I’d like to welcome Michele Drier to the blog today for #ThisorThatThursday.

A few of your favorite things: Chocolate, my daughters and grandchildren, books.

Things you need to throw out: My business suits and high heels, clothes older than 20 years, divorce papers from my first husband.

Things you need for your writing sessions: Quiet, atlases from around the world, that Great Card Catalog in the cloud (Google.)

Things that hamper your writing: Meetings, marketing, other things I’ve said yes to (political campaigns, National Women’s Political Caucus).

Things you love about writing: Creating stories, giving characters those strengths I lack (organization!), figuring out the puzzle, righting the wrongs, research (I’m a frustrated historian!).

Things you hate about writing: Finding the best word, going too far down the rabbit hole of description, proofreading.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Consistency, developing a schedule and sticking to it, carving out three-hour time blocks.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Making stuff up! (I spent years as a newspaper editor and everything had to be fully-fact-checked!).

Writing characters who have interesting and quirky habits which wouldn’t go in real life.

Things you never want to run out of: Printer ink, copy paper, butter, chocolate, coffee.

Things you wish you’d never bought: An old printer, a small bedside lamp (too low to read by), a book on knitting.

Favorite foods: Indian, Thai, Mexican, French, salmon, salads, French bread.

Things that make you want to gag: Liver, escargots, okra.

Favorite smell: The air after a rain, cut grass on a summer evening.

Something that makes you hold your nose: Diesel fumes, pulp mills, fermenting grapes (but, afterwards…yum!).

Last best thing you ate: Chicken Caesar salad.

Last thing you regret eating: The brownies I made last night.

Things you always put in your books: Strong women, some true information (my WIP is based on a horde of Medieval stained glass they discovered in the attic of Westminster Abbey in 2017.) My paranormal romances, The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, always have some current political information about the Eastern European bloc.

Things you never put in your books: On the page violence, shootings, stabbings, dismemberment, explicit sex, mass murderers preying on women.

Favorite places you’ve been: Oh God. France, Greece, Italy, England…pretty much anywhere in Europe.

Places you never want to go to again: Kansas, Nebraska, Idaho.

Things that make you happy: Sun, soft rain, cats, my garden, the beach, opera, museums.

Things that drive you crazy: Bad drivers (the ones who buy cars with no turn signals!), people who talk in jargon, people who believe conspiracy theories and never learn to check facts.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: When a cousin and I drive a rented car into Hungary. We only had one map and didn’t speak or read the language. Great adventure!

Something you chickened out from doing: Climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower (and I backed down half-way up to the rotunda of the Florence Cathedral. Got cussed out by all the people going up!).

About Michele:

Michele Drier is a fifth generation Californian. During her career in journalism she won awards for investigative series. She is the past president of Capitol Crimes, the Sacramento chapter of Sisters in Crime, the Guppies chapter of Sisters in Crime and co-chair for Bouchercon 2020.

Her Amy Hobbes Newspaper Mysteries, set in the California Delta area, are Edited for Death, (called “Riveting and much recommended” by the Midwest Book Review), Labeled for Death and Delta for Death. A stand-alone, Ashes of Memories was published May 2017.

Her paranormal romance series, SNAP: The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, named the best paranormal vampire series of 2014 by PRG, continues with book ten, SNAP: Red Bear Rising released 2018.

The first book of her new series, Stained Glass Mysteries, Stain on the Soul, was released in 2019 and she is currently working on the second book in the series, Tapestry of Tears

Let’s Be Social:

Visit her webpage, www.MicheleDrier.me

Or her facebook page, ,http://www.facebook.com/AuthorMicheleDrier

Or find her on her author page at http://www.amazon.com/Michele-Drier/e/B005D2YC8G/