Twenty Fun Facts about Shelby Rebecca

1.       I cut my own hair—constantly. I trim it a little bit every week. I used to have a cosmetology license, but I let it expire. The only part that’s hard for me to cut is the length in the back, so a few times a year I have someone trim it. I never make an appointment, either. I’m too impulsive to think ahead to make hair appointments.

2.       My favorite color is green. My house is decorated in many different shades of green.

3.       I was born in Alaska. I’ve lived in Anchorage, Wasilla, Houston/Willow, and Chugiak before moving to Chino, California when I was twelve-years old.

4.       My dad was a pastor and a bush pilot. He used to fly us out to the middle of nowhere to go fishing. He used to work the Iditarod, and one year he came home with a husky puppy that had no tail. The Native Alaskans didn’t want him because his tail froze off and they thought he wouldn’t be good at mushing. I could write a whole book about that dog.

5.       There was a mountain behind my house when I was a little girl. Hmmm…maybe that’s why I love mountains.

6.       I had a best friend who was a boy when I was little—just like Sadie.

7.       I’m a vegetarian. I used to hide meat under the rim of the plate—just like Sadie. I saw my older brother and my mom kill some of our chickens when I was about five or six, and it ruined me for life.

8.       I have four brothers. Three are older, one is younger.

9.       I once rescued a dragonfly out of some mud in my backyard—sound familiar??? (It would if you’ve read Sadie’s Mountain).

10.   I laugh really loud and freely. I can’t help it. I love to laugh and I don’t care when people make fun of me for it.

11.   I have a unique accent. I describe my accent as a mix of Alaskan vowels meets valley girl.

12.   I had my daughter two weeks late, and after over thirty-hours of labor. (That’s why she’s an only child ;-)

13.   I’ve been in People Magazine. It was one of those “real people hero” stories that they do.  And it’s weird because I still can’t believe it. It’s like that whole year leading up to it happened to someone else.

14.   I was kicked out of school in my sophomore year. I’ll just leave that one up to your imagination. But, I had to finish high school through independent study. I went on to become the first person in my immediate family to get a degree. Now I have a Master’s in Education. Ironic, right?

15.   I don’t eat wheat. It makes life harder, but it helped me lose thirty pounds.

16.   I’ve gone skydiving. Yep. I have a severe fear of heights and later in life, developed a phobia about flying. When I was a little girl my dad would take me and my brother, Joe, flying in his orange-striped airplane. I used to beg him to go upside down. I had no fear. But when I was seventeen, I started having panic attacks on flights. So I decided to skydive because I wanted to take control of my life. I was sick of my anxiety controlling me. It was fun, too. I wanted to do it again right after I landed—flat on my face. It didn’t hurt, but I said, “ouch,” anyway.

17.   I can sleep with the lights on. Growing up, during the summer in Alaska the sun never goes completely down. Because of that, I can sleep with the lights on. We used to accidentally forget to go to sleep. I remember once I was running around in our five-acre yard while my mom was gardening. I went inside to call one of my friends. I was about seven then, and her mom answered the phone. She told me they were all sleeping because it was past midnight. I felt so bad, and I told my mom what happened, so she made us go to sleep. It’s funny how the sunlight tricked us into thinking we weren’t tired.

18.   I like flavored beer. Raspberry and watermelon flavored beers are my favorite.

19.   I used to have two horses. One was named Frosty, and the other was Monty. He ran down a hill once with me on his back. So I grabbed hold of a branch and fell off the back side of him rather than try to jump down into the ravine. (Sound familiar??) In real life, there was nobody to help me up.

20.   My characters write their story through me. How many times have I sat down to write with a plot in mind to have the characters do or say things I wasn’t expecting? Writing is fun when I let them do what they need to do and stop trying to force a plot based on what I want. Writing a book is just as exciting as reading one, in that way.