#WriterWednesday Interview with Kerry Cox

I ‘d like to welcome back author, Kerry Cox, to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Things you need for your writing sessions: Gipsy Kings on shuffle. Two uninterrupted hours (almost never happens). Beer helps.

Things that hamper your writing: Too many cats. Really good weather. Household chores.

Things you love about writing: The rewrite phase where I’m going sentence by sentence, trimming, tweaking, finding the right verb, making dialog real.

Things you hate about writing: I wish it didn’t involve so much sitting.

Hardest thing about being a writer: By far, the fact that we have to be responsible for so much of our own marketing,

Easiest thing about being a writer: The actual writing. That part comes easy.

Something you’re really good at: Landscaping, especially stone work. I love working with stone.

Something you’re really bad at: Astrophysics. Never got the hang of it.

Something you wish you could do: Speak multiple languages.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: I never regret learning anything.

Something you like to do: I’m physically active, and play a variety of sports. I’ll play damn near anything if there’s a ball and a score involved.

Something you wish you’d never done: Ice skate. That was a humiliating experience I could easily have lived without.

Last best thing you ate: My own recipe for sweet/hot chicken wings, done in an air fryer, crispy and delicious.

Last thing you regret eating: Panda Express. That didn’t end well.

Things you always put in your books: Sharply drawn, realistic characters. That’s the goal, anyway.

Things you never put in your books: Dream sequences. I hate reading them, so I don’t write them.

Things to say to an author: “I couldn’t put it down.”

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “I don’t buy books, I just get them at the library.”

Favorite places you’ve been: Too many to mention, all here in the U.S. Other than Mexico and Costa Rica, I’ve never been out of the country.

Places you never want to go to again: Florida. ‘Nuff said.

Favorite books (or genre): Favorite genre is crime fiction, but my favorite book of all time is “A Confederacy of Dunces,” by John Kennedy Toole.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Fantasy. Romance. And there is a handful of very successful crime fiction/thriller writers who, in my opinion, are unreadable. But what do I know, they’re the ones in the airport bookstore racks, not me.

The coolest person you’ve ever met: I’ve worked with a number of celebrities in the course of my career as a TV advertising scriptwriter. The nicest, most down-to-earth was Alex Trebek. Marie Osmond would come in a close second. Just a sweetheart of a guy.

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Marisa Tomei.

Let’s Be Social:

https://kerrykcox.com

Kerry Cox | Facebook

(3) Walkingbird Creative (@WalkingbirdKC) / Twitter

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Kerry Cox

I’d like to welcome author, Kerry Cox, to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday.

Favorite music or song: As a mediocre ex-drummer in what was a pretty good bar band, I like and appreciate an eclectic range of music, which is why you’ll find such varied artists as Tom Waits, BB King, Jimmy Buffet, Eminem, Caro Emerald, Leon Redbone, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, Dean Martin, Luther Allison, Big Rude Jake, Eminem, James Taylor, and Gypsy Kings on my IPod.

Music that drives you crazy: I can’t handle the male vocalists today who whine their way through a tune. It’s not just the pitch, it’s the tonality. Makes me nuts.

Favorite beverage: Beer.
Something that gives you a sour face: When there’s no beer.

Favorite smell: Lavender. I plant it everywhere. Where I live, the fact that it’s drought tolerant and deer resistant is another great reason to plant it.

Something that makes you hold your nose: Litter boxes. And we have a number of them, because my wife has been active in feral cat/kitten rescue for decades. So, I built waterproof outdoor enclosures, accessible through cat doors from the house, for all the litter boxes.

Something you’re really good at: Swimming. I’ve been swimming since—well, home movies show my first lesson at 6 months old. I played water polo at Oregon State University, taught swimming and coached a youth swim team for years.

Something you’re really bad at: Modesty. Just kidding, I’m great at modesty.

Something you wish you could do: Play boogie-woogie piano.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Honestly, there isn’t a thing I regret learning. Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you’re either dead, or you might as well be.

Things to say to an author: “This is crisp, authentic dialogue that moves the story along nicely, well done!”

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “You should write a story about the crazy people at my job.”

Favorite books (or genre): My favorite novel is A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole. That said, my favorite genre remains the one I write in: crime fiction, from procedurals to thrillers.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Fantasy, Historical Romance, Slasher Horror, Cookbooks.

Favorite things to do: I love the outdoors and play a variety of sports, so whether I’m kayaking, playing pickleball, or landscaping my yard, I’m a happy guy. I love working with stone, growing my own vegetables, and the volunteer rescue work I do with Pacific Wildlife Care and The Marine Mammal Center here on the Central Coast.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: I hate cleaning the shower. I hate working high up on a ladder. I detest standing in long lines. No matter what, I will never go to Disneyland again.

 About Kerry:

When I was a kid, I didn’t want to be a policeman, or fireman, or astronaut, or major league third baseman. I wanted to be a forest ranger.

Okay, also a major league third baseman. Y’know, as a summer job.

But it turned out my inability to comprehend biochem made a career in wildlife management as realistic as my chances of starting for the Dodgers.

So, after four years at Oregon State University I declared myself graduated, and returned home to Southern California. There I taught swimming, karate, and pre-school while I sold articles to various magazines, wrote children’s shows for The Disney Channel, and eventually became a full-time writer.

And because one of my childhood dreams lives on, I now write novels focused on the dark underworld of wildlife trafficking, and work with various wildlife, marine mammal, and feral cat/kitten groups as a rescue volunteer along California’s Central Coast.

I’m still waiting on that call from the Dodgers.

I live by the ocean in Cambria, California with my wife and a clowder of cats.

Let’s Be Social:

 Website: www.kerrykcox.com

FB: https://www.facebook.com/kerry.cox.501/

Twitter: @WalkingbirdKC (https://twitter.com/WalkingbirdKC)