#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Maddie Day/Edith Maxwell

I’d like to welcome one of my favorite mystery authors to the blog this week for #ThisorThatThursday. Welcome to Maddie Day/Edith Maxell!

Thanks for inviting me over, Heather! I want to preface my answers by saying that, “My adult sons” could have been the answer to quite a few of the questions, but that would have gotten tiring. Still, it’s true, and they both live too far away for frequent visits.

Things you love about writing: When I feel like I’m channeling my characters. I write down what they do and it surprises me – that’s the magical part of writing. It doesn’t happen every day, but when it does, it’s what keeps me going.
Things you hate about writing: The middle of the book. Every time!

Hardest thing about being a writer: Having to promote my own work. It’s hard to keep finding gentle ways to say, “Please buy my book.”
Easiest thing about being a writer: Hearing from readers who say how much they love my stories.

Words that describe you: Persistent, hard-working, a great cook.
Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Cute. The lifelong plight of being short and having a young-looking face.

Favorite beverage: Bourbon
Something that gives you a sour face: Kombucha. Can’t stand the stuff!

Last best thing you ate: My own rhubarb cheesecake
Last thing you regret eating: I was visiting my son in Puerto Rico just before the shutdown, and I wanted to order something local for breakfast. The pulled pork omelet was way too heavy, especially for a beach morning. I should have stuck with mangos and pineapple!

Things you’d walk a mile for: A sun-warmed ripe tomato, locally grown peaches, and dark chocolate ice cream. [And my sons.]
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Less than perfectly fresh raw squid, and beets.

Things you always put in your books: Characters who care about each other, and descriptions of delicious food.
Things you never put in your books: Graphic violence, explicit sex

Things to say to an author: Your book got me/my mother/my BFF through a really hard time/waiting in the hospital/my father’s illness.
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I have this great idea for a book but I don’t have time to write it. Can we work together?

Favorite places you’ve been: Sequoia National Park. Any beach. The mountains of western Puerto Rico. Pasadena, California, my birthplace.
Places you never want to go to again: The Miami airport. Los Angeles freeways.

People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): Michele Obama, Sara Paretsky, and my 93-year-old uncle Richard Reinhardt, a San Francisco author and brilliant, delightful man. [And my sons.]

People you’d cancel dinner on: Decline to say – I’d have to get political.

Things that make you happy: Sitting on my deck with a good mystery and a gin and tonic. Also watching my tomato plants grow. [And my sons.]
Things that drive you crazy: Right now? People in public in close quarters but not wearing masks.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Solo hitchhiked in northern Japan – with no bad consequences.
Something you chickened out from doing: When I was a (very short) kid, I climbed to the top of the high dive at our town pool. It looked way higher from up there than from below, and I was scared to jump. The line of kids waiting on the ladder weren’t happy with me climbing back down.

About Maddie/Edith:

Agatha Award-winning author Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and award-winning short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she pens the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. With twenty-one books in print and more in production, Maxwell lives north of Boston, where she writes, gardens, and cooks. Find her at EdithMaxwell.com and on social media:

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

About Her Latest:

Robbie Jordan temporarily leaves Pans ’N Pancakes, her country store in South Lick, Indiana, to visit Santa Barbara—where wildfire smoke tinges the air, but a more immediate danger may lie in wait.

While looking forward to her high school reunion back in California, Robbie Jordan’s anticipation is complicated by memories of her mother’s untimely death. At first, she has fun hanging out with her old classmates and reuniting with the local flavors—avocados, citrus, fish, and spicy Cali-Mex dishes. But when she gets wind of rumors that her mother, an environmental activist, may not have died of natural causes, Robbie enlists old friends to clear the smoke surrounding the mystery. But what she finds could make it hard to get back to Indiana alive . . .

Buy Links:

Amazon, B&N, Bookshop.org

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Judy Penz Sheluk and Friends

I’d like to welcome author and editor, Judy Penz Sheluk, back to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday, with her friends: John Floyd, Chris Wheatley, Christine Eskilson, Peggy Rothschild, Gustavo Bondoni, Joseph S. Walker, and Robb T. White.

JOHN M. FLOYD, ‘Blackjack Road’
Things you love about writing: Plotting, writing dialogue
Things you hate about writing: Marketing, promotion, contracts

CHRIS WHEATLEY, ‘The Angel of Maastricht’
Favorite beverage: I’m English, it must be a nice cup of tea. That’s law.
Something that gives you a sour face: Tomato juice. Never tried it. God willing, I never will.

CHRISTINE ESKILSON, ‘For Elizabeth’
Something you wish you could do: Carry a tune in a song
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Play tennis. If I didn’t love the game so much I definitely would quit because my hand-eye coordination leaves much to be desired!

PEGGY ROTHSCHILD, ‘Burning Desire’
Last best thing you ate: Dark chocolate with mint
Last thing you regret eating: Dark chocolate with mint (it’s a complicated relationship!)

GUSTAVO BONDONI, ‘Checkmate Charlie’
Things to say to an author: That was spectacularly well written.
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I know I’ve never sold a single word of fiction, but you used too many adjectives – for example, did you really need ‘spectacularly’ in the answer above? Haven’t you read the latest fashionable writing book?

JOSEPH S. WALKER, ‘Pink Hearts Pierced by Arrows’
Favorite places you’ve been: I’ve been lucky enough to travel quite a bit in the last few years, and giving that up—at least for the time being—has been one of the most difficult aspects of our current age of social isolation. I very much look forward to the next time I’ll be able to get off a plane in a city I’ve never seen before. I’ll list a few quick treasured memories here: my first view of the Grand Canyon from the south rim; eating fresh beignets in Jackson Square in New Orleans; and sitting by the fountain in Savannah’s Forsyth Park, letting time slip away.

Places you never want to go to again: I taught in Alabama for several years, and I loved a lot of things about it, and many of the people I met.  With that said, I will be very happy if I never have to be that far south in July or August again!

JUDY PENZ SHELUK, ‘Gouligans’
Favorite books (or genre): Mystery / Suspense: John Sandford’s Prey and Virgil Flowers series; Sue Grafton A through Y; Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot
Books you wouldn’t buy: Sci Fi. I may be the only person on the planet who hasn’t seen Star Wars.

ROBB T. WHITE, ‘See You In Court’
Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Going sailing at 18 on the J. Burton Ayers, a Great Lakes ore carrier.
Something you chickened out from doing: Telling my parents I'd crashed my car the night before I left town to go sailing on the Ayers.

JUDY PENZ SHELUK, Editor
The nicest thing a reader said to you: You’re my favorite author. One day, you’ll be on Ellen DeGeneres’ show. (I’m practicing my dance moves, just in case.)
The craziest thing a reader said to you: Him (at a bookstore event): “Hmmm, a Glass Dolphin mystery. I was on a submarine once, too.”
Me: “The Glass Dolphin is an antiques shop, not a submarine.”
Him: “So the antiques shop is inside of a submarine? That’s a unique concept.”
Me: “Yes, yes it is.”
PS He didn’t buy the book.

Let’s Be Social:
Twitter

Facebook

Website

About the Anthology, Heart Breaks and Half-Truths
Book blurb: Lovers and losers.
Whether it’s 1950s Hollywood, a scientific experiment, or a yard sale in suburbia, the twenty-two authors represented in this collection of mystery and suspense interpret the overarching theme of “heartbreaks and half-truths” in their own inimitable style, where only one thing is certain: Behind every broken heart lies a half-truth.
And behind every half-truth lies a secret.

Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk. Featuring authors Sharon Hart Addy, Paula Gail Benson, James Blakey, Gustavo Bondoni, Susan Daly, Buzz Dixon, Rhonda Eikamp, Christine Eskilson, Tracy Falenwolfe, Kate Flora, John M. Floyd, J.A. Henderson, Blair Keetch, Steve Liskow, Edward Lodi, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Peggy Rothschild, Joseph S. Walker, James Lincoln Warren, Chris Wheatley and Robb T. White.

Release Date: June 18
Publisher: Superior Shores Press

Amazon (trade paperback and Kindle): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088ZGF18Y
Barnes & Noble (trade paperback):
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1137064575?ean=9781989495223

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Susan Van Kirk

I would like to welcome author, Susan Van Kirk, to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Things you need for your writing sessions: First, I need total quiet. I can’t listen to music because I might write the lyrics into my book. I also need my notes and research, my laptop (obviously), and my list for the day. I outline what I plan to do the next day so when I’m ready to write I know where I’m going.

Things that hamper your writing: I can get unfocused by phone calls or email, especially if either involve something that needs to be done immediately. Leaving my computer to get more coffee or water… and things over which I have no control, like my next-door neighbor mowing his lawn.

Things you love about writing: Typing “The End.” I would much rather edit what I’ve written
than actually write it.

Things you hate about writing: Discovering that the murder timeline won’t work…for the
third time.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Having patience.

Easiest thing about being a writer:

Researching interesting ideas, especially if they are historical. I was a history major in college but ended up teaching English my whole career. Since I love history, I’m currently writing a series that goes back to different historical time periods. I must drag myself away from the research if I’m going to get the book written.

Favorite foods: This is easy. Dark chocolate or anything with the word
“dessert” in the name.

Things that make you want to gag:  Curry…can’t even stand the smell of it. Leek soup…I had that too many times on a tour of the United Kingdom. Arugula…It’s too bitter for me.

Favorite music or song: Classic Rock…I have so many memories tied up in that music.
The Beatles, Rod Stewart, Joni Mitchell, Donovan, the Beach Boys, the Eagles, Bob Dylan. I was in high school and college in the 60s.

Music that drives you crazy: Heavy Metal…Too loud and not my style.

Something you’re really good at: Collaborating with people on writing projects. I began
writing literary CliffsNotes in the 90s, and I had to learn to work with three editors at a time. I loved it, and I learned the skills I needed for writing novels and collaborating with people from that experience. Of course, a career in teaching also involved a lot of collaboration.

Something you’re really bad at: Keeping my mouth shut when my adult children don’t ask me for advice. Part of me thinks a lifetime of experience should be helpful, but then my brain takes over and says, “Just shut up.” Occasionally, I listen to my brain.

Something you like to do: I love to have the time to get lost in a great book. Right now I’m reading Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile about the Churchill family in WWII. But I must read in snippets since I have a deadline looming. Sigh.

Something you wish you’d never done: Locked my car keys in the trunk of my car after buying groceries. I set my purse down in the truck with the keys in it, and shut the truck, forgetting my purse was there. Fortunately, I had my phone, but my house keys were in the purse, and my other set of car keys was in my house. With the brand of car I have, I thought I couldn’t lock it with the keys inside, but I guess that safety setting didn’t involve the trunk. Not going to do that again.

The last thing you ordered online: A set of ten Nancy Drew books for my twin granddaughters who are turning nine.

The last thing you regret buying: A gift for a friend that I ordered from a website, not realizing my order would be shipped from China. It was only six weeks late.

Things you always put in your books: Secrets, small towns, murder, and a likeable protagonist.

Things you never put in your books: Overt violence. There is enough of that out in the real
world.

Things to say to an author: I couldn’t put your book down, so when does the next one
come out? Can’t wait.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book:You have a typo on page 205.  Just thought you’d like to know it.

Favorite places you’ve been: The Lake District in England. It is so beautiful, and the
flowers and gardens are handled with such care. I think if God lived somewhere on earth, this would be the place.

Places you never want to go to again: Florida. I’m sure there are people who love Florida, but it is too hot, too humid, and has too much traffic for me.

The coolest person you’ve ever met: President Barack Obama, but only with a handshake and a few words. He was running for the US Senate from Illinois, and I heard him speak at the local small college where I worked. Loved his eloquence, his intelligence, and his leadership qualities. Coolest person I’ve ever met.

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Robert Redford, not that I met him. My brother interviewed him one time and took a photo with him. He was far shorter than I imagined he would be, and I was surprised. However, that didn’t change his good looks or that million dollar smile.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: You made that small town come alive so I could see it. She was referring to my small town of Endurance and a book, Marry in Haste, where I had to imagine the town in the present day, as well as one hundred years in the past. That was great fun.

The craziest thing a reader said to you: Where did you come up with the name Grace Kimball? That’s my name, and I know we don’t know each other.

About Susan:

Susan Van Kirk is a writer of cozy mysteries. She lives at the center of the universe—the Midwest—and writes during the ridiculously cold and icy winters. Why leave the house and break something? Van Kirk taught forty-four years in high school and college and raised three children. Miraculously, she has low blood pressure.

Susan Van Kirk’s Endurance Mysteries: Three May Keep a Secret, Marry in Haste, The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney and Death Takes No Bribes. Encircle Publications published
her latest book, A Death at Tippitt Pond. Three May Keep a Secret will be published once again by Harlequin’s Worldwide Mystery imprint July 1, 2020. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the online Guppy Group.

Let’s Be Social:
Website:  www.susanvankirk.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SusanVanKirkAuthor/

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/susan_vankirk/

Pinterest:  http://www.pinterest/com/sivankirk/

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/susanivankirk/

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/586.Susan_Vankirk

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Kaye George

I’d like to welcome mystery author Kaye George back to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Favorite thing to do when you have free time: In the times we’re having now, nap and
binge watch Netflix are tied for first.

The thing you’ll always move to the bottom of your to do list: Cleaning the house.

Favorite snacks: Lately I’ve developed a string cheese habit. In fact, I just went and got a piece. And chocolate. Dark chocolate in any form.

Things that make you want to gag:  Okra.

Favorite smell: My late husband’s pillow. He was in a home at the end and they washed every single thing before they gave it back to me. There was nothing with his smell on it. But the pillow on our bed still, after a couple years, retains something of him.
Something that makes you hold your nose: Okra

Something you’re really good at: I’ve realized recently that worrying is my super power. It’s good to know your strengths, I think.
Something you’re really bad at: Remembering things I don’t write down.

Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: A really young, kid? I used to follow the garbage truck up the alley, fascinated by their job. I thought there was something romantic about what they did, daring and brave. I thought, then, that I would love to have that job. You could see what everyone threw out. I grew out of that. But I still like to learn a lot about people and, honestly, that would be one way to do it.

Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: I knew I never wanted to get married and have kids. I knew my life would be all dishes and laundry. I met a guy who was very convincing, and actually did get married and have kids. And it was all dishes and laundry. But with a soulmate and kids, and now grandkids. I wouldn’t trade my life for anyone’s.

Something you wish you could do: Right now? Go to any store I want to at any time, unfettered, with no worries.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Take precautions, wear my mask, disinfect everything, stay home. But I think we all wish that.

Favorite things to do: That’s easier to answer during a pandemic when you can’t do very much at all. I probably wouldn’t have given the same answers a few months ago. I now realize that seeing my kids and grandkids, being able to go into any store I want on a whim and browse the aisles, and regular grocery shopping are some of the things I miss the most.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: That’s probably the same. Sky diving. I’m afraid of heights and I think I’d be dead of a heart attack long before I hit the ground after passing out and failing to pull the ripcord.

About Kaye: Kaye George is a national-bestselling, multiple-award-winning author of pre-history, traditional, and cozy mysteries (her latest is the Vintage Sweets series from Lyrical Press). She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Smoking Guns chapter (Knoxville), Guppies chapter, Authors Guild of TN, Knoxville Writers Group, and Austin Mystery Writers. She lives and works in Knoxville, TN.

Book Links:
Revenge Is Sweet, March 10 https://www.amazon.com/Revenge-Sweet-Vintage-Sweets-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B07TS1KJ4T

Deadly Sweet Tooth, June 2 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/deadly-sweet-tooth-kaye-george/1132868200

Let’s Be Social:
Emails: kayegeorge@gmail.com and janetcantrell01@gmail.com

Web page: http://kayegeorge.com/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kaye.george

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kaye-George/114058705318095

Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4037415.Kaye_George

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kaye-george

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KGeorgeMystery/

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/kayegeorge/

Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004CFRJ76

Blog: http://travelswithkaye.blogspot.com/

Group Blog: http://www.killercharacters.com/

Group Blog: https://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Nancy Nau Sullivan

I would like to welcome Nancy Nau Sullivan to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things: I love my old wool slippers, daffodils, and hard rain

Things you need to throw out: I should dump my clothes closet (why did I buy this, and THAT!), all these Tupperware containers, and the contents of my garage.

Things you need for your writing sessions: a window, a second cup of coffee, and quiet; a big table to spread out my notes, or, if any of the kids are around, I need my bed, my computer on my lap, and the door
closed.

Things that hamper your writing: I create interruptions—I did not have to sit on the front step with the neighbor’s cat for an hour this morning, vacuum the living room for the third time this week, and open Facebook and Twitter (I call it the Twitter hole).

Things you love about writing: I love the bursts of creativity, wondering where in the hell that idea, character, twist came from. The hours go fast and end up on the page in my computer.

The things I hate about writing: I don’t hate anything about writing. I hate all the time spent trying to sell it—I’m no salesperson, I just want to write, but that’s not the way the world is.

Hardest thing about being a writer: I want to get it right. I’m a former newspaper journalist. I had a boss once who said he’d fire anyone who got an obit wrong—I can still hear him. “It’s the last damn time anyone will write
about him so you better get it right.” I spend hours and hours researching, going through notes, editing, editing, editing. Checking. On one of my drafts I found 200 misspelled compound words, and they needed to be fixed for consistency and correctness. Grrrrr. Should have done it right the first time.

Easiest thing about being a writer:
I know I’ve earned my place at the computer, and I love sitting there and writing
the story. And now I am free to do it! It’s completely on me.

Things you never want to run out of: time, and chardonnay

Things you wish you’d never bought: the nine hundred pairs of shoes and boots, and, yes, the lawn mower that has never been used

Words that describe you: tenacious, thorough, devoted and loyal, creative

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: opinionated, hot-headed, at times anti-social. My best friend in high school once said to me: “You’re right and the world’s all wrong.” Well, she was only partially
right; I’m wrong a lot and so is the world.

Favorite foods: pizza, baked potato, porterhouse steak, fresh sourdough

Things that make you want to gag:  beets tempura, okra, nopal, kale, the skin on a tomato, and especially,
bananas. I didn’t realize I was so fussy until I told my daughter-in-law I LOVE ALL FOOD. I don’t.

Favorite music or song: The Beatles, The Eagles, Andrea Bocelli, Chris Stapleton, The Avett Brothers, The Pistols at Dawn (my son’s rock group)

Music that drives you crazy: heavy metal and rap …I’ve tried to understand it, to like it, and I don’t. I sort of like A Tribe Called Quest.

Favorite beverage: beer—good old Miller High Life—and chardonnay—and lemon ginger tea
Something that gives you a sour face: all that craft beer that smells like watermelon, cotton candy, bubble
gum…really?

Favorite smell: jasmine, orange blossom, gardenia

Something that makes you hold your nose: musk

Something you’re really good at: writing and editing; remembering the names of books and their authors; sewing; pole dancing

Something you’re really bad at: directions, remembering song lyrics, public speaking (although I was a teacher for 15 years and I was very good at it. Still can’t figure that one out.)

Something you wish you could do:  I want to go to Australia and New Zealand and back to Vietnam.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Nothing, I love learning—even that third-grade math when I substituted in the classroom last year.

Something you like to do: write, swim, walk, travel—I drive to Florida at least once a year by myself. I love it. I turn up the country music and eat popcorn for 1300 miles, gape at Kentucky and Tennessee and the gorgeous
red earth of Georgia, and then I’m there, on Anna Maria Island, my favorite place in the world.

Something you wish you’d never done: Besides smoking—I wish I’d never listened to my mother. I gave up a fellowship at Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern, after undergrad. She insisted I “go into the market place.” I did. I finally got the master’s after my fourth son was born.

The last thing you ordered online: Books, books, books for my son who has started writing (Ann Lamott, Stephen King, Jessica Brody, all on writing) and for my nephew on his 50th birthday (Erik Larson’s new The Splendid and The Vile)

The last thing you regret buying: Another pair of boots. OMG. It’s the second pair this year, and I still go back to my old broken down ones with holes

Things you always put in your books: How the sun looks on the water, the trees, the stones and sand; the people—dedication and acknowledgement to those who helped me. I couldn’t do it without the generosity of so many beta readers, experts, editors, and publishers.

Things you never put in your books: porn, graphic violence, and profanity. Well, I had to resort to a bit of the latter in my prison saga, The Boys of Alpha Block, coming out next year from TouchPoint Press. It’s the way they talk, but I don’t think the language is gratuitous.

Things to say to an author: I love the way you do setting (or character, plot, description). Every author has a strong point, or many. Just tell them.
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Will you review my books and give them all five stars, and will you do it now?

Favorite places you’ve been: Spain, New York, Anna Maria Island, Mexico, Ireland, Vietnam—so totally different and mind-blowing for so many reasons! My new mystery series that debuts in June with Saving Tuna Street will take Blanche Murninghan to Mexico City next, then to Ireland where she rents a castle, and on and on until she gets very tired and returns to her beloved Santa Maria Island (Anna Maria Island).

Places you never want to go to again: The boys’ prison where I taught English for five years. I wish we never had such a place, but we did, and I wrote about that, too, in The Boys of Alpha Block (TouchPoint Press, next year).

Favorite books (or genre): I love the Ann’s and Alice’s – Munro, Tyler, Patchett, Hoffman, Lamott, Beattie. They have a way of making the reader sit up and take notice and appreciate the world down to its finest, and sometimes regrettable, point. I love the police stories of Laura Lippman and the incredible description and characterization of James Lee Burke; so many—Sittenfeld, Allende, Semple, Amato, Harper, Moriarty, and all the books my cousin Charles sends me by new writers. I want to read more work by my Sisters in Crime. I read Vuong’s On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous, a new novel by the Vietnamese poet. I almost fell out of my chair the writing was so gorgeous.

Books you wouldn’t buy: anything sci-fi except Ursula Le Guin and Kurt Vonnegut

People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): My cousin Charles, my college roommate, Heidi, who I lived in Spain with, my good friend, Bobbi, an art teacher who I gossiped and smoked with so many years ago, Jamie Dimon (he’s reviled but he’s done some good stuff, too), Curtis Sittenfeld, James Lee Burke, and Alice Hoffman. I think eight is a good number for dinner.

People you’d cancel dinner on: I just wouldn’t go there. I know how to say no in the first place.

Favorite things to do: write, read, walk, travel, sit and watch the cardinals flit by the window. (I do too much of the latter.) I can’t wait for the hummingbirds to come back, and then I can waste more time daydreaming.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Clean the oven. I actually ate bugs in Mexico—chapulines (grasshoppers) and they were pretty tasty and crunchy, but I don’t think I’d do it again.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Zip lining in Costa Rica—my cousin Kathy, the adventurous one, said, “What’s the worst that can happen?” As I looked 40 feet down through the tree canopy…

Something you chickened out from doing: Horseback riding, after falling off twice

The coolest person you’ve ever met: My dad, a funny, totally magnanimous Irishman who loved me unconditionally and believed in me

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Kiefer Sutherland—I met him backstage after a Broadway play. He was gracious, but sweating like nobody’s
business, and he’s very small.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: “I loved your book.”

The craziest thing a reader said to you: “I loved your book, but I had to find something wrong, so I gave it four stars.” My high school classmate. She’s still a card after all these years.

About Nancy:

Nancy Nau Sullivan is a former newspaper journalist and English teacher. She taught at a
boys’ prison  in Florida, in Argentina, and in the Peace Corps in Mexico. She returned to the setting of her memoir, THE LAST CADILLAC, to write SAVING TUNA STREET, her first mystery. She lives in Northwest Indiana and, often, anywhere near water. 

Let’s Be Social:

Twitter: @NauSullivan

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nancy.sullivan.9638

Facebook Author page: https://www.facebook.com/lastcadiauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nancynausullivan/?hl=en

Website:  https://www.nancynausullivan.com

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Pamela Webber

I’d like to welcome author, Pamela Webber to the blog today for #ThisorThatThursday.

Things you need for your writing sessions: My computer, a notepad, and pencil

Things that hamper your writing: Necessary housework

Things you love about writing: Creating characters that become friends, settings that are life-like, and storylines that resonate with readers.

Things you hate about writing: Jumping through the hoops of publishing and marketing
Words that describe you: Loyal. Ethical. Questioning.

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Direct

Favorite music or song: All genres

Music that drives you crazy: Songs without a melody

Things you’d walk a mile for: A really good cup of coffee.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Fanaticism of any kind.

Things you always put in your books: Life lessons I want my children and grandchildren to know long after
I’m gone.

Things you never put in your books: Overt sex. Books can be sensual and deal with sex related issues in fascinating ways without being graphic.

Favorite places you’ve been: Just about anywhere in the US, Spain, Africa/Botswana, Europe, Bermuda
Places you never want to go to again: Africa/Namibia. Beautiful place, but we were there during protests against a corrupt government.

Favorite books (or genre): To Kill a Mockingbird
Books you wouldn’t buy: Fifty Shades of Gray

Things that make you happy: My family, all of them.
Things that drive you crazy:  Being told by anyone how I should feel and react.

Best thing you’ve ever done: Marrying my wonderful husband
Biggest mistake: Underestimating evil people.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: I spent a month in Peru at a deep Amazon research station and hiking the Inca trail to Machu Pichu.
Something you chickened out from doing: Skydiving.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: A reader compared my debut novel, The Wiregrass, to To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Sawyer, and Of Mice and Men.

The craziest thing a reader said to you: A PETA member took me to task that one of my characters put an out of control cat in a mailbox, even though the cat was fine.

About Pamela:

Pam Webber is author of the bestselling debut Southern novel, The Wiregrass, a Historical Novels Review
Editors’ Choice, and Read of the Month at Southern Literary Review. Her second novel, Moon Water, which was released in August garnered both of these honors as well. An invited panelist for Virginia Festival of the Book, Pam has also published extensively in nursing and is an award-winning educator and family nurse practitioner. She and her husband, Jeff, live in the Northern Shenandoah Valley.

Let’s Be Social:
Author website: https://pamwebber.com

Facebook: @authorpamwebber

Twitter: @pamwebber1

Instagram: @pbwebber1

BookBub: @pwebber1

YouTube: Pam Webber on YouTube

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Judy Snider

I’d like to welcome author Judy Snider to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Words that describe you: Loyal, kind, warm, funny....

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: interrupt others when chatting a little too much

Favorite foods:  Chocolate, crabcakes, donuts,...potato chips...wait, realized I did not put healthy things
I eat...lots, but ...

Things that make you want to gag: Tomatoes

Favorite music or song: All kinds depending on my mood, Motown, folk, Ed Sherin..... .....but favorite songs are
Remember When by Allen Jackson, and  the beautiful What More Can I Say a mother/son wedding dance song my husband and I had done with Pearl Snap studios (yes, no one wants us to sing..ha)

Music that drives you crazy: Punk...most of time....like Irish Punk for a holiday song...

Favorite beverage: Coffee

Something that gives you a sour face: Tomatoes

Favorite smell:  Smell of the ocean, smell of food in the oven on a cold day, and smell of the air after a
rain storm.

Something that makes you hold your nose: Too strong chemicals, scented candles,
etc.

Something you’re really good at: Walking into a room and enjoying chatting with anyone. I love to meet new people, see people I know, and just laugh with them.

Something you’re really bad at: Staying awake late.

Something you wish you could do: Get my books into tv/film....suspense, and get our children's book done by Hallmark

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: How to go about in a boot with a broken ankle....yikkes...

Last best thing you ate: lobster roll

Last thing you regret eating: too spicy a food....

The last thing you ordered online:  Shoes, baby item, and books

The last thing you regret buying: Shoes that didnt fit....

Things you’d walk a mile for: Good food.....family, friends....

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Certain smells, Pouporri, strong chemicals, perfume too strong, etc...

Things you always put in your books:  CATS, Suspense, and Strong Women
Things you never put in your books: Too much violence/blood, or gore.

Favorite places you’ve been:  Mackinaw Island, Michigan, Budapest, New Orleans, Quebec City....lots more too....love traveling....

Places you never want to go to again: Haven't found one like I feel strongly about avoiding, but too crowded cities....

Favorite books (or genre): An Angel Like Me, a wonderful holiday picture book, but I
read suspense and thrillers books. I also now get paperbacks as I like a
"book in hand".

Favorite things to do: Spend time with family and friends, travel, eat, write, watch
shows, and spend time with my cat.

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

Things that make you happy: Being with family and friends

Things that drive you crazy: When I can't figure out something on the computer

Best thing you’ve ever done: Having two terrific kids (now grown) with my husband.
Biggest mistake: Made many in life, but no biggest....learned from them.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: I love that your books are not too long...suspenseful, but easy quick read

The craziest thing a reader said to you:  Add more murders.....not crazy, but interesting....

Let’s Be Social

Website:    www.judysnider.com    
Instagram: judyksnider_author

#ThisofThatThursday Author Interview with Anne Moss Rogers

I’d like to welcome author, Anne Moss Rogers to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday.

Things you need for your writing sessions: Quiet, uninterrupted space although I have written in chaotic situations

Things that hamper your writing: Distractions. So I put my computer on “do not disturb.” Best feature ever.

Things you love about writing: The page never taunts me, spits at me, or chastises me for writing how I feel.

Things you hate about writing: Interruptions that take me out of the moment

Hardest thing about being a writer: The time spent sitting alone 

Easiest thing about being a writer: Accessibility to our job and how mobile it is. There is always need for writers and writing

Things you never want to run out of: Toilet paper

Things you wish you’d never bought: A Disney timeshare

Words that describe you: Passionate, emotionally naked, bold, persistent.

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Overbooked, tireless.

Favorite smell: Fresh cedar and coffee (although I don’t drink coffee)
Something that makes you hold your nose: Skunk. Worst smell ever

Something you’re really good at: Creative problem solving and ideas
Something you’re really bad at: The financial side of things (although I’m working on that)

Something you wish you could do: Perform on a trapeze. I love how they fly through the air flipping

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: I love learning, so I can’t fathom that anything I would learn wouldn’t have value of some kind. Even things I detest doing.

Favorite places you’ve been: Vienna. We had an unforgettable dinner in a palace with the best table of people I’ve ever sat with in my life.
Places you never want to go to again: Anywhere but an ocean cruise

Favorite books (or genre): I read from almost all genres. Bonfire of the Vanities and Man’s Search for
Meaning are two of my faves.
Books you wouldn’t buy: Anything Sci Fi

Favorite things to do: Public Speaking, getting together w/ friends/family, learning new things
Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing:Taxes (But I do them)

Best thing you’ve ever done: Starting my blog Emotionally Naked, and deciding to go public with my story and the topic of suicide.
Biggest mistake: Making a financial decision when I was stressed that turned out to be an elaborate scam.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Fought a man who attacked me at knifepoint for the purpose of rape and murder.

Something you chickened out from doing: I was sitting with some girls in a gym. They asked me to sit with them on the bleachers and I did, excited to be included since I was new. Someone I had been friends with at the new school walked in and all the girls sat there making fun of her eyebrows which she had overplucked. And there I sat shocked because they had planned this and wanted me sitting there to further her humiliation. My regret is that my shock and desire to be accepted prevented me from standing up for her. I’ve never ever been cruel but my lack of action here has been a regret.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: “I lost my own son to suicide 15 years ago, and although I have read so many books about this kind of loss, nothing has touched me as deeply as this.”

The craziest thing a reader said to you: “difficult to consider the pain for this family.” (I can’t figure out what it means but if that’s the worst review, then I’m lucky)

About Anne

Anne Moss Rogers is an emotionally naked® TEDx storyteller, the 2019 YWCA Pat Asch Fellow for social justice, and author of the book, Diary of a Broken Mind. Despite her family’s best efforts, Anne Moss’ 20-year-old son Charles died by suicide June 5, 2015 after many years of struggle with anxiety, depression, and
ultimately addiction.

Anne Moss chronicled her family’s tragedy in a newspaper article that went viral and her blog, Emotionally Naked, has been read over a million times.  After receiving a message from a young lady who wrote that one of her blog posts saved her life, she sold her digital marketing business and followed her purpose of preventing suicide, and helping people find life after loss.  

She has been interviewed by the New York Times and was the only non-clinician ever invited to speak
at the National Institute of Mental Health.

Originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BA in Journalism, she currently lives in Richmond, VA with her husband. Her surviving son, Richard,
works in LA as a editor and filmmaker.

Social Media Links

Website

IG: https://www.instagram.com/annemossrogers/

TW: https://twitter.com/AnneMossRogers

FB: https://facebook.com/EmotionallyNaked

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/digitalmarketingexpertise/

Free ebook downloads: https://annemoss.com/resources-2/free-ebooks/

Resource pages: https://annemoss.com/resources-2/

Book Links
Please buy from a local bookstore when you can. Available in ebook and soon audio book.

https://annemoss.com/diaryofabrokenmind/

Fountain Book Store: https://bit.ly/diarybrokenmind

Beach Glass Books: http://www.beachglassbooks.com/books/diaryofabrokenmind

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/diary-of-a-broken-mind-anne-moss-rogers/1133614432?

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2pw5id8