I’d like to welcome Lori Duffy Foster to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Things you need for your writing sessions:

I need either peace and quiet or the din of a noisy café.

Things that hamper your writing:

I can’t write with music or when I am worried about the kids and what they are up to. The two oldest are in college now, but I need to know my twins are engaged in something when I am writing even though they are teenagers now. A bit of mommy guilt there.

Favorite foods:

I love rice (Jasmine, especially), dark chocolate and coffee (That’s a food, right?).

Things that make you want to gag:

I can’t stand seafood, eggplant or milk by itself. I have always wanted to like all three, but nope. Not happening.

Favorite beverage:

It’s a toss-up between coffee, unsweetened iced tea and dry, red wine. It depends on the day and the time of day. I love water, too, especially our well water.

Something that gives you a sour face:

Whiskey.

Favorite smell:

That’s easy. My favorite smells are in the Adirondacks of New York State, where I grew up: the scent of decaying leaves mixed with pine needles on the forest floor; the fishy odor of white foam in the Saranac River; the fragrance of balsam needles, picked fresh and stuffed into a small, handsewn sack.

Something that makes you hold your nose:

As a teenager, I waitressed at a former Howard Johnson’s Restaurant in Lake Placid, N.Y, where the cooks made fresh croutons daily. I don’t know what spice they used on that bread, but I couldn’t be near the kitchen when the croutons were cooking. Everyone else loved it. I’m gagging thinking about it.

Something you’re really good at:

Boggle.

Something you’re really bad at:

I am terrible at Mario Kart and pretty much every other video game.

Something you wish you could do:

I wish I could sing well, or at least sing “Happy Birthday” on key.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do:

Calculus. Why did I bother?

The last thing you ordered online:

I ordered bubble envelopes for mailing books to readers, green t-shirts for my giant twin boys to wear to school on St. Patrick’s Day, and a new candy thermometer for making maple syrup.

The last thing you regret buying:

I bought paper filters for maple syrup without reading the product details. I thought they were the quart-size filters I bought last year. They were smaller than coffee filters and totally useless. Anybody need tiny paper filters?

Things to say to an author:

I couldn’t put your book down. I recommended your book to my friends. I left a five-star review on every platform. My best friend is a super-rich movie producer and she wants to by the film right to all your books.

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

There is a typo on page 153 of your already-published book.

Favorite books (or genre):

I love any book that rises above genre. Some of my favorites are A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, Defending Jacob by William Landay, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford and anything by Anita Shreve or Margaret Atwood.

Books you wouldn’t buy:

I wouldn’t buy books marketed as romance or westerns. I am sure there are plenty I would like, but I am not attracted to them as genres.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done:

I interviewed a murder suspect in his home, alone, without telling anyone where I was going. During the interview, he said something that convinced me he was guilty. I would have been more freaked out if I had known his girlfriend was buried in the backyard.

Something you chickened out from doing:

My editor once asked me to spend a few days at the county morgue, following the medical examiner around for a profile. Did you know the body bags are sometimes filled with maggots? Nope. I didn’t mind the fresh bodies on the scene of a crime or accident, but I was a coward when it came to bodies that had been dead for days, weeks or months before they came to the morgue.

About Lori:

Lori Duffy Foster is a former crime reporter who writes and lives in the hills of Northern Pennsylvania. She is author of A Dead Man’s Eyes, the first in the Lisa Jamison Mysteries Series and an Agatha Award nominee. Never Broken is book 2 in the series. Look for her debut thriller, Never Let Go, in December of 2022. Her short fiction has appeared in the journal Aethlon, and in the anthologies Short Story America and Childhood Regained. Her nonfiction has appeared in Healthy Living, Running Times, Literary Mama, Crimespree and Mountain Home magazines. Lori is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, The Historical Novel Society, International Thriller Writers and Pennwriters. She also sits on the board of the Knoxville (PA) Public Library.

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