Donna Bowman Bratton

Here's a little trivia (and  few odd quirks) about me.

* I love to swim, ski, and scuba dive. I once won a water treading competition after staying in the deep end for over an hour. It helps that I was twelve years old.

*My sons rope me into playing baseball,  karate, water guns, and football in the front yard. Speaking of football, I can't throw a spiral to save my life.  Geez!

* My favorite food is Tex-Mex though I could eat my weight in soups and salads, too. And thank goodness chocolate is a food group and jelly beans are a vegetable.

*I don't like to eat shrimp. There's something about removing legs and seeing the eys that creeps me out. (I know it's weird.)

* I used to really enjoy snow skiing until I severely injured both knees (in separate ski accidents.) Despite two surgeries, I am determined to get be back to the slopes.

*I would love to live in different countries in six month stints. I'm always interested in leaving tourist areas to see how the "real people" live.

* I was cast as an extra in four motion pictures that were partly filmed in central Texas; True Women (miniseries starring Angelina Jolie), Michael (w/John Travolta), Two Mothers for Zachary (Valerie Bertenelli and Vanessa Redgrave), and Where the Heart Is (Natalie Portman). Extras don't get paid well and they sit around waiting a lot. But these were experiences I look back on with fondness. Actors seem more like average people once you've seen them eat lunch with the crew.

* My favorite two people in the entire world (not counting my husband) are my two sons. Their personalities are radically different from each other but they share a common thread of greatness. They are both destined to change the world. I've been known to get weepy when I brag about them. I'm so very blessed.

* I acted in several community theatre productions (not well, I might add.) During one such murder mystery, the actor playing my husband strangled me to death. I was so smitten with my murderer that I married him in real life. He's an overall good guy and one of the last renaissance men. Again, I'm lucky.

* I wrote and directed four Victorian plays which were performed locally. I loved working with the many child actors and experienced thespians. Period costumes are great fun.

* April Fool's day is not safe in my household. I'm the biggest practical joker. My kids are targets. I especially enjoyed sewing all of my son's  underwear together and setting his clock ahead. When his alarm rang, he thought he was really late for work. In reality, it was only 4am.  HA! (One day I know he'll get me back.)

*Did I mention that I stole my son's first car from a parking lot as a joke? He just calmy called me with "Okay Mom, where's my car?" His response was a little anti-climactic for me.

* I still love horses and all animals though I haven't been able to save them all as I had hoped as a child.  I'm a huge supporter of animal shelters and humane causes.

*For some reason, I can't write when my hair is down. Don't ask why-it just distracts me. So, anytime I'm at my computer, my hair is up in a ponytail. Come to think of it, that's how I wrote as a child perched on a tree limb.

My oldest son's sixteenth birthday in 2006. My youngest cherub was six years old. I have made the world a better place by bringing my boys into the world.

My husband and me after one of my Victorian plays was performed during Christmas Bellfest. Victorian dresses are gorgeous.

Yep, that's me somewhere off the coast of Cozumel. The "sunken ship" was a diving destination but the statue was planted there for tourists (I know it's cheating but it makes a good photo.)

The fateful play in 1994 when I was murdered (I'm the dead body on the floor.) Two years later, I married my murderer. I guess you could say that falling in love was murder. Now he's my greatest champion and supporter.