I’d like to welcome the fabulous Paula Charles to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Things you need for your writing sessions:

A big glass of water and a tube of hand lotion

Things that hamper your writing:

I can’t listen to music when I’m writing. My little brain gets distracted too easily.

Favorite music or song:

I was raised on country music and even though I listen to a wide variety of music, older country is still my favorite.

Music that drives you crazy:

“Bro country.” You can keep it and give me some Alabama and George Strait any day.

Favorite smell:

Baking bread. Yum!

Something that makes you hold your nose:

Cinnamon! Don’t get me wrong, it smells wonderful but I’m super allergic. It makes it hard to go shopping during the holiday season because the scent of cinnamon is everywhere!

Last best thing you ate:

I made a cherry cranberry pie last weekend, and it was delicious!

Last thing you regret eating:

A bag of microwave popcorn. It was good in the moment but is haunting me today.

Things you’d walk a mile for:

A good cup of coffee. (Has anybody else noticed a bunch of my answers revolve around food?)

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room:

Spiders and yellow jackets!

Things you always put in your books:

Easter eggs such as family names and funny moments that my family will recognize.

Things you never put in your books:

Open door, bodice ripping romance.

Things to say to an author:

I preordered your book! Can’t wait to read it!

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

Still got your head in that book? (Usually said when person doesn’t believe you’re really writing a book.)

Favorite places you’ve been:

Ireland! It was pure magic and felt like going home to a place I’d never been before.

Places you never want to go to again:

Las Vegas. It’s not like I hated it, just don’t necessarily need to go again.

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

Probably knitting. I’ve done a lot of crafty type things, but knitting is probably the one I’m best at.

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

Well, except for a blanket I knit for my son. I knit and knit and knit and the darn thing ended up long and narrow. It was about six feet long and two feet wide.

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

The basics of my main character, Dawna, in Hammers and Homicide are based off of my grandmother. She ran a hardware store in my hometown and lived in the house I used as inspiration in the book. Dawna quickly became her own person, though, and shares very little traits with my grandmother.

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

Probably the fact that Dawna is a terrible cook. I actually enjoy cooking and am pretty darn good at it, if I do say so myself!

About Paula:

When Paula Charles isn’t writing under the towering trees of the Pacific Northwest, she can be found in the garden with her hands in the dirt or sitting on her front porch with a good book and a glass of iced tea. She has a love for small towns, ghost stories, and pie. During her childhood, she grew up in a town suspiciously resembling the fictional Pine Bluff, Oregon where she trailed behind her grandmother in the family’s hardware store until her grandmother would get fed up and put her to work counting nails. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, and also writes cozy mysteries under the pen name of Janna Rollins. Paula lives on a small farm in Southwestern Washington with her husband and an entire menagerie of furry and feathered creatures.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: Cozy Mystery Writer | Paula Charles Cozy Mystery Author

Facebook: Paula Charles & Janna Rollins, Author

Instagram: paulacharles_jannarollins

Website: Cozy Mystery Writer | Paula Charles Cozy Mystery Author

Facebook: Paula Charles & Janna Rollins, Author

Instagram: paulacharles_jannarollins