I’d like to welcome author Elizabeth Crowens back to the blog for #WriterWednesday!
Favorite thing to do when you have free time: Watch movies, but I rarely have free time. After all, my minor in college was film studies, and I worked in one way or another in the entertainment industry for years. Now, I write about movies.
The thing you’ll always move to the bottom of your to do list: Bookkeeping and doctors’ appointments.
Things you need when you’re in your writing cave: Plenty of coffee and peace and quiet with no distractions. That’s why I like to write in the middle of the night when I know my phone won’t ring.
Things that distract you from writing: New York Street noise such as garbage trucks and jack hammers…and phone calls. Also having to break up my routine to go to doctors’ appointments.
Things you will run to the store for at midnight: Coca-Cola and Haagen Dazs. When I mix the two together the fizz settles my stomach. I’d have to have a bad upset stomach to warrant venturing out at midnight for this, but it’s been known to happen. Usually, I try to try to keep the separate components on hand.
Things you never put on your shopping list: Potato chips, dips, and pretzels. I trained myself to avoid them after eating way too many of them as a kid. Gimmicky snacks and appetizers. Sugary breakfast cereals. Can’t believe my mom let me eat all that junk when I was little.
The coolest thing you’ve bought online: A 1940’s taupe wool gabardine double-breasted men’s gangster suit in mint condition for a ridiculously low price considering it’s condition and it was a full suit and not just a jacket. The jackets alone are easier to find.
The thing you wished you’d never bought: Also from the 1940s, a maroon wool gabardine men’s Hollywood jacket. It smelled of body odor and cigars. My miracle dry cleaner tried everything to get the smell out and it wouldn’t go away. Finally, we dry cleaned it so many times that it started to fall apart.
Favorite snacks: Extra crunchy Cheetos, Oreos covered with white or dark chocolate (tend to find those around the Christmas holidays), dried fruit, plantain chips.
Things that make you want to gag: Foods with too much vinegar. I must be careful with pickles, and I love dill pickles. I’m allergic to it but am okay if it’s very light.
Something you’re really good at: Photography. I made a career of it.
Something you’re really bad at: Construction or putting together Ikea furniture, which is somewhat related to construction. I’m the kind of person that if there’s a way to put it together upside down and backwards, no matter how strictly I follow the instructions, that’s what’ll happen. After enough mishaps, unless I can find a friend to help me, I have no choice but to hire someone to do it for me.
Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: A fashion designer. I’ve become an expert in the history of costume, fashion, and textile design and understand the theory behind patternmaking, but something goes very wrong the minute I sit behind a sewing machine. (See the question about construction and assembling Ikea furniture—LOL.)
Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: Own a vintage clothing, textile, and antiques business and sell the clothing items to famous fashion and costume designers in film, theater, and television. I also worked as a CAD textile, apparel, and home fashions designer.
Things to say to an author: Not only did I give you a five-star review on Amazon and Goodreads, but I convinced my local library to stock in and convinced all twenty-five members of our book club to read and review your book next.
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: If you promise me something I’ve been counting on big time and BETRAY me, you will be on my permanent s#*t list.
Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Accepted a job teaching English in Japan when I had never been outside of the country before.
Something you chickened out from doing: Jumping off a high diving board at a public pool.
The most exciting thing about your writing life: Getting somebody famous in Hollywood or a New York Times bestselling author to agree to blurb my book. That, and getting nominated for an Agatha Award at Malice Domestic.
The one thing you wish you could do over in your writing life: To have been more patient and not gone with my first publisher for my very first novel, which was a science fiction novel. In retrospect, I should’ve asked around and gotten feedback from others I knew and trusted about them. They were a huge disappointment. Not only did they do nothing to help me promote my book, but they were a London-based publisher and didn’t have a “returns” policy in the U.S. This meant that most bookstores refused to stock any books by their authors. Unfortunately, I was learning the industry by the seat of my pants and had no idea what a returns policy was at the time.
Recommendations for curing writer’s block: Shift gears by reading a lot of books, often those not related to my research since I write historical mysteries, or by watching a lot of movies. After a while, I’ll become saturated and get back into writing.
Things you do to avoid writing: Not read enough and spend too much time on the internet or do housework. However, housework will help me stretch my muscles from being at my computer too long. Sometimes it’s a necessary evil.
