Meet Contributor Melissa Jagears

If you've come for the Thoughts of Spring Blog Party, welcome! If you're a mother trying to balance kids and work and everything else, we hope you stick around and follow our journeys. Please come back this week and meet some of the other authors of this blog.

I'm Melissa Jagears and I have a 4 year old girl and a baby boy who turns 3 months old today! I write historical romance. I am my church's financial secretary, and I teach English as a Second Language classes sporadically. I'm frugal to the point my hubby gets made fun of at work, but we'd rather be laughed at for transforming milk carton jugs into sandwich containers than be in debt. No one's died from being laughed at--that I know of anyway. Now, on to the fun questions:

How would people describe your personality? (If they could only use ONE word.) Are they right
"Snob"
And no, they wouldn't be right, but I am so shy in person I come across that way, but you put me behind a keyboard and I'll talk my fingers off.

What celebrity/celebrities would create a “Star-Struck” feeling if you saw them in real life?
I'm really not a big celebrity person, might be because we haven't had TV for 3 years now and I don't know who is who anymore.

But maybe Hugh Grant. I have this weird desire to watch any movie he's in. (I even bought one terrible one from the dollar store that I bet he wishes he could steal every copy on the planet so no one could see him in a boring movie with his gross long hair. - The Lady and the Highwayman.) He isn't ultra-handsome or someone whose personal life seems too upstanding, but it's simply the British accent I think.

Who is your favorite blogger? Why?
Unfortunately, my favorite bloggers tend to disappear. Perhaps I jinx those I deem favorite. I guess I like bloggers who are sarcastic and biting that say controversial things I wish I had the guts to say out loud in public, but I'm too much of a people pleaser.

I loved Doug TenNapel when I was pregnant with my daughter, but when he hit one million comments he stopped blogging every day. But thanks to this questionnaire I see he's still blogging sporadically. Whoo hoo!

And Chip MacGregor, a literary agent who quit blogging entirely. But his archive is really worth looking at if you want to get published.

Be brave – tell us something very random and weird about yourself.
I like to stand on furniture, especially if I'm talking on the phone. I'm half billy goat, I think.

Movies: Action, Drama, Romantic Comedy, Documentary, Comedy? What are your favorite genres?
Romantic comedies, any period movie, and movies from the 40s and 50s esp. those with Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Esther Williams, etc.

Books: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Romance, Biographies, True Stories, Self-Help, Devotional/Study? What are your favorite types of reading material?
Inspirational Historical Romances, "Classics," and non-fiction.

If you inherited a million dollars, what is the first thing you would do with your money?
Put enough into savings that the interest would give us sufficient income so we don't have to work anymore if we don't want to.

Name one weakness of yours (confession is good for the soul).
Sugar - not sure I could live without sugar. One month in China drove me batty. I ate very weird things all in a quest to find something dessert-like to end my meal. The worst was a peanut butter and seal Popsicle. (I had no idea the seal on the picture eating the peanuts would also be included in the dessert - pulling skin out of a Popsicle is not pleasant after you've eaten half the Popsicle!)

If you could live anywhere at all (and take all your loved ones with you), where would you go?
A tropical island.

What’s something you consider yourself to be good at? (Don’t worry, it’s not bragging, it’s acknowledging a God given gift).
I hope writing, otherwise I am wasting a lot of my time and the time of others.

When you leave a social gathering, do you wish: You would have talked more or You would have talked less?
Definitely talked less. When I tell my husband this, he'll say "but you barely talked at all."

What is your greatest fear or strange phobia?
I'll go out of my way to avoid failure.

Are you a hopeless romantic?
I love reading romances, but in real life I am highly unromantic. Practical, Practical, Practical is my motto. I'd rather have my hubby fix a garbage disposal than buy me flowers. (I've actually made him cancel a flower order.) He can't take anyone's advice on how to woo a woman, it most likely will fail with me.

Last Valentine's Day, he did wonderful; I was very, very pleased. Everyone at church was sharing during the service what they had done/received, but I leaned over to tell my hubby that though I was truly happy with my gift, it would probably be best not to share. We chuckled the entire time imagining the reaction if I'd raised my hand and shared with the congregation that he'd bought me a dollar bag of those orange circus peanut marshmallows.

What movie or book character can you most relate to?
I love Jane Austen's characters. I am a mix of Elinor Dashwood and Fitzwilliam Darcy.