A Blog by Gail Cushman
The cowboy and I ventured to Boise to attend the Idaho Writers’ Workshop this week, a long trip, but so worth the while, and in the meantime, I gained a new name. Most of the attendees were much younger than I, and often when I go to an event, I am called “the Grandma,” or “the older lady,” or “that woman that looks like she is circling the drain,” but I came away with a new moniker, “The Girl in the Green Sweater.”
I had recently purchased a bright, florescent green sweater from Talbots, my favorite store (they understand the what the word s-h-o-r-t means) and wore it. I have gotten used to open windows and no air conditioning in Montana, while in Boise the air conditioners blast away everywhere, so I wore it keep the shivers away.
I was sitting in the audience, minding my own business, as always, when the cowboy poked me and whispered, “Ask that question you have been asking me for the past six months, you know the one: about how to become a member of the New York Time’s Best Selling Book list.”
The speaker was a young woman, not more than 35, who could have been the primary cause for creating Prozac, if I ever knew one. She was a random thinker, talker, and jumped around as she chattered about her writing, her brain obviously working erratically and overtime as she spoke. I thought the cowboy had lost his ever-lovin’ mind because first of all, I’m not one to ask questions, especially that question, and secondly, I knew she would be all over the place in her answer. The cowboy grabbed my hand and pulled it into the air, holding it high over our heads until she said, “Girl in the Green Sweater? What’s your question?”
Uh, oh. Now he had done it. He had his cowboy hat on, so she could have said, “Hey, Cowboy, What’s your question?” But she didn’t.
I took a deep breath and asked a question, not that question of course, but rather how to use my blogs more effectively, to get them out to more people. My website draws many, and the Wrinkly Bits + site draws a lot of readers…thank you for subscribing, but there is always room for more. By the way, thank you Aaron and Jerry for creating that blog site.
“Oh, Girl in the Green Sweater,” she countered. “Let me tell you.” And she rolled off ideas faster than Cowboy can chase a cow on horseback. I started nodding, and Cowboy started writing, but he couldn’t write as fast as she talked. Others in the audience, too, started asking similar questions, prefacing them with “Yes, like the Girl in the Green Sweater” this…that…and other things.
The session ended and we went up to thank her for her incredible session and energy, and she said, “Wait a minute, let’s do an interview, Tik-Tok,” which I have never used, but she said, “Right now, and several million people will see this in a matter of minutes, and will know you as the ‘Girl in the Green Sweater,’ just wait and see.”
We finished the interview and went for a cup of coffee, and the moniker was out, I had become the “Girl in the Green Sweater,” and people greeted me as such. It was an incredible hour and now I am the “Girl in the Green Sweater.” The Cowboy continued, with a wink, “I always knew you had what it took to be a sweater girl, just like Lana Turner!”
“She is from Idaho, Wallace, I believe, so go figure,” I said. So now, after a half a decade of Wrinkly Bits, I have transitioned into the “Girl in the Green Sweater.” I kinda like the change, we all know about wrinkles, but who knew that a sweater girl description fit this old Marine. Me and Lana Turner, wahoo!
All my books and blogs are on my website, gailcushman.com. And Kindle versions are all available on amazon.com. They will give you a summer laugh! My list of my books, romantic comedies about people of a certain age, are:
Cruise Time
Out of Time
Wasting Time
Flash of Time!!! Newest book!
Bits of Time
