Ack! I've been tagged!

My darling buddy Kathleen Long (check her out at www.kathleenlong.com ) just tagged me. It's sorta like this nasty virus that once one person gets tagged they spread it all around. Now's my turn to do my part to infect some of my friends. :)

Okay, this tag is to list 15 things related to me and reading/writing. 15 things. 15 things. Like I have 15 things to say. Well, let's give this a shot.

15. (Hey, I can make it a countdown if I want to. Just to make things a little more interesting.) The first romances I read were my mother's Harlequins, Silhouettes, and Second Chances at Love. I'd sneak them off her shelf and sit in my bedroom closet with a flashlight and read them.

14. One of my all time favorite reads is Good Time Girl by Candace Schuler. Yes, I have a thing for cowboys, hot sex, and Mustangs. A book that combines the three works for me. ;)

13. When I was in 1st or 2nd grade I won my first writing contest. A story about a little witch. No, it wasn't an autobiography. vbg

12. Nora Roberts gave me my birds and the bees talk via reading her books. (see number #15 for the specifics on how. ;)

11. I wrote my first 'romance' when I was in eighth grade. By hand on loose leaf notebook paper. That notebook is in my basement and someday when I need a good laugh, I'll haul it out.

10. If I could be any author when I grow up, I'd choose to be Jennifer Crusie. Of course, I'm never growing up, so it's irrelevant.

9. On the night I got the coverflat for JANE MILLIONAIRE, I wrapped it around Marianne Mancusi's A Connecticut Fashionista In King Arthur's Court and put it on my bookshelf to see what it looked like. :)

8. My former boss read JANE MILLIONAIRE this weekend. He says we need to put Jane on audio, quit prescribing Viagra, and just sell the tapes instead. Says we'd make a fortune. :)

7. When I won the American Title contest, four dear friends sent me a gorgeous charm bracelet commerating the contest. A castle. A rose. A director's chair. Handcuffs. A water bottle. A computer. A star. For each charm, they'd written a line about how it related to the book. I cried and treasure that bracelet & their friendship. These days, they send me Tags. ;)

6. I finaled in nearly 20 RWA contests before I WON one.

5. I won that particular contest two years in a row. 2003 & 2004

4. This year, I'm not eligible to enter. (woo hoo!)

3. Despite the fact that my first published book is set on a reality television show, I've only ever watched one episode and that was while at a writing conference and my three roomies FORCED me to watch an episode of Survivor.

2. Leanne Banks is the first published author I remember meeting at my first RWA function (Denver 2002). Leanne (along with fabuloso Lori Foster!) gave me an author quote for JANE MILLIONAIRE.

I feel like David Letterman should interrupt me here and say something witty about the number one factoid about Janice Lynn in relation to writing or reading is...

1. The real reason I write is it gives me a legitimate reason to stare at pictures of Matthew McConaughey to my heart's content. For inspiration, you know. :)

Now I have to infect three of my pals...oh Kendra ( http://kendraclark.blogspot.com ), Mary ( http://marywritesromance.blogspot.com ), Trish (http://trishwrites.blogspot.com) ...look out!