Kissing the Blarney Stone

Here I am, kissing the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle in Ireland. It’s supposed to give you the gift of gab–or, more specifically, the gift of eloquence.

With my fear of heights, being held like this (note ground five stories below this open space with only a few bars to stop your fall) made my palms sweat and made me weak-kneed. But I did it!

Then I got up and the holder said, “Nobody got a photo of you. You need to do this again,” and I couldn’t believe that…’cause they were rushing people through. His buddy (who took this photo) kept saying, “I can’t make this camera work,” so I hung there for almost a minute. He got two photos, but all I could thing was, that if this was supposed to give me eloquence, it ties in to being a writer and kissing the Blarney Stone was exactly like trying to get published: they leave you hanging!