ANNIE ASKS

Annie McDonnell asks Lisa Braxton

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Passive aggressiveness. If you have something you want to say to me, come out and say it. Please don’t say something in a riddle or a roundabout way and expect me to get your point. Please don’t “ghost” me instead of telling me directly if you have a problem with me.

Which living person do you most admire?

Michelle Obama. She had a great career, has been supportive of her husband’s political aspirations and found a way to tap into one of the biggest problems in this country during her husband’s terms in office—childhood obesity—and make that her project, inspiring people all over the country to make more sensible eating decisions.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Books. I purchase at least two a month. I borrow at least two or three a month from the library. There is rarely a time when I am not reading two or three books at a time.

What is your current state of mind?

I fluctuate from happy to sad to something in between. My mother and father died within the past four years and within two years of each other. I was blessed to spend quality times with them and take care of them toward the end and was with them as they took their last breaths. But I think about them every day and miss them greatly.

What do you most dislike about your appearance?

I wish my stomach was flatter.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would go back to my earlier life, when I was in my teens and 20s and I wouldn’t be so insecure. I would also be more focused on a career that paid well and that I’d want to stay in for the duration of my working life.

Where would you most like to live?

The Washington, D.C. area.

What is your most treasured possession?

My mother’s engagement ring and wedding band. I took them off her finger a few days before she passed away. They were loose on her because she’d lost so much weight because she was ill. I wear her band on my ring finger along with my wedding band and I wear her engagement ring on the opposite finger on my right hand.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Being alone and having absolutely no one in your life.

Who are your favorite writers?

Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurtson, Louise Penny.

What is your greatest regret?

That I wasted so much time disliking myself when I was younger.

How would you like to die?

I’d like to have decent health up until the end and then in an instant drop dead.

What is your motto?

Be prepared. That’s the Girl Scout motto. I was a Girl Scout and I have sought to fulfill that motto in my life since I joined the Girl Scouts in the 4th grade.

Lisa Braxton is the author of the memoir in essays, Dancing Between the Raindrops: A Daughter's Reflections on Love and Loss and the novel, The Talking Drum, winner of a 2021 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards Gold Medal, overall winner of Shelf Unbound book review magazine’s 2020 Independently Published Book Award, and winner of a 2020 Outstanding Literary Award from the National Association of Black Journalists and a Finalist for the International Book Awards. She is also an Emmy-nominated former television journalist, an essayist, and short story writer.

She is on the executive board of the Writers Room of Boston and a writing instructor at Grub Street Boston, and currently serves as President of the Greater Boston Section of the National Council of Negro Women and is a member of the Psi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

She lives in the Boston, Massachusetts area.