Sometimes I don't want to be nice

Most of the time I'm a nice person. On personality tests I always come out as the one who wants everyone to get along. I'm the "golden retriever" and my true color is blue. And that's OK.

But I also have a contrarian streak. For example -- about 5th or 6th grade, all the girls in my class got really into cheerleading. They spent every recess practicing cheers and trying to do cartwheels and splits. I failed to see the appeal of this. Deep in my heart, I knew I'd never be a cheerleader, and I didn't want to be, anyway.

Or, when the show "Here Come the Brides" was popular (I'm showing my age here, I know) and every other girl in junior high was swooning over Bobby Sherman, I liked David Soul.

When everyone else was into Motown, I was discovering Led Zeppelin.

In college, I didn't take History of the Pentateuch (a course most sophomores at my small Bible college had to take) because I thought it was pointless to outline the book of Deuteronomy. Since it took me so long to finish my bachelor's degree, I never did have to take it -- they changed the curriculum. I took Hebrew, instead, to fulfill my Old Testament requirement. Lest you think I would have been better off outlining Deuteronomy I will tell you that I like languages and enjoyed Hebrew (though I was a better student of Greek).

Do you see a pattern emerging here? I don't want to make a virtue out of being obstinate -- my point is that this contrarian tendency is part of who I am.

So it makes me wonder if I'll ever come up with a novel idea that will have any appeal to a publisher. I'm just not likely to write a book cleverly tied to a popular hobby, or any other current theme in women's fiction. (Here's an idea: The Rock-n-roll Knitting Circle. No, I don't think so.) I'm not denigrating anybody who successfully pitches such a book. Obviously this appeals to thousands of women.

It just has me wondering if I have anything to say to a large enough group of readers to be worth publishing.