#WriterWednesday Interview with Author Liz Boeger
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I’d like to welcome Liz Boeger to the blog for #WriterWednesday!
A few of your favorite things:
My new all-in-one mom cave houses my teach-from-home office, writing nook, and quilting corner.
Things you need to throw out:
Nothing. No, don’t look in the garage or my office closet. What do you mean, “What am I going to do with all of that fabric?”
Things you need for your writing sessions:
My computer and sticky note paper for scritch-scratched thoughts. A window, preferably looking into my garden. Quiet, I prefer morning sunshine, coffee-hot, half & half, no sugar. Life’s too short for cold coffee and skim milk. After lunch I swap out to Diet Mountain Dew.
Things that hamper your writing:
Social Media distractions and television. I’m still trying to rein in the web-surfing. I have a TV wall mount in my new office, but I covered it up with a shelf-no time for TV. Besides, you can watch reruns of the Gilmore Girls only so many times, right?
Things you love about writing:
Those moments when I’m pounding out a scene, only to find that my characters have a plot point or two to insert that I was not expecting. Oh, and I love my characters like family.
Things you hate about writing:
Scavenging for my many typos. It’s a little embarrassing to have red-pen-worthy grammar and punctuations issues in a book written by a teacher.
Words that describe you:
Skeptical Optimist
Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t:
Bossy—sorry, it’s an occupational hazard.
Favorite smell:
Citrus-lemons-oranges-grapefruit-kumquats—all of it!
Something that makes you hold your nose:
Fish cooking in the oven or on the stove. I don’t mind it on the grill (outside.)
Something you’re really good at:
I have a talent for making lists and crossing things off my lists. Sometimes I add things I already did to the list, just so I have one more thing to cross off. It is a trait I’ve forced on my main character.
Something you’re really bad at:
Ugh, this whole tooting your own horn and book promotion business. That’s why I’m so grateful to the writing community for taking some of the sting out of it by being so supportive.
Last best thing you ate:
My sister’s secret recipe ginger snaps are the purest form of deliciousness I’ve ever tasted.
Last thing you regret eating:
Way too many of my sister’s secret recipe ginger snaps…No, wait. No regrets there. Keep ‘em coming, Sis!
Things you always put in your books:
My pets and my favorite Florida scenery.
Things you never put in your books:
Real people I know or events that are too disturbing. I’ve seen a lot as an educator that is just too heartbreaking to put into a cozy or traditional mystery. Yes, I write about murder, but I keep the violence mostly off page and try to balance it with kind and quirky people you care about and want to root for.
Things to say to an author:
“You’ve got some writing chops! I’ve read all your books.”
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book:
“You’ve got some writing cops, babe!” (or darlin’, or sweet cheeks, or a similarly endearing and wholly inappropriate moniker.)
Favorite places you’ve been:
The beach (any beach), my grandparents’ farm, Crystal Springs Preserve.
Places you never want to go to again:
Jammed in the crowd under the stadium at the Strawberry Festival waiting for the gates to open when the crowd behind you thinks they already have. Yeah, no way.
Things that make you happy:
Riding my recumbent tadpole trike on a sunny morning—gardening—quilting—talking with people who loved reading my books and who want to know more about the education world and the Florida setting described in the series.
Things that drive you crazy:
My poor organizational skills and my personal battle against holding onto “stuff” longer than necessary. See #1 above.
The nicest thing a reader said to you:
They thought my main character was a hoot and someone they’d want to hang out with.
The craziest thing a reader said to you:
Since my book is being released on August 30th, it’s too soon to answer this one. I’ll have to get back to you. 😊
About Liz:
Liz Boeger’s stint as a swimsuit model peaked in kindergarten. Her fallback career as a mystery author didn’t surface until she hit the mid-century mark. In between, she wrangled children, adults, and the occasional Florida panther as a teacher and school administrator. And that encounter with the U.S. Secret Service may show up in a plot someday.
Her multi-award nominated mystery series is inspired by her childhood nearby Rattlesnake, Florida. If you love your mysteries with a cozy edge, some Southern snark, and quirky characters you’d love to hang out with, this series is for you. Member of Sisters in Crime, SinC Guppies, and Florida Writers Association.
She’s a graduate of Tampa’s Robinson High School, The University of Tampa, and Saint Leo University. Her hobbies, other than plotting murder, include gardening, quilting, and cheering all things great about her hometown, Tampa!
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