#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Christina Romeril

I’m so excited to welcome the fabulous Christina Romeril to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things:

I like chocolate, mysteries in books and on TV, hiking in the mountains, hot, sunny climates, pretty notebooks, colorful highlighters and pens.

Things you need to throw out:

I have so many shoes, some of them hurt my feet, but I just can’t bear to part with them. I have lots of T-shirts I don’t wear, but I tell myself I will someday. My husband could probably add lots to this list, but you never know when you might need something again.

Things you need for your writing sessions:

My writing sessions always include something cold to drink when it’s hot and something hot when it’s cold. My top picks are an ice cold Coke and hot chocolate. My other essentials are my computer, a notebook, pens, legal pad, chocolate, and quiet.

Things that hamper your writing:

I always feel like I should get everything off my to do list before I settle down to write. I’m easily distracted by social media scrolling, answering messages that come in, and too much noise (I never have music playing while I write).

Things you love about writing:

I love making up stories. I love to dream up characters, their quirks, backstories, motivations, and then build a plot around them. I also love revising once the first draft is finished.

Things you hate about writing:

Writing the first draft is my least favorite part of writing. Getting all the ideas onto paper is just hard. The thing I hate MOST is writing a synopsis.

Things you never want to run out of:

Chocolate, Coke, Non-alcoholic beer.

Things you wish you’d never bought:

Scrapbooking supplies. It makes me feel guilty when I see them, because I haven’t done it in years.

Words that describe you: Determined, kind, creative, happy.

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Stubborn, impatient, critical, impulsive.

Favorite foods:

I love food. It would be much easier to list what I don’t like. Depending on my mood, I love pizza, steak, fried chicken, pasta, hamburgers, poke bowls, sushi, hot dogs, soups, salads, tacos…you see what I mean.

Things that make you want to gag:

Blood pudding, seriously, my family is European, and it was always in our fridge when I was growing up.

Something you’re really good at: Cooking, but I don’t enjoy doing it all the time. Decorating, I’m pretty sure I’ve spent about a thousand hours watching decorating shows and studying décor magazines and books.

Something you’re really bad at:

Making pie crust. I have been shown by experts, and yet I still can’t make a decent pie crust. I also struggle with basic cookies such as sugar cookies, chocolate chip etc.

The last thing you ordered online:

Highlighter set, specifically the Zebra 5 count Mildliner Creative Marker Double Ended Fluorescent set.

The last thing you regret buying:

White shorts. I’m always afraid to wear them because I’ll get them dirty. Case in point, I had them with me for a month in Mexico and didn’t wear them once.

Favorite books (or genre):

Mysteries and thrillers are my happy place, but I used to read a lot of romance, but only occasionally, now.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Fantasy. The exception is Harry Potter, and maybe the Divergent series. I’m also not a huge fan of books that are labelled as women’s fiction. I’m all about solving a murder or saving the world when I read.

People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): Top of my list is Melissa McCarthy, I think she would be a riot. I’m an introvert, so the list is short.

People you’d cancel dinner on: This would be a long list, but I’ll limit it to Vince Vaughn, he kind of annoys me, and Brad Pitt, there’s just something about him that turns me off. I’m sure both men are perfectly nice, but I’m not going to dinner with them.

Favorite things to do:

Hiking, exercising, eating.

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

Play team sports, really.

Things that make you happy:

Spending time with my family. Being in the mountains.

Things that drive you crazy:

Spending time with my family. People who don’t put the grocery cart in the cart return in a parking lot.

About Christina:

Christina Romeril is the author of A CHRISTMAS CANDY KILLING, her debut novel and the first in the Killer Chocolate Mysteries. The series is set in Montana at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, one of her favorite places to visit. She and her husband live a few hours away in a small village in Southern Alberta. When Christina isn't writing, she loves to hike in Waterton Lakes National Park, or just hang out there eating gourmet hot dogs and ice cream. When the former banker isn't out enjoying nature, she loves to create and consume chocolate confections. Not necessarily in that order.

Let’s Be Social:

You can find me on Facebook and Instagram @ChristinaRomerilWriter as well as at www.christinaromeril.com.