#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Eleanor Cawood Jones
/
I’d like to welcome the fabulous Eleanor Cawood Jones to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!
A few of your favorite things: My cat, talking about my cat, and taking pictures of my cat.
Things you need to throw out: 75% of everything I own. I just have to process that some of those clothes from the 80s may never be back in style, then I’m sure I’ll be able to move forward with this.
Favorite foods: Mom’s homemade beef stew, Italian anything, beautifully constructed club sandwiches with extra mayo.
Things that make you want to gag: Mushrooms, asparagus, eggplant, undercooked meat, rude people.
Something you’re really good at: Planning trips, making lists, and writing.
Something you’re really bad at: Trying to do too much when traveling, doing things on my lists, and making time to write.
Things you’d walk a mile for: That unlimited soup/salad bar/breadsticks thing at Olive Garden.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Loud television or music. Mold. Anything with multiple stick-like legs that looks inclined to bite me.
Things you always put in your books: Something that really happened to me or somewhere I’ve actually been. Usually both. I really did get lost on Easter Island at night, for example. (“Keep Calm and Love Moai” in Murder Most Geographical.)
Things you never put in your books: Politics and politically correct things, crimes against children, and trigger warnings.
Favorite places you’ve been: Besides Easter Island? Cabo San Lucas, the Land of Oz in North Carolina, my friend Jenni’s house in England, and every US National Park I’ve ever visited.
Places you never want to go to again: St. Lucia and back to work at my old job.
Favorite things to do: Travel, nap, dine out with my honey, and pet the kitty when she lets me.
Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Next year’s taxes. Fire—okay. But not bad enough to eat bugs.
Best thing you’ve ever done: Deciding I didn’t care what people thought of me.
Biggest mistake: Waiting so long to decide I didn’t care what people thought of me.
Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Appearing on Wheel of Fortune, traveling to Easter Island, Chile by myself and, equally exciting, publishing my first book.
Something you chickened out from doing: That big Gateway arch in St. Louis has these little egg/pod things you have to sit in to travel to the top of it. Took one look and turned right around. Claustrophobe’s nightmare!
The nicest thing a reader said to you: Eleanor makes murder fun again!
The craziest thing a reader said to you: See above.
Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: Decorated, painted, and remodeled my dilapidated condo, which is now known as the Condo of Glory.
A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: The novel I started 15 years ago, and that time I painted the dining nook lavender.
About Eleanor:
Inspired by Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine at a young age, Eleanor Cawood Jones grabbed a #2 pencil and began writing short mysteries starring her stuffed animals. Her more recent stories include “Batter, Batter, Swing!” (First Comes Love, Then Comes Murder), “The Importance of Being Urnest” (Black Cat Weekly), and 2021 Derringer Award-winning “The Great Bedbug Incident and the Invitation of Doom” (Chesapeake Crimes: Invitation to Murder). Her core group of characters travel together in the Destination Murders anthology series. A former newspaper reporter and reformed marketing director, Tennessee native Eleanor now works in airline customer service and splits her time between Virginia and California.
Let’s Be Social:
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/eleanorauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/author.eleanor.cawood.jones
