#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Smita Harish Jain
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I’d like to welcome my fellow Virginia is for Mysteries author, Smita Harish Jain, to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!
A few of your favorite things: My kids, my cats, chocolate
Things you need to throw out: Essays I wrote in junior high school
Things you need for your writing sessions: One cup of coffee, two cats, complete quiet
Things that hamper your writing: The Internet, the Internet, the Internet
Things you love about writing: Telling stories, research, connecting with readers
Things you hate about writing: Deadlines, imposter syndrome, rejection
Favorite beverage: “Toddler coffee” (one cup of half-caff mixed with one cup of chocolate milk)
Something that gives you a sour face: Brussel sprouts
Last best thing you ate: A triple-layer chocolate fudge cake.
Last thing you regret eating: A grape, dark chocolate, and almond bar that sounded better than it tasted.
The last thing you ordered online: An Apple Pencil – now I can handwrite drafts more easily, which I sometimes like to do.
The last thing you regret buying: Yet another purse I’ll never use.
Things you always put in your stories: A twist.
Things you never put in your stories: Deus ex machina.
Things to say to an author: I love everything you write!
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I could write, too, if I didn’t have a partner/kids/job/life …
Favorite books (or genre): Crime fiction (mystery, thriller, suspense)
Books you wouldn’t buy: Advice books from people who haven’t reached a certain age.
Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Spelunking
Something you chickened out from doing: Skydiving
About Smita:
Smita Harish Jain has short stories in several anthologies and magazines, including Mystery Writers of America, Akashic Noir, Chesapeake Crimes, Virginia is for Mysteries, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and several more coming out in 2022. When she’s not writing, she’s a university professor of communications and negotiation. She is a member of the Chesapeake and Central Virginia chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Guppies, Crime Writers of Color, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society.
