The Myers-Briggs classification of this Blog, and A greeting to readers!

My books sell very slowly; I'm lucky I don't depend on my books for a living!

Of my best-selling books, the most popular one is Prisoner! which has occupied the number 1 spot for more than a decade.  (I think.)  I understand; it is very readable, and the characters are simple, and the story is romantic.

Alexandra  and  Music of the Stars are the two most serious efforts, the most substantial books, in terms of number of words, each more than 250,000 words.

Apart from Prisoner!, the books that sell these days are Helen at Ballet Camp, and Helen and the Flower Shop Girl, both of which are essentially short stories (Flower Shop Girl is a short story, and Ballet Camp is a sort of Teen novelle).

I am reading Alexandra for fun at the moment, and it is interesting how the character Ninel arrives in the middle of the story, and sort of takes over!  I do love that character, (as well as little Katie,) and it must reveal something about me, probably that I long for a child, which is a little embarrassing.

In Music of the Stars, too, there is a young person who is very important, namely Lena, who is about 20 years younger than Helen at the beginning of the story, and actually the same age as Helen at the end of the story.

On a completely different tack, I submitted this blog to a website that gives you the Myers-Briggs 4-letter analysis of the author of a blog, and it came up ISFJ.  Here's the full report:

The author of http://k-helen.blogspot.com/ is of the type ISFJ.

The quiet, devoted and sympathetic type. They are especially attuned to the present moment, the details of the task at hand and the people involved. ISFJs usually have an extremely good memory of details of people and situations. They are modest caretakers who do not demand credit or thanks for their efforts.

They tend to be suspicious of future possibilities and trust history more than the future. Their shyness with strangers can lead others to misread them as standoffish. Because they are so such nice and generous people they have to look out not to be taken advantage of. It might be important for them to learn to speak up for themselves.

The Nurturers enjoy safe and harmonic work places with few surprises and clear goals. ISFJs are serious people with a strong work ethic, not inclined to self-indulgence. They believe in being meticulous and thrifty. They work well alone. While they may enjoy taking care of others, they do not enjoy giving orders.

Common satisfying careers: Interior Decorators, Designers, Nurses, Administrators, Dentists, Veterinarian, Social Worker, Biologist, Medical Researcher and Librarian.

Notable ISFJs: Mother Teresa, Jimmy Carter, Prince Charles, Tiger Woods, Halle Berry, Naomi Watts, Kirsten Dunst and C3P0.

Well!  The analysis took less than a second, so I must conclude that they just sampled the most recent blog post.  Still, I confess that I just loved their conclusion, and I only wish it were accurate.  In several of my stories, someone tells a character: you are so good and sweet, your mother must be truly blessed to have a child like you!  And the person replies: why, are (other people you know) particularly mean or cruel?  Unlike my characters, I do know that I have fewer mean tendencies, and I tend to withdraw from a conflict rather than confront it.  The only disconcerting things is that I'm described as serious.  I never realized this; I had always thought of myself as a fun person.

I hope I quickly forget this description of the bucket I have been placed in; as I grow older, I'm becoming less helpful and caring, though I'm even more aware of feelings, especially pain, in others.  If I respond to pain, it should be spontaneously, and not because I wound up as the same Myers-Briggs type as Mother Theresa!

The Blog analysis can cheat in any number of ways; for instance, by counting the number of links, or certain categories of words, they can quickly arrive at conclusions that are mechanically driven, which methods are not available when administering the Multiple Choice test that the real Myers-Briggs analysis uses.  Come to think of it, any multiple-choice test has a mechanical element to it, but some tests are more carefully constructed than others.  For instance, such tests as Which Disney Princess Are You?  or What Salad-Dressing Are You? are just for entertainment, and do not serve any useful purpose, and often aren't even funny.

Kay