This week I’m hosting Mary Ellis with Midnight on the Mississippi (US and Canada only). If you want to enter the drawing for the book, please leave a comment on your post with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (September 6th) evening.
Interview with the heroine from Midnight on the Mississippi by Mary Ellis
1. Nicolette Price, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I used to be quite a tomboy. I could swim farther, run faster, and jump higher than any boy in the neighborhood. Now that I’m a grown woman living in a sophisticated city, being a “crack shot with a squirrel rifle” doesn’t give me much of an edge with the competition.
2. What do you do for fun?
I haven’t had much fun since childhood. I’ve worked since I was 15 to help pay the bills, and then to put myself through college. Now that I’ve landed my first real job, I would like a Saturday of watching reruns of Colombo in my pajamas with nothing but popcorn and ice cream to eat.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
I have put off dealing with my father’s death because I was too young and ill-equipped to do much else. Now I’m neither, so it’s high time I find out if someone else had a hand in his death.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
Swamps! I was stranded on an island in the swamp as a prank—snakes, gators, and plenty of bugs. Luckily, my best friend got wind of the plan and paddled out to rescue me.
5. What do you want out of life?
I suppose I want what every woman wants—love and acceptance. I’ve never felt like I measured up to expectations. I know that God’s love is all we truly need, but it would be nice to find one other person who thinks I’m special.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
I guess that would be my family. All I have is my mom and grandparents, so I need to make time for the small family I have left. It’s frightening to think about being alone in the world someday.
7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
I love to read biographies about famous fearless women—Madame Curie, Clara Barton, Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt. If they can rise above humble upbringings or difficult circumstances and excel, why can’t I? I gain courage to do what I need to do when I read their stories.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I suppose it would be my hair. I like to wear it long, but it’s thick and curly and looks like a lion’s mane when the weather is humid. My complexion turns a tad green when I see women with silky, straight hair that stays where it’s supposed to all day long.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
No, I had a pet turtle but it died. Once I had a crow that used to follow me around the neighborhood, but it grew bored and flew away. My mother wouldn’t let me have a dog because our yard was too small. I hope to one day have an entire menagerie of pets.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
I would go back to my childhood when my father was still alive. I would tell him that “nobody is perfect” and that I loved him. He died never knowing how much he meant to me.
