#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Kerry Peresta

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I’d like to welcome the fabulous Kerry Peresta to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite spring traditions:

I love to spruce up my yard! I get spring fever in early March, and of course the nurseries have NO flowering bushes or my beloved impatiens at that time. So I end up buying Boston ferns, which the wrens promptly destroy by nesting in them. I might as well wait until the end of April to start anything! My love of birds trumps my love of flowers, and birds are in all my books. Don’t you just love their personalities? I look forward to tons of baby birds each year. I have six feeders in my backyard, one right outside my office window!

Something spring-related that you’ll never do again:

St. Patty’s Day parade. Celebrating amongst a crowd of green-hued booze enthusiasts while watching showers of green-costumed leprechauns and four-leaf-clovers waltz by is just not my idea of a fun spring outing! Plus, I’m not Irish. So. However, I DID research St. Patrick in honor of this question and found that he was an amazing guy.

Favorite spring smell:

I live in the Lowcountry on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, and our Confederate Jasmine is all over the place in the spring. It smells delicious! Even better than honeysuckle. Olivia Callahan, the protagonist in my books, loves flowers and delicious smells. Some of the smells, however, trigger memories of the trauma that landed her in the ER as a Jane Doe!

Something that makes you hold your nose:

When the wild onions start sprouting, the smell is overwhelming to me. I have trouble with the smells of onion, garlic, and fish. Oh, of course, smoke and mildew. In my new release, The Torching, I had to dig deep into fire residue and firefighter and remediation companies’ responsibilities. The smell of mildew and commingled smoke is one of the first things they tackle. It permeates everything. In my new release, when fire consumes Olivia Callahan’s life, she discovers that fire investigators are invaluable, especially when this one becomes an inside source.

Funniest spring story:

In the spring, I get all fired up and stalk the perimeter of my yard, carefully scrutinizing the ramshackle landscaping in hopes of hiring someone that knows how to manicure trees and bushes. I always look for the best price. One year we hired a friend who did odd jobs on the side. I asked my husband to supervise. He didn’t. When I looked out the window, our friend was hanging upside down, wielding a chain saw and trying his best to lop off a branch the size of Godzilla’s thigh. Talk about freaked out. I thought he was going to die that day, with the obvious caveat of a huge lawsuit. From that point on, I never hired anyone NOT insured or bonded.

Something embarrassing that happened during the spring:

The zeal that rips through me as spring approaches is troubling. I join clubs. Promise to exercise more. Take on leadership roles. It’s embarrassing when I end up backing out because spring fever had imbued me with a fake sense of empowerment. I’m trying to learn ‘moderation in all things’.

Things you never want to run out of:

Half-and-Half and coffee. Zevia cream soda. Peanut butter. Zebra fine-point pens.

Things you wish you’d never bought:

Food prepping for the collapse of America or a food shortage during the pandemic. That stuff is still out in my garage, gathering dust.

Favorite music or song:

Classic jazz greats, or current jazz. Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Etta James, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis.

Music that drives you crazy:

80s and 90s rock. Metal. Hip Hop. The ridiculous ‘Y-M-C-A’ song. When will that song finally die?

Something you’re really good at:

Playing the piano. Workouts. Spending money at Ulta.

Something you’re really bad at:

Karaoke. Golf. Cooking. Spreadsheets. Outlines.

The last thing you ordered online:

A sample package of Viktor Rolf ‘Flower Bomb’ perfumes. Which makes NO sense because I don’t go out that much, and my husband has zero sense of smell. Update on this answer: The Flower Bomb was a smashing success. My husband actually said “You smell good.” This never happens. I either had too much perfume on, or he really liked it. I choose the latter.

The last thing you regret buying:

Cute, tiny, white ‘Mickey Mouse’ hands that stick on the wall and hold things. I thought I’d slip necklaces on them, or a pen I’m not using…and it would look so adorable holding these things in the little, white fist. All of them fell off the wall in about ten seconds. Every. Single. One.

Best thing you’ve ever done:

Become a writer. When a scene comes together, it feels like I’m flying. When a plot point falls in my lap…it’s manna from heaven. After a hundred or so editing rounds (you think I’m kidding), and the manuscript is off to the editor all tight and formatted and shiny as a new penny…the sense of accomplishment is indescribable.

Biggest mistake:

Become a writer.

It sucks the zest for life right out of me. I put it all on the page. Before I can even blink, the day is over. Whatever happened to the concept of retirement? My husband wants to know.

About Kerry:

AUTHOR BIO: Kerry’s publishing credits include a popular newspaper and e-zine humor column, “The Lighter Side,” (2009—2011); and her debut novel, The Hunting, women’s fiction/suspense, Pen-L Publishing, 2013. Her magazine articles have been published in Local Life Magazine, The Bluffton Breeze, Lady Lowcountry, and Island Events Magazine. She is the author of the Olivia Callahan Suspense series, and recently released The Torching, book three; Level Best Books. Her new standalone suspense novel, Back Before Dawn, releases in May, 2023. Before starting to write full time, she spent twenty-five years in advertising as an account manager, creative director, editor, and copywriter. She is past chapter president of the Maryland Writers’ Association and a current member and presenter of Hilton Head Island Writers’ Network, SCWA, Pat Conroy Literary Center, International Thriller Writers, and the Sisters in Crime organization. Kerry is the mother of four adult children, and Gigi to a flock of grandkids. She and her husband moved to Hilton Head Island in 2015. For more information, go to https://www.kerryperesta.net.

#WriterWednesday Interview with Kerry Peresta

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I’d like the welcome the fabulous Kerry Peresta to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

A few of your favorite things: Like my character, Olivia, I love cats. I’ve had the as long as I can remember. My parents hated cats, but they suffered through all my kitties as I grew up, and now in adulthood I would love to have three (I have two) but I tried it, and it was absolute chaos. I settle for two, but I get ‘kitten fever’ every spring. Also Starbucks House coffee, good red wine, great perfume (I love Jo Malone’s scents) and Bath and Bodyworks body spray. My newest one is Champagne Toast. Fabulous!

Things you need to throw out: A zillion T-shirts. I even have some from thirty-five years ago. It’s hard for me to let go of the memories associated with them.

Things you need for your writing sessions: A great pen (I use a Zebra fine point, ballpoint), sugarless gum (I think better when my oral fixation is satisfied), and my huge, vertical, monster monitor that sits beside my laptop. And a bonus—since my desk sits facing a nice view of a low country marsh and palm trees—would be a cloudy, rainy, day. Perfect writing weather!

Things that hamper your writing: My husband stalking through the house in search of snacks, or his glasses, or his everything. He works at home, and my office doesn’t have a door, so I write in earbuds a lot. Also, I have four grown kids, and if they have an issue, of course I drop everything to connect with them. A distraction, sure…but a necessary one. Olivia Callahan has two daughters, Lilly and Serena, both teenagers. Her devotion to her kids is mirrored by my own.

Things you love about writing: The end product. When I began writing, I wrote from start to finish, pretty much shooting right through the story in a straight line to the end. Boom. It felt great to imagine something and transfer it to a published work. Olivia Callahan experiences the same spurt of the miraculous as she arises from a coma a different person…and begins a journey of re-invention. She has a hard time believing she has not only survived an assault that resulted in a coma…but is actually thriving because of it.

Things you hate about writing: Structure. Outlining. I’ve found it necessary to track a plotline, have an ending in mind, concoct a roadmap at the beginning so I’m not staring at a blank page and pulling something out of the air. Even with an outline (of sorts) I depart, but at least I have an idea of where I need to end up. So I don’t actually HATE structure…I just hold it at arms’ length.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Marketing. Hands down. I love everything else. Half of an author’s job is marketing, and it is difficult to carve out the time to do it well, especially if I have another deadline on the horizon. I’m learning to manage my time better and let go of projects that are unnecessary in order to focus on my books.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Editing. I love getting feedback and send each manuscript out to several beta readers before sending to my publishing editor. My favorite part is cutting out the ‘fat’ in the book, and chiseling and honing the story to a razor point. I haven’t accomplished what I consider a ‘razor point’ yet, but I’m on my way.

Favorite smell: Light, clean scents like Glade’s ‘Fresh Linen’, or Dolce & Gabbana’s ‘Light Blue’.

Something that makes you hold your nose: Onions. Fish. Garlic. Yuk. I have a sensitive nose, and unfortunately, my husband can barely smell anything. This makes for interesting marital discord…I mean discussion.

The last thing you ordered online: A hummingbird feeder that was guaranteed not to drip that sticky, red hummingbird mixture all over my deck. Like my character, Olivia, I adore birds! I have seven feeders in my back yard.

The last thing you regret buying: Oh gosh, where to begin? Anything from China, probably. I now try to see where the item originates. I once had the bright idea to buy a leaf-covered, collapsible screen to put on one side of my deck as a leafy ‘wall’ of sorts. The marketing made it look huge. When I got it, it was an eighteen-inch square. Those things aren’t cheap! I’m thinking…who buys this stuff? On the heels of that, I thought, well…I did. Sigh.

Things you always put in your books: Pets. Olivia has a wonderful, huge, ginger, tomcat named Riot. He is modeled after my cat, Felix. In Book Three, since she has undergone such tumultuous and unforeseen obstacles, she acquires a mature dog from a shelter who turns out to be the best decision ever. Riot is still unsure about this decision.

Things you never put in your books: Sex scenes. The ‘F’ word. My books are about characters that, for various reasons, stumble into tragic consequences and must figure out how to rise above them and prevent these situations from happening again. It’s one step forward, two steps back. The two steps back usually take a nasty, dangerous turn. There is no need in my stories for explicit sexual intimacy or the F-bomb.

Things to say to an author: “Ohmigosh I couldn’t put it down! I can’t wait for the next one! That Monty was a scumbag, wasn’t he! And I’m so proud of Olivia!” I love it when my readers connect with my characters in a way that they must comment about them. And the overuse of exclamation marks is just icing on the cake. Oh, please! Get emotional about my characters! Olivia Callahan’s journey is both heartbreaking and heroic, and I have prolonged experience with dirtbags, so I can write a gritty, realistic bad guy. (Smile)

“It had a slow start, but it picked up.” Or: “My ‘pet peeve’ is blah blah blah and I had a tough time with this book because of it.” As an author, I am not trying to accommodate everyone’s ‘pet peeves’, I am attempting to write an entertaining, realistic, and inspiring story. I do think about these comments (briefly) and consider whether I need to adjust something, but every reader brings a different expectation to a story. I’ve had one person tell me they didn’t connect to Olivia because she felt too passive. Olivia Callahan starts out as a victimized, passive woman who is blindsided by divorce and a vicious assault, but she evolves into a stick of dynamite. The reader obviously had different expectations of a character’s evolution. One comment took me off guard…she told me she had a hard time because two characters’ (major and minor) names started with the same letter. So, now, yes, I try to do better with my choice of first letters for names, but…really? I found the noting of that pesky, small irritant worthy of a strangling attempt in my next book, at least.

Favorite books (or genre): Suspense/Traditional Mystery or Legal and Medical Thrillers. Some of my favorite authors are Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Tracy Clark, Rachel Caine.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Cozy mystery, RomCom, Soaring sagas, Historical.

Favorite things to do: Walk through an art gallery, work out in a cardio or strength training class, listen to a symphony or a good jazz trio, enjoy a great glass of wine and appetizers with friends and my spouse at an atmospheric bar.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Go to a football game. Crowds and persistent screaming, chewing, spitting, yelling, cursing, are NOT my thing, LOL!

Things that make you happy: My cats, good wine, robust coffee, a good conversation with a friend, my time with God in the mornings. A conversation with my grown kids, my grandchildren laughing or showing me their treasures, a flock of ibis lifting off the marsh. Life is a gift and there are many things that bring joy!

Things that drive you crazy: Slow, ancient, drivers; little kids going wild in the store and their parents ignoring them (is teaching civility a lost art?), people that insist on talking on their cell phones in line, in a restaurant, in whatever public place. It’s just rude.

Best thing you’ve ever done: Giving birth. Two girls, two boys. All unique miracles. I am proud of them.

Biggest mistake: Not majoring in creative writing or journalism in college. I majored in commercial art and didn’t get serious about writing until I was in my fifties.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Flying out to West Palm Beach from my home a thousand miles away to meet a man I met online. In retrospect, I’d call it more foolish than daring, but still. It took a lot of moxie. Olivia experiences the same exhilaration when she dares to embrace a new career. In spite of friends’ and family’s disapproval and protests, she forges her own path not knowing how it will turn out. Risk is exhilarating!

Something you chickened out from doing: Not pursuing a career in real estate when I had the chance. It was such a great opportunity! An uberly-succesful agent was retiring, and I was primed to inherit an incredible list of clients. But I had four kids to raise, and starting real estate was going to pay very little until I worked into being an agent. I wish I’d had more guts! But the path I chose provided a regular paycheck and insurance. I still think about being a realtor, though…to the extent that I might just sneak one in as my main character!

About Kerry

Novelist Kerry Peresta is the author of the Olivia Callahan Suspense series. Book One, The Deadening, released in 2021 and Book Two, The Rising, released in 2022, both by Level Best Books. She is currently working on the third, fourth, and fifth books in the series, and a standalone novel. Kerry spent thirty years in advertising as an account manager, creative director, copywriter, and editor. She began writing full-time in 2009 as a humor columnist for a daily newspaper, and in 2012, she moved to the Baltimore area and became chapter president of the Maryland Writer’s Association. After moving to Hilton Head Island, SC in 2015, Kerry joined the Island Writers Network, the Sisters in Crime organization, South Carolina Writers Association, and became a presenter for the Pat Conroy Literary Center. Kerry and her husband enjoy kayaking, road trips, their grandkids, their two cats, Felix and Agnes; and the scenic marshes of the Lowcountry. Find out more at kerryperesta.net.

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Book Information

After an assault that landed her in a hospital as a Jane Doe two years earlier, Olivia Callahan has regained her speech, movement, and much of the memory she lost due to a traumatic brain injury. The media hype about the incident has faded away, and Olivia is ready to rebuild her life, but her therapist insists she must continue to look back in order to move forward. The only person that can help her recall specifics is her abusive ex-husband, Monty, who is in prison for murder. The thought of talking to Monty makes her skin crawl, but for her daughters’ sake and her own sanity, she must learn more about who she was before the attack.

 Just as the pieces of her life start falling into place, she stumbles across the still-warm body of an old friend who has been gruesomely murdered. Her dream of pursuing a peaceful existence is shattered when she learns the killer left evidence behind to implicate her in the murder. The only person that would want to sabotage her is Monty—but he’s in prison! Something sinister is going on, and Olivia is desperate to figure it out. Do all her friends have targets on their backs because she made the tragic decision to marry a sociopath twenty years ago?

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Kerry Peresta

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I’d like to welcome author, Kerry Peresta, to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things: My three cats, the sun faces I collect and hang on an exterior wall, my long view of the Lowcountry marsh off my deck. Good red wine. Jazz. Oh, I guess I should add my husband.

Things you love about writing: I lose myself and time can pass very quickly. How a scene develops under my hands. Editing after the first draft is done, which is much like fine-tuning a piece of sculpture by scraping away the bits that don’t work and polishing the bits that do.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Promotion. Who has time to set this stuff up? But we have to.

Things you never want to run out of: Easy…coffee and wine.

Words that describe you: Optimistic. Stylish. Fun. Nurturing.

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Decisive. Blunt. Opinionated. (These traits do not work in my favor sometimes…)

Favorite foods: Filet, quiche, asparagus

Things that make you want to gag: Onions. Liver. FISH, and anything else that comes from a body of water. Yuck.

Something you’re really good at: Interior decorating. Loving my grandkids. Cardio & weight training. Makeup.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Arrogant, condescending people.

Things you always put in your books: A pet. Dog or cat.

Things you never put in your books: Sex scene.

Things to say to an author: I could not put down your book!!

People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): Jeff Goldblum. Vincent D’Onofrio. Stephen Furtick. Angie Harmon, Louise Jensen. (This list changes often.)

Proudest moment: Those moments I see my grown kids fulfill their unique, wonderful purpose in life. For instance, one of my kids was destined to sing. When she steps onto a stage, I cry every time.

About Kerry:

Kerry’s publishing credits include a popular newspaper column, “The Lighter Side,” (2009—2011), and magazine articles in Local Life Magazine, The Bluffton Breeze, Lady Lowcountry, and Island Events Magazine. She is the author of two novels, The Hunting, women’s fiction, and The Deadening, psychological suspense. She spent twenty-five years in advertising as an account manager, creative director, and copywriter. She is past chapter president of the Maryland Writers’ Association and a current member and presenter of Hilton Head Island Writers’ Network, and the Sisters in Crime organization. Recently, she worked as editor and contributor for Island Communications, a local publishing house. Kerry and her husband moved to Hilton Head five years ago. She is the mother of four adult children, and has a bunch of wonderful grandkids who keep life interesting and remind her what life is all about.

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The Deadening

Olivia Callahan’s quiet, orderly life is shattered when she regains consciousness in a hospital and discovers she is paralyzed and cannot remember a thing. The fragmented voices she hears around her help her piece together that an apparent assault landed her in the hospital, but nobody knows who attacked her, or why. After a chilling struggle to survive, she awakens from a coma unable to remember what happened to her or anything at all, except she has been told she is an entirely different person. Or is she?

Now, in spite of a brain injury that has rewired her personality, Olivia is on a mission to reclaim her life. As clarity surfaces and she starts to understand who she was, she is shocked. Had she really been that person? And if so, does she want her old life back?