#WriterWednesday Interview with Christina Romeril
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I’d like to welcome the fabulous Christina Romeril back to the blog this week!
Favorite thing to do when you have free time: Read
The thing you’ll always move to the bottom of your to do list: You know those window sills that need to be repainted, or the baseboards that need touching up? That’s what goes to the bottom of my list until I just can’t stand looking at them anymore.
Things you need when you’re in your writing cave: A beverage. Coke would be my first choice, but I try to only drink it once a week. I usually end up with water in one form or another. I also need notebooks, colorful pens, whiteboard, and my timer for reading sprints.
Things that distract you from writing: Usually, it’s my phone. I only mean to look up a salient point about whatever I’m writing, and end up in a research rabbit hole or scrolling social media.
Hardest thing about being a writer: Getting through a first draft.
Easiest thing about being a writer: Working on revisions.
Things you will run to the store for at midnight: Nothing. I like my sleep too much to be up late for snacks.
Things you never put on your shopping list: Twix. Is it a cookie? Is it a chocolate bar? I can’t stand indecision.
The coolest thing you’ve bought online: My blue computer keyboard. I love it!
The thing you wished you’d never bought. The Swell water bottle that leaks. By the time I got around to trying it and discovering it leaked, it was too late to return it.
Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: From the time I was six until I was seventeen I was going to be a nurse. I’m still fascinated by the medical profession and love to learn about drugs, illness, recovery, etc. I used to watch the surgery channel while I ate lunch.
Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: Be a published author.
Last best thing you ate: Costco pizza, yup, one of my favorite things.
Last thing you regret eating: This is a tough one. I like food, and I don’t usually eat anything I think I’ll regret later. But I did drink a Diet Coke recently that I wish I hadn’t. I normally NEVER drink diet anything, but for some reason I got a Diet Coke and it was awful. Never again.
Things to say to an author: I love your book. Where can I leave a review?
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: When are you going to get a real job?
Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Visited Egypt alone.
Something you chickened out from doing: Going to a singles dance.
The funniest thing that happened to you on vacation: About a year and a half ago my husband and I stayed in a house in Mexico that had first been occupied by my son-in-law’s parents. Upon our arrival they had moved into a different condo and we took over the house. Shortly before we would be moving out of the house (we’d been there about two weeks at this point), we were visiting with the in-laws and they asked if we’d seen the blood stain yet. What? They told us to strip off the sheets and the mattress cover on the master bedroom bed and check it out. You know we were yanking those sheets off as soon as we got back to the house. And, oh boy. There was the mother of all blood stains in the middle of one side of the bed that could not have been from anything normal. Someone lost a significant amount of blood in that spot. We are not talking about a cut finger. Maybe a severed hand, or worse. And yes, I did continue to sleep in the bed and we still laugh about it.
The most embarrassing thing that happened to you on a vacation: This actually happened to my husband. I’m happy to say nothing particularly embarrassing has happened to me, knock on wood. Again in Mexico at a resort, my husband had just joined me on a path where I’d waited for him after he’d used a public rest room near one of the pools. As we began to walk I looked at him and noticed something white flapping against his calf, hanging down from the inside leg of his shorts. Of course, I stopped him and asked what it was. Well, he starts pulling at it. It’s toilet paper. He pulls, and pulls, and pulls. I promise it was at least five feet of the stuff he yanks out from the leg of his shorts as I’m busting a gut, laughing. He flings the accumulated toilet paper in a nearby garbage and practically runs away. Within minutes I’d texted the tale (no pun intended), to his sister with several appropriate gifs. It was some time before that story wasn’t shared at family gatherings.
The most exciting thing about your writing life: I get to make stuff up to entertain people. I can think up a hundred ways to kill someone and how to get away with it and no one thinks that’s weird.
The one thing you wish you could do over in your writing life: I wish I’d started writing sooner. I always claimed I was too busy, but I managed to find hours of time to watch TV. I wish I’d used that time to write.
Best piece of advice you received from another writer: Writers write. Get words on the page.
Something you would tell a younger you about your writing: Start sooner.
Recommendations for curing writer’s block: Set a timer, write whatever comes into your head until the bell goes. Give yourself permission to write utter crap. Eventually, you’ll wrestle something good out of all that.
Things you do to avoid writing: Research. I’m always convinced I need to do the research up front, in the middle, and at the end.
About Christina:
Christina Romeril is the author of the Killer Chocolate Mystery series. Book two, A NUTCRACKER NIGHTMARE, will be out October 17. The series is set in Montana at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, one of her favorite places to visit. She and her husband live a few hours away in a small village in Southern Alberta. When Christina isn’t writing she loves to hike in Waterton Lakes National Park, or just hang out there eating gourmet hot dogs and ice cream. Christina is a former banker and the daughter of German immigrants. Any similarity between her family and her fictional characters is purely coincidental. You can find out more about her at https://christinaromeril.com/about/
Let’s Be Social":
She is on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/christinaromerilwriter/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ChristinaRomerilWriter as ChristinaRomerilWriter.
