A Hundred Facts About Yours Truly

Hello, hello, all ye fellow bookworms and writers of the interwebs! ^^ I hope you’ve had a wonderful week so far! Life — both my writing life and regular life! — has been crazy busy lately, hence why I haven’t had so much time for blogging and such. (Aside from my weekly book reviews, that is.)

But first, do let me know how the rest of you are faring and what autumn has been like in your part of the world! I love hearing from y’all! I confess it’s been bitterly cold where I am. XD It’s not so much pretty reds and oranges as it is gray, dreary brown, and cold. *shivers* Alas, alack. I have also been helpfully reminded by many people that it is only going to get much colder throughout the rest of the year… 😵 Three cheers for winter, y’all. XDD

I suppose I cannot really complain though, seeing as I’m heading off to somewhere a great deal colder in February. (Actually, no, it’s not going to be that cold. Well, it might be. Tis not like I’ve been there before — so who knows? But tisn’t as cold as, say, the North Pole. Which I’ve actually always wanted to go to, ever since reading The Last Bear by Hannah Gold…)

At any rate, I am not here today to complain about the cold (however much I wish to, but it is my journal that shall have to suffer through that, not you guys) or the fact that my fingers are frozen stiff. No indeed. Today I am here to do this nifty post I’ve seen floating around everywhere, and that is…

A Hundred Facts About Me. 😌

Do I have a hundred facts about myself to share? I… honestly have no clue. I don’t know if I’m a particularly interesting person. XD But am I doing this anyway? Yes. Yes I am.

So, without further ado, let us begin.

1. This you probably already know, but I am a die-hard pantser, at least when it comes to the first draft. I tried outlining before. It went horribly.
2. When I was little, my favorite color used to be red. Then it was magenta. And now that I am at the ripe old age of nearly fourteen, I honestly cannot decide on a favorite color anymore — I love them all!
3. I’ve never had pie before. Or lasagna. Wretched, I know.
4. Likewise, I have never eaten a turkey or an alligator.
5. When I was ten years old, I was brave enough to go out swimming in the ocean. Twas great fun, till I got stung by a jellyfish there. I have never dared to set foot in the ocean since.
6. During COVID, I was terribly bored, and attempted writing numerous novels, in the hopes of posting them on this blog.
7. Said novels were never finished.
8. But among those said novels were… a middle-grade horror/mystery about a detective gal and a monster who stole her beset friend. A middle-grade contemporary with sleepovers, ice skating, and cakes. And also my first attempt at writing the Enchantria series!
9. Speaking of Enchantria, Elenora used to have a little sister called Patricia. Do with that what you will. XD
10. My favorite book I’ve ever written is probably the one I’m working on right now — Island Keepers.
11. My favorite book I’ve ever published has to be either Sun and Flame or The Last Hope.
12. I hoard pens. Even the ones that don’t work. I never bother to throw them out, and this is why if you ask me for a pen, I will never be able to find a working one for you.
13. This is also why I have switched to using fountain pens. :))
14. I was once in this writing challenge and our instructor/the fellow in charge had no idea what fountain pens were, and we were all duly horrified
15. I once met a girl who insulted my cereal tastes in a writing community and now we’re best friends!
16. I used to only get horribly sick once a year, but while we were in Thailand, I seemed to catch a cold every month and it was awful.
17. I love the beach. I love it so much. I miss it. This is probably why I’m writing about it a lot in IslandKeepers.
18. The title Island Keepers has nothing to do with what Island Keepers is actually about. Not anymore, at least.
19. I think Sense and Sensibility is better than Pride and Prejudice.
20. My birthday is on October 30th, which is the very day before Halloween, and every year, I always thank my lucky stars I wasn’t born on Halloween.
21. Halloween is most fun and I love dressing up, but I do not love the dark, spooky parts of it so much.
22. I’ve never been in a maze. I want to, but I would most likely just end up lost and unable to find my way out.
23. I was (still am) a very flighty person and I’d always pick up something, decide that it is to be my new career (whether that’s music, magic card tricks, candy-making, playing the tin whistle…), and then forget about it two weeks later.
24. Writing is the only thing I’ve stuck to doing every single day for what’s almost been three years of my life.
25. I feel like I’m overwhelming you guys with facts, but I’m only on fact 25.
26. I’m also reading Journey Bloomfield’s list of facts, and seeing as she brought up chupacabras, I was thoroughly obsessed with them for a few months when I was younger. You know that MG mystery/horror book I mentioned? The monster was a chupacabra. I don’t know if they attack humans or not, but in that book, a chupacabra dragged the MC’s friend down under the town and was going to suck her blood out.
27. My favorite music artist is Anson Seabra because his songs always make me cry.
28. I used to despise male vocals when I was younger. I don’t know why. XD
29. This blog was not always my author website. It actually used to be a blog that I really wanted to start when I was a wee thing and I wanted to do news articles like Hilde Lysiak. My dad decided to oblige me, and so this blog was born. I did not end up doing any news articles and ended up just posting about the most random stuff — horses, guppies, rabbits, cameras, etc.
30. I eventually forgot about this blog until I published Enchantria: Guardian’s Heir and realized I needed an author website.
31. Upon scrolling through the archive of (now unpublished!!) posts, I am very embarrassed by most of them.
32. My worst fear is zombies.
33. I’m left handed!
34. I’m homeschooled and have never set foot in a public school.
35. As much as I wish I were the type of person who loves traveling and being on the go, I appear to love home too much and be far too resistant towards change for this to be the case.
36. Isabelle Knight is a pen name. And I’m not telling you my real name. Mwehehehe. Feel free to have a guess down in the comments as to what my real name is, though I shan’t verify anything. XD
37. (Actually, really, please do have a guess as to what my real name is. I am genuinely curious what you guys think.)
38. (Those who already know my real name, you’re not allowed to tell anyone XD)
39. I share a name with a famous fictional character. I’ll say that, at least.
40. People get my pen name wrong all the time. 🤦‍♀️ I don’t know why. I’ve had my name spelled Isabel, Isabella, Isobel, and Issabelle. T.T My name is Isabelle with one S and an LE.
41. When I was little I spent a whole day just trying to learn how to whistle and I finally managed it and I’m so proud of myself XD
42. My writing shed has pale green walls and I think they’re such a pretty color.
43. My favorite book is Ella Enchanted. It was the first book I ever read and loved as kid, and when I was 9, I re-read it 56 times, which is why I mention it all the time in interviews whenever anyone asks me what my favorite book is.
44. I once got to speak with Gail Carson Levine for 15 minutes on the phone (for an interview) and it was one of the best days of my life, because I never thought that this could possibly happen.
45. When I did my first author interview, I told the author that the interview would only take 15 minutes and it ended up being an hour long. 😅
46. I always say I would love to live in the Victorian Era in England, but then I remember that I am left-handed. *weeps*
47. I’m going to try and illustrate my own book cover for Island Keepers.
48. Twould have to be done in watercolor, I think. With traditional art because I can’t do digital art for the life of me.
49. I think independently publishing your book is so much fun because you have control over everything, and it’s just so much fun to see how the whole publishing process works — cover design, formatting, pre-orders, marketing, etc.
50. It can also be a huge pain sometimes. XD
51. It’s my dream to win the Newbery Honor Award someday, even though I know it probably won’t happen. But a girl can dream!
52. I have a whole roll of rope in my writing shed, and for some reason, this makes me happy.
53. I can raise one eyebrow.
54. I can’t wiggle my ears. I really want to, but I don’t know how.
55. I’m 1.66 meters tall.
56. I’ve tried curling my hair multiple times in my life, but I’ve always decided it’s too much work and I’d rather just go with straight hair.
57. My favorite fairytales are The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Fish and the Ring, and The Children of Lir.
58. I read The Children of Lir when I was very young and the ending made me SO sad.
59. I really want to visit Ireland and the USA.
60. In Island Keepers, my main character’s name is Ani and I don’t even remember why I named her that. I just remember needing a name for a fantasy protagonist and randomly decided on Ani and that’s her name now!
61. Ani is pronounced exactly the same as Annie, and I didn’t realize until I was filming a YouTube video that folks might think that it actually was spelled Annie, so I hurriedly had to add that it was spelled A-N-I not A-N-N-I-E.
62. I guess you could also pronounce it Ah-nee instead of how Annie is pronounced.
63. I used to have a British accent when I was little.
64. Somewhere along the way, I acquired an American accent, and now I can’t do a British accent for the life of me. (Well, I could but tis an abysmal one, and I henceforth apologize to all folks who are actually from Britain.)
65. The least favorite book I’ve ever written… I don’t really have a least favorite, actually. There is this one horrendous novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo (working title: KNA), but I still adore the idea of it and might dig it out of the dusty drawers someday and rewrite it.
66. I sort of wanted to pierce my ears, but I have a very low pain tolerance.
67. I don’t think I ever will pierce my ears.
68. I think I’m running out of interesting facts about myself.
69. I have a scar on my right ankle from the aforementioned jellyfish sting.
70. I used to have a burn scar on my left elbow, but tis faded now, and for some reason, that makes me sad, because I really wanted to keep this cool-looking scar.
71. I absolutely love getting mail! It always makes my day and I am SO grateful for all my delightful penpals!!!
72. I was once crunching on a rock-hard dried strawberry and one of my teeth ended up breaking in half… 😬
73. I love the words “amble” “ramble” “firefly” and “lark”.
74. I actually have a whole list of Words I Love taped by my writing desk. 🥰
75. I love French fries. Like, a lot. They’re my favorite food. I will never pass up on the opportunity to eat French fries.
76. I also really, really love potatoes.
77. In almost every interview I do with authors, I ask them, “Do you have a secret pen name that nobody knows anything about?” Alas, all of the answers I have gotten are no’s.
78. I did get a few sort of yes’s from authors who actually were publishing under a pen name and I had no idea XDD
79. I’m just realizing how many of these sentences are beginning with the word “I”.
80. When I was small, I used to be deathly afraid of dogs.
81. When I was small, I also really wanted to learn to play the piano.
82. I never learned to play the piano, but I do play the tin whistle! I adore playing LOTR music and slow airs. The Kesh Jig is mighty fun too. I’m still working on Morrison’s Jig.
83. I wish I could show you all a video of me playing the tin whistle.
84. I suspect the reason I ended up being a pantser was because I’d always try making plans in real life, those plans never happened, because life, so I eventually decided I was happier tossing said plans out the window. XD
85. I’m abysmal at short stories. I’ve tried and they always end up ballooning into novels or whole trilogies.
86. I’m writing a short story right now anyway.
87. I am much obliged to my good friends, Hallie Kropf and Journey Bloomfield, for not letting me give up on this short story. <3
88. Said story has a bog monster in it.
89. Also, the deadline for the anthology we’re submitting to is November 15th AAAAAAAAAAH
90. We all thought the deadline was December 15th. XD
91. I’m very bad at sitting still. Unless I’m writing. (But the thing is, when I’m writing, then I still have things for my fingers to do. And if I’m sitting still with nothing for my hands to do, I shall either start fidgeting or start tapping out the 6/8 beat of a jig with my foot.)
92. Ever since publishing my debut novel, I’ve met so many wonderful people, and it truly makes my heart warm to know that there are folks out there who actually like these strange little stories that I write! <33
93. Aaaalmost there now!!! I have a pot of dark blue ink that I use for my fountain pen, and I love the smell of it but not the taste of it.
94. The same goes for shampoo. Just because something smells nice or looks nice doesn’t mean it tastes nice.
95. It’s my dream to someday run through an endless meadow of flowers. I’ve never done this, but I yearn to.
96. I live in the middle of a ginormous bustling city, and as much as I love my home, I sometimes do wish that I lived in the countryside where it was quieter.
97. All of my main characters have a missing or dead family member because what are characters without ✨ trauma ✨
98. Ani is the first of my characters to have both her parents. But her older sister died five months ago… 😬
99. I have been thinking of changing it so that her father was lost at sea though.
100. She also has a little brother named Alex, who I love dearly, and all my friends have threatened never to speak to me again if anything bad happens to him.
101. I don’t have any siblings in real life, but I love writing siblings in books!

HUZZAH WE MADE IT TO THE END OF THE LIST! This was… a good deal harder than I expected it would be. Now that you all have made it to the end, I hope that you were at least somewhat amused by some of these. XD Do let me know down in the comments what y’all thought or if you have any random anecdotes of your own to share. I love hearing from y’all!

Alright, and now I think it is high time for me to pop off. It’s back to the writing cave for moi! To attempt to finish this short story before the deadline…

Farewell, and wishing y’all a splendiferous week! ^^

-Isabelle

P.S. Said short story has dragons, bog monsters, and wishes, and for some reason, I’m ridiculously proud of the work I’ve done so far. XD