Toni McGee Causey

An Interview with Toni McGee Causey

If you were granted one wish, what would you wish for?

World peace.

Seriously, if it was just the one wish, how can we not hope for peace? It’s the domino to solving so many other problems: hunger, poverty, inequality, health care. If you’re gonna dream, dream big.

 If you won the lottery, what would you do with your newfound wealth?

Oh, probably what everyone else would do: pay off any debts for ourselves and our families, if that sucker was big enough. There are a couple of charities that are dear to me that I’d be able to support more enthusiastically. Sock away some for retirement. And honestly, travel. There are at least a dozen places on my wish list.

[Some of you reading this are shaking your heads, thinking she’d totally go for the 911 Carrera S Cabriolet but noooo. I would never buy the S. That would be ecologically wrong. And bad. Like brownies.] [But I might stand there a long time and look at it pitifully.]

Besides being an author, what is your fantasy job?

Chocolate taster.

I really have a difficult time coming up with something else. I love what I do—the people I get to work with are phenomenal, the friends I’ve made over the years are steadfast and true and the fans make every hard moment of getting here worth it. I imagine rock stars feel the same way about their jobs, and that might come the closest… you know, if I could sing from a closet without anyone actually watching me.

What do you enjoy doing the most with your free time?

Wait a minute. There’s free time? As in… free? Seriously? When did this start? Who do I see about this? This is a trick, isn’t it, like where someone sets a plate of brownies out there just for the taking with a sign that says “100% calorie free, tastes great” and then you reach for one and that’s when they cuff you and cart you off because anyone insane enough to believe that anything can still taste great and be calorie free has clearly lost every single marble they were given to play with and needs to be locked up for their own safety.

I am not falling for this one again.

Do you cook? If so, is there any particular dish that you've mastered and would like to share?

I tried to cook. I don’t understand how this works, really. I’m addicted to those cooking competition shows where they give the chefs three pieces of cardboard, some jelly and limp celery and tell them they have to cook a divine meal for 300, and somehow, they pull it off. When I watch this, it’s like a magic show—I’m trying to catch the sleight-of-hand and figure out how they’re doing this, and still I am only able to see the cute bunnies. Maybe one day I’ll figure it out. (I will probably have to write a book that has a chef in it so I can call it research! That seems to be the only way something sticks.)