#ThisorThatFriday with Paula Charles
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I’d like to welcome the amazing Paula Charles to the blog today for #ThisorThatFriday.
Favorite thing to do when you have free time: Read, walk on the beach, and spend time with our kids and grandkids.
The thing you’ll always move to the bottom of your to do list: It’s got to be dusting, or some other form of housework. I mean, I do them, but I don’t necessarily want to!
Things you need when you’re in your writing cave: I need water, quiet, and a few decent ideas!
Things that distract you from writing: Noise! I get so distracted when there are things going on inside my house or on the street outside my window. Sometimes they do provide good story fodder, though!
Hardest thing about being a writer: It’s so exciting to launch a new book out into the world, but super nerve-wracking at the same time. You worry about readers not liking it and not connecting with the characters.
Easiest thing about being a writer: Getting new ideas for future books. The ideas come easy, though getting them down on paper proves to be tricky at times!
Things you will run to the store for at midnight: Ice cream, M&Ms, and tater tots
Things you never put on your shopping list: Cinnamon. (I’m highly allergic to it!)
The coolest thing you’ve bought online: A Thermacell rechargeable mosquito repeller. The mosquitos have been next level this year, but brining this little guy with us allows us to sit outside without getting eaten alive!
The thing you wished you’d never bought: I bought a pair of shoes online a couple of years ago that were supposed to be made by Earth shoes. It took them MONTHS to arrive, they definitely weren’t real Earth brand shoes, and smelled so terribly of chemicals that I dumped them in the trash about five minutes after I opened the package.
Favorite snacks: There’s a food truck that makes the best Spring Rolls with lemongrass chicken. So delicious!
Things that make you want to gag: Blue Cheese salad dressing. Just eww.
Something you wish you could do: Sing. I love music but am a terrible singer, to the point where my high school choir teacher strongly suggested I find a different elective class to take.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: I honestly can’t think of anything. Even skills you don’t like to necessarily use are better to have than no skills at all!
Things to say to an author: I just started reading your book and can’t put it down!
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I have a way better idea for a book than anything you’ve written so far. (Usually said by a non-reader.)
Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Years ago, packing up my three kids-7, 4, and 2 – and relocating as a single mom from California to Wyoming.
Something you chickened out from doing: Jumping off a cliff into the river during our white-water rafting days.
The most exciting thing about your writing life: There’s so much to love about this life, but one of the most exciting things is meeting readers and talking books!
Best piece of advice you received from another writer: Writing is a long game. Keep going and keep showing up for in-person events. (Said by Ellen Byron.)
Something you would tell a younger you about your writing: You can do this. You’re doing a better job than you think you are. Keep going.
About Paula:
When Paula Charles isn’t writing, you can find her reading and baking in her 125-year-old house by the sea. She is the author of the Hometown Hardware Mysteries, as well as the Zen Goat Mysteries written as Janna Rollins, both cozy mysteries. She’s a member of Sisters in Crime, and a founding member of the Murder, They Write group on Facebook. She has six grown children, and a gaggle of grandkids. Paula lives on the Washington coast with her extremely patient husband, and maybe a ghost or two.
Let’s Be Social:
Website: Cozy Mystery Writer | Paula Charles Cozy Mystery Author
Facebook: Paula Charles Books
Murder, They Write FB Group: Murder, They Write
Instagram: Paula Charles Books
