10 Things You (Surely) Didn't Know About Me

Hello everyone!

Vocal Creator Kayleigh Fraser recently invited us to share 10 random quirks or facts about ourselves. This is the Get To Know Me #challenge.

I cannot resist a good challenge, so here is my list.

1. I was born and raised in France before moving to Canada in 2003. I have dual citizenship. With that said, did you know that not all French people smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol? I do not drink coffee either! I cannot resist chocolate, though. Hazelnut is my favorite flavor.

2. I am an only child. But I have doppelgängers. I know that we are supposed to have quite a few, but the chances of meeting them during your life are rare. Well, guess what? I did meet one of mine. It was years ago, and she was just slightly older than me. We also lived an hour or two away from each other.

Another doppelgänger of whom I am aware died very young, at the beginning of the 19th century. When I initially saw the photo, I felt as though my eyes were playing a trick on me! After all, my mother used to dress me in a similar way when I was little. I also had the same haircut...

The link to that doppelgänger's photo is included below.

3. I love word games, especially crossword puzzles. I inherited that passion from my grandfather, who was so good that he could have entered and won national competitions. He was a treasure trove of knowledge!

4. I always smell and touch a book or magazine repeatedly before and while reading it. Old books, in particular, make my heart skip a beat.

5. My mother forced me to learn the piano between the ages 4 and 12. I adore the instrument but my awful hand-eye coordination is always in the way. Individual notes are the banes of my existence; I can only play chords. And if I have to look at the lower part of the sheet (left hand), my brain draws a blank.

6. My brain also draws a blank when it comes to spelling, directions and calculations. Describing how to go from point A to point B is a nightmare. "You know the store next to the building where we saw the adorable dog? I think it was a month ago, or it could have been last year. The building was red or maybe green? Well, there is an intersection across the street. Turn right and the bus stop is there. " - I am not kidding, that is really how my brain works.

7. Which brings me to what probably caused the issue in the first place. My mother was a petite woman and she gained several dozens of pounds during her pregnancy. So she knew that delivery would be difficult. After many gruelling hours in the delivery room, doctors decided that it was time to help her by using forceps. When I was out, there was no breathing, and I was cyanotic. It took them several minutes to revive me.

I suspect that the combination of forceps + lack of oxygen to the brain caused a slight damage somewhere. While I have had a perfectly normal life, there are simple things that I cannot do. For example, touching my face while looking at myself in a mirror, building things based on simple instructions, or playing board games that require specific strategy.

8. I am a minimalist writer, which means that I rely almost exclusively on the technique called "Show, Don't Tell". In my stories, the plots are furthered by dialogues and the unsaid. Haiku and theatre are wonderful teachers in that regard.

(Yes, I wrote a play, and you can read the beginning of it here. 😉)

9. The other thing I learnt from dabbling into theatre is that you should make the most of the space around you when writing. I live every scene. I move with my characters. I speak their lines as I type them. I experience their emotions. I see each detail in my mind. In a nutshell, I feel more like a witness than just a writer. And it makes stories more relatable too.

10. I can multitask like nobody's business and I only type with two fingers. I occasionally use a third one when I am in a hurry. 😜

That's it for today! Thank you for reading!

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Cendrine Marrouat is a writer, photographer, podcaster, blogger, anthology editor, and the co-founder of Auroras & Blossoms and A Warm Cup of Cozy. She has authored and co-authored more than 40 books, including The Train: A Short Story (2023), In Her Own Words: A Collection of Short Stories & Flashku (2022), After the Fires of Day: Haiku Inspired by Kahlil Gibran & Alphonse de Lamartine (2021), Rhythm Flourishing: A Collection of Kindku and Sixku (2020), Walks: A Collection of Haiku (2019-2020), and In the Silence of Words: A Three-Act Play (2018).

Cendrine's work has appeared in many publications. She is the creator of the Sixku, Flashku, Sepigram, and Reminigram; as well as the co-creator of the Kindku, Pareiku, Vardhaku, and Hemingku.