#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Colleen Mooney
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I’d like to welcome Colleen Mooney to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday.
A few of your favorite things:
I love the beach, diving and Schnauzers, in particular, the four rescues I have.
Things you need to throw out:
Paper, paper and more paper and clothes I no longer wear, like or fit me. I’d like to throw out some bad habits or the plethora of holiday decorations that seem to multiply exponentially each year.
Favorite music:
I’ve got a rock ‘n roll heart but love music from the 80’s. My favorite song is anyone you can dance to.
Least favorite or music I can’t stand:
Music that drives you crazy: Electronic sounds.
Favorite foods:
Cheese, cheese and more cheese. I love cheese. In restaurants and every place I travel, I will order the cheese tray if there is one on the menu. Of course, I’m from New Orleans so I am surrounded by great food and choices all the time and seafood is also a big favorite. We have shrimp and crawfish boils where we get together with our friends and family to share!
Things that make you want to gag:
Mayonnaise and someone else vomiting. I am a sympathetic hurler.
Something you wish you could do:
There are many things I would love to be able to do and playing the piano is one. Also, I wish I could speak fluent French and German.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: There are things I don’t like to do, like balancing my checkbook, but there is nothing I wish I had never learned to do. There are so many things I still would love to learn
Favorite smell:
I love the smell of my dogs right after they are groomed. The groomer uses a spray and they have a wonderful, happy and pretty smell!
Something that makes you hold your nose:
The foulest smell I ever encountered was the smell in New Orleans after Katrina. We wore masks and still had to put wintergreen petroleum jelly under our noses, under the masks.
Things you need for your writing sessions:
I need peace and quiet, something in short supply at my home with four schnauzers (barkers) and my retired husband. For concentration I will go to the library or a coffee shop and sometimes stay there the entire day!
Things that hamper your writing:
The biggest thing that hampers my writing are time constraints. With life still rolling along, there are many other things I am responsible for that need to get done so the interruptions to take care of business, home, and social requirements is the biggest thing that slows me down, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Favorite beverage: Coffee with Chicory
Something that gives you a sour face: Decaf.
Things you love about writing:
I love seeing where my story goes and what the characters do. They often surprise me. I have an outline when I begin of where the story starts, and where it ends and a general idea of what has to happen along the way. How it gets there is the part I enjoy most.
Things you hate about writing: I hate that I can’t type faster.
Favorite places you’ve been:
I am an avid Scuba Diver so the places I like the most all involved diving. Cozumel was a big favorite because it was so easy to get to from New Orleans, so I’ve been there many times. I love islands, including Manhattan (I lived there for a year!). A favorite place in I attended a Creativity Workshop and fell in love with, enough to retire there, was Arles France. It was a small town and you could walk everywhere. Another big favorite I try to make annually are Christmas Markets in Germany. My favorite is Maintz. My husband and I try to go there every year since it puts me in a wonderful holiday mood, hence the surplus of decorations. New Orleans is usually hot year-round except for a few days in January and February so going to the markets during December is magical! (See No. 1)
Places you never want to go to again:
Morocco. This was a bucket list trip and the worst vacation I’ve ever had. Everything was an abysmal disappointment. Since I was travelling with all women friends (something I would not recommend) we were often ignored in restaurants or taken advantage of when purchasing items.
Something you like to do: I love anything on the water, sailing, diving, or just floating on a raft!
Something you wish you’d never done: Gone on that trip to Morocco.
Things that make you happy:
What makes me happy is seeing one of my rescues matched with the perfect home. I’ve been directing Schnauzer Rescue of Louisiana for over fifteen years and placed over 350 Schnauzers. I am exuberant every time I find a Schnauzer the perfect person to love and who will love them back.
Things that drive you crazy:
The biggest thing that drives me crazy are people who get pets and don’t learn how to care for them or take the time to teach the pet how to be a good companion. There are no bad dogs, only irresponsible pet owners.
Best thing you’ve ever done:
My biggest accomplishment was volunteering for Schnauzer Rescue of Louisiana and taking it over when that person could no longer manage it.
Biggest mistake: Going on that Morocco trip!
Let’s Be Social:
Colleen Mooney, Mystery Author
Twitter: Twitter.com@Mooney_colleen
Facebook: colleen.mooney.716@facebook.com
Website: www.colleenmooney.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/colleen.mooney
Email: colleen@colleenmooney.com
About Colleen:
Colleen Mooney was born and lived much of her life in New Orleans before a job moved her to other cities. She writes a cozy mystery series set in New Orleans. It’s called The New Orleans Go Cup Chronicles and the 7th book, Fireworks, Forensics and Felonies. It was released in the box set, Summer Snoops Unleashed and all proceeds go to help three animal rescues or shelters who aid senior pets. Colleen has earned Best Seller status in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Amazon.
In January 2017 Colleen organized a Sisters In Crime chapter in New Orleans, was elected President and has a planned a Mystery Writers’ Conference for November 2019. She is currently working on her 8th book in the New Orleans Go Cup Chronicles series.
Colleen was born and raised in New Orleans and lived in the Irish Channel along with just about everybody else in her family. She says, “New Orleanians are a lot like boomerangs or homing pigeons. If we move away, we always move back.”
Colleen worked in corporate America for twenty-one years before retiring and has lived in Birmingham, Atlanta, New Jersey and New York. She moved back to New Orleans every time before another corporate reorganization would transfer her to another city.
“My vacation and work related travels opened my eyes as to how different we are in New Orleans. We are very different from the rest of the state, let alone the rest of the country. We have different laws, different food and the way we cook it, different weather, different things we celebrate and how we celebrate them. We even have a different language in some cases. Everyone thinks New Orleans is all about a good time in the French Quarter or on Bourbon Street, but those of us from here know that’s only the tip of the iceberg, well, if we had icebergs.”
Colleen loves to travel and do new things. She is an avid Scuba diver and Underwater photographer, owned and raced sailboats in the Gulf of Mexico, Key West and the BVI. She has owned and drove a motorcycle, and has skied Colorado, Idaho, California, New York State as well as the German and Austrian Alps.
In New Orleans, she’s been active in many Mardi Gras Krewes, Super Krewes, and organizations and has belonged to the Krewe of Cork, Orpheus, Iris, Tucks, Joan of Arc and the Halloween Krewe of Boo. Colleen says she has never met a parade she didn’t like.
She’s an ardent animal lover and the Director for a breed rescue, Schnauzer Rescue of Louisiana for the last fifteen years. She has rescued and placed over 350 abandoned or surrendered Schnauzers. She loves to write, and writes about what she loves. Colleen says, “New Orleans is where it all happens for me.
There’s no place like New Orleans to have a good crime!”
Check out Colleen’s Sisters in Crime New Orleans Chapter’s “A Journey into the Mystery of the Criminal Mind.”
