Interview

I’m excited to have you on my blog today, Linda! Your Tomorrow’s Angels series is such a unique idea, one I’ve never encountered before. I’m excited to learn more about your books and about you as an author. Let’s start with a few questions.

You’re going to Mars with the first SpaceX group. The essentials will be provided, but
you’re allowed to bring one personal item. What will you bring?

My laptop so that I can read and write. I thought about my Linus blankie, but it’s too old and tattered.What do you like to do in your spare time? Count my millions. (Joke!) Read I watch very little TV because I don’t have the patience to channel surf. Of course, I like to sit staring out windows dreaming (letting my imagination wander to the next book). Once upon a time, I liked to ride my Andalusian stallion, but due to an accident, my back won’t permit it any longer. I like road trips and driving my little sports car. His name is Zippy Z. He’s Sterling Gray with a black convertible top. Zippy is an older gentleman (aclassic) but runs strong…and fast. Tee hee. Little old lady from Pasadena here.

What superpower would you like to have?

Channel surfing (see above). Seriously, telepathy or teleportation. Both are a way of travel in a way, boldly going to new dimensions either in the mind or in time and space.

What’s your favorite place to visit?

Yorkshire, England. My son, his wife, and my four lovely grandchildren live in a village in South Yorkshire. The countryside roams from hills to manicured fields, to stretching moors. I love the curvy roads and always wish I had Zippy Z. Yorkshiremen think it is heaven on earth, and they are very close. I might be a Yorkshire resident one day.

What is the first book that made you cry?

The Fire and the Hammer but it has been so long ago, I don’t recall the author’s name. As a young girl, I used to keep a notebook of my favorite passages from my favorite books. I still have it, and I’d like to share a passage from The Fire and the Hammer: November is a time for the old to look at the young and marvel and remember that season of love and the beauty of it all, for God has so ordered that it does not come twice to any man since no man is strong enough to bear the wonder of it twice.

As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?

The horse, of course, of course. The horse signifies overcoming obstacles and how you should carry yourself in the face of adversity. Can’t we all use this in the face of rejections? The horse
spirit animal works hard to remind you to take care of your emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being. The horse symbolism also speaks of freedom Horses are very spiritual animals. I bred, trained, and showed horses for many years and have had many equine friends. The best of them was Bonito, my Andalusian stallion. I’m convinced he was my soul mate. Once a horseman, always a horseman.

How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

Goodness knows! Probably about 10, ranging from vampires (sequel to Sinners’ Opera); angels (a companion book to Gylded Wings); my WIP—a centaur book—and other super(natural) heroes languishing in my computer.

What did you edit out of your most recent project?

In my WIP, the hero is a centaur, and the heroine is a human. In the first draft, I needed to edit some of the romantic interactions so that no one would think it was bestiality. It wasn’t. In the current version, the romantic scenes are very mild with only sweet kisses until…. There’s a change that makes their passion possible.

In my upcoming release, Life for Sale, I edited out some of the steamier love scenes. I
sort of cut-to-black. I did this because my editor asked me to cool off the love scenes in
Sinners’ Opera, and it’s still been called very spicy.

How do you select the names of your characters?

Usually, they come to me and give me their name. If not, I have a book of names I bought in England. I choose the first name for a pleasant blend with the last name. And I look at the meaning of the first and surnames.

Thanks for visiting today! It was great to get to know you better. Here’s more information about the books for those interested.

Love for Sale Blurb

March Morgan still believes in true love, but her faith in finding her soul mate is slowly vanishing.She’s been married but never in love. So, it is a miracle to find that fantasy exists on the last page of a glossy women’s journal. Mayfair Electronics, Ltd., in black and white, offers Love for Sale. The London firm has engineered sentient androids indistinguishable from humans. She flies to England and meets the man she has been searching for her entire life.

Christian requires no programming to love March at first sight. He’s handsome, cultured…absolutely perfect…and a little different from the other androids. He has an unexpected independent streak. March signs on the dotted line, buying her dream man. They return to Houston, but soon her past and his future threaten their Happily Ever After—indeed their lives.

Buy Love for Sale for 99 Cents!

Life for Sale Blurb

Mayfair Electronics has created life.

But four of their Special Editions—sentient androids indistinguishable from human—have escaped. Rebel, Christian Aguillard and his owner, March, are on the run, but they have a bigger problem than his creator’s plan to destroy him. They’ve discovered that one of the renegades has suffered a dangerous malfunction, threatening them with more than just exposure.

Trapped on a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic, March and Christian must stop the insane robot before someone else dies. All the evidence points to March being the killer’s next victim.

Life for Sale Excerpt

Slippers plopped on the cherry wood floor in the hall, March returning to his office. Christian stiffened, frantically searching for a place to hide the monstrosity. His central processing center hummed, his heart thundering.  These programmed and learned responses could disable. Shock held him motionless. He simply stared at the box. She called ahead, “Dear, we should go out soon. We need a bottle of wine for your boss’ dinner party tonight.”

Her voice penetrated the horrified fog. He slammed the box closed, glanced up and time ran out. She stood in the doorway, her hands braced each side on the door frame. He took a deep breath of her perfume and exhaled the tension that had built to a crescendo.

He wasn’t one to lose it easily, but he’d never had to deal with pure horror before. His logical mind struggled with this brutal assault.  “Right. Give me a minute. I’ll need to shower and dress, too.”

The contents of the closed box had been branded on his retinas. Damn their eyes, who’d do such a heinous thing? Christian took control of his body, stilling his trembling hands. By effort of will, he didn’t acknowledge the package by even a glance. The pilot had been decapitated in the crash, but how the hell did his head end up in Houston, Texas, more particularly in their home?

“Who was at the door?” March must have seen something in his face. Frowning, she hurried to his side. “What’s that funny smell?”

The embalmed head of a man who looked like me. Another cold quiver leapt along his sensors. He’d never forget the look in the dead pilot’s eyes. Fear now had a physical illustration. If he’d possessed a stomach, he’d have been violently ill.

“I don’t know how to tell you this.” He swallowed hard and shrugged. “What’s in that box…” he pointed, “is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen. It can’t have come from Mayfair. They’d never resort to terror tactics.”

“Christian, what is it?” She reached for the vessel containing a man’s—once a living, breathing human being’s—preserved head.

“No.” He seized her hand. “March, you mustn’t. I refuse to let you see what’s in that box. It’s disgusting…and horrible.  The pilot who died in the Jersey crash…it’s his head. The article mentioned he was decapitated.”

“His head!” March recoiled. “Dear lord, who’d send a dead man’s head to us?”

“Not to us. To me.” He sank down in his executive chair, pulling her onto his lap. “I don’t know what to do with it other than involve the police, and that’s the last thing I want to do. Draw any kind of notoriety and this would make national news.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After 14 years in Texas, Linda returned home to her roots in the South Carolina red clay. She has eight published novels, four of which are available from Audible.com in audio. For many years, she bred, trained and showed the magnificent Andalusian horses. So, she’s seen a lot of this country from the windshield of a truck pulling a horse trailer. She’s won several writing awards, including the Georgia Romance Writers’ Magnolia Award for Excellence, the Raven Award, and the SARA Merritt. In real life, she was a legal assistant.

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