What Defines You? By Bonnie R. Paulson

    

They give you surveys with questions like "What are your hobbies or interests?"  and "What is your favorite ____ (Fill in the blank)?"

They try to peg you into a demographic based on age, color of skin, gender, religion, shopping interests, and reading preferences.  They pinhole you into a tax bracket, a health rating, a job or career, education level, or worse.

Who is they, you ask? They is anyone trying to get to know you. When you sit down with a new person who doesn’t have a history with you, what do they ask? What do you ask?

The standards, right?

What do you do? Do you have kids? Siblings? Where are you from? Do you do anything for fun? Interests?

I know why people do this, why I do this, but I wonder if it’s really effective in getting to know the heart of a person – the soul.

Oh, sorry, I ask these questions because I’m looking for something in common, something interesting, something I can relate to. Because we all want to be alike somehow. It makes it easier to feel safe.

But do you want to know the man sitting across from you on the bus? Do you want to know his interests to know him or to know you’re safe?  Do you want to know he’s a vampire secretly plotting the devouring of the girl next to you? Or would you prefer to just know his favorite color, because that’s safe?

Better yet, let’s take the focus off others. What would you like people to know about you? Is it enough that they know your ethnicity? Is that you? Your favorite food? Color? Football team? What about the music you like or the movies you watch? Is that you?

In the comments, I’d like to know the three words (three words ONLY) that you feel define who you are. The three words that you would be comfortable having etched into your tombstone or your obituary. Three words that YOU define yourself with – not others. So no cheating and turning to your co-worker and asking what they think.

How do you define yourself? And, most importantly, would it make others feel safe? *wink*

My three words: Mom, wife, friend.   

I think they define me without extra words needed. But if I got a fourth, I’d claim dirt bike fan or food lover. Because that’s how I roll!

Thank you so much for having me today. Please do comment below. I would love to see how you see yourself.

Check out my back cover blurb from Out of the Ashes – the final book in my Into the End series. It’s crazily fun!

America can rise, but the cost is high.

Traumatized by previous exposure to her own tests, Dr. Rachel Parker has to complete the methodical steps she swore would never see the light of day… on herself. Her sister, Brenda Krous, may be the only one capable of pulling her through intact.

If they can accomplish the feat and find resolution together, the answers they discover can help the rest of America rise up and reclaim itself from the protection of destruction.

But a nation’s fall has a time frame and pride can get in the way. Rachel and Brenda must find what they need in each other to conquer the fear in others.

http://bonnierpaulson.com

What’s your medical know-how and do you know how? by Bonnie R. Paulson

Well, HELLO! And thank you so much for having me!

Let’s get started by taking a fast quiz. (Do you hate me?)

1. A humerus is:
1. An arm bone.
2. A leg bone.
3. Something at a Greek restaurant.
4. Something your boyfriend likes to bring home and gnaw on while he watches sports.
2. Blood is made up of:
1. Red cells, white cells, and plasma.
2. Red cells, white cells, and water.
3. Red food coloring and that sticky corn-starchy stuff.
4. Something your boyfriend likes to sip on while he watches sports.
3. Cranium refers to:
1. The brain or head.
2. The butt or tail.
3. A game you can play with two or more people.
4. Something your boyfriend likes to eat out of.
4. DNA stands for:
1. Deoxyribonucleic acid.
2. Di-nucleic acetaminophen.
3. Dude, nobody argue with me.
4. Something your boyfriend has a serious mutation in.
5. Bones are made of:
1. Calcium predominantly.
2. Chalk and rocks.
3. Puppy dog tails.
4. Something your boyfriend beats on the drums.

If you chose mostly As, you have a basic grasp of the medical information you might need for writing everyday characters. This could come in handy, especially if your characters break a bone or need a surgery.

If you chose mostly Bs, um, there’s no nice way to say this… I have a feeling you second guessed yourself. It’s common, but it’s the last thing you want to do when you’re a writer and trying to get in good with the readers. You never know how educated your reader is. You need to sound like you know what you’re doing.

If you chose mostly Cs… I have nothing for you. Seriously.

If you chose mostly Ds, holy crap! RUN! Because your boyfriend is most likely a zombie, a vampire, or a werewolf! Or a cannibal. Whichever one, you’re not safe and I suggest running like crazy! Go now! Unless of course he’s Predator and that’s just hot. (He’s my main crush).

The most important thing to remember when writing anything scientific or medical in your work, whether it be fiction or nonfiction or even journalistic in approach, you need to make sure you have your spelling accurate and the context correct.

Nothing is worse than reading a great love scene, you’re into the moment and enjoying the tension and chemistry of the characters when out of the blue, you see this line, “Perspiration glistened on his iris.” Uh. Right. Do you know what an iris is? Yeah, it’s the black part of the eye. If you’re perspiring on the iris, you better get to the doctor right away, ‘cause something isn’t right and you have no business doing it in a romance novel. I shuddered when I read this line in a real book. Shuddered and didn’t read any further.

Inaccuracies can cost you readers and might even kill your characters. I also read a book once where at the end of the romance – a love story between two doctors, one of which had cancer – on the last page, the hero says to the heroine, “I’m so glad the tumor was malignant.” And that was it.

ARE YOU SERIOUS? Malignant means death – or at the very least lots of treatment. I sat there and stared. Reread that line. Reread it again. I just went and looked up that book and reread it again! Seriously. That author just killed their character. At the end of a romance. No HEA there.

My point? Do a titch of research and you’ll do fine. Science can be rewarding and awesome to read, especially if the author sounds like she/he knows what they’re talking about.

BIO:  Bonnie R. Paulson mixes her science and medical background with reality and possibilities to make even myths seem likely and give every romance the genetic strength to survive. Bonnie has discovered a dark and twisty turn in her writing that she hopes you enjoy as much as she has enjoyed uncovering it. Dirt biking with her family in the Northwest keeps her sane.

Links:

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