I’d like to welcome author M. A. Monnin to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday.

A few of your favorite fall traditions: Some of my favorite fall activities are raking leaves, sitting by the firepit with a glass of wine, and watching Chiefs games.

Something autumn-related that you’ll never do again: Go to a professional Haunted House! They’re too scary for me. My kids love them.

Favorite fall treat: I make a mix of candy corn, peanuts, and fall-colored M&Ms. The mix looks pretty in a bowl and tastes delicious.

A fall treat that makes you gag: No pumpkin spice coffee for me, thanks.

Something you’ll only do in the fall: I can’t say rake leaves, because the neighbors have pin oaks and they fall all winter long into spring. So it’ll have to be carve pumpkins. I love jack o’lanterns.

Something you’d never do in the fall season: I’d never travel to the Caribbean in fall. Hurricanes!

Favorite autumn beverage: Hot buttered rum, according to an old Southern Living recipe: a cup of hot apple cider with a shot of Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum, topped with a sliver of butter.

A drink that gives you a sour face: Moscow mules. For me, a little ginger goes a long way.

Favorite fall smell: The scent of fallen leaves. They smell cozy and warm to me.

Something that makes you hold your nose: Fallen hedge apples, also known as Osage oranges. The squirrels love them, but any that they leave behind stink to high Heaven.

Best thing you ever cooked/baked in the autumn: I make a wonderful pecan-orange pie.

Your worst kitchen disaster: Had to be that Thanksgiving when I had the whole family at my house and ordered the meal from a store like my mother did. Only I ordered from a different store, and while her meal was always fully cooked and piping hot when they picked it up on Thanksgiving morning, my turkey and fixings were frozen solid! I did learn that if you have enough sides, you can comfortably feed 12 people on a one pound turkey loaf.

Favorite place you spent a fall day: Arrowhead Stadium watching the Kansas City Chiefs play. Loudest stadium in the country.

The worst place to spend a fall day: That would have to be Phoenix Arizona. We loved Phoenix and lived there for one year when my husband was stationed at Luke AFB, but I really missed the changing color of leaves.

Funniest pumpkin-carving story: This is my favorite, rather than the funniest. For a couple of years, our entire family and several friends got together to carve pumpkins for our local charity Pumpkin Parade. I called our grouping the Monnin Family Plot. Two of my favorite designs were my husband’s fleur-de-lis and my son-in-law’s Christopher Walken.

Your worst pumpkin-carving story: That would have to be the time I tried to do like my friend and neighbor did and attempted to make a snake ala Martha Stewart. My friend’s was the highlight of the neighborhood, with twelve jack o’lanterns strung together with white Christmas lights. I got tired after carving three. Mine was more of an inch worm.

Your best Halloween costume: My favorite costume is a gypsy. I love wearing a full flouncy skirt and layering on scarves and tons of jewelry. I even have a crystal ball that I keep close by in case any little ones want their fortune told. My husband is from Louisiana, and I have a large selection of Mardi Gras masks that I can choose from.

A Halloween costume that wasn’t quite what you imagined: That would be the year I decided to go as a devil, wearing a Venetian leather mask we’d picked up, a red cape and a plastic pitchfork. It was only when I saw photos later that I realized I’d put on my reversible cape black side out instead of red, so I just looked . . . odd.

Favorite pumpkin spice item: pumpkin bread.

Something that should never be pumpkin-spice flavored: Coffee!

About M. A.

M. A. Monnin is the author of Death In The Aegean, the first in the Stefanie Adams Intrepid Traveler Mystery Series. Her short stories have appeared in Anthony-Award-winning anthology Mystery Most Edible, Black Cat Mystery Magazine and Black Cat Weekly, and pulp anthology All That Weird Jazz. An avocational archaeologist and AF veteran, her non-fiction articles cover Victorian reception of Ancient Egypt, gardening, and detective fiction.

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