If I Tell - The Book Shelf Muse- Angela Ackerman

Angela Ackerman is not only my agent mate, she also lives in the same city as me and we are real life friends!  She's funny and nice and just plain awesome and also has an AMAZING website with a million followers because it is made of WRITER WIN.  If you haven't, you must drop by for the amazing writer thesaurus's.

Visit Angela at THE BOOKSHELF MUSE

Thanks for stopping by, Angela. So tell us, are you good at keeping secrets? Why or why not?

Angela:  I hate secrets because my inclination is to be honest with everyone. But, if the secret is for a good thing, like a surprise birthday party, etc, I can totally keep my lips zipped, because the end result is that someone else will end up happy. But keeping a secret that can harm another? I can't do it. I try to convince the person involved to be honest and solve the issue rather than hold onto the secret (if it's theirs) and if the secret belongs to someone else and they are passing it along...I try to help the person who is in need without revealing that I know their secret. So, I don't necessarily 'tell', but I will try and do whatever I perceive to be right.


Honesty is the best policy, yes? You sound like someone I should trust with my secrets. Do you easily forgive friends for their mistakes? What is something you could never forgive a friend for?

Angela:  I think we all make mistakes. I make them all the time! :) I definitely forgive others, but I am human and sometimes I make judgements based on what the mistake is. I don't like this side of myself, but it's true and like the last question, I tend to be ruled by honesty...even when it might make me look bad. I'm trying to change :)

The one thing I could never forgive a friend for is betrayal. If there was something that they knew would hurt or devastate me or my family but they did it anyway for personal gain...I would feel a profound sense of betrayal and I think we'd be done as far as friendship goes.


Don't mess with mama bear! I promise never to betray you for personal gain. Okay, let's go ahead and stereotype you for a moment, okay! What kind of a teen were you, as in what “group” did you associate with? 

Angela: I was the 'in-between-er', I guess. The group I hung out with sort of marched to its own band. We weren't geeks, because we were socially accepted by everyone else. We weren't popular in the sense that we wouldn't think to go to the popular parties by 'It crowd', but in school we could talk to some popular kids and no one thought twice about it. None of us were overly athletic, some of us were artsy, some brainy...we were an eclectic crowd.


Sounds about perfect.  And now you're the it crowd in my mind! And I think you have the best stories from high school about your hubby! But don't worry, I won't tell. Secret. Get it. Describe your fave teen outfit.

Angela:  Oh man...*reaches back in brain* Okay, I think I liked it best when we all wore our jeans rolled tight at the ankle and long button shirts with beads or crazy belts. And popped collars of course. 'Cause we were cool like that. :) Oh and I loved my acid washed jean jacket decorated with chains and pins that looked like dead happy faces. Good times, I tell you. :)


If you could go back to high school knowing now what you didn’t know then, what is one thing you would change? What do you wish you could have told your teen self?

Angela: I think I would tell myself to stop obsessing about my own weight and appearance. I was so insecure, and now looking back I realize I had nothing to be insecure about! Oh and I would definitely tell myself to not date Erik Graves. BIG mistake...they guy was only interested in one thing, and even when I dumped him, he still was hoping for it as a 'way to say goodbye'. Yeah, right. Dream on buddy...dream on.


Ba ha ha ha. I'm imagining Erik googling himself and going, "Damn. Thought I still had a chance!" Silly rabbit. 
All right, thank you for stopping by, Angela! See you at lunch soon. Yes. We get to go for lunch together with our other Calgary writer friends! Yay writer friends!