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Computers and software are unreliable! (ask me how I know…) When you’re not reading or writing, what are you doing? If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be? I do think it’s taken time to find the right readers for my brand of comedic novels so many of the reviews I don’t necessarily agree with are a mismatch of reader and content I provide. I did read them until my last two books, and now I’m blissfully unaware. Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

One permanently shelved, and one I am trying to resurrect because I think the market might want “dramedy” now. When I’m stuck it’s exhausting, but when I have an AHA moment, it’s very exciting! How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? I’ve learned how to be untethered to my desk over the last couple of years, so when I’m on the go, I write in the car during swim lessons and edit on a couch during my daughter’s guitar instruction. Does this count? Where do you get most of your writing and editing done? I wrote about my first literary unlocking of my brain in high school, my first byline in Southern Living.

What literary pilgrimages have you gone on? I learned in middle school and high school that having quick comebacks could help get me out of potential bullying situations, so I sharpened my humor and wit, and used language as a tool as early as fifth grade. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

Download portrait of a thief by grace d li