I’d like to welcome my friend, Jenna Harte, to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Things you never want to run out of: Chocolate, books, coffee, wine

Things you wish you’d never bought: I have a lot of doodads I bought thinking they’d make my life easier (e.g. wet-dry vac, kitchen appliances), but I don’t use. What I really want is someone else to clean and cook.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Being stuck, not knowing what to write next in the story. This happens a lot to me in Act 2a through the second pinch point. I can write act one and three no problem, it’s the middle that I struggle with.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Getting paid to make up stories. The flexible schedule is nice too.

A few of your favorite things: I love books, notebooks, and planners, even though I’m drowning in them.

Things you need to throw out: So much stuff. Some of it I wonder where it came from and why it’s in my house.

Favorite foods: Chocolate and Mexican food.

Things that make you want to gag: Pears. Just the smell of them makes me nauseous. I suspect I was sick as a child and given a pear leading to a Pavlovian response. I’m not a fan of eggplant either.

Favorite music or song: I love “Ode to Joy” and “A Little Jazz Mass.” I think they’re amazingly beautiful. I also love old R&B and electric swing music. I’m actually quite eclectic in my musical interests (pop, jazz, classical, etc).

Music that drives you crazy: I’m not a fan of music that sounds like noise and screaming (hard, hard rock?).

The last thing you ordered online: Naughty Words for Nice Writers by Cara Bristol (it’s a romance writing thesaurus) and Save the Cat Writes for TV by Jamie Nash (I bought that to help me write serial fiction).

The last thing you regret buying: Surface steam cleaner…another doodad I thought would make my life easier. I haven’t used it once.

Favorite books (or genre): I love Persuasion by Jane Austen. I also love The House at the Cerulean Sea. My go-to genre is usually mystery/thriller/suspense and romance (rom com and romantic suspense).

Books you wouldn’t buy: I’m not a big literature reader as I don’t like that they don’t end well or have a nebulous ending.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: I ate haggis and black pudding on a recent trip to the UK. The haggis wasn’t bad as long as I didn’t think about what was in it. The black pudding was like a hockey puck.

Something you chickened out from doing: I won’t do anything that requires me to “white knuckle” through it. So while I did zip line, I didn’t white water raft on my last trip to the New River Gorge.

The coolest person you’ve ever met: I’ve been lucky to meet some cool authors such as Charlaine Harris and Heather Graham. I sat next to Mark Greaney at a book signing at Thrillerfest, and he was really nice. I’ve met and chatted with Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers on several occasions (if anyone remembers them). Wagner sent me a handwritten thank you note after donating to a charity he supported. I got a note from Stefanie after donating to her wildlife fund and giving her a bottle of moonshine for her birthday.

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Sissy Spacek used to live in the area, but I didn’t recognize her when I saw her.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: “I luvvvvvv your books.”

The craziest thing a reader said to you: “You’re some kind of crazy.” It was said to me after a panel I was on at the Suffolk Mystery Festival. I don’t know why he thought that, but it was said good-naturedly, so I took it as a compliment.

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: I used make all my kids’ birthday cakes (fire engines, Neverland island, etc) and Halloween costumes. I like to do art/crafty things but I’m not very good. I have made some of my own merch, like tumblers with my book covers on them.

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: Nearly everything I try to create looks better in my head than the result. The worst has probably been the times I tried to use decorative painting in my bathroom.

Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: My husband told me about a man who sells homemade moonshine from the trunk of his car at their work (which is illegal)…they work at a prison. I put that in Meant to Be, a romantic suspense I wrote in the Southern Heat series.

Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: I have a character in the Valentine Mysteries that likes to wear couture French lingerie. I don’t but mostly because I can’t afford it.

About Jenna:

Jenna Harte is a die-hard romantic writing about characters who are passionate about and committed to each other, and frequently getting into trouble. She is the author of the Valentine Mysteries, the first of which, Deadly Valentine, reached the quarter-finals in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award in 2013. She also penned the Southern Heat contemporary romance series and the Sophie Parker Coupon Mystery series.

When she's not telling stories, she works by day as a ghostwriter and runs the online community for romance writers, Write with Harte. She lives the empty nest life with her soulmate and a nutty cat.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: https://jennaharte.com

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