Clicking Our Heels

Some of Our Favorite Things

Welcome to 2026. This year, the gang wants to give you more insight into all of us. That’s why our theme each month will address something personal or share some of our favorite things. This month, the topic is what would surprise you, our readers, most about each of us.

T.K. Thorne: I am a short, grey-headed, sweet old lady, and I get a chuckle out of the typical disbelieving reaction when people learn I was a police captain.

Saralyn Richard: I’m super organized when it comes to my house, my closet, and my former work as a school administrator and consultant, but my writing desk and first drafts are rather chaotic. I can’t explain this dichotomy, except that creative work may involve the opposite side of my brain.

Kathleen Kaska: I’m a Yankees fan.

Judy Penz Sheluk: Probably that I listen to talk radio while I write. And that I can’t write if there’s music on in the background because I find it too distracting.

Lois Winston: I hate peanut butter! Can’t even stand the smell of it. It triggers my gag reflexes. When my kids were little, I had to hold my breath while making them PB&J sandwiches.

Bethany Maines: I think that most readers would be surprised by how instantly anxious I get when someone says those fearsome words “I read your book.” Because I never know what is going to come next.

Gay Yellen: Readers seem to love the passages in my books involving food. But I do not cook. I just like to eat, and so does my protagonist!

Mary Lee Ashford: I’m not sure readers would be surprised by much of anything because I share a lot of things about my crazy life and my loves with them. I guess I don’t talk much about what I did before retirement because boring… So I guess readers might be surprised to know I spent 30 plus years as a public servant, at first in Customer Service aka complaint central, then as a Management Analyst/Congressional Liaison, and then a Business Analyst, and finally as the Deputy Director of Information Technology.

Donalee Moulton: That depends, to a certain extent, on what book they’ve just read. If it’s Hung Out to Die, my first mystery novel, readers will be surprised to learn I do not drink coffee (at least with caffeine) and I do not like donairs. (I hope they would not be surprised to learn I am not a psychopath.) Readers of Bind and Melt might come to believe I have a penchant for PowerPoint presentations. I do not.

Debra H. Goldstein: That I’m shy.