Welcome Guest: Elaine Cantrell

Give a big "Howdy!" to Elaine Cantrell!

Tell me five things I probably don’t know about you and that most folks wouldn’t guess.

Okay, I'll begin with a story about my grandfather. I hope you won't be shocked, but my grandfather was arrested for operating an illegal still. Back when Grandpa was alive lots of country people made their own liquor out of corn. It was illegal, but people did it all the time. Anyway, Grandpa went to visit a friend at his still, probably to make a purchase, and the friend left for a minute to go and get a jar. The authorities arrived and arrested Grandpa for operating the still. He never did tell on his friend.

My grandparents had eight children all of whom married and had children of their own. When the clan got together the place swarmed with children. The older grandchildren made up a ghost story to tease us younger ones. They said there was a baby buried in Grandpa's front yard. At night the baby's ghost went from window to window crying to get in. That story scared us to death. For a long time none of the younger children would go into the front yard. My mother finally found out why and straightened out the older grandchildren in a hurry. You didn't want to make my mother angry. Brrr.

I always thought my mother was the arbitrator of good taste, but if you look at our old pictures you'll see that she made a few mistakes. Imagine a Princess Leia hairstyle in 1960. I was going to let you look at that picture, but I was afraid you'd hurt yourself laughing.

My cousin is a minister who lives out of state. Once when he came home for a visit he preached at the little church that my grandparents attended. He said that as he stood in the pulpit the church doors opened, and my grandparents walked in. They had been dead for twenty years, so this was somewhat remarkable. He even described the dress that my grandmother wore. I have a picture of her in that dress sitting on my desk. Personally, I don't doubt this in the least. They were always partial to him because he was a minister.

One of the funniest things that ever happened to me was the time my friend and I got trapped on the water bed. We were out shopping and decided to look at some water beds. They had one set up for people to try, so we both sat down on it to see what we thought. The problem was that we couldn't get off of it. The mattress was lower than the bed frame, and with nothing but rolling waves underneath us we couldn't get up. Of course part of the trouble was that we had started to laugh so hard. We finally used the waves to give us a little boost and managed to get off the thing. We still laugh about how funny we probably looked.

Finish this sentence: My favorite comic strip is (was) _____because _______.

My favorite comic strip is (was) Garfield because of the way that fat, cynical cat looked at the world. Right now I don't really have a favorite.

Write me a paragraph using the following three words: Camera, Silver, Mask

My heart pounded and I puffed like a steam engine. I finally had him cornered. I raised my camera and tiptoed toward the dining room. Wait a minute. What was he doing? He was staring at my silver coffee service as if he intended to pour himself a cup of coffee. Oh no! He'd seen me! He was staring right back at me. Aw, how cute. That mask across his little face was adorable. If I'd known how much I would enjoy having a pet raccoon I'd have gotten one years ago.

2010 has been a good year for me. Return Engagement which is my absolute favorite book ever was released in July by Whiskey Creek Press at http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com. I liked my characters so much I’ve finished a sequel and have the last book in the trilogy almost finished. Also, I have a Lachesis release Kara’s Change Of Heart coming in a few months.

If you’d like to read a little bit of Return Engagement, you can read the first chapter at the publisher’s web site. Just click on the book’s cover.

Here are some of my links. Do friend me on My Space and Facebook, and I’d love for you to become my blog follower.

My web site: http://www.elainecantrell.com

My blog: http://www.elainepcantrell.blogspot.com

My My Space Page: http://www.myspace/elainecantrell

My Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000153041486