YA Author Spotlight Presents...

Linda Palmer!!!

If the name Linda Palmer sounds familiar, it should, because she wrote several romances for Silhouette as Linda Varner. Now, if you're thinking, "Hmmm...there's a Linda Palmer that writes mysteries, could they be the same author?" I'm here to tell you no, they are two different Linda Palmers.

She wrote many romance novels but, as many great romance writers do, became seduced by the dark side! For a time, sci-fi, fantasy and paranormal romance stories weren't as popular as they are now, so it wasn't until recently that she's been able to return to story telling!

Yep, storytelling with a paranormal twist! With the popularity of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Vampire Diaries and the Twilight series, Linda fits right in!

She's had releases with Uncial Press, Sugar and Spice Press and now Wild Horse Press. She's had a few releases with Wild Horse Press, and they look something like this:

Like to try before you buy? Well, Sister Golden Hair is free read available through Wild Horse Press - Click here to check out Sister Golden Hair and other free reads suitable for young adults.

NOTE: Getting to what you're here for, let's get this interview started. I have to tell you, I've had this interview since April, so it's April's questions and not May's - so, so sorry about that! As I sent these out prior to April, tax time had yet rolled around, so imagine that you're back in the past, and it's about April 7th...

ME: Are you’re taxes finished, or do you procrastinate with them? Do you do them yourself or do you have a taxman do them for you?

LINDA: I'm the gal who does hers online as soon as I have everything I need. I hate tax time!!

ME: As it says, “April showers bring May flowers”. What flowers do you hope to see the first thing in spring?

LINDA: Arkansas is blessed with many beautiful flowers. My favorites are azaleas, tulips, yellow roses, and dogwood blossoms.

ME: Do you plant your own garden? Why or why not and where is it (are they) located? What type(s) will it (they) be and where is it (are they) located on your property?

LINDA: I leave the gardening to my husband, who has a major green thumb and has both vegetable and flower gardens.

ME: If you could have a garden, what kind of garden would it be, how big would it be and what would you plant in it?

LINDA: I'd love a garden all jumbled together with every flower imaginable. My favorite bouquet is a wildflower bundle just popped into any old vase.

ME: Have you ever considered getting involved with a local community garden? Why or why not?

LINDA: My big sister got the gardening gene. I did not. She says that it's therapeutic. My keyboard does that for me.

ME: For your produce, is the local grocery store just fine, or do you like to hit your local farmer’s market? What is your favorite fruit or vegetable that you do like to get?

LINDA: We get all we need from my husband's vegetable garden when it's up and growing (tomatoes, okra, squash, zucchini, watermelons, cantaloupe).

ME: Now that we've learned a bit about you, let’s focus on your writing. What is your main genre (erotica, erotic romance, romantic suspense, etc.)? What was the draw for you?

LINDA: My genre is young adult paranormal romance. Meg Cabot's 1-800-Where-R-You? series got me started, and all her other books, plus the books of Stephenie Meyer and Charlaine Harris have kept me going. I want my books to be unique, which is quite a challenge these days.

ME: Besides your main genre we just discussed, what elements do you prefer to use in a story and why those elements over others?

LINDA: All of my books have certain things that I love to read, myself: a feisty heroine, an inappropriate boyfriend, messy families, a hint of mystery and danger, and a paranormal twist.

ME: Do you prefer red roses or black roses? If so, does that show in your writing? If so, how? If roses aren’t your style, what flowers are? Do they influence your writing? If so, how?

LINDA: Red roses work just fine for me, though yellow are my favorite. The perfection of nature is hard to improve upon, so I fall back on nature in my use of the moon, the forest, the mountains, and especially the elements, with rain being my favorite.

ME: The jury’s still out on this question, so we’re still asking it! - Who decides what you write about, you or your muse? What kind of influence do you have over your story, or is the muse always the one planting the seeds? How do you cultivate those seeds regardless of who plants them?

LINDA: I think my muse (bless her!) provides me with ideas. Once I'm given an idea and decide to work with it, I immediately start getting affirmations if I've made the right decision. For example, if I'm writing about a werewolf, I'll see the word wolf everywhere—Wolf Lane, Wolf the movie on TV, someone's last name Wolfe, etc. That's how I know to run with it.

ME: In your opinion, what author had the most influence on your writing? What about their writing did you find so influential and why?

LINDA: I've already mentioned Charlaine Harris, Stephenie Meyer, and Meg Cabot. Another author who has profoundly affected me is JK Rowling. These women are simply geniuses.

ME: While authors can definitely influence us, inspiration can be everywhere for a writer, but specific people, places and events can inspire certain characters, personality traits or things that happen in our stories. In your current story that we’re promoting here today, My-Wolf, did any one particular person, place or event inspire you? If so who/what was it (were they), how did it/they inspire you and how is this inspiration reflected in your story?

LINDA: A fictional character named Jacob Black definitely inspired me in the writing of My-Wolf. I loved the way Bella Swan accepted who/what he was, and I loved how he embraced his destiny and used it to protect her. Nothing is more romantic than that, though things are way different in My-Wolf, i.e., Jonah is bitten against his will, but once he shifts, he is determined to save the heroine, Andee Rivera.

ME: Without giving away anything pertinent to the story, tell us about the hero and heroine (s) of your story. What do they look like? How do they meet (or “did” if this is a second book with these same characters)? What are their personalities – Are they comical cut-ups, are they serious or are they a mix of the two? Please give us a little bit of dialogue from the story that can illustrate this. (Not much, but just a few lines and from a different section than the main excerpt – Thanks!)

LINDA: My characters Andee and Jonah meet when she saves him from drowning after he has been bitten by wild animals. Andee is Hispanic and petite. Jonah is Caucasian and a good-sized guy. After Jonah recovers (but before they actually talk) he runs away. This is how their second meeting at night at her apartment goes when he comes to her for help:

“Andee, wait!”

I froze.

He knows my name?

Glancing back, I saw the guy limping toward me. I couldn’t see well enough to identify him. Somehow my key found the hole.

“Wait! Please.”

Ignoring that, I threw myself inside and slammed the door, immediately pushing the lock down. By then he stood next to the window. He ducked his head to look at me. The interior light stayed on just long enough to reveal his features.

I gasped. “You?”

He nodded and motioned for me to roll down the window.

I gave him a scant inch.

“You remember me?”

“How could I forget?” I hesitated, then rolled up the window and got out of the car.

He followed me to where my groceries lay scattered on the ground.

I sighed my irritation. “If my eggs are broken, you are so dead.”

“Sorry. I was trying to keep you from screaming.”

I gave him a look. “You grabbed me from behind to keep me from screaming? Don’t you think that a simple ‘Hi, Andee, thanks for saving my ass,’ might’ve worked better?”

ME: The main characters are usually great, but sometimes, secondary and tertiary characters are known to steal the scenes. Who are the secondary/tertiary characters in your story and what do they look like? What’s unique about them? What is their relationship to the hero/heroine? Have any of these gone on to become scene-stealers? If so, who and how did they do it? (Again, please give us a small bit of dialogue to illustrate this – thanks!)

LINDA: TK McLeod is an interesting secondary character. He rescued Andee from a helicopter crash when she was young, then kept in touch through the years since both her parents died in the crash. It's to him that Andee runs when she needs help hiding Jonah-wolf. That meeting goes like this:

I ignored that. "As for why I need help, my story's going to sound really weird."

"I'm good at weird. I've lived it, remember?"

"Yeah, but there's weird and there's weird." I took a deep breath. "Okay, here goes. I have a new pet, and I was hoping I could leave him in your back yard today."

He frowned. "Pet as in...?"

"Dog."

"What's weird about that?"

"He's not just any dog."

"O-kay. Where is he now?"

"In the back seat of my car."

TK lit a fire under the skillet and glanced out his kitchen window. "I don't see him."

"I told him to keep his head down."

"You told him to keep his head down."

"Yes."

"And he obeyed."

"Uh-huh. He's very, um, intelligent." I think TK must've stared at me without speaking for two solid minutes. I decided to go with the truth. "Actually, he isn't a dog. He's a wolf."

"What?"

"A Werewolf."

TK burst out laughing. "Yeah, right." He slapped some bacon in the skillet.

"I'm telling you the truth, TK. My new boyfriend Jonah turned into a Werewolf Monday night, and I'm afraid my landlord, who's a Palatine, will find out and shoot him."

TK turned to face me. "What in the hell are you talking about?"

Two other characters, Brody and Rhyan, have minor roles in My-Wolf, but books of their own in the future. Brody is the hero of Wolf-Run. Rhyan will be the hero of Wolf-Spell (working title). The series is called Wolf of My Heart.

For fun, and as a little teaser before we give you the excerpt, here's the trailer:

BLURB: Andee Rivera has no idea what she's getting into when she saves Jonah Killebrew from drowning in a chilly mountain lake. He's badly injured--wild animal bites from the look of his wounds--and as a fledgling healer, she wants to help. But his bites are more than they seem, and all the potions and salves in the world may not be enough to save him.

EXCERPT:

“I need help, and you’re the only person I can trust,” Jonah said.

“But you don’t even know me.”

“You saved my life. That’s all the reference I need.”

I gave him a closer look, noticing his flushed cheeks and trembling hands. I frowned. “What happened to you Friday night?”

“I was hoping you could tell me that.”

“Me? All I know is that you fell in the lake, and I pulled you out.”

His eyes narrowed. “And what about this?” He stood and grasped the neck of his T-shirt to pull it over his head. Then he turned his muscled back to me. I saw bloodstained bandages, peeling up from the edges and badly in need of changing.

“Oh yeah. I took care of the bites, too, which were nasty, by the way.”

He went rigid and whipped back around to stare at me. “Did you say…’bites’?”

“Yeah.”

“Bites.”

“Yeah.”

“What kind? Bug? Snake?”

"Animal, I think.”

He actually laughed.

“I’m totally serious, dude. I heard a bunch of growls and snarls just before you hit the water, then you showed up with all these bites. Clearly something attacked you.” I could tell he didn't buy my theory, which sort of ticked me off. "You're food's getting cold."

He hesitated, then sat abruptly and began eating again.

I waited until he'd finished every bite. “What, exactly, do you remember about that night?”

“Not much. I drove my car to Overlook Park and set up my tent. I made a fire, cooked myself a few hotdogs—“

A few hotdogs? That was my cue. I went to the kitchen and got more Raman noodles, which I watered down and popped into the microwave. “You did this on Christmas Eve?"

"Had to get away."

"Hm. Go on.”

“I watched the sun set and the moon rise. I heard something approaching through the woods. Three guys stepped into the clearing. Two of them didn’t look much older than me. They all had guns.”

Whoa! I handed him the noodles.

“Thanks.”

"What kind of guns?"

"The kind that kill."

Like what you've read and want to learn more? Click here to learn find it and other YA books by Wild Horse Press.

Want to learn more about the author and her other books? Visit her website: www.lvpalmer.com.