I’d like to welcome the fabulous Kerry Peresta to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite spring traditions:

I love to spruce up my yard! I get spring fever in early March, and of course the nurseries have NO flowering bushes or my beloved impatiens at that time. So I end up buying Boston ferns, which the wrens promptly destroy by nesting in them. I might as well wait until the end of April to start anything! My love of birds trumps my love of flowers, and birds are in all my books. Don’t you just love their personalities? I look forward to tons of baby birds each year. I have six feeders in my backyard, one right outside my office window!

Something spring-related that you’ll never do again:

St. Patty’s Day parade. Celebrating amongst a crowd of green-hued booze enthusiasts while watching showers of green-costumed leprechauns and four-leaf-clovers waltz by is just not my idea of a fun spring outing! Plus, I’m not Irish. So. However, I DID research St. Patrick in honor of this question and found that he was an amazing guy.

Favorite spring smell:

I live in the Lowcountry on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, and our Confederate Jasmine is all over the place in the spring. It smells delicious! Even better than honeysuckle. Olivia Callahan, the protagonist in my books, loves flowers and delicious smells. Some of the smells, however, trigger memories of the trauma that landed her in the ER as a Jane Doe!

Something that makes you hold your nose:

When the wild onions start sprouting, the smell is overwhelming to me. I have trouble with the smells of onion, garlic, and fish. Oh, of course, smoke and mildew. In my new release, The Torching, I had to dig deep into fire residue and firefighter and remediation companies’ responsibilities. The smell of mildew and commingled smoke is one of the first things they tackle. It permeates everything. In my new release, when fire consumes Olivia Callahan’s life, she discovers that fire investigators are invaluable, especially when this one becomes an inside source.

Funniest spring story:

In the spring, I get all fired up and stalk the perimeter of my yard, carefully scrutinizing the ramshackle landscaping in hopes of hiring someone that knows how to manicure trees and bushes. I always look for the best price. One year we hired a friend who did odd jobs on the side. I asked my husband to supervise. He didn’t. When I looked out the window, our friend was hanging upside down, wielding a chain saw and trying his best to lop off a branch the size of Godzilla’s thigh. Talk about freaked out. I thought he was going to die that day, with the obvious caveat of a huge lawsuit. From that point on, I never hired anyone NOT insured or bonded.

Something embarrassing that happened during the spring:

The zeal that rips through me as spring approaches is troubling. I join clubs. Promise to exercise more. Take on leadership roles. It’s embarrassing when I end up backing out because spring fever had imbued me with a fake sense of empowerment. I’m trying to learn ‘moderation in all things’.

Things you never want to run out of:

Half-and-Half and coffee. Zevia cream soda. Peanut butter. Zebra fine-point pens.

Things you wish you’d never bought:

Food prepping for the collapse of America or a food shortage during the pandemic. That stuff is still out in my garage, gathering dust.

Favorite music or song:

Classic jazz greats, or current jazz. Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Etta James, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis.

Music that drives you crazy:

80s and 90s rock. Metal. Hip Hop. The ridiculous ‘Y-M-C-A’ song. When will that song finally die?

Something you’re really good at:

Playing the piano. Workouts. Spending money at Ulta.

Something you’re really bad at:

Karaoke. Golf. Cooking. Spreadsheets. Outlines.

The last thing you ordered online:

A sample package of Viktor Rolf ‘Flower Bomb’ perfumes. Which makes NO sense because I don’t go out that much, and my husband has zero sense of smell. Update on this answer: The Flower Bomb was a smashing success. My husband actually said “You smell good.” This never happens. I either had too much perfume on, or he really liked it. I choose the latter.

The last thing you regret buying:

Cute, tiny, white ‘Mickey Mouse’ hands that stick on the wall and hold things. I thought I’d slip necklaces on them, or a pen I’m not using…and it would look so adorable holding these things in the little, white fist. All of them fell off the wall in about ten seconds. Every. Single. One.

Best thing you’ve ever done:

Become a writer. When a scene comes together, it feels like I’m flying. When a plot point falls in my lap…it’s manna from heaven. After a hundred or so editing rounds (you think I’m kidding), and the manuscript is off to the editor all tight and formatted and shiny as a new penny…the sense of accomplishment is indescribable.

Biggest mistake:

Become a writer.

It sucks the zest for life right out of me. I put it all on the page. Before I can even blink, the day is over. Whatever happened to the concept of retirement? My husband wants to know.

About Kerry:

AUTHOR BIO: Kerry’s publishing credits include a popular newspaper and e-zine humor column, “The Lighter Side,” (2009—2011); and her debut novel, The Hunting, women’s fiction/suspense, Pen-L Publishing, 2013. Her magazine articles have been published in Local Life Magazine, The Bluffton Breeze, Lady Lowcountry, and Island Events Magazine. She is the author of the Olivia Callahan Suspense series, and recently released The Torching, book three; Level Best Books. Her new standalone suspense novel, Back Before Dawn, releases in May, 2023. Before starting to write full time, she spent twenty-five years in advertising as an account manager, creative director, editor, and copywriter. She is past chapter president of the Maryland Writers’ Association and a current member and presenter of Hilton Head Island Writers’ Network, SCWA, Pat Conroy Literary Center, International Thriller Writers, and the Sisters in Crime organization. Kerry is the mother of four adult children, and Gigi to a flock of grandkids. She and her husband moved to Hilton Head Island in 2015. For more information, go to https://www.kerryperesta.net.