From The Booking Desk:

I became a fan of Ingrid Thoft during the first panel I saw her on. It was a Bouchercon, but I have absolutely no idea which one. It doesn’t really matter. What does is that I came away from that panel thinking “that is one really cool woman!” Her series heroine, Fina Ludlow, proved to be just as formidable. Years later, Ingrid would join the Jungle Red Writers blog for a time. JRW’s is one of my most favorite websites – despite the fact that they beat BOLO Books for the Best Online Content Anthony Award in 2018 (hint, it was deserved!!), so this only made me more interested to hear how she would address our weekly questionnaire. I was not disappointed, nor will you be. Enjoy!

Name: Ingrid Thoft
Location: Seattle, Washington

This person from my personal life is such an inspiration:

I’m lucky to have many people in my life who support and encourage me, especially my husband and mum, but there is one person who comes to mind when I think of being inspired. I was introduced to Amanda Heminger, a personal trainer, when I wanted to resume my exercise routine after surgery for a herniated disc. Two years later, my one-legged squats are stellar, but more importantly, I’ve gained a friend who motivates me in all areas of life. Amanda has faced major challenges—setbacks and obstacles that would break most people—and has met them head-on.  She asks herself tough questions and works to solve problems rather than hope they’ll go away. This is a woman who truthfully tracks her calories in MyFitnessPal even when she’s had too much ice cream! If that isn’t courage, I don’t know what is! 

One of the people I admire most in the crime fiction community is:

This is a tough one! There are so many, because the crime fiction community is the best, but I’ll narrow it down to two. The first is Chevy Stevens, with whom I instant message daily. We were paired up for an event at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in June 2014, after which we shared dinner at Hotel Valley Ho. We sweat puddles in the Arizona heat, drank Grasshoppers, and forged a friendship that I treasure. Chevy makes me laugh, shares her publishing wisdom, is a cheerleader when writing is a struggle, and generally just makes every day better. 

The other writer for whom I have great admiration is Meg Gardiner. I first met Meg when we were panelists together at Bouchercon in Long Beach, CA. I recently told someone this, but she misheard me. She thought I’d said that we’d met “on a piano, like the Fabulous Baker Boys.” Not quite, but it could have happened that way because Meg is fearless and adventurous! I look forward to seeing Meg at conferences where I get a dose of her humor, brains, and generosity. 

STALKER ALERT! If this fictional character were real, they would likely need to get a restraining order against me:

Oh, Jimmy Perez! Definitely. Just listening to him speak would thrill me, and when he had to leave the house, I’d curl up with a good book in front of a large picture window overlooking the beauty of the Shetland Islands.

People are always surprised that I am a fan of this individual (singer, actor, or artist):

I have an unwavering love for George Michael. I’ve always loved his music (solo, not so much Wham!) and I was lucky enough to see him in concert a few times. His voice was spectacular and whether you want to dance, work out, or hang out, he has songs that suit the mood. I especially love “Songs from the Last Century” an album of covers that showcases his singing prowess. He died way too young, but at least his music survives.

My personal catch phrase is (or should be):

“You look good, you feel good, you do good.” This may sound extremely shallow, but it was borne out of a decision that my college BFF and I made, and the saying has served me well. We looked around and saw our classmates going to class in what looked like pajamas, and we decided we’d make more of an effort. I believe that how other people perceive you—fair or not—is determined by how you feel about yourself, and a shortcut to feeling better is taking care of yourself. Did our professors take us more seriously because we didn’t look as if we’d just rolled out of bed? Who knows, but we took ourselves more seriously, which is no small thing.