Welcome back to Saturday Six! We’re only a week out from the conference! (Can you believe it? Neither can I.)

This week, we’re featuring six more of our fine faculty members. Find out who is trying out for the Redsox, who has their diving certification, and whose high school tap dancing group tried out for the Ed Sullivan Show!

Tim Shoemaker

1. Take my career advice with a grain of salt. I used to own/operate a one-hour photo lab and studio with my wife … eventually digital photography choked out the need for us. Then I went into writing — which is a lot easier, right?
2. One of my most embarrassing moments speaking: I’d opened up for Q and A after finishing … and someone far back in the audience asked a question I couldn’t quite hear. I asked them to repeat it. Still didn’t catch it. So, I asked them to run it by me one more time. All I got was that they had a question about some book. I didn’t catch the title. Rather than look like an idiot and ask them to repeat it a third time … I simply said “I don’t think I’m familiar with that book.” The conferee gave me a questioning look … and I heard every word of their response. “But you wrote it.”
3. I’ve been married 38 years, and we raised 3 active boys together. They’re the reason I started writing.
4. I love old pickups. I’ve owned a ’53 Ford for nearly 40 years … and I love taking it out when I go to write. The moment I get in the truck, I’m already having a good time.
5. I don’t like writing in coffee shops … but love going to fast food places where I can keep filling that sweet tea or Coke.
6. I love boating in the summer and love being in the water.

Linda Gilden

1. When I took my concealed weapons class, I hit the target 51 times out of a possible 50! (It’s a good thing I’m a writer and not a mathematician!
2. Most Sundays I feed 14 people at lunch. And, yes, I enjoy it!
3. I really, really, really, really … really don’t like english peas!
4. I often write on the back porch so I can see the chickens try to figure out new ways to get out of the chicken yard.
5. For years, I tried to break in to one of the big women’s magazines by writing on women’s issues. I recently sent them a query for an article called “Chicken Congeniality” and they immediately requested I send the whole article! Who would have thought the chickens would open that door!?
6. In high school, my tap dancing group auditioned for the Ed Sullivan Show. (I know some of you have no clue what that was, but at that time it was a big deal!)

Bethany Jett

1. I absolutely hate balloons, so our wedding party filled our homecoming departure car with them.
2. I live in Florida but love gray skies.
3. My family lived in England when I was little. I believe it inspired my obsession with British history.
4. The two shows I have running in the background of my life are The Office and Frasier.
5. I took four years of French in high school and one year in college, and yet, only speak it un peu.
6. My ring finger was broken during a game of “Snatch the Sock” during a youth event. It’s still crooked.

Scott McCausey

1. At 47 years old, I have a pitching tryout SCHEDULED with a Boston Redsox scout in September. Going to put shatter the oldest rookie in the Bigs record.
2. During same aforementioned tryout, I’ll be doing the play-by-play during the the Baseball Showcase All-Star game.
3. Played in a baseball game where the UMPIRES got kicked out, true story.
4. Transported 2 adult alpaca in the back of a suburban (pictures to prove it)
5. Adopted two daughters, one of which has made me a Grandpa!
6. Wrote a devotion book (unpublished of course) with a word count of 285,000!

Lynn Blackburn

1. I used to burst into tears whenever I had to speak in front of people. I cried through every school Thanksgiving, Christmas, and end-of-year program until third grade. My parents were convinced I would never be able to handle public speaking.
2. When I was fifteen, my mother had to ban me from reading in the car because I didn’t know how to get around town. #bookworm
3. I have a degree in chemical engineering from Clemson University. Go Tigers!
4. Chocolate is my love language. Which is why I do CrossFit.
5. I recently learned how to scuba dive and was the student who needed the most hand-holding in the class while the twelve-year-old in my group sailed through with flying colors.
6. I’m a triple threat. I can’t sing (much). I can’t dance. I can’t act. Which is a shame because I would have dearly loved to be a Broadway actress.

Lynette Eason

1. I recently moved 2.5 miles from my previous home. I’m still recovering.
2. I have two children: one is in college and the other is going to be a senior in high school. I’m a soon-to-be-empty nester!
3. I’m fluent in American Sign Language.
4. I’m allergic to cinnamon! Seriously. It makes me so sad!
5. I can write/read about anything creepy, suspenseful, or scary, but I can’t watch movies like that!
6. I started losing my hearing when I was 17. I now wear hearing aids. If you speak to me and I don’t answer, I’m not ignoring you, I just didn’t hear you! 🙂