I write crime thrillers but my philosophy in life is Be Kind. You never know what people are dealing with. Sometimes a small kindness can make a huge difference in someone else’s day. Plus, I think kindness begets more kindness.
Lisa Regan
I have a black belt in Shito Ryu karate and it has come in very handy over the years. I learned a lot of excellent self-defense, but our dojo motto was “To Conquer Oneself” which basically meant to worry about yourself instead of others and try to improve on your own personal best instead of worrying about whether you are better or worse than the person next to you. I’ve worked this into every other area of my life so that I am constantly trying to improve on things I’ve done in the past.
My greatest inspiration in life is my daughter. At age 8, we found out she had a condition where one of her skull openings fused too early (craniosynostosis) and she would need to have her skull reconstructed to make room for her growing brain. She handled the news of the surgery and the surgery with courage and stoicism that was absolutely breathtaking. Seven months after that, she broke her femur and had to spend six weeks in a body cast. Again, she kept such a positive outlook and powered through the entire experience with relentless optimism and good humor. I endeavor to be more like her when the going gets tough.
I wrote four really terrible young adult books between the ages of eleven and eighteen. They all had dark themes so even back then I was a budding crime fiction writer. They were all quite long and terribly written, but I think they were good practice.
For a long time, as an adult, I could not finish a writing project. I have hundreds of unfinished, unfocused projects from my early twenties. I finally made myself finish a full novel just to prove to myself that I could finish something—anything. It will never see the light of day, but I’m still proud of it because I proved to myself that I could write a full-length novel.
Long, protracted action sequences in movies, like fights or car chases, always put me to sleep. They simply don’t hold my interest. The dramatic tension between the characters, the relationships, and the dynamics between characters, are the things that hold my interest in both movies and in books. People are always more riveting to me than action sequences.
Speaking of movies, my two favorite kinds of movies are revenge movies and romantic comedies. I love both types equally.
I love hot air balloons. It had always been my dream to go up in one, and my husband made that dream come true only a few months after we met. It was an amazing experience. Two years later we returned to that same hot air balloon festival and that is where my husband proposed to me. Whenever I have an opportunity, I drag my family to see hot air balloon launches. Attending the New Mexico Hot Air Balloon Festival is definitely on my bucket list.
I have a Boston Terrier named Mr. Phillip, and I am unapologetically obsessed with him.
I have moderate hearing loss—not enough for a hearing aid but enough that I have a lot of trouble hearing, especially on the phone. It can be very frustrating particularly for people trying to get my attention!
