All the world's a stage

... But I am a stagehand. 

No, really.  I work with a local, popular theater, but always backstage. It's my favorite place to be.  The dark places of the theater, the ones you never see from the stage, they are where magic happens.

Also, that's fact number one.  I feel like first blog posts should tell you perfunctory information about the author.  Twelve seems like a good number, so eleven to go.

My screen name, Beatrice Smith, is not my real name.  It's taken from a book by Lisa Mantchev, called Eyes Like Stars. The protagonist is a girl named Beatrice Shakespeare Smith.  I also assume the author took the character's first name from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, which is why I, in turn, took her character's name as my own.  Much Ado About Nothing is my favorite Shakespearean comedy, and Beatrice is my favorite character therein.  It's like a nice, full circle, isn't it?

The title of the blog is also from Much Ado...  And the title of this post is a reference to Shakespeare.  No, that will not be a recurring theme.  No need to get preemptively annoyed with me.

This is a personal blog.  I might write about a vacation, a thing I really like, I book I loved, a movie I hated, a pretty dress, something that inspires me, a cool quote, a person I admire... Whatever I'm thinking about.  I'm not looking to get famous (or I might be using my real name), or get lots of readers, or earn revenue.  I just want a place to write down the things that don't get used elsewhere. 

Having said that, I had another blog.  It blew up.  I never earned revenue from it, but I got lots of attention because of it.  I didn't enjoy it, mostly because a fair amount of the attention was of the I'm-Anonymous-And-Therefore-Have-An-Imaginary-License-To-Be-A-Jerk-And/Or-A-Creepy-Bastard variety.  Once that happened (and refused to stop), I lost my taste for Internet fame.

I am a writer.  Not professionally, not anymore.  Maybe again someday.  I wrote for a newspaper and some magazines for a couple of years.  I also wrote book reviews professionally. I was nominated for some awards.  I spoke to others about writing.  That seems kind of bizarre, since I'm not an expert in anything, least of all writing, but, hey, it happened.  Now I focus on short fiction, but I'm very insecure about my non-fiction writing, so it's been a slow process so far. 

I think good grammar is nice, but I'm not a stickler for it.  I will make errors here, including dumb ones.  I figured I should get that out of the way now, since, when you tell somebody you're a writer (or have been), they like to point out all the reasons you probably shouldn't be one, including any and all grammatical errors you make.  To those people I say, "That is why I'm a writer, not an editor.  Good day to you, sir.  I SAID, GOOD DAY."

I swear, but I'm trying not to.  At least not prolifically.  I've been told it can be distracting, and, anyway, I know lots of other good words for expressing anger, frustration, or PMS.  Why not use them?

I'm in a relationship with somebody I usually refer to as That Guy I'm Dating, or That Guy for short.  He has a dog I call Puppyboo.  We don't live together, we like to travel, go to the movies on Tuesday evenings, watch shows on his DVR, cook (and eat!), and go to Mass together.  Also, it feels kind of awkward to mention it, but we're waiting until marriage to have sex.  It's not the biggest deal in the world, but it is kind of important and connected to our shared faith as Catholics, so... Yeah, I figured I should mention it.

I live in the Mid-Atlantic region on the east coast of the United States.  You'll hear me refer to places like Charleston, Savannah, Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Asheville, Washington D.C., Williamsburg, and the like.

I'm coming into full Communion with the Catholic Church this Easter.  My faith is very important to me, and I'll very likely write more about it.

So that's eleven.  One more...

I have an iPhone 4s, and I love it.  That Guy has an iPhone 5, but I try not to pay too much attention to it, because, for better or worse, I have an iPhone 4s until April 2014.  But that's okay, because I love it.  I've kind of got an obsession with Apple products in general.  Next on my When-I'm-Out-Of-Debt Wish List is a MacBook Pro.  Le sigh, le dream.And that's twelve.  Later, gators.