Please welcome my guest, fellow Romance author, Linda Carroll-Bradd.
As a young girl, Linda was often
found lying on her bed reading about fascinating characters having exciting
adventures in places far away and in other time periods. In later years, she
read and then started writing romances and achieved her first publication--a
confession story. Married with 4 adult children and 2 granddaughters, Linda now
writes heartwarming contemporary and historical stories with a touch of humor
from her home in the southern California mountains.
Hi Linda, tell
us something about yourself both writing and non-writing related.
For
a landmark birthday, I gifted myself a class about Writing a Romance. Before
then, I’d spent years in the secretarial field so I knew my English skills were
strong, and I had lots of experience in business writing. What a surprise to
learn none of the business training transferred well to fiction writing.
Business writing is wordy and unemotional, but my grammar and punctuation
skills were my base when I set out to learn a new skill of creative writing.
Do
you have a writing routine or ritual that you do before you start writing?
Before
I start a new story, I need to know the basic archetype of each character so I
have the boundaries for their personality and the typical way they’ll act and
respond.before pitting them against one another in solving a problem. But I
don’t have a ritual that I do each day before starting to write.
Why
do you write in the genre/sub-genre that you do? Any plans in the future to
write in a different one?
Writing
in romance came from reading scads of romances. I started writing contemporary stories
and then responded to a request from my small-press publisher at the time to
write a short holiday historical. Then I started editing lots of historical
novels in my freelance business. I loved them so much that now most of my time
is spent in the mid-1800s.
How
do you stay motivated when writer’s block hits or your muse won’t cooperate?
Actually,
I’m going through that problem now. My characters just aren’t sparking. When
that happens, I shove them together and just get them talking. Something of us
always comes out, and then I follow that trail.
What’s
the strangest thing you’ve ever done in the name of research?
I
was due to attend a writers’ retreat in South Padre Island in Texas so I flew
from California a day early. Then I spent several hours wandering the streets
of Comfort, TX, to research the layout of the town, view the geography, read
the plaques on the buildings, etc. It’s the town I’ve based my “Dorado, Texas”
stories on.
What’s
the best writing advice you were ever given?
Best
advice was write what excites you. Worst advice was write what you know. Why
it’s the worst, although many have probably heard this advice, is that if you
write what you know you write too much of the backstory because the profession
or the location or the responsibilities are what you know, and you don’t focus
on the characters and their plights.
What
do you like to do in your leisure time?
I
enjoy watching movies with my husband and jigsaw puzzles. In the cooler
weather, I crochet baby afghans for the local women’s shelter.
Tell
us about your current or upcoming release in a couple of sentences.
My
story that released June 28 titled Sweet
Inspiration has a great tagline: He’s the adventure she’s never had, and
she’s the home he’s always wanted. That sentence is the essence of the story,
and it came in a plotting session when I was defining the term tagline to
another author.
Can
you tell us a little about your next project?
The
next story titled A Match for Althia is a mail-order bride story that brings
together a heroine from a wealthy British family who has had to make her own
way after a scandal sent her from her home. She is matched with a lonely saddle
maker who refuses the matches his mother foists upon him.
Anything
else you’d like readers to know?
My
stories are clean and wholesome with heartfelt emotions, and I hope readers
will give one a try.
And now a little bit about Sweet Inspiration --
He’s the adventure she’s never
had, and she’s the home he’s always wanted.
Blurb:
Dependable Cadence Wills yearns for excitement.
The owner of a yarn business, she is pulled in every direction by her demanding
family. Haunting dulcimer notes draw her to a practice session where she spies
an intriguing stranger.
Musician Rafe Frasco is a rover, bouncing
between musical competitions. Interest ignites at his first glance at a woman
enthralled by his music, who he learns has a heart big enough to encompass
everyone within her reach.
A fantastic opportunity for Rafe presents
Cadence with a dilemma—is she strong enough to negotiate the business deal that
will take him away…maybe forever?
Excerpt:
Unmarried
and approaching thirty in a small town branded her as ready and willing to meet
every unattached man who set foot inside the city limits. A sigh escaped. Like
last week when Espe called Trent Sullivan over to their table at El Tres
Amigos and then suddenly remembered an important errand. What Espe hadn’t
known was Cadence and Trent already had been set up on blind dates—twice—by
well-meaning friends.
Nothing had
clicked between them. Cadence craved someone with a mysterious past like in her
beloved romantic suspense novels. A dark, shadowy figure who knew how to excite
a woman with a molten look or a lingering touch. A man who fought to hide his
pain and almost succeeded. Not someone like Trent—a guy whose high-school
accomplishments she could probably recite.
Sweet
plaintive notes of a stringed instrument floated on the breeze. Cadence
strained to recognize the tune. A person didn’t grow up surrounded by folk
music without knowing just about every ballad that could be plucked.
But this
one eluded her. The twanging strings cried with a soulful sadness that grabbed
her by the throat. Her thoughts were washed in loneliness, and she turned
toward the sound, past the Heritage Herb Garden. A part of Cadence that
couldn’t resist helping others had to see who was expressing such need.
She lifted
the hem of her long skirt and hurried toward the haunting sound, as if the
notes pulled her feet along the path. Abreast of the groundhog pottery kiln,
she slowed and peered toward the outdoor stage.
On the
platform, several musicians gathered—some unpacking instruments, others
adjusting microphones. Off to one side, a dark-haired man sat in a
straight-backed chair, one foot braced on a scratched case. He leaned forward
and strummed a dulcimer, the light wood instrument cradled on denim-covered
thighs.
Cadence
studied the talented player. His too-long hair was tied back, his shoulders
were broad inside his western-cut shirt, and his legs were long and lean.
Scuffed boots, faded jeans and a worn Harley-Davidson tee-shirt composed his
attire. Definitely more attractive than her own outfit. Even from this
distance, she spotted a posture that meant the man had an attitude…or was
mysterious. A thrill ran over her skin.
Who was
this guy? He’d definitely swagger when he walked. Yummy. At the thought,
she stepped closer, wanting nothing between her and the performance.
Long
fingers picked the strings in a heated crescendo—note on teasing note, twang on
shivery twang, strum on driving strum. He ended the song with a flourish, right
hand arcing upward as the last note hung on the early morning air.
How did he
know exactly how she felt on nights when everyone in Mountain View either had a
date or was home curled next to a spouse? The isolation of being solo at the
drive-in or enduring the knowing smile of a sympathetic waitress. His song
wrapped all those feelings tight around her heart and squeezed.
Sounds like a great book to me. Here are the buy links for it:
Amazon Barnes and Noble KOBO Books IBooks
You can find Linda at:
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