Beach Chat with Jayne Ormerod

Happy Friday!  And it is with great pleasure I announce the return of my favorite blog segment, Beach Chat, where I ask a few questions of a fiction writer.  Today’s featured author?  Moi!  (that’s French for me!)  Enjoy! 

Name:  Jayne Ormerod

Recommend a Beach Read: Summer Rental by Mary Kay Andrews (or really any book by this definitive "beach read" author.)  Summer Rental depicts a summer vacation on the outer banks of North Carolina so well you will feel sand between your toes! 

Most cherished beach memory: At the tender age of 12, my son was bitten by the Surfing Bug.  Not unusual for people who live near the shore.  A little rarer for people like us who lived an hour away.  It was a problem because he could only surf when I drove him, sat there on the beach, then drove him home when he was done (hours later.)  He caught me in a week moment one balmy summer’s morn and I agreed to a day at the beach.  I grabbed a beach towel, beach chair, beach cooler and the book I was currently reading, The Great Gatsby by Ernest Hemingway (a much more interesting read as an adult than a high school student!)  I sat and lost myself in the world of Long Island in the summer of 1922.  Needing to flip myself for the even tan, I paused and looked out over the waves.  I spotted a lone surfer, my son, with fins to the left of him and fins to the right.  He was surfing amidst a pod of dolphins!  It was the coolest thing ever! 

One author, living or dead with whom you’d like to sit on Waikiki beach and sip Mai Tais with:  Carolyn Keene—okay, so she’s fictional, but the original Carolyn Keene was Mildred Wirt, and I’d love to sit down and chat with her about how she brought to life the intrepid Girl Detective, Nancy Drew! 

Worst non-writing job: Slinging spaghetti as head line cook at Momma Rosa’s Italian Restaurant, underneath the ski stadium at Sea World, Ohio!  We were the only indoor, air-conditioned restaurant in the entire park.  The closing song of the ski show was “Rocky Top”, and I knew when that song played that hundreds of hot, sweaty tourists would line up at the door to try to get a seat in the restaurant.  I still experience tremors whenever I hear that song play. 

Favorite quote: “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night.  You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

~  E. L. Doctorow

Three favorite things: Diet Coke, Ruffles potato chips with French Onion dip, and a good book. 

Two secret vices:  In addition to the above, afternoon naps in the sun (I might be part feline, I’m not sure) and watching Big Brother on TV in the summertime.

One pet peeve: Grocery clerks who put raw chicken and fresh vegetables in the same grocery bag!  

Song I dance to when no one is watching: Gangnam Style. According to #1 son in South Korea, it is THE hottest thing in the country.  In fact, his six year old students dance to it…if he sends me the video of them going Gangnam Style I’ll post it, but for now you’ll have to settle for one of my favorites, a mom and son dancing on The Ellen Show (there are hundreds of spoofs, including one by the midshipmen at the Naval Academy—so fun!)  Click the embedded arrow to watch and you’ll be dancing Gangnam Style before you know it!

Bio: Jayne Ormerod is the author of The Blond Leading the Blond, a cozy mystery set in a fictional small town in central Ohio.  She is also the owner of this blog.  You can read more about her on the side panel to the left b or read some of her guest blog gigs listed on the right  c or visit her website at www.jayneormerod.com