://keripeardon.wordpress.com/the-bloodsuckers-vampire-lawyers-of-middle-tennesee/) and just published the first 10 installments as a single volume on Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/152247)

4. I gave up a couple of officer positions that I was handling for my local re-enactment organization (part of my campaign to stop over-extending myself). Before I handed back the webminister position, I moved the site to a new host and made a number of updates (so the new person taking it over got it in good shape).

5. I started conversion class with my rabbi and did all of the essays he assigned me (6 months' worth of essays) in a day.

6. I've made a good start on the final edits of my first book. (I'm close to halfway done.)

7. I've increased the amount I'm reading and have been working on becoming a speed reader.

Listed by the amount of time I've spent in each (from most to least):

Ireland
Wales
England
Scotland
The Netherlands

Israel is next on my to-do list.

Monty Python and anime aside, I think my favorite foreign film is the remake of "Nosferatu," with Klaus Kinski. He could pull off both creepy and pitiful at the same time.

Yes, simply because it costs more to produce a penny than it's worth.

It is a metaphor for our entire federal budget: we spend more money than we make.

I already have plans (more plans than money, at this point).

I want to plaster our walls throughout the house. One, we have a mobile home, so there are those seams with cheap pieces of trim covering them. And secondly, a succession of cats have clawed said cheap trim pieces all around the doors. Plastering hides a multitude of sins. I can strip away all the trim and cover the seams and make the edges of the doors neat again.

I also think that a good coat of plaster on the walls will help some with the insulation (it's amazing how much cold air seems to seep directly through the paneling.

In addition to the plaster, all of the rooms will get a new color. I'm thinking a taupe for our bedroom and en suite bathroom. In the kitchen I want light blue walls and I also want to paint the dark, ugly cabinets white (I'm thinking of a distressed or whitewashed look, so I don't have to spend hours sanding and being meticulous). I still haven't decided about the living room, although I haven't ruled out some sort of hand-painted pattern on white walls.

I know I'm sick of politics. Everyone is arguing politics on Facebook, and the media is constantly harping on it. I'm only glad we don't have television at home, or it would be even worse.

I'd by happy to have some Mayan doomsday prophesy at this point.

Friday evening, just after leaving work or school. Friday evening feels like being released from prison. It is the furthest you can get from work or school. It contains massive (almost endless) amounts of potential for a weekend of fun and accomplishment.

Needless to say, Sunday night is actually the worst point in the week, because that's when you realize you didn't accomplish any of the things you planned, on Friday evening, to do, and that your weekend is now over, and you are at the furthest point away from the next weekend.

Washing dishes. I also hate hanging up clothes (I don't mind washing the clothes and sorting them and folding them--I just hate hanging them up). And does anyone like cleaning the cat's litter box?

I actually like organizing. Mind you, I have to be in the mood for it, but when I am, I can organize all the bookcases by subject (and fiction alpha by author) and sort the pantry by food types, or organize my sewing supplies in a tackle box.

Definitely an introvert. I think all writers must be introverts, because writing is a very lonely occupation. At the same time, however, you must study people if you're going to make believable characters. In almost all of my characters, I can see elements of people I know.

Do you know the difference between an introverted math major and an extroverted math major? An introverted math major looks at his feet when he's talking to someone; an extroverted math major looks at the other person's feet when he's talking.

Living in the South, where mass transit is almost unheard of, all of my experience has been on vacation.

The only unfriendly people you will ever meet in either Ireland or Scotland are public bus drivers. They don't like to talk and they especially don't like to answer questions like "Is this where I need to get off for High Street?" And they frequently don't show up at the bus stop. They will, however, laugh at you if you get off the bus in the middle of a downpour and have to run across the road in about four inches of water, squealing like a girl.

And yes, buses in Ireland really can get stuck behind herds of sheep wandering down the road. This can also happen in Scotland and Wales.

1. Americans forget history quickly. As a history major, this bothers me a lot, but it does have an extremely useful purpose: we don't hold grudges. I had a great-uncle who served in the Navy in the Pacific and fought against the Japanese. Here I am, two generations away from Pearl Harbor and I have no grudge at all against Japanese people. In fact, I was the cultural officer for my Japanese anime club in college. People in Europe and the Middle East still hate one another for things that happened in the middle ages. There certainly comes a point where cultural memory becomes negative.

2. Americans are friendly. I've even heard French people admire this quality. Europeans seem to still have that old social reserve that stems from a class structure. America, though, was formed without nobility and has, for the most part, eschewed the sort of class structure that exists in many parts of the world. It's easy to be friendly when you think the person next to you is your equal.

3. America exalts the self-made man. There's nothing Americans like more than a rags-to-riches story. In cultures where there is still a nobility, this story has much less impact, because being rich is not of as much consequence as being noble.

4. Americans are polite. Yes, Americans have a bad reputation when they're overseas, but that often stems from a lack of cultural understanding--meaning we don't understand the culture that we're in, so we commit many social faux pas. We are rarely intentionally rude. (As one Brit pointed out, Americans singly or as couples are delightful tourists; in groups, though, we tend to forget courtesy.) In the mid-west, people still commonly address each other as "sir" and "ma'am." In the South, people hold doors open for each other. Most people still say "excuse me" if they bump into one another on a sidewalk. And we have this wonderful concept of personal space; in any available bubble of space, Americans will be on opposite sides. I found, when I was in Amsterdam, that any bubble of space, Europeans will be right up against you, shoulder to shoulder. The rest of the sidewalk may be empty, but they'll practically be touching you as they walk past.

5. Self-determination. Call me a terrorist, but I love the fact that Americans, compared to Europeans, are a very self-determined people. While our society is changing, most people are still ashamed to take "government handouts" like welfare and food stamps. I have a friend who is a closet Socialist, and he's constantly complaining about how much money rich people have, and how the government should take their money from them and give it to the poor and middle class (known under the euphemism "wealth redistribution"). I am very much against this. I don't want their money because I didn't earn it. Most wealthy people in America earned their wealth; they didn't inherit it. Why should they have it taken away from them? If I want to be filthy rich, I'll work hard for it. I shouldn't be given money by the government because I'm not wealthy; I'm not wealthy because I choose to not be wealthy; I'd rather spend my time doing things other than pursuing the Almighty Dollar. Let people who work for it keep it.

October.

I was born in October, and autumn is my favorite season. There is just something so refreshing about cool days after all of our blistering hot Tennessee days. I like to open the windows and the front door and get a breath of fresh air in the house and my office. And every day there are trees more beautiful than yesterday's trees.

I listen to my radio station on Pandora every day at work. I have an eclectic station, which includes:

* Swing music (Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Squirrel Nut Zippers)
* Traditional and new age Celtic music (Clannad, Enya, Mary Black, Loreena McKennitt)
* Some instrumental piano, guitar and ukulele music (George Winston, Jake Shimabukuro)
* A little operatic singing (Charlotte Church)
* Some bluegrass (Alison Krauss)
* Some techno and techno-like groups (Depeche Mode)
* 90’s alternative (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Concrete Blonde)
* Love songs of the 1970’s (Bread, Journey, Jefferson Starship)
*A wide range of 80’s music (Kenny Rogers, Alabama, Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, Wham, Tears for Fears, Bruce Springsteen)

What do any of these things have in common? According to Pandora, I am a fan of minor key tonality (I love me some minor key), vocal harmonies, repetitive melodic phrases, folk influences, and mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation (I very much like rock music mixed with classical instruments, such as the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” and the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Disarm”). I also like good lyrics.

I think it depends on which you've read/seen first. Your first impression soldifies the characters and plot in your mind, and if the movie or book deviate too much from either, the chances are you won't like it.

Yes, I have. I lived in Kilkenny, Ireland for a summer 10 years ago. If I could have gotten a job there, I would have stayed permanently. If I could get a job there now, I'd live there. I'd live pretty much anywhere in Ireland, except Dublin.

Cicadas. I like them at night when they sound like alarms. It always takes me back to my childhood when I stayed with my grandparents in rural Tennessee, and that was all you could hear at night.

Nu? People exercise?

Actually, I like walking. If I have someone to walk with, I like to walk outside and talk. With a good friend, I can walk for miles. If I'm alone, I will walk inside on a treadmill. I like to read or listen to lectures while doing it; it makes me feel as if I'm really accomplishing something. But I will also spend time just thinking about anything and everything.

I can think of at least one person who needs to be turned into a newt right this minute. Once I de-stress, I'd probaby figure out how to use it for world peace--probably by turning other undesirables into newts. Not only will we have peace, but flies and other annoying bugs will be nearly eradicated.

Most of the time, yes. It has to be a really bad book for me to give up on it entirely. I also avoid skipping chapters (in non-fiction), even if I just want to hurry up and get to the later chapters.

The last book I gave up on completely was "Your Inner Economist." It had an interesting principle: how to negoiate all sorts of situations (involving money or not) based on economic principals of what people are willing or not willing to do. However, the writing was about what you would expect from an economist who had no real training as a writer. Luckily I only paid a $1 for it at Books-a-Million.

I just finished reading "The Vanishing American Jew" by Alan Dershowitz--but only because I was tenacious. The information in it was good and interesting, but it needed to be shorter. Out of a little over 300 pages of text (not counting endnotes), I think 50 pages could have been cut. In places he took too long to get to the point, and in other places he repeated himself.

It makes me appreciate the necessity of keeping the books I'm writing (http://keripeardon.wordpress.com) trimmed down. I'm naturally wordy and when I start to write, it takes me a page or two to get warmed up; all the more reason to go back afterwards and trim.

Cool, most of the time. When I was living in Ireland, I loved exploring ruins of old buildings--churches, mills, etc. Trying to figure out what something was, and how it looked/worked, and when it was built satisfies my inner archaeologist (a profession I seriously considered for a while).