I’m Purple…

So I was yukking it up over at Runs With Scissors’ blog, and there’s this test; what color is your brain?

Your Brain is Purple

Of all the brain types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense. Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.

Are you kidding me? It’s true, then? I really am out of my mind? Thank the gods we now have it diagnosed. My family was convinced I’d just eaten some bad clams. My brain may be purple, but I can feel it swelling by the second. Honey, widen the door jams, willya? Wildly imaginative brain comin’ through.

All kidding aside, the thing really does nail me. I guess my vocations of editor and writer are well chosen. What a relief. Mom wanted me to be a bank teller. Something to fall back on, she said. Mom’s practical. Me, I throw most caution to the wind and eat up life as if asteroids were aiming for the Big Rock.

In that respect, I’m much like my main character, Kim Donovan. I admire the heck out of her. I know how schizoid that must sound considering she’s a creation of my imagination. But it’s true that our characters do take on lives of their own, and there are times – especially during my day job – when I think, “What would Kim do?” Where I may be tempted to blow a gasket, Kim would recommend humor and save the gasket blowing for something really important – like someone messing with the special jar of peanut butter that Sarah, my cockatoo, really loves. She’s to peanut butter like I am to coffee. Don’t push the envelope, and we’ll be friends.

After Mom got over my not going into banking, she urged me to write, so I have her to blame for these silly voices that rock my brain at all hours of the night, forcing me to turn on my little flashlight and scribble midnight tomes of brilliance that make absolutely no sense in the morning. She was especially thrilled when I won a gold medal IPPY, and we all sat around and got sloshed on Dad’s expensive champagne while making numerous toasts my imaginative dynamic duo, Kim and Erik.

Anyway, back to the brain bit. I’d like to think that my creativity not only enhances my writing, but spills over into my day job as an editorial director. It’s my hope that whatever imagination I see for any particular manuscript lights the fire for the author, and they envision the things I see for their work. Life is chock-filled with possibilities, and I’m grateful for every day that I wake up and look for those gems.

Now…if I could only do something about it interrupting my sleep.