What an incredible week! Didn’t get much physical writing done, but what a great relaxing week.  

Went to Ocean Isle for the first part – sat on the beach the first couple of days just to absorb it.

Ate at the pool bar the first night loving the breeze and the atmosphere. The resort served a full hot breakfast every morning as well and we took full advantage.

The wind came up the second day and after getting sand blasted for a while, came inside and worked on the jigsaw puzzle. Had great fresh seafood at Calabash, even enough to bring home for lunch the next day. Slept late, walked on the beach before it got hot and just vegged out.

Left on Thursday to visit relatives. Cousins Betsy and Peetie are in New Bern so headed up that way. Had a wonderful visit, caught up on their families – another great-grandchild coming in a couple of weeks for Peetie.

Then on Friday headed down to Charleston to visit with friends Kaye and Todd. They have remodeled their home and I adored it. She really needs to come decorate my place because I fall so far short of her skills. She is also the consummate hostess and we were pampered beyond belief.

Friday night we went on a catamaran cruise around Charleston Harbor. Talk about zen (until the thunderstorm came up at the last few minutes but we docked safely). Just the most peaceful time ever.

But Saturday night they took us to Theater 99 in Charleston – it’s improv and I was chosen to go up on stage to answer questions about myself for them to perform around for the show. Admitting that I wrote Romance Novels set them off – and they asked so many questions they had to cut the skits short! It was one of the biggest hoots I’ve ever had. They even introduced my Studmuffin hubby and told him how lucky he was! Have parts of it recorded, maybe Youtube?? LOL!  Thanks Brandy!

Please say Hi! to another of my new friends from Soul Mate Publishing!

* You are going to be new to many of my readers. Tell us about yourself.

Well, I live in North Carolina, having moved here from Michigan in 2004. Like most all writers, I enjoy reading. I also love animals, quiet days (bonus if they’re rainy days) and trips to the river.

* Tell us about the book that’s just come out.  

It’s called ‘Upon the Tide’ and it tells about a NY fashion designer who takes a vacation to Florida. While there, she ends up involved in a robbery, with a hunky ex-cop turned beach bum. From there, the action really begins. They escape to the Caribbean, sailing around various ports of call, risking danger—and falling in love—as paradise turns mysterious and deadly.

* What started you on your love of writing?

Probably my love of reading. I’ve always read, from earlies memory. I wrote my first ‘story’ at age ten. Then dabbled some as a teenager and young adult. I didn’t get serious about it until I hit my 20’s and got married. It began more with free-lance pieces pitched to magazines. However, it still took years to both break into the magazines for free-lance work and to land that first novel contract.

* Do you write in more than one genre – tell us a little about each one and the books you’re working on in each?

Yes, predominately they are all romance at their root, but from there they grow in all kinds of directions. I like time travel and Christian the best, so ‘Shimmers of Stardust’ (published 2014) had both included. My first novel, “Whispers in her Heart”, was paranormal. Mystery tends to dominate my work, with “Upon the Tide”, “When Clouds Gather” (published 2014), and “Chasing the Painted Skies” which came out last year. Earlier this year I joined with another publisher and they put out a sweet novella called “Glimpse Eternity”. I had a spicy novella put out last November as part of a Christmas anthology collection. That was so spicy, it was difficult for me to write and certainly stretched me beyond my comfort zone.

Coming up, I have a young adult/new adult that is finished and I am pitching it to agents. I am nearly done with my first women’s fiction and will also pitch that to agents when it’s ready. My first romantic comedy is coming out next year, along with a Christian romance novel and another novella included in a food anthology. Like I said, all romances, but all very different. The four most different ones have been the Christmas collection, the novel “Chasing the Painted Skies”, the YA/NA with fantasy and the upcoming women’s fiction, also with other included elements. They’re like a big old smoothie tossed in a blender and set to pulse.

* Have you attended any writing conference or classes? Tell us about some that and some that have been especially helpful.

No I have not attended anything like that and I really don’t have any good excuse. I work full time, plus free-lance, plus write/promote/etc… Plus I pet sit. So it’s hard for me to find time or get away. Even close by ones require time off work. All that being said, I admit I should attend some conference or regular class.

I did go to a couple writing group meetings in the last few years. One I found the group to be quite large (30+) and older (retired with no day jobs), They also were not particularly friendly or welcoming. The meeting was unorganized and lacked structure. Since they meet when I normally work, it is unlikely I will be back. The second one was better. It’s smaller, more informal and has some structure and flow to it. My problem is it’s held in the morning only a few hours after I get to bed (drawback of working second shift) So I arrive very tired, and usually hungry. The premise is to read and critique each other’s work, which initially I found good. Instead it became a little more critical than I cared for.

* Are you a member of any writing groups? No, again for not good reason.  

* How attached do you get to your characters? Do you know what happens after the book ends?

Some of them I get very attached to. It’s quite common to hate to see the end of the story. Finishing it means having to say good bye. At least temporarily. My stories go through a cooling off period once I hit ‘the end’. Then months later they come back out and I start the edit process. After I’ve gone over them a few times, critically and carefully to find and correct all those terrible little errors, I can now draft a synopsis and query and start submissions. But by then I am deep into something else. However, some characters just stick with me. I have to believe the good ones go on to happy times and the bad guys get what’s coming to them. And it’s not uncommon for me to dream of my characters at night too, sometimes ones from a few books ago.

* Describe your ‘perfect’ writing day.

No interruptions! Not having to leave and go anywhere or go to work later. Not having the pets pester me for attention/food/whatever. Those are biggies. Beyond that, a blank canvas in which I can write with limited need to promo. Just write. I love writing but I need to work on social media, and it tends to strong arm my day. A perfect day is where I am not obligated to do anything but write and the creativity flows like an open valve.

* Could you tell us the one question you wish people would ask about your writing… and don’t forget the answer.

 
 
Bio  

Two Soul Mate historical novels are on sale for 99¢!!  

Al Capone at the Blanche Hotel is on sale for 99¢  May 20-May 27!  

Al Capone at the Blanche Hotel tells a story of lives unfolding in different centuries, but linked and irrevocably altered by a series of murders in 1930.

Lake City, Florida, June, 1930: Al Capone checks in for an unusually long stay at the Blanche Hotel, a nice enough joint for an insignificant little whistle stop. The following night, young Jack Blevins witnesses a body being dumped heralding the summer of violence to come. One-by-one, people controlling county vice activities swing from KKK ropes. No moonshine distributor, gaming operator, or brothel madam, black or white, is safe from the Klan’s self-righteous vigilantism. Jack’s older sister Meg, a waitress at the Blanche, and her fiancé, a sheriff’s deputy, discover reasons to believe the lynchings are cover for a much larger ambition than simply ridding the county of vice. Someone, possibly backed by Capone, has secret plans for filling the voids created by the killings. But as the body count grows and crosses burn, they come to realize this knowledge may get all of them killed.

Gainesville, Florida, August, 2011: Liz Reams, an up and coming young academic specializing in the history of American crime, impulsively moves across the continent to follow a man who convinces her of his devotion yet refuses to say the three simple words I love you. Despite entreaties of friends and family, she is attracted to edginess and a certain type of glamour in her men, both living and historical. Her personal life is an emotional roller coaster, but her career options suddenly blossom beyond all expectation, creating a very different type of stress. To deal with it all, Liz loses herself in her professional passion, original research into the life and times of her favorite bad boy, Al Capone. What she discovers about 1930’s summer of violence, and herself in the process, leaves her reeling at first and then changed forever.

From Soul Mate Publishing:  Al Capone at the Blanche Hotel   –   Amazon

Take a look at the real Blanche Hotel and other actual locations featured in Al Capone at the Blanche Hotel!  https://www.pinterest.com/lindabennettpen/al-capone-at-the-blanche-hotel/

~ ~ ~

Confederado do Norte, 2015 Honorable Mention in the RONE Awards, is on sale for 99¢ May 27- June 3!!  

Set during the aftermath of the American Civil War, Confederado do Norte tells the story of Mary Catherine MacDonald Dias Oliveira Atwell, a child torn from her war devastated home in Georgia and thrust into the primitive Brazilian interior where the young woman she becomes must learn to recreate herself in order to survive.

October, 1866.

Mary Catherine is devastated when her family emigrates from Georgia to Brazil because her father and maternal uncle refuse to accept the terms of Reconstruction following the Confederacy’s defeat. Shortly after arrival in their new country, she is orphaned, leaving her in Uncle Nathan’s care. He hates Mary Catherine, blaming her for his sister’s death. She despises him because she believes Nathan murdered her father. When Mary Catherine discovers Nathan’s plan to be rid of her as well, she flees into the mountain wilderness filled with jaguars and equally dangerous men. Finding refuge among kind peasants, she grows into a beauty, ultimately marrying the scion of a wealthy Portuguese family. Happiness and security seem assured until civil unrest brings armed marauders who have an inexplicable connection to Mary Catherine. Recreating herself has protected Mary Catherine in the past, but this new crisis will demand all of the courage, intelligence, and creativity she possesses simply to survive.

Confederado do Norte available from Amazon:  Amazon

See scenes from Brazil and other locations featured in  Confederado do Norte!  https://www.pinterest.com/lindabennettpen/confederado-do-norte/

BIO:

Linda shares this about herself: 

“I have been in love with the past for as long as I can remember. Anything with a history, whether shabby or majestic, recent or ancient, instantly draws me in. I suppose it comes from being part of a large extended family that spanned several generations. Long summer afternoons on my grandmother’s porch or winter evenings gathered around her fireplace were filled with stories both entertaining and poignant. Of course being set in the American South, those stories were also peopled by some very interesting characters, some of whom have found their way into my work.

As for my venture in writing, it has allowed me to reinvent myself. We humans are truly multifaceted creatures, but unfortunately we tend to sort and categorize each other into neat, easily understood packages that rarely reveal the whole person. Perhaps you, too, want to step out of the box in which you find yourself. I encourage you to look at the possibilities and imagine. Be filled with childlike wonder in your mental wanderings. Envision what might be, not simply what is. Let us never forget, all good fiction begins when someone says to her or himself, Let’s pretend.”

Linda resides in the Houston area with one sweet husband and one adorable German Shorthaired Pointer who is quite certain she’s a little girl.

http://www.lindapennell.com/  

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLindaBennettPennell

Twitter: @LindaPennell

Hard to believe it’s been three years since Wraith’s Heart was released. I know this isn’t the time of year for a ghost story, but since ghosts don’t wait for Halloween, neither did I. 

These characters stuck with me as well. I even wrote a prequel to the story in the Defending Love anthology Rebel Ink put out last year about bullying and abuse. The story was Reunion and told the tale of Gail Duncan the night before she was murdered.

The idea for this book came from a dream my father had. In the dream he was on a lonely country road and drove up to a house. The older couple there greeted him and he realized he was there to tell them that they had passed away, because they didn’t realize it. The husband was belligerent and refused to believe Daddy, but the wife calmed him down and reminded him of how certain things were different now than they had been. She thanked Daddy and sent him on his way, then he woke up. I’ve remembered his dream for a long time and it set this story in motion. Everything is grist for the mill of a writer – right?

Have you had inspiration that came from unlikely places? (are there any likely places?) I’d love to hear about it. In honor of its birthday, I’ll be giving away a copy of the ebook for Wraith’s Heart – just leave a comment!

And for more paranormal – Another Time will be released in June and Before You will release in July – I’ve got your summer covered!