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You Think You Know Someone...


Author and PHS Editor, Robyn Rychards is under the spotlight this month to tell us ten things we almost definitely didn't know...

Did you know...?

1) I love German cars and I’ve owned just about all the big-name brands. The first car I bought was a Volkswagen Rabbit but more fun than that, the second one I owned was the Cabriolet model. My third car was a Volkswagen as well, a Jetta, and I even owned a classic Volkswagen Bug for a while. And yes, I was stranded in it several times!


It wasn’t long before I got a BMW 328 i, but getting a small child out of a car-seat in the back of a two-door wasn't fun, so I moved on to a big Mercedes 300 D sedan. Somewhere along the way I had an Audi Quattro too, but my absolute fave was the BMW 750 il. This is a picture of it.

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The trim is missing on the door as it was in the midst of being repaired after a parking lot hit-and-run. Was it ever a dream to drive! I longed to take it out on the Autobahn and let her roar. Spoiled me for every other car I owned after that and I cried when I sold it. The repair bills were outrageous, though, and it seemed to be in the shop every other month, so at least my pocketbook was happy with that… There's only one brand left I long to own. Porsche. The Boxster is on my bucket list.


2) Back when I only had one small child, I would design and make hats and jackets to sell at craft fairs. My daughter was a great model and loved wearing the hats, but the time spent doing it made the profits negligible. By the time my second child was a toddler, my time was more valuable so I gave up on that little craft business.



3) I didn’t know I had art skills until I decided to paint a picture of a teddy bear on a highchair. It was all downhill after that. As long as I had a picture to copy, I could paint it, usually onto a piece of furniture. Some of the pieces I painted to sell in my mother’s flea market stall and some of them I kept.


My biggest undertaking was our entertainment center, which is looking well-loved these days, but you can get an idea of what it looks like in this picture. I copied something by Clarice Cliff, then did a diamond pattern on the side, which seemed simple when I got the idea, but oh my goodness! The math involved in laying out elongated diamonds... Who knew?


4) I don’t care for chocolate. Not that I hate it, but if I have a choice for something else, I’ll take that in a heartbeat.


5) I managed a coffee and tea store before gourmet coffee was cool, and there was a Starbucks on every corner. In fact, I owned an espresso machine before Starbucks existed where I lived. I now have five different kinds of coffee makers and three grinders. I haven’t started roasting my own beans yet, but my uncle does and oh my, is his coffee delicious!


6) I have a big vintage Harlequin collection. My grandmother gave me my first Harlequin Romance books to read. I was barely a teenager at the time and had limited funds, so I would take the books I read to the used book store and trade them in for new ones.


Needless to say, by the time I had a home of my own and money to feed my habit, I didn’t have any of those classic books anymore. I ended up getting loads of vintage Harlequins on eBay, and now have a collection I would've killed for as a teenager. What you see here isn't all you get. There's another row of books behind the ones that are visible. On top of this, I have another shelf full of Harlequin Presents. Double- stacked of course!


7) I hate cooking and cleaning . I need a wife and so does my husband!


8) My teenage crush was Clark Gable. All thanks to seeing Gone With the Wind. No, I’m not that old. He was dead by the time I had a crush on him. It could have something to do with the fact I’ve always loved vintage movies. Cary Grant ran a close second then, but now... I’d put Cary first! Loved him in Charade and all the Hitchcock films he did, but Clark Gable was great in It Happened One Night. Then there's Tony Curtis in Some Like it Hot. Never mind Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window. I could go on and on...


9) I hate swimming. I hate getting wet. I don’t take baths, only showers, and only because I hate feeling dirty worse than I hate getting wet. Yet I love the beach, the ocean and sailboats.


10) If I had the opportunity to live in France for a year, I’d take it in a heartbeat. I took six years of French when I was in school and though I've longed to travel to France ever since, I didn’t make it there until 2015. Of course, I wasn’t able to spend as much time there as I wanted, and now I’ve been—I'm even going again this month!—all I can think about is, When can I go back and what do I need to do to get there? It’s a slippery slope! In fact, since visiting Paris, I’ve started working on a story that takes place there.


Robyn Rychards' latest release, The Bodyguard's Catch , is out now. For more information about her and her writing, check out her website and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.


Are you surprised by any of Robyn's confessions or have you discovered she might be your soul-mate? Tell us in the comments or use #DidYouKnow on Social Media to join the #PHS community.

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