Please help me welcome author George Cramer to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Things you need for your writing sessions: My handwriting, and yes, I still write in cursive, is so bad, I need a laptop. Add a flat service and comfortable straight-back chair, and I’m set. I can be at my desk, kitchen table, library, or even a coffee shop. Conversations don’t bother me.

Things that hamper your writing: Artificial sounds, music, radio, or television.

Things you love about writing: The ability, or in my case, the hope of using written words to paint a picture another person can experience in such a way as to place themselves in the setting and scene.

Things you hate about writing: Searching for the right colors (words) to paint that perfect scene.

The hardest thing about being a writer: Sitting down and writing that first word.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Being able to take on any project that allows me to avoid sitting down and writing that first word. My biggest escape from creating new material is to self-critique and edit my already written work.

Words that describe you: Easy to work with and open to new ideas and thoughts.

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: According to my wife (and kids), I am the most hardheaded, stubborn human.

Favorite foods: Liver and Onions with bacon. Next favorite is an In-and-Out protein burger with cheese and onions only.

Things that make you want to gag: Mayonnaise.

Things you always put in your books: A variation of something I experienced in life.

Things you never put in your books: Incidents that would embarrass me or others.

Things to say to an author: I enjoyed your latest book and wrote a review.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I didn’t like your book, and I wrote several reviews.

Favorite places you’ve been: Glacier National Park and riding my Harley-Davidson up Going-To-The-Sun-Road. This side trip is often connected to the rides to and from Sturgis, South Dakota. I’ve made several detours through Ouray, Colorado, to ride the Million-Dollar-Highway on U.S. 550, a spur of U.S. 50.

Places you never want to go to again: Jamacia—Nuff said.

Favorite books (or genre): My favorite book is challenging. I like Bernard Cornwell’s immensely. But that is strictly for fun. Among my favorites for content and impact, I would have to include Hard Times: For These Times by Charles Dickens in 1854; and The Stranger the 1942 novella by Albert Camus. I was not a fan of his until I read a few of his works while studying for an MFA at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Books you wouldn’t buy Horror stories by authors like Stephen King. Fantastic craftsmanship, but no scary horror for this reader.

The most daring thing you’ve ever done: I suffer from fear of heights (acrophobia). I even suffer anxiety and fear while watching movies. The daring thing I’ve done is Zip Lining. I shake, going up the tower and on the platform. However, the second I clamp on, the fear evaporates, and I jump. I love it.

Something you chickened out from doing: My oldest son is a commercial diver. I wanted to share the experience with him, even though I don’t know how to swim. I signed up for scuba lessons and faked it until I got on a dive boat. When it came time for the first open water dive, I got in the water and froze. Getting back in the boat, I cursed myself for being such a ^^%$^ coward. When the other divers started their second dive, I went in and found it exhilarating.

The coolest person you’ve ever met: Joel McRae. Mr. McRae was an American Actor who most of your readers have never heard of.

The celebrity who didn’t look like they did in pictures/video: Eve Arden. Ms. Arden was an actress who passed away in 1990. She was even more beautiful in real life than on the screen.

About George:

An enrolled descendant of the Karuk Tribe of California, George Cramer brings forty years of investigative experience to crime and historical fiction. He earned an MFA-Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

George conducted and managed thousands of successful investigations throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. An expert in Interviewing, he kept his skills honed by volunteering as a Missing Person’s investigator at the San Leandro, California, Police Department.

George’s debut novel, The Mona Lisa Sisters, was published in 2020. He contributes to several anthologies and the Veteran’s Writing Project.

He is a member of Crime Writers of Color, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, California Writers Club, and the Public Safety Writers Association.

Besides writing, his love is a long-distance motorcycle riding on his 2001 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic.

Let’s Be Social:

Email: gdcramer@msn.com

Website: https://gdcramer.com

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/george.cramer.56211/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gdcramerpi/