#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with J. P. McLean

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I’d like to welcome author J. P. McLean to the blog this week for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things:

My husband, the smoky scent of a campfire, family photographs, red wine, and the sound of grown women giggling.

Things you need to throw out:

Insecurity, perfectionism, and what other people think of me.

Things you need for your writing sessions:

Not much: a coffee, a laptop, and at least one hour (I don’t write well in shorter spurts).

Things that hamper your writing:

Lyrics in music because they distract me. Nor can I write with a telephone ringing in the background, or people talking. When that happens, I get up and make another cup of coffee.

Things you love about writing:

Creating dialogue, especially when my characters are having an argument. I love that I have the time to come up with the perfect retort (which rarely happens in my real life).

Things you hate about writing:

Feeling like a dunce when the edits come in.

Things you never want to run out of:

Pepperidge Goldfish Crackers

Things you wish you’d never bought:

Pepperidge Goldfish Crackers

Favorite foods:

All the pasta.

Things that make you want to gag:

Liver, tongue, heart, kidney—pretty much all organ meat.

Something you’re really good at:

Organizing: closets, filing cabinets, bookshelves, photos, you name it.

Something you’re really bad at:

Cold calls to sell my books.

Something you wish you could do:

Speak another language.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do:

Housework.

Things to say to an author:

I loved your book; where can I post my review?

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

If I had nothing to do, I’d write a book, too.

Things that make you happy:

Puppies (such fond memories), Fridays (even though I haven’t had a day job for years), finding a twenty-dollar bill in a coat pocket from last season (yes!), and going out for dinner (something I’ve dearly missed during COVID).

Things that drive you crazy:

When you get stuck behind a car that is driving WAY under the speed limit. Or when you get all the way home only to find the store’s non-removable tag still attached to the new jeans you bought for tonight’s party.

Most embarrassing moment:

Almost scoring for the other team when playing grade-school basketball. The nets changed ends at halftime, and I was exhausted—forgot we’d changed ends. I made a break for it—I honestly thought all the shouting was me being cheered on. Sadly, they were yelling at me to stop. If I hadn’t been such a lousy shot, I would have made the basket and scored two points for our opponents.

Proudest moment:

When I overheard my mom and dad tell a stranger that their daughter was an author.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done:

Scuba diving

Something you chickened out from doing:

Skydiving

About J. P.:

JP (Jo-Anne) McLean writes urban fantasy and supernatural thrillers. She is best known for her Gift Legacy series, which reviewers call addictive, smart, and fun. Her work has won honourable mentions from the Whistler Independent Book Awards and the Victoria Writers’ Society. JP is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business and makes her home on Denman Island, which is nestled between Vancouver Island and British Columbia on Canada’s west coast.

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