1) I'm very fit. Not thin. Fit. I'm about four months younger than Madonna, so I've had that petite, preternaturally perfect frame casting a very long shadow over most of my adult life. (I still remember doing step aerobics to "Lucky Star.") I can't look like that. I will never look like that. But I can exercise and I do and I'm quite strong.
Laura Lippman by Leslie Unruh
2) I wasn't born in Baltimore. People assume I'm a Baltimore native, but I'm not. I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and my family is super Southern. How southern are we? The dishes at which I excel are fried chicken, cheese straws and Coca-Cola Fudge Cake.
3) I like kale. I liked kale before most people like kale, I will be eating kale when everyone else abandons the kale bandwagon. I almost always have kale in my refrigerator. I toss the leaves in olive oil and kosher salt, put it in a slow oven, and have perfect kale chips in 30 minutes.
4) I watch reality television. Without irony. I don't watch everything, but I don't disparage programs that others like. And I don't try to rationalize it, but there is something interesting about listening to how people speak about themselves when they're trying to create a persona for an audience. Very useful for a novelist.
5) I have a terrible memory. But then again, I believe few people have good memories. I'm just more honest about it than most people.
6) Although I have a terrible memory, it's good in isolated incidents. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and Sirius XM Radio and I can always remember exactly where I am when I heard a certain passage.
7) I'm actually a pretty good mom, which I wasn't sure I would be. It helps that I have no problem being silly -- making up songs, indulging in games of make-believe. I am an old mom -- see, did step aerobics to "Lucky Star," above -- I think being exhausted is a plus. You don't sweat the small stuff. Or so I tell myself when I fall asleep in her bed.
8) I make my mother call me every morning and my sister every night. She lives alone in a beach town that's empty nine months of the year. She has no problem with the fact that I sometimes let the call go to voicemail.
9) I was a reporter from 1981-2001 and I've been publishing novels since 1997. If I have to have a third act, I have no idea what it will be. I have virtually no marketable skills.
10) I'm a good friend, but I'm terrible about keeping in touch with people. I don't like to speak on the telephone. (See, lets mother's daily call go to voicemail, above.) E-mail is all about work these days. Social media helps and I have a typewriter, but it takes forever to compose a note on it. Still, I'm always up for an impromptu visit from an old friend, truly.
Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman is out now (Faber & Faber, £12.99)