Guest Post by Maureen from I'd Rather Be Blogging...
When Megan asked for guest-posters, I was sure I wouldn't be up to the task. I mean, I've never done this before. Heck, I have a hard enough time trying to come up with something un-stupid for my own blog, never mind for someone else's.
Oh bugger, what if I drove away her loyal readers with some trite diatribe that no one found interesting, informative, or funny?
What if I included words like "trite" or "diatribe" that made me sound like a pompous twit?
What if I was so bad, I would forever risk being refused entrance into the Bloggers Secret Society? (What, there IS no Bloggers Secret Society? Oh, sure there isn't...)
Then I realized that I really wanted to squat over here not only because Velveteen Mind is one of my favorite blogs to visit every day, but that Megan and my daughter share the same name (well, it's Daughter's middle name, actually). How could I say no to her when I can't say no to my own daughter? (Which is a whole other story -- but I digress...)
Maybe the fact that they share the same name isn't reason enough... I mean, so many baby girls born in the 80's and 90's have the name Megan in some form or another; there were quite a few in Daughter's school. Megans, Meghanns, Meganns, Meagans, Meaghanns, Megs. And most , I'll wager, because of a book published in 1977 whose main character was named - you guessed it... Megan.
Like any other literary connoisseur, I found out about this story back in the early 80's on a transit bus. Forget book clubs and best-seller lists, if you wanted to find a good novel you checked out what all the women were reading on their way to and from work. As I walked down the aisle to take my seat each morning, left and right of me the same thick orange paperback was being poured over... it was The Thorn Birds. 
Since I am such a free-thinker and not swayed by popular fads (har!), I had to go out and get myself a copy to see what all the fuss was about. I'm so glad I did - it ended up being one of my favorite books of all time. Then the television mini-series came out in 1983 and hubby was hooked too (well it didn't hurt that was deeply in love with Rachel Ward at the time). When my mother informed me that way back before they came to Canada that her family was from Drogheda, Ireland, I succumbed to fate and named my one and only child Megan.
Well, I guess it was better than naming her after a character in my OTHER favorite book from the 1980's.
On the plus side, she would definitely have been the only "Zaphod Beeblebrox" in her entire school though...
Whew. Glad to have that first "guest post" over... I am no longer a "Guest-Post Virgin". Any time you want to see me attempting to be un-stupid on my own blog, drop on by I'd Rather Be Blogging.
Writer. Mother.
