I’d like to welcome the fabulous Lori Robbins to the blog for #ThisorThatThusday.

Things you never want to run out of:

I never want to run out of coffee! Everything else is negotiable.

Things you wish you’d never bought:

I regret every box of addictive Fudgestick cookies I’ve ever bought. After I’ve eaten them.

A few of your favorite things:

I cherish a set of 1867 Dickens books I rescued from the garbage.

Things you need to throw out:

I need to toss most of my clothes. Someone should Kondo those relics.

Things you need for your writing sessions:

I can’t write so much as an email without coffee, a stack of Post-it notes, and a dozen colored pens.

Things that hamper your writing:

Staring at my calendar is no help when deadlines loom.

Something you’re really good at:

As the mother of six, I’ve got a black belt in worrying and nagging.

Something you’re really bad at:

I’m terrible at organizing photos, although I have enough of them to create a feature-length, stop-action movie.

Last best thing you ate:

The last best thing I ate was a loaf of [my own] home-baked challah bread.

Last thing you regret eating:

I regret eating half a loaf of that same challah.

Things to say to an author:

Your books just keep getting better.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book:

What do you do all day, besides write?

Favorite places you’ve been:

My favorite place is Cassis, a tiny town in the south of France, whose inhabitants embraced my American family despite our execrable French.

Places you never want to go to again:

I will never return to an Airbnb where the hosts gave us the wrong keys and we got locked out for hours. And then they yelled at us for not realizing they’d made a mistake.

Favorite things to do:

I love going to the ballet.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing:

I hate talking to mechanics about expensive and baffling repairs to my car.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done:

When I was young and foolish I quit a job without having another job.

Something you chickened out from doing:

In a supreme act of party-pooping, I didn’t go to an axe-throwing event at a wedding.

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done:

I spent many years as a professional dancer.

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it:

I stenciled random food-related items to the walls in the kitchen. It didn’t look like the picture in the magazine. It looked like a crazed toddler was let loose.

Some real-life story that made it to one of your books:

In Lesson Plan for Murder, the protagonist recalls a bar mitzvah where her family was seated behind the swinging doors to the kitchen. This episode marked the beginning of a real-life intergenerational 100 Years’ War.

Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not:

Although I was a professional dancer and an English teacher, my characters are not me!

About Lori:

Lori Robbins is the author of the On Pointe and Master Class mystery series and a contributor to The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers Cookbook. She won the Indie Award for Best Mystery and two Silver Falchions for Best Cozy Mystery. Short stories include “Leading Ladies” which won Honorable Mention in the 2022 Best American Mystery and Suspense anthology. After ten lean years as a professional dancer, Lori became an English teacher and now writes full-time. She is co-president of the New York/ Tristate Sisters in Crime and an active member of Mystery Writers of America and the Short Mystery Fiction Society.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: https://www.lorirobbins.com/

LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/lorirobbinsmysteries

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lorirobbinsmysteries/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lorirobbinsauthor/

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/lorirobbins99

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lori-robbins

GoodReads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16007362.Lori_Robbins