Linda, Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

The one question that is always the most difficult for me.  How much do you tell without being boring?  I’m currently 55 years old.  I have two wonderful sons and three beautiful grandchildren.  I work as a professional court reporter and started my career doing criminal work in the courtroom.  This was a real eye opening experience to me of our judicial system, as well as criminal law.

I was the youngest of six children, and we grew up quite poor.  Books, both fiction and non-fiction were my mentors.  They allowed me to travel to other places, see the world and use my imagination to envision a better life for myself.  I’m a strong supporter of education, and even stronger supporter of libraries.  Without libraries my life would truly have been rather miserable.  Books can at times be the only friend a child has.  A friend that allows that child to escape from the reality of their existence and envision a different world.  A better world.

How and why did you become a writer?

I’ve always been a voracious reader, and I have a vivid imagination.  When my children were little we would make up stories each night, adding a new chapter until they were satisfied the story was finished and then we would launch a new story.  After the boys were too old for me to tell them bedtime stories I started writing my own short stories, and eventually began a novel. My imagination was always coming up with scenarios, characters and events that I felt I had to write about, just to get them out of my head.  In the mid 90s I joined a writer’s group, and that was truly one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  I finally felt at home.  A group of people exactly like me, living in our own little imaginary world with our own friends, enemies and accomplices.  It was through this group that I met my first publisher, and truly learned not just about the process of writing, editing, but also publishing, marketing and being an author.

Can you please tell us about your book 'Sacred Secrets, A Jacody Ives Mystery' and why you wrote it?

Sacred Secrets is the prequel to The Gifts, A Jacody Ives Mystery.  It wasn’t my intention to actually write a series when I wrote The Gifts, it just turned out that way.  After The Gifts was published I had request after request from readers who had purchased The Gifts for more of Jacody Ive’s story.  They were drawn to him, and wanted to know more about him.  The Gifts shows Gavin McAllister and Jacody Ives as two distinct personalities working together.  However, in Sacred Secrets the personality split is complete and Gavin has no clue that Jacody Ives exists, or that they face the threat of another personality starting to emerge.  A personality that threatens to change them into the very evil they seek to destroy.  Jacody Ives is faced with the challenge of meeting his destiny, finding a killer and saving the only person who has ever understood him.  To be successful he has to bridge the gap between himself and Gavin, heal the split, and overcome the evil growing inside them.

Like The Gifts, Sacred Secrets could easily be labeled a supernatural or paranormal mystery.  My writing is rather dark, but not morbid, and will never fall within the cozy mystery category.  I do love the twists and turns, plots and sub-plots that allow me to make a true mystery in the traditional sense by keeping the reader guessing all the way to the end.

When you write, do you always know where you are going, or do your characters lead you in their own directions?

I usually know where I want to go, but there are times when the characters totally take over and go off in a direction I wasn’t expecting.  It isn’t unusual for me to write a chapter and then sit back and say “wow, I didn’t see that coming” or “I would never have guessed that”. 

What books have most influenced your life most?

A really good question and one that’s very difficult to answer.  My writing life was influenced by “Old Yeller”.  I read and reread that book as a young girl until I’m sure the pages were tattered and worn.  The characters just came to life for me, and I felt every emotion they felt.  Knowing that I wanted to write, Old Yeller although not the genre I chose, was the type of book I wanted to write.  A book that readers could see, feel, hear and sense the characters and the story.  A book that made you laugh, cry and left you feeling complete at the end.  The ending wasn’t necessarily happy, but it was a real life ending.

What do you do to market your book on the internet?

Blogging, twittering, MySpace and Facebook are probably my most prevalent presences on the internet.  I use fReado’s Book Buzz, and I think that’s been very helpful.  Kindle Boards is another great source for talking with other authors, and readers of ebooks.  Book trailers on YouTube.  I’ve tried Google ads and Bing ads, but for an author, my study shows those aren’t really beneficial.

What do you do in your free time?

I rarely have any free “me” time.  I’m either working, writing, proofing, or being a grandmother to three very active grandchildren.  I do like to take a week off each year, rent a cabin and write.  This is my “me” vacation.  When I’m not writing, I’ll walk the nature trails and just enjoy being outside.

What's your next exciting project?

I’m currently working on a psychic thriller that I have totally fallen in love with.  I actually started this book several years ago, but I wasn’t really satisfied with the main character or where the book was going.  Recently I pulled this out of my archives and reread it.  I recognized immediately what had bothered me before, and the story took on new life and new direction.  I’m also working on the third and fourth Jacody Ives Mysteries, which hopefully will be released simultaneously.