Linda Carroll-Bradd Visiting Today

 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

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