I’d like to welcome the fabulous Lori Robbins to the blog for #ThisorThatThusday.

Things you never want to run out of:

I never want to run out of coffee! Everything else is negotiable.

Things you wish you’d never bought:

I regret every box of addictive Fudgestick cookies I’ve ever bought. After I’ve eaten them.

A few of your favorite things:

I cherish a set of 1867 Dickens books I rescued from the garbage.

Things you need to throw out:

I need to toss most of my clothes. Someone should Kondo those relics.

Things you need for your writing sessions:

I can’t write so much as an email without coffee, a stack of Post-it notes, and a dozen colored pens.

Things that hamper your writing:

Staring at my calendar is no help when deadlines loom.

Something you’re really good at:

As the mother of six, I’ve got a black belt in worrying and nagging.

Something you’re really bad at:

I’m terrible at organizing photos, although I have enough of them to create a feature-length, stop-action movie.

Last best thing you ate:

The last best thing I ate was a loaf of [my own] home-baked challah bread.

Last thing you regret eating:

I regret eating half a loaf of that same challah.

Things to say to an author:

Your books just keep getting better.

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

What do you do all day, besides write?

Favorite places you’ve been:

My favorite place is Cassis, a tiny town in the south of France, whose inhabitants embraced my American family despite our execrable French.

Places you never want to go to again:

I will never return to an Airbnb where the hosts gave us the wrong keys and we got locked out for hours. And then they yelled at us for not realizing they’d made a mistake.

Favorite things to do:

I love going to the ballet.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing:

I hate talking to mechanics about expensive and baffling repairs to my car.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done:

When I was young and foolish I quit a job without having another job.

Something you chickened out from doing:

In a supreme act of party-pooping, I didn’t go to an axe-throwing event at a wedding.

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

I spent many years as a professional dancer.

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

I stenciled random food-related items to the walls in the kitchen. It didn’t look like the picture in the magazine. It looked like a crazed toddler was let loose.

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

In Lesson Plan for Murder, the protagonist recalls a bar mitzvah where her family was seated behind the swinging doors to the kitchen. This episode marked the beginning of a real-life intergenerational 100 Years’ War.

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

Although I was a professional dancer and an English teacher, my characters are not me!

About Lori:

Lori Robbins is the author of the On Pointe and Master Class mystery series and a contributor to The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers Cookbook. She won the Indie Award for Best Mystery and two Silver Falchions for Best Cozy Mystery. Short stories include “Leading Ladies” which won Honorable Mention in the 2022 Best American Mystery and Suspense anthology. After ten lean years as a professional dancer, Lori became an English teacher and now writes full-time. She is co-president of the New York/ Tristate Sisters in Crime and an active member of Mystery Writers of America and the Short Mystery Fiction Society.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: https://www.lorirobbins.com/

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GoodReads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16007362.Lori_Robbins

I’d like to welcome Lori Robbins to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

A few of your favorite fall traditions: I never miss an opportunity to go apple and pumpkin picking.

Something autumn-related that you’ll never do again: Overestimate how many apples and pumpkins I need, which results in two weeks of making vats of applesauce and watching the pumpkins wither as I debate how many pumpkin seeds one can reasonably be expected to roast and eat.

Favorite fall treat: I love roasted chestnuts and candy apples.

A fall treat that makes you gag: Pumpkin spice malted milk balls. How can such a thing exist?

Something you only do in the fall: I hide candy from the rest of the family and then eat it myself.

Something you’d never do in the fall season: Go outdoors when the temperature dips below 50 degrees. Maybe 60. As a resident of northern New Jersey, this does pose a few problems.

Favorite autumn beverage: My favorite autumn drink is an apple brandy cocktail that’s topped with champagne. After drinking a few you still have a half bottle of opened champagne, which I think of as a win.

A drink that gives you a sour face: I know this is heresy to many, but I don’t drink tea. Ever.

Favorite fall smell: Wood smoke is my favorite and has the added advantage of not triggering any allergies.

Something that makes you hold your nose: Every brand of tea [see above] with the possible exception of chamomile.

Best fall memory: My first Halloween in suburban New Jersey. We had just moved from NYC, and it was a great way to meet the neighbors!

Something you’d rather forget: The year I dressed as a black cat and got my tail stuck in an elevator door. Twice.

Funniest autumn story: Finding an empty bag of hidden Halloween candy with a note from my kids that said We always enjoy the hunt, heh, heh, heh

Something embarrassing that happened during the fall: Showing up at a Halloween party and finding out no one else was wearing a costume.

Best thing you ever cooked/baked in autumn: Apple pie, for sure!

Your worst kitchen disaster: Making pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin. There’s a reason the canned stuff is so popular.

Favorite place you spent a fall day: My daughter’s September wedding at the Jersey shore was magical. She got married on the beach, and a crowd of late-season beach goers joined in.

The worst place to spend a fall day: My backyard is the worst place to be in October and November. I’m fairly certain my allergy to leaf mold was born out a disinclination to wield a rake.

Funniest pumpkin-carving story: Carving a pumpkin and having people think the kids must have done it.

Your worst pumpkin-carving story: Trying to carve a pumpkin with one of those flexible knives that come in pumpkin carving kits, deciding a kitchen knife would work better, and then slicing three fingers instead of said pumpkin. On the other hand, blood from the wound was definitely on brand for Halloween.

Best Halloween memory: Playing Scrabble with friends while answering the door to trick-or-treaters.

Worst Halloween experience: Losing every single Scrabble game because it was my house, and I was the one doling out candy. As a matter of record, I’d like to make a case for including the word “rebeaner” in the Scrabble dictionary. What other word would you use to describe someone who repeatedly beans another person on the head with a bag of candy? Had my fellow Scrabble players agreed, I would have won.

About Lori:

Lori Robbins began dancing at age 16 and launched her professional career three years later. She performed with a number of modern dance and classical ballet companies, including Ballet Hispanico and the St. Louis Ballet, and her commercial work included featured spots for Pavlova Perfume. After ten very lean years onstage she became an English teacher and now writes full time.

Lori is the author of the On Pointe mysteries; the third book in that series, Murder in Third Position, is due out in November and is set in a fictional New York City ballet company. The first book in her Master Class series, Lesson Plan for Murder, features a crimefighting English teacher and will release in early 2023. She won the Indie Award for Best Mystery, the Silver Falchion for Best Cozy Mystery, and was a finalist for both a Readers’ Choice and Mystery and Mayhem Book Award.

Short stories include “Accidents Happen” in Murder Most Diabolical and “Leading Ladies” in Justice for All. She’s also a contributor to The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers Cookbook.

As a dancer, writer, English teacher, and mother of six, Lori is an expert in the homicidal impulses everyday life inspires.

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https://www.facebook.com/lorirobbinsauthor/

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http://lorirobbinsauthor@gmail.com