#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Karen Dustman/Abby Rice
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I’d like to welcome Karen Dustman/Abby Rice to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!
Hardest thing about being a writer: Knowing when to stop obsessing over a draft!
Easiest thing about being a writer: Coming up with great ideas. (Which triggers another “hardest” thing: coming up with TOO many great ideas and getting sidetracked!)
Things you need for your writing sessions: Mornings. It’s a whole lot harder for me to write after the clock hits noon!
Things that hamper your writing: A wonderful husband who thinks nothing of poking his head in my office with random questions. (Love him so much!)
Words that describe you: Creative. Prolific. Imaginative. Loving.
Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Perfectionist.
Something you’re really good at: Math.
Something you’re really bad at: Concealing what I really think (it shows on my face!)
Last best thing you ate: Sesame-crusted tofu.
Last thing you regret eating: Cold, soggy, leftover eggplant parmesan (it was so good fresh! Sigh.)
Favorite music or song: Country-Western (the sweet and upbeat, non-twangy kind).
Music that drives you crazy: Yanni (which, of course, my husband loves).
Things you’d walk a mile for: Friends, family, and parrots in need of rescue
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: The dreaded green bean casserole
Things you always put in your books: A dash of humor
Things you never put in your books: Graphic, gratuitous violence
Things to say to an author: “I can’t wait to read your next book! Please, keep writing!”
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “You’ve got a great career ahead of you -- in food service.”
Favorite places you’ve been: St. Pete, Tampa, Key West, and Miami. (Okay, pretty much anywhere in Florida!)
Places you never want to go to again: Sorry, Los Angeles, you’re firmly in my rearview mirror!
Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Crewing on a square-rigged sailing ship for nine months.
Something you chickened out from doing: Climbing the mast during a giant storm to reef in the sails. (Nope, nope, nope. . . thankfully a sailing buddy did that part!)
Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: Stone Cold opens with a young woman searching for her biological father, after discovering her dad wasn’t her “real” father. Thanks to affordable DNA testing, that sort of discovery really does happen more and more in real life, and the “how it all happened” backstory is based on the true story of someone I knew.
Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: Unlike Zoe in my van-life books, I don’t have a magical sixth-sense to tell me when people are lying (though I sure wish I did!)
About Karen/Abby:
Karen Dustman is the author of over 25 books ranging from non-fiction history to captivating Southern mysteries. With multiple careers as a former criminal prosecutor, full-time freelance writer, and hands-on homebuilder, Karen swears by the joy of not always taking the straight-and-narrow path.
Let’s Be Social:
Karen’s latest books (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Spring-Southern-Thriller-Van-Life-ebook/dp/B0DBFSDFNW/
https://www.amazon.com/Miamis-Great-Hurricane-September-1926-ebook/dp/B0F398CFDB
Websites: www.Clairitage.com (“Claire” + heritage),
Facebook Author Page: www.facebook.com/KarenDustmanAuthor
Facebook fiction (Abby) Page: www.facebook.com/AbbyRiceAuthor
X (Twitter): @KDustmanAuthor
Instagram: @AbbyRiceAuthor
Bookbub: @AbbyRice
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/abby_rice
