Month: January 2018

---

Transcript: Authors Love Readers with Laura Marie Altom

Patricia McLinn [00:00] Welcome to this week’s Authors Love Readers podcast, where we delve into the stories behind the stories. We’re asking authors questions, some of them fun, some of them serious. And from their answers, you’re going to learn things you never knew about the people who write the stories you love. My name is Patricia McLinn. I’m your host and designated question asker.

Laura Marie Altom [00:23] I’m Laura Marie Altom and I’m an author who loves readers.

Patricia McLinn [00:28] Now let’s start the show. Hello, and welcome to this edition of Authors Love Readers, the podcast. Today we have Laura Marie Altom as our guest, and we were just chatting a little bit beforehand and was saying, this is going to be interesting because we don’t know each other as well as a lot of the, um, previous people that I’ve had on. We would have had to be friends for 30 years, to know each other as well as a lot of the others.

Laura Marie Altom [01:00] We better get started.

Patricia McLinn [01:04] Yeah. Well, we’re at least a year in, right?

Laura Marie Altom [01:04] Oh, definitely.

Rodeo Knights and Renegade

Patricia McLinn [01:06] We were part of a, uh, group effort called Rodeo Knights with a K. K N I G H T S um, where we all released a book, um, in mid-June, June 20th. And it stemmed from three books that were originally done, um, about Rodeo Knights with Lisa Mondello—

Laura Marie Altom [01:29] Lenora Worth and Margaret Daley.

Patricia McLinn [01:30] Margaret Daley. Right. And they had done these three connected books, um, two years before. And then they said, uh, come back and invited ten of us to write books that, uh, touched on the same, connected to the same characters, but took the series, um, in different directions, which was really interesting.

And we were, we were on a group and we would, you know, say, well, I’m doing this with them. Or, you know, if so, if so-and-so gets married at this point, what does that do to, you know, the, the previous characters have to attend the wedding. So, so they can’t be out doing something else that weekend. And, uh, Laura’s book as Renegade, such a great title.

Laura Marie Altom [02:18] Thank you.

Patricia McLinn [02:20] —immediately makes me think of the, of the song, um—

Laura Marie Altom [02:23] Oh, it’s such a great song.

Patricia McLinn [02:26] Isn’t it. So tell us, tell us a little bit about your story Renegade.

Laura Marie Altom [02:30] It’s a, um, it’s part of my SEAL Team Disavowed series, which is a first for me because I’m kind of known through Harlequin for baby books, but I really love adventure books. So I’ve been doing this romantic suspense series with SEALs.

And, um, Margaret Daley, who you mentioned earlier, is kind of my bestie. She lives like a mile from me and she writes really awesome romantic suspense. And, I dunno, we were just talking at Olive Garden one day, and I said, You know, I’ve never done a serial killer book, but gosh, that seems just really harsh, I don’t know if I could do it or not. She’s like, yeah, you can do a serial killer. So I, yeah, we just did a serial killer. Um, but it was like, I’d never done anything that grizzly and, uh, I had to do quite a bit of research, you know? Blood coagulating—

Patricia McLinn [03:20] Yup.

Laura Marie Altom [03:21] —really creepy topics, uh, that I wasn’t in my normal wheelhouse, but I, I was real happy with how it turned out, and it just took some crazy turns.

Patricia McLinn [03:30] Yeah. I was just going to ask you, if you found that doing that research affected your mood.

Laura Marie Altom [03:35] It did. And it made me just feel real, like icky. Like then the book after that I had to research like nuclear weapons. And, you know, I was on those websites and like trying to get off really, really quick, I didn’t get on any crazy FBI list or something, but yeah, no, it’s, it was happy subject.

Patricia McLinn [03:57] Hey, authors could keep the, uh, NSA occupied full time.

Laura Marie Altom [04:00] I know, right?

Patricia McLinn [04:02] If they started going down the rabbit hole—

Laura Marie Altom [04:04] It’s scary.

Patricia McLinn [04:05] —of our searches. So, okay. Let’s go back and ask some, some short fun questions—

Laura Marie Altom [04:12] Alright.

Patricia McLinn [04:13] —here, just to get to know you better. What’s a surprising job that you’ve held.

Laura Marie Altom [04:18] I used to be a, um, nurse’s aid. And I guess it’s not so much surprising, but a friend of mine one summer, her mom was like a hospital administrator. And this is back in the days when like nurses wore hats and it was just very, I don’t know, formal and lovely and just kind of romantic, romanticized profession, um, or it’s still a fabulous, uh, if, if I wasn’t a writer, I think that’s one of your other questions, but I would definitely be a nurse cause I’m just, I love them, but yeah, it was just such an amazing job. Um, just loved it.

Patricia McLinn [04:55] Hard job too.

Laura Marie Altom [04:57] Oh my goodness, yeah. I’d go home. My feet would just be killing me, but just so rewarding.

Patricia McLinn [05:02] That’s terrific. Oh yes. Great, we said, we said, if there was dog barking on this, we would, we would just keep going. Cause we both have dogs. That was Chewy.

Laura Marie Altom [05:14] Yes. She’s a Yorkie.

Patricia McLinn [05:17] Okay. We were, we were trying to determine whose dogs, whether her three dogs would out bark my one dog or not.

Laura Marie Altom [05:23] I win. Yay!

Patricia McLinn [05:24] Well, she went first. We still haven’t done volume yet. Okay. What’s your favorite color and why?

Laura Marie Altom [05:31] Oh, I love aqua, and so, but not just any aqua. So like think if you’re like in Bora, Bora, the Maldives or even Mexico, like that kind of aqua of the ocean where it’s like really sandy, but blue and just like barely there. Does that make any sense at all? But—

Patricia McLinn [05:59] Well, I’m going to have to go to Bora Bora.

Laura Marie Altom [06:01] Well, yeah. I mean, I’ve only seen it in pictures. I call it like Caribbean blue or tropical blue, but just that—

Patricia McLinn [06:05] Ohh. Yeah.

Laura Marie Altom [06:07] —crazy iridescent blue.

Patricia McLinn [06:09] And what do you, so you associate it clearly with the water—

Laura Marie Altom [06:13] Right.

Patricia McLinn [06:14] So, okay. That’s a wonderful color. Do you have a favorite taste?

Laura Marie Altom [06:18] Uh, butter.

Patricia McLinn [06:21] I love that.

Laura Marie Altom [06:24] Ranch dressing.

Patricia McLinn [06:26] I like butter better. I think I’m with you there. Okay. Most writers have a bad habit word in there, that keeps cropping up, and a lot of us go back and check for it and take it out. And I have already admitted here that two of mine are just and really. Very slips in there too.

Laura Marie Altom [06:43] Oh my God. Just, really, very, uh, seeing how there, like the phrase, seeing how such and such, and it doesn’t mean, yeah, it doesn’t even make sense, but, yeah, very’s getting very bad lately. I’m having a lot of those, but you know, they come out easy enough. So it’s all right.

Patricia McLinn [07:04] Search and delete. Yeah, I do that with ands too, starting the sentence with an and.

Laura Marie Altom [07:11] Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Patricia McLinn [07:12] But then there’s some that needs—

Laura Marie Altom [07:15] Sometimes it works. It really does.

Patricia McLinn [07:18] Yes.

Laura Marie Altom [07:19] And I’m all about the rhythm and I don’t know. I, I was a band geek all through school, and a lot of my writing is very like musical in a weird way. Like if it doesn’t musically work in my head, then it’s off.

Patricia McLinn [07:33] Cause you hear it in your head.

Laura Marie Altom [07:34] Right.

Patricia McLinn [07:36] And then you, um, when you’re finishing a manuscript, did you play it back? Some people have the computer speak it back to them for a final edit. I do what I call a mumble through where I have a manuscript and I mumble it, it’s so I’m hearing the things. If I talk it, if I say it full voice, I lose my voice over the manuscript. That’s why—

Laura Marie Altom [08:00] I can totally top that. I have to read through it, not just me, but, in a fabulous British or Australian accent. And then I will catch everything. I do it like I’m performing a play.

Patricia McLinn [08:13] Oh, that’s cool.

Laura Marie Altom [08:15] No, and the dogs just look at me like you are crazy. No, I just, um, read it out loud in the craziest accent and sometimes the accents blend, but it’s, I don’t know, it makes it just fun instead of just, you know, drudgery, because at that point you’d read the thing so many times you just never want to see it again.

Patricia McLinn [08:37] Well, I wonder if doing it in an accent to kind of separates you, gives you a little separation from, from knowing what it should say.

Laura Marie Altom [08:46] Oh, maybe that’s it.

Patricia McLinn [08:50] Which is a lot of times what, when you’ve been working on a manuscript a lot, you stop seeing the errors because you know what it should be and, and that’s what your mind fills in.

Laura Marie Altom [09:00] Interesting.

Patricia McLinn [09:02] That would be very interesting. If I could do accents, I’d try.

Laura Marie Altom [09:04] Oh, mine are atrocious. But it’s, it’s just fun.

Patricia McLinn [09:07] That would be fun. Well, you should record one. Wouldn’t that be a riot?

Laura Marie Altom [09:13] Really, there would be great money in that, if I could do my own audiobooks.

Patricia McLinn [09:17] And in an Australian or British accent.

Laura Marie Altom [09:20] I know, right?

Patricia McLinn [09:22] A whole new cottage industry.

Laura Marie Altom [09:25] I get my Okie-Arkie twang out of there.

Pioneer camp, Bigfoot, and Angel Baby

Patricia McLinn [09:30] Do you have any strong fears, and do you use them in the book?

Laura Marie Altom [09:34] All right, I’m going to lay this sat there cause we’re, we’ve been friends 30 years, right?

Patricia McLinn [09:40] At least. Well, we’re starting on thirty years.

Laura Marie Altom [09:44] All right. When I was a little kid, my mother screwed up my summer camp reservations, and instead of my usual cushy cabin setting with my eight girls and, you know, the pool and all that, I had to go to pioneer camp. Gag. So here, I mean, I still like my Marriott’s today.

So, you know, I was out in a field in this tent and the bugs and the weeds and everything else. And one night I got up to pee and, um, I’m thinking it was probably 50 yards. I swear to God, I saw Bigfoot. Um, it was white, like a white ape. It’s the craziest thing to this day I have ever seen. And it scared me. Like even right now, like I kind of break out in sweat, like it was bad. And you know, I, I told counselor and everybody just went back to bed and I just laid in my bed, you know, praying I’d survive till morning.

And, um, I mean, I’ve told my parents about it and my mother’s like, Ah, somebody was putting a costume on just to make fun of you. I’m like, Mom, it was like three AM. Who’s going to have my white ape costume in Northern Michigan just to scare the children at 3:00 AM, like in the sev— you know, when is this, the seventies, I don’t know. But, um, Ever since then it just creeps me out. Like if I, you know, so I’m kind of scared of the dark. That’s a very long way to say I’m scared of the dark, uh yeah.

Patricia McLinn [11:16] Scared of the dark. I have multiple questions. You answered one. I wanted to know where it was and, uh, have any, um, Bigfoot researchers ever contacted you?

Laura Marie Altom [11:27] Um, oddly enough, I used to dabble in a group. And, um, I was so outside the norm that it just didn’t work. Um, you know, these are guys who are very comfortable carrying around AK 47s and, you know, with the snake things and tromping through the woods. And, you know, I just had my nails done and I really don’t need chiggers. And it’s just a little much, but, um, I did hear one time, I heard one of the wood knocks, and again, it was such a, just visceral fear. I remember it had just poured and I thought, Okay, good, you know, we’re safe. Nothing’s going to get us after it rains. And the clearest most vivid wood knock off, you know, like, you’d think you were watching one of the silly, that finding Bigfoot show or something. But I mean, it was like somebody had taken a baseball bat to a tree, and I mean, we were, there’s no way, I mean, I was with the people we were with, and it took a good hour or two four-wheeling to even get where we were. So it wasn’t anybody else. I don’t, I don’t know what would have made it. I still think about it to this day. I don’t know what made that noise.

Patricia McLinn [12:40] Then do you take the, um, that fear, whether it says, well, that specific fear have you used, you know, either fear of the dark or, or the more specific Bigfoot—

Laura Marie Altom [12:55] I would say Bigfoot has made cameos in quite a few of my books at least three or four, and he’s actually in the one … Oh my goodness, it might be out right now. Um, a Harlequin, it came out in November. It’s called The Cowboy SEALs Christmas Baby, and my hero finds, or he thinks he hears a baby crying and he’s a horse whisperer and he’s taking, um, this horribly scarred, mentally scarred horse on like its graduation ride in a hail storm or sleet or somehow storm and here’s a baby crying, but anyway, he finds a lady in a tent who just had a baby and she can’t remember how she got there, or what’s going on. But anyway, I’ve kind of flirt with Bigfoot in that.

Patricia McLinn [13:43] That’s cool. And sort of expiated that fear fight it that way.

Laura Marie Altom [13:51] And I collect, I have a fabulous Bigfoot T-shirt collection and little stuffed dolls and yeah, but it, I mean, it’s something that has stuck with me my entire life. Like, I, I don’t know what I saw. I don’t know what it could have been beyond that. And I mean, I was old enough to, to where, you know, wasn’t like a little kid having a fantasy or something. I mean, I definitely knew about boys and it was, uh, I don’t know.

Patricia McLinn [14:19] So the two other questions that, that one that occurs to me immediately is, was this on the way to the bathroom or, I hope, on the way back?

Laura Marie Altom [14:27] No, it was to and I don’t know—

Patricia McLinn [14:31] Oh, no.

Laura Marie Altom [14:32] Yeah. I mean, I had to have like wet my sleeping bag or something, I don’t know. Like I don’t have any remembrance of what happened after that. Other than trying to wake my counselor. She just rolled over and I climbed back in my sleeping bag and that’s all I remember until morning.

Patricia McLinn [14:48] Awww.

Laura Marie Altom [14:49] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [14:50] Poor kid.

Laura Marie Altom [14:51] I know.

Patricia McLinn [14:52] And did you ever go back to pioneer camp?

Laura Marie Altom [14:55] Oh, no, no, no. That was my last year I ever went to summer camp.

Patricia McLinn [14:59] Okay. Sort of a segue from that. Do you have anything from uh, segue from, uh, Bigfoot are not easy. So now, but do you, do you have, um, other earlier in life things that you fretted over that now you just don’t care?

Laura Marie Altom [15:18] I guess when I first started this crazy journey of being a writer, I was just absolutely obsessed with selling my first book. And, you know, it was probably my family and friends were just like, shut up already. you know, you’re never going to sell a book to shut up about the books we don’t want, we don’t care. And, um, it was just an absolute obsession, would I ever sell a book? So probably that, I mean, that’s what first comes to mind.

Patricia McLinn [15:49] How did you get interested in. And selling a book and wanting to write and publish.

Laura Marie Altom [15:55] My grandmother was, um, just brilliant. She’s a University of Chicago graduate and just all about the classics and always, uh, wanted me to read. And, um, problem came in, uh, her and my grandfather, this, we lived in Michigan at the time, and they would winter in Palm Springs, California, and so I would go stay with them at their condo and there’d be all these fabulous older ladies who were missing their grandkids, and they would just take me in.

And so one in particular, her name was Helen, she would bring over sacks of Harlequin romances that she had read. And, um, my grandmother, you know, she say, Here, these are for you, Laura. And my grandmother would just, I can tell you know, we’re going to take those straight to the Goodwill. And I read every romance, stay up all night read.

Laura Marie Altom [16:55] And I think it was in junior high. It just occurred to me, Well, I want to write one of those. So I set up a very strict schedule where I was going to write like a page a day and I kept it up for probably a good 70 to 80 pages, and that’s when I was on a typewriter and I don’t know. And yeah, junior high happens. I’ve found out about boys and quit writing and stuff. I don’t think I took it out again until college.

But once I had my twins, uh, affording daycare for twin newborns is just nuts. So I, we decided that I was going to stay home, and I think I was just cleaning out the attic one day and came across that manuscript. And I thought, and by this time we had a PC, you know, at our house that, you know, and back in those days, all it had was a word processing program, probably Dig Dug or some weird pong game or something.

Laura Marie Altom [17:48] So, uh, yeah, so that’s history, but in those days, I mean, there, I guess there was RWA, but that was the only organization and there were no self-help books at Barnes & Noble, there was no internet. You really had to want it.

Patricia McLinn [18:03] Yeah. I stumbled into going to, um, RWA cause I, well, it’s a long story, but, uh, librarian helped me and said, Oh, we’re having a talk here by, um, a romance writer and it’s Kathleen Gilles Seidel, who is, um, one of the original authors for Harlequin America—

Laura Marie Altom [18:24] Wow, that’s my line. Huh.

Patricia McLinn [18:26] —And has done a lot of, um, single titles subsequently. And there were four of us who went up to her after the talk and within, I think within two years, two of us were published.

Laura Marie Altom [18:38] Wow.

Patricia McLinn [18:39] One was the president of the local, the local chapter. I don’t know what happened to the other one. She was a slacker.

Laura Marie Altom [18:46] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [18:47] Kathy Seidel did pretty well out of that talk.

Laura Marie Altom [18:48] Oh, that’s great.

Patricia McLinn [18:49] So—

Laura Marie Altom [18:50] That’s a great story.

Patricia McLinn [18:51] Yeah.

Laura Marie Altom [18:52] Thank you.

Patricia McLinn [18:53] RWA has helped a lot of us, but there wasn’t, there wasn’t anything.

Laura Marie Altom [18:57] You really had to want it. And you had to like, be a detective about it. I mean, yeah, all of my first manuscripts were mailed in and I didn’t even know really how to do that. And I would print them on like a hundred percent cotton paper and like make it all fancy.

Patricia McLinn [19:13] Yeah. And then at the first, um, RWA, Washington Romance Writers, um, which is the DC chapter of the RWA, first meeting I went to a lovely woman named Nancy Richards Akers came up to me at first person to talk to me and said, What are you writing? And I said, A book.

Laura Marie Altom [19:33] Yeah.

On a desert island with Ethan Hawke, Matthew McConaughey, and Michael Biehn

Patricia McLinn [19:34] Okay. One of my favorite questions to ask is, what three movies would you take with you to a desert Island? I know this is weird because how many desert islands let you play movies?

Laura Marie Altom [19:45] Oh, mine would. Definitely.

Patricia McLinn [19:47] Lets not get particular.

Laura Marie Altom [19:48] No, it would.

Patricia McLinn [19:50] So which three movies, but you only get three movies.

Laura Marie Altom [19:53] Um, you’re so mean just three, huh? Okay. I’m going to say Great Expectations, but the Ethan Hawke Gweneth Paltrow version and it has amazing soundtrack. I really love the underdog story to it. They’re both very beautiful, and just the colors and the cinematography. It’s just fabulous. K2, which is a very underrated mountain climbing, movie. Uh, I think Michael Biehn, is he the one who played Terminator? I think so.

Patricia McLinn [20:30] I don’t know.

Laura Marie Altom [20:32] Well anyway, K2, fabulous mountaineering movie. If you haven’t seen it, you should. And then, um, let’s go with Contact, because—

Patricia McLinn [20:41] Interesting.

Laura Marie Altom [20:42] —it’s just such a, I remember seeing it the first time it was so riveting to me because, you know, you got to think something’s out there. And I really loved how, if there is something out there that really could be the way it goes down. I don’t know. It just, just seemed very fascinating to me. And you know, you can’t go wrong with Matthew McConaughey. So, yeah, I’d have Ethan Hawke and Matthew McConaughey and Michael Biehn all with me on the island.

Patricia McLinn [21:14] Okay. So that’s the thread, I was trying to figure out. Aha, now I see. Do you have a saying that your mother or father used to say that now you hear yourself, coming out of your mouth all the time?

Laura Marie Altom [21:26] I really don’t. I no, I mean like Grandma always used to say like, c’est la vie and stuff like that. Um, it’d probably be more of like a, you know how your parents are like, Yeah, we approve, but you can tell they don’t approve kind of a thing. Caught myself doing that with my kids. And my kids are like 25. So really it’s, you know, not my issue anymore, but it is. I’ve made you, I will always approve or disapprove.

Patricia McLinn [21:54] All right. So we have some questions from readers that I will kind of sprinkle in here, but let’s start with one. Where, and this reader says, Where do your stories come from? I know one author who dreams her stories. Another has a character suddenly taking up residence in her head. So how are your beautiful stories born?

Laura Marie Altom [22:16] Oh, that’s so hard. I used to have really vivid dream books, but they were like epic and like, you know, back in the, I guess it would have been eighties where they’re like 500 pages long, that kind of stuff.

And one that stuck in my head, it was all I remember is that the hero rescued this, I dunno, let’s say she was 15. And he was like an 18-year-old GI, and she was like a Hawaiian girl. And somehow he like took her in and it was kind of just this sweeping saga of they never met up at the right time. Like he somehow got her to school and then while she was doing that, he got married and then.

She was out of school and then she got married and then his wife died and then, you know, how back and forth they used to go. And, um, I wrote out this crazy detailed outline and somehow that got lost in the move and it just made me so mad that I just never went back, but it would have been amazing. I have no doubt, but nowadays it’s almost like, I don’t have an organic flow to it because I’m so scheduled so far out as far as series or, you know, even my work with Harlequin, I have very narrow parameters as to what my brand is and quirks, that it takes a little bit of the fun out of just being able to write whatever you want to write.

Patricia McLinn [23:56] But you’re doing some, um, indie writing too.

Laura Marie Altom [24:00] Yeah. I mean, cause I’ve got my Disavowed series and it’s planned up through ten books. So, you know, I’m just starting seven. So, you know, I’ve got that. And then I just started a new SEAL Team: Holiday Heroes. And I’m finishing up book two in that, but that would be a twelve book series. So I’ve got a lot to go there. I do have some, uh, like book of the heart projects that are with my agent, but, you know, we’ll just see what happens. Uh, those would go with, you know, Big Six publishing houses.

Um, and then I’ve got other books that are just total, I, I want to write a dystopian so bad and I’ve got one started. Um, and my agent’s like, no, oh, there’s just no market for that. I’m just like, well, tell that to all the movies that are on.

Patricia McLinn [24:51] Right. And, and tell that to your muse, to whatever is pushing you to, to write that.

Laura Marie Altom [24:55] Um, you know what, just for fun, I might start writing, like, I don’t know, 250 words a day on that book, just so I can have something. Cause it’s, I just want to write that book. I don’t think I answered that question at all. I’m sorry.

Patricia McLinn [25:08] That’s quite all right. That’s quite all right. So you mentioned the sweeping saga book idea you had, that you outlined it. Do you always outline?

Laura Marie Altom [25:17] No, usually I will outline, well, I always have to do a synopsis for Harlequin. I would say I outline about once I get to know my characters, maybe by page a hundred, just so that the story stays tight. I will then do a rough scene list. And I’ve, I’ve been at this enough now that it’s, I kind of just organically know if something’s going to work or not or what it needs, you know, a little more of here or there. So no, to always formally outlining, but yes, to just kind of listing the closer I get to the end of what scenes I want to include.

Patricia McLinn [26:03] Do your books tend to follow your synopsis?

Laura Marie Altom [26:06] Synopsis, no. Even my list, synopsis maybe 25%. I mean the general flavor’s going to be there. But, I don’t know about you, but my characters, they just talk and I don’t, they just kind of take over and people show up and I’m like, who are, who are you? You know, like if you’re supposed to be here, they just take over.

Patricia McLinn [26:27] Well, one of the delights to me of being an independent author is I will never write another synopsis in my life.

Laura Marie Altom [26:34] Oh my gosh. They’re horrible.They really are. They’re they’re just such a creativity sucker.

Patricia McLinn [26:40] Now, when did you publish your first book? When did it get published?

Laura Marie Altom [26:44] I think ’97. Yeah, my kids are 25, so they were born in ’92. And my first book came out and they were in kindergarten. So ’97.

Patricia McLinn [26:55] Do you think that having that book published, that first book published, did it change how you approach writing or, or your process or—

Laura Marie Altom [27:04] Well, it made me think I was hot you know what, and, um, I mean, I was just a superstar and, you know, there’d never been any better writer in the history of the world and, um, I can go back and look, I just got the rights back to that book and I just kind of hang my head in shame like, Oh dear. Oh, dear. So if anything now, it’s like, I know I have so much to learn, but back then, no. So in that first book, uh uhn, it, I was done like get out my Emmy Academy award, Rita, whatever you got, I’ve earned it.

Patricia McLinn [27:44] That’s interesting how we, we keep becoming better writers. And, uh, I think, uh, I’ve taught writing and one student was saying, they’d been editing this book for three years and I said, Stop, you know, you just got to stop. And they said, but I’m better. I’m better. And I said, Of course you are, but you’re going to be on an endless cycle. You are never going to finish that book. You’ve got to let it go and go write something else.

Laura Marie Altom [28:13] Let it go. Yep.

Patricia McLinn [28:15] And then at that point, you will be better at the end of it than you were at the beginning. And you’ve got accept that and go on to the next story.

Laura Marie Altom [28:21] Yep.

Patricia McLinn [28:23] Where do you think your love of story came from? Do you think it was from the, your, well from your grandmother and that friend of hers? Or was it other things?

Hippies, boaties, Lake Michigan, storms

Laura Marie Altom [28:33] I was thinking about that. I think, I was an only child and spent a whole lot of time alone. Uh, we grew, or I grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan, and back then it was not like wild or anything, but, you know, there was lots of places that a kid could safely just get on their bike and not come home till dark. And I would, I had this game that I’d play where I’d like, pretend I was Barbara Walters and like interview just random miscellaneous people, whether they happen to be there or in my head, I don’t know. I was a weird little kid.

You know, my parents, we got around, like they were kind of hippies and, um, we were always like, they were real boaties. And not really yachties in a fancy sense, but more boaties, I mean, we always had a boat. We were always sailing. We crossed Lake Michigan several times. And, um, I think I just, I was alone so much that I would just was playing with my Barbies and spinning stories.

Patricia McLinn [29:39] And you’ve got to tell people who are not, I grew up in the Chicago area and went to Northwestern, which is right on the western side of Lake Michigan. But you’ve got to tell people who maybe are not familiar with Lake Michigan that it’s not a—

Laura Marie Altom [29:56] Oh no.

Patricia McLinn [29:58] —passive little lake.

Laura Marie Altom [29:59] Oh no. And we were in a—

Patricia McLinn [30:00] So sailing across it is impressive.

Laura Marie Altom [30:03] —hellacious storm and we left, and I’m sure there’s a sailing reason for this, but we left it dusk out of, um, I think South Haven, Michigan, and we were headed toward like the Milwaukee area, I think. I don’t know, couple hours in, and this was before radar, I mean, you didn’t know if a storm was coming or not. And, um, just hellacious storm. I mean that bro was he heaving something terrible.

And my dad, he loves to sail, I mean, he grew up in a family of sailors. And I just remember my mom, like I kept wanting to peek my head out of the hatch, you know, my mom, like just pushing me back down kind of like whack-a-mole, you know, like, no, just stay down. You’re going to die. I mean, just the water is like coming up over the bow. Oh, it was bad.

Patricia McLinn [30:52] Oh, wow.

Laura Marie Altom [30:53] Very bad. And actually—

Patricia McLinn [30:55] Have you used that in any books?

Laura Marie Altom [30:57] I need you though, but the problem is with, and I’ve got another… Oh, this is another dream story I had, um, that I can’t quite write because of the technical logistics. Um, and when, if you’re writing a book that’s totally taking place on the sailboat, there’s so much technical stuff you need to know to make it come across as realistic that it’s just daunting. Um, so anyway, no, I haven’t yet, but yeah, that was quite an experience.

Patricia McLinn [31:28] Unless you did it, um, they’re really close third person or first person from the point of view of somebody who was on the sailboat, but didn’t go sailing.

Laura Marie Altom [31:37] Ohh, that is brilliant. That is absolutely brilliant.

Patricia McLinn [31:39] Yeah.

Laura Marie Altom [31:40] Thank you, Pat. Like for reals.

Patricia McLinn [31:42] You’re welcome. I’ll look forward to that book.

Laura Marie Altom [31:45] I never thought of that.

Patricia McLinn [31:47] I look forward to reading that book. Yeah, because then you have the emotion, and you have the additional fear of the character not knowing what’s going on.

Laura Marie Altom [31:56] I love that. Thank you. All right, you’re going to get credit at the start of that.

Patricia McLinn [32:00] Well, thank you. So do you have other books that are in, now these are, well, the one you had outlined, but the, more in your head, do you have books that are like half finished or completed, but not published? And—

Laura Marie Altom [32:16] So many. I have so many orphan book babies.

Patricia McLinn [32:22] I feel about that way about them too. Do you give up on them or do you keep thinking this can come together?

Laura Marie Altom [32:32] Nah, one of these days. It’s not that I ended it, I just ended it just time restraints. Um, there’s just, and I got a break my Bravo TV habit, and then I would probably have tons of time, but, and Lifetime movies.

Patricia McLinn [32:48] Okay, re-readers out there, you have to get Bravo to stop broadcasting and we’ll have lots more books from Laura.

Laura Marie Altom [32:58] Um, they didn’t, yeah, it just comes down to time, which I need to be a much better time managemer, managamer. That’s a good word. So I mean, it’s, let’s say, so I’ve got one called, um, Kissing Frogs, and it’s like a time-travel where this prince comes back, and this was real old school. This was before I’d killed, um, Dorchester Publishing. So, um, I would love to do the sequel for that. And, um, I’ve got probably the first three or four chapters, and they’re really fabulous. Like even today, I still love those chapters and I got to get that out.

Um, I’ve got a little, uh, kind of a tween book called I’ll Die if I Don’t Make Cheerleading. And then the sequel is I Made Cheerleading and I’m Still Going to Die. And that’s another one I’m probably halfway through. I need to just go ahead and just do it. Yeah. I’ve got a ghost book. Oh, my God, I’m just obsessed with it. And actually, Harlequin took a nibble on it. But for one of their online only reads and the terms were just atrocious. I’d rather just sit on it. But anyway, so yeah, I’ve got lots and lots of book orphans.

Patricia McLinn [34:11] Yeah. I have a time-travel. Um, but just one time travel story idea, but it keeps coming at me and coming at me. So at some point—

Laura Marie Altom [34:20] See, and that’s the problem. How do you, how do you, I don’t know if reconcile is the right word, probably not, but you know, there’s such a tight focus these days on author branding. But, yeah, I want to do more time travels. I want to do a horror book. There’s so many things I want to do, but it’s not in my brand. And how, you know, how do you do that? Just do it?

Patricia McLinn [34:43] Well, I do, but that’s part of being independent and, um, you know, just wanting and doing what I want to do. So I started a mystery series and I’m going to start, I think, another mystery series and I have some other, um, wild ideas and I’m just going to do it and hope people enjoy it. But if they don’t, here’s part of my, my philosophy is that if you, if you please yourself as the author, that’s the only time you are assured, absolutely assured of having one person who loves the book.

Laura Marie Altom [35:20] True. True, true, true.

Patricia McLinn [35:22] So, and you spend all the time with, you know, you spend months and months with it. So my first goal is to entertain myself and, and get far enough along in the book that when I hit the bad spots, I feel guilty if I don’t complete it because I-I’m leaving these characters hanging. So that’s, that’s my, um, use guilt to write books.

Laura Marie Altom [35:47] Oh, I love that. Yeah. I can see that. That makes a lot of sense.

Patricia McLinn [35:49] And now, do you have a writing routine?

Laura Marie Altom [35:52] My routine would be my lack of routine. I usually get up freakishly early, like, I don’t know between five and six and I’ll get a whole bunch done by say nine, but then by that time, you know, hubby’s up, and he works from home now and he, you know, travels when he has to go do other things. So he’s a real imposition to my day, usually.

So yeah, once he gets up, it’s just whatever whim strikes him. Yeah. As long as he’s in his office working good, then I’m okay. But then, you know, once I get out of that Goldilocks zone, it’s really hard to get back in because then you start answering emails—

Patricia McLinn [36:35] Yes, it is.

Laura Marie Altom [36:36] —and your marketing, your social media stuff. And there’s always some old fire burning somewhere but, you know, So, you know how it is.

Patricia McLinn [36:43] It’s always easier to, to click from the creative to the practical, than it is from the practical—

Laura Marie Altom [36:50] Right. Right.

Patricia McLinn [36:51] —back to the creative. Yeah. So you have to protect that. And do, do you write in a specific place? You mentioned your husband’s office. Do you have your own office?

Laura Marie Altom [37:00] Well, here’s the thing, I have a fabulous office and I absolutely love it, but I also have a 15-year-old, uh, deaf and blind Dachshund. And she gets really disoriented. And so if I go upstairs, so then I have my, the rest of the posse. So I’ve got this giant dog that was supposed to be my daughter’s, but somehow he ended up mine, and he’s kind of a lab-mutt mix. And then I have my little bitty four-pound Yorkie, and then I have Coco, and she’s the blind one and she weighs probably 15 pounds.

So I basically to go up to my office, I have to have the dogs, so I have to have the Dachshund, the Yorkie, my laptop, my reading glasses, whatever I’m drinking. I mean, it’s just really easier just to write at the, the kitchen table. So that’s where I am. So, you know, bless her heart, one day Coco will move on to doggy heaven, but until then, you know, she’s content behind me, and… I have to kind of, my daughter of this idea where it’s like a little, uh, settee for one side of the table and then two chairs on the other. So it’s really comfy. So me and all three dogs fit very comfortably on the couch. There I am. And now—

Patricia McLinn [38:20] Don’t, don’t tell Kalli that she’s not supposed to be on the furniture ever. Although I’ve got it, I know that she comes and checks on me and sees how occupied I am in my office. And then she comes down to the, in lies on the couch in the family room. I thought she was checking on me. You know—

Laura Marie Altom [38:41] Of course she is.

Patricia McLinn [38:42] —she loved me.

Laura Marie Altom [38:43] No?

Patricia McLinn [38:44] No. It was, see if the coast is falling on the couch.

Laura Marie Altom [38:47] Oh, no.

Patricia McLinn [38:48] Yes. So once you get going on a book, what’s your favorite part of the process? Do you love, you know, deep in the throes or are you, uh, many of us talk about the middle being bad, but I know a few authors who love them.

Laura Marie Altom [39:00] No.

Patricia McLinn [39:02] Do you love those, or do you like—

Laura Marie Altom [39:04] I really do. It is, writing is so uncomfortable. I don’t know what there, it’s just, once I’m in the middle, I have to get it out of me. It’s awful. That sounds really weird. It’s just the most uncomfortable feeling and my mood darkens, the more anx my people were going through, like, I’ll catch myself, like my mood kind of reflects them. And, yeah, I just want it done.

Patricia McLinn [39:30] That’s why I wondered about the research. If that affected you. And I could see where the combination of that sort of, um, research into, um, serial killers and stuff like that, combined with the characters going through tough times would, would really bring you down and yet be a satisfying book to write.

Laura Marie Altom [39:50] It’s very, it’s a very, very strange process, that I, and I, I don’t even understand, like, I’ll read the book, say months later, I’ll pick something up or it’s nice on Kindle now. So since I’m in a series, I can refer back to, you know, books such and such and do a quick search on it and I’ll read it. I’m like, I don’t even remember re, writing that. It’s so strange.

Patricia McLinn [40:15] Do you, sometimes you talked about your first, first book and reading it now and going, Oh dear. But, do you ever read things that you’ve written and gone—

Laura Marie Altom [40:24] Oh, sure, sure. No, absolutely.

Patricia McLinn [40:28] Yeah.

Laura Marie Altom [40:29] Um, yeah, no, lots, quite a bit, but yeah. It’s, I think when I say something’s bad, it’s like passive and I say like a lot, Yeah. I need to cut all my likes. But just the passive phrasings of things, like I write so much tighter now that it’s very annoying to see huge chunks of just passive garbage. Like just chop it off.

Patricia McLinn [40:56] I think that’s something that a lot of us learn, and also, the writing has changed in those years. So a question from a reader is when, when you finished a book, do you find yourself missing those characters or thinking about them. Where they are now, you know, after the, after the book or, um, or thinking about different things in the book. And, and then I would add on the question to that, Has that ever led you to write a follow-up book, because you are still thinking about them?

Laura Marie Altom [41:30] Probably not so much with my series books because they are so tightly deadline controlled, but I wrote a four-book series for Loveswept that were all in first person, and those people are still with me. I love those books. So yeah, I think, I think they’re the only ones. I mean, every once in a while, I’ll have some characters you liked better than others, but—

Patricia McLinn [42:01] Do you think you’ll go back to them?

Laura Marie Altom [42:03] Probably not. Uh, I mean, it, it’s very complete. And it’s, again, in the end it’s owned by the publishing house, so I really don’t have any rights to anything. Um, and I don’t, you know, as far as the world, I pretty much covered, I mean, you can always add somebody in, but I just, I don’t see it happening.

Patricia McLinn [42:24] Which of your stories has surprised you?

Laura Marie Altom [42:28] Probably, it would have been in that same series. And the fourth book in that series, I knew had to be centered around Garrett, who was just an absolute despised character throughout the first three books.

And he was a straight up bastard, just a horrible person, and the things he would say to people, it was just like, Oh, you know, I would even think, how can he say that? So when it came time to do that fourth book, I, I just was like, how in the world am I going to redeem this guy? Yeah. I didn’t even like him.

How was I going to make a reader like him? And my editor, Sue Grimshaw, and she’s a saint, uh, absolutely adore her. She said, what if you did a stepbrother book? I’m like, what are you even talking about? She goes, well, there’s this hot, new trend where, you know, people get involved with their stepbrother.

Patricia McLinn [43:34] Oh, my.

Laura Marie Altom [43:35] I’m like, Okay. I’m always game for an experiment. And lo and behold, it kind of came out that like, Garrett is so grumpy because he has wanted Savannah literally his whole life, but it’s so taboo. I mean, you just can’t be with your stepsister, and you know, there is no way in any way related physically, you know, by blood or anything.

So, yeah, he really shocked me what a fabulous guy he turned out to be. Um, I mean, he fell on his sword for her, uh, that book, I obsessed with that book. I love it so much. Um, but yeah, so that’s, that would be my surprise book.

Patricia McLinn [44:17] Um, did that end up being a joy to write or was it still difficult to write?

Laura Marie Altom [44:22] Absolute joy to write. And the love scenes, oh my God. Uh, I found a certain song that just kind of fit the mood or the vibe. And I would just listen to that song on repeat. And, uh, I remember my daughter on Spotify. She’d like, Oh my God, Mom. So embarrassing. People are gonna think that’s me on my account listening. And it’s you. Stop playing that song. So—

Patricia McLinn [44:49] Well, what do you read for fun?

Laura Marie Altom [44:51] I read a whole bunch of action-adventure, love James Rollins. And that’s probably what’s gotten me started on my romantic suspense. Um, just, I love the, just what if, you know, and just a little bit of bad guy and a little bit of romance and. Just a good mix of weirdness.

Ugly covers, The Cowboy SEAL, Sentenced to Sabrina, LaVyrle Spencer

Patricia McLinn [45:15] Okay. And then we have a question from a reader who says, um, When the cover image doesn’t match the character description, and then, reader says a pet peeve of mine. How does it feel?

Laura Marie Altom [45:28] It feels gut-wrenching. I remember, God, my poor husband, he’s been through so much to me. I have this book called The Cowboy SEAL and this was supposed to be like, an absolute breakout book for me, my editor was so excited. Harlequin was just super behind me.

And at that point, I had invented The Cowboy SEAL and with both my editor and agent, we invented him at a conference in Anaheim RWA and, uh, when I got that cover, you know, I told everybody, you know, this is going to be the most epic cover of all times. It is the most ugly cover. I cried and cried and cried.

Patricia McLinn [46:13] Ohhhh.

Laura Marie Altom [46:14] I went to my agent. I said, Come on now. Like, he looks deformed, like some, you know, like aliens got ahold of him. You’ve got to do something. And, uh, you know, my agent tried getting them to change it. My editor was like, Well, I don’t know, I called the office, and they don’t think it’s that bad.  And I said, Come on now.

Patricia McLinn [46:33] No, they never do.

Laura Marie Altom [46:36] I mean, I was so upset. So yeah, if anybody sees The Cowboy SEAL, I’m sorry. That’s not what he looks like. And then my very first book to, if anybody really wanted to do deep research, uh, Sentenced to Sabrina. Uh, you know, you think, okay, my first book cover, it’s going to be so amazing, and yeah, it’s just really bad.

So yeah, Google Sentenced to Sabrina. And it’s like this nuclear green background and it’s just nuts. And I want to say she had really red corkscrewy hair and she doesn’t at all in the book. Okay. And the song. It’s called To Build a Home—

Patricia McLinn [47:21] Oh, yes.

Laura Marie Altom [47:22] —by The Cinematic Orchestra. And I want to say I grabbed it off of, I’m real bad about or good about grabbing songs, you know, Shazam while watching TV. So I don’t, I don’t even know where I found it, but it is just absolutely stunning. Really love that song.

Patricia McLinn [47:37] Build a home. Okay. I’ll have to listen to it. And what was the name of the book?

Laura Marie Altom [47:42] That book is Stepping Over the Line—

Patricia McLinn [47:45] Okay.

Laura Marie Altom [47:46] —with Garrett and Savannah.

Patricia McLinn [47:47] That’s great. Here is another question from a reader, which I think this is fascinating, some people haven’t. If you could write a book with any author, alive or dead, who would you want to work with and why?

Laura Marie Altom [48:02] LaVyrle Spencer is an absolute goddess. She breaks every single rule so beautifully. I don’t know how she does it. I mean, she will head hop, so for readers, that would be like the point of view, like, you know, the hero has a point of view and the heroine has point of view. She will do it literally every other line.

I actually did a workshop on this one time and it’s fascinating how she does it, but yet you you never get lost. You totally know what’s going on. Uh, she is an absolute hands-down genius masterpiece. I love her. If I ever saw her, I’d probably break down in tears and, you know, just fall at her feet. Um, yeah, she’s amazing.

And I just read a book, one of her old books, and she started it with the hero drunk driving and throwing a beer can out the window. Who does that? You can’t do that, but she did, and it worked.

Patricia McLinn [49:05] Oh, that, she’s, she’s somebody who said I’m retiring and no, not going to write any more books. Would you consider, would you consider doing that?

Laura Marie Altom [49:16] No. Why? I mean my people need me to come out. No. My character people.

Patricia McLinn [49:26] I understand that completely then my head would get so clogged.

Laura Marie Altom [49:30] Exactly.

Patricia McLinn [49:31] What you do with all of them.Right?

Laura Marie Altom [49:35] Right.

Patricia McLinn [49:35] So—

Laura Marie Altom [49:36] What else would I do, in general? I mean, really.

Patricia McLinn [49:38] On that, I could find things, I would read. I would sit and read, I think. Um—

Laura Marie Altom [49:43] Wow. Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [49:44] And, and so coming back to readers, do you have any, have you had any great encounters with readers?

Laura Marie Altom [49:51] Oh my God. I have this sweet couple. I think they live in Manchester, England, and every year for my birthday, they send me this giant box of English, chocolate and candies. And it’s gotten to the point now where the whole family, the whole family is like, Oh my God, you got your birthday box. And uh, if you’ve never tried Maltesers, oh, oh my God. They’re just absolute chocolate heaven. It’s like a malt ball, but something about English chocolate, it doesn’t have that waxy kind of like, it just melts instantly. It’s, it’s amazing. But anyway, Louise and Steven McLean, I love you. And they’re fabulous.

Patricia McLinn [50:36] How did, how did that start? Had they read a particular book or do you know?

Laura Marie Altom [50:45] I don’t know. Well, she, Louise started out, uh, reading my Control series, uh, that was put out through Loveswept. And we just somehow, you know, how you become just fast friends with people online.

Patricia McLinn [50:59] Uh-huh.

Laura Marie Altom [51:00] And, uh, she just is so funny and quirky and we just always got along. And just one day she asked me for my address and said she wanted to send me a present and I’m like, okay, send me a present. And so, and then after that, then I sent her a box of, uh, American things. It’s funny. She loves candy corn. I’m like nobody in America likes candy corn.

Patricia McLinn [51:23] You have to send her Indian corn, though, instead of candy corn. You know, Indian corn has the chocolate, it’s the brown and orange.

Laura Marie Altom [51:33] I’ve never heard that.

Patricia McLinn [51:34] Brach’s Indian corn. I love the stuff.

Laura Marie Altom [51:38] Okay, I’m going to have to get that.

Patricia McLinn [51:39] I tell myself at Halloween that I cannot eat Indian corn. Cause it’s, I can’t eat, um, candy corn, cause it’s inferior to Indian corn. And I can’t eat any brand except for Brach’s Indian corn.

Laura Marie Altom [51:51] Oh, Brach’s. Everything they make is good.

Patricia McLinn [51:55] That limits my, uh, my access to, to pure sugar.

Laura Marie Altom [52:00] Interesting.

Patricia McLinn [52:01] Definitely. I’m going to hide now Indian corn, because, Oh my goodness. It, it is, you know, an immediate sugar delivery system.

Laura Marie Altom [52:09] Yes, please.

Patricia McLinn [52:10] Okay. So we talked, uh, um, we’ve talked about several of your books, which of your books would you say is the best place for a new to you reader to be introduced to your books, to find out if you’re a good author reader fit?

Laura Marie Altom [52:27] Okay, this is, I just redid my website and because I do so many different kinds of guys, I try to think of a slogan. So I came up with A man for every mood. So, because I do have, I think I’ve got over 60 books now, so I’ve covered a lot of different guys. So if you like billionaires, you would start with my Control series.

If you like SEALs, I don’t even know, like there, you know, it lists all my SEAL books. So you, if you like a SEAL just by himself, then there’s those kinds of books. If you’d like a SEAL, who’s also a cowboy, I got those. So then I have another section that has a cowboy. So those might just be a cowboy. Or they could also be a cowboy and a SEAL. So, what you do, if you want to check me out, go to my website and you’ll see the three guys. So just click on one of the three guys that you, so say, I-I’m really in the mood for a cowboy book. So click on a cowboy and then you’ll see my cowboy books and just pick, pick the one that looks good.

And I really, any of my series, I try not to make it, each book will stand alone, even within the series. I mean, you might get a little more reading them, you know, in sequence, but you’re not going to miss that much.

Patricia McLinn [53:50] And which, uh, what’s your URL for your website?

Laura Marie Altom [53:53] Uh, it’s just lauramariealtom.com.

Patricia McLinn [53:55] Okay.

Laura Marie Altom [53:56] And I’m everywhere. Um, and it’s the same thing anywhere. Twitter, Facebook, my Facebook page, it’s all just Laura Marie Altom whatever, you know, via Instagram. And Instagram is my fun place. That’s where I, you know, any kind of family pictures or just fun, goofy things. That’s probably where I have the most fun.

Patricia McLinn [54:17] Yeah. There’s my dog is all over that. She’s also all over Facebook.

Laura Marie Altom [54:24] Yep. Yep. Lots of dog pictures on Instagram. So if you want to see my crew, that’s where they are, where I hang out.

Patricia McLinn [54:29] So are any of your books what you might consider an overlooked gem? One, one that even your loyal readers, even those who send chocolate from England, might not have been familiar with or know about?

Laura Marie Altom [54:45] I have this little book and it was my first one published by Dorchester. Uh, at the time it came out, it was called Blue Moon, and I re-issued it, uh, Angel Baby. And that book is the first one that ever made me just break down sobbing writing it.

Patricia McLinn [55:05] What’s it about?

Laura Marie Altom [55:07] It features a super seriously down on his luck widower, who has a baby who’s failing to thrive. And I did quite a bit of research on infants who failed to thrive. And it’s just heartbreaking. I mean, there’s, you know, they won’t eat, there was a way there, um, you know, on a downhill slide. So one night he’s cleaning his, uh, the restroom in his diner and, um, just feeling lower than low. And this woman walks in and you can tell something’s happened to her, but you’re not quite sure, she’s just not quite right.

So she uses the restroom and he goes about his work and doesn’t really think much of it. And when he comes out, he finds her back in his office, breastfeeding his baby. And actually, this was another dream I had and I totally forgot that this was, this came from a dream, but so right away, so he’s got this issue of, okay, my baby is suddenly eating. And this is a really good thing, but on the flip side—

Patricia McLinn [56:11] What the heck is this?

Laura Marie Altom [56:12] —uh, clearly this lady has a baby somewhere that she should be with. Uh, where is her baby? And, you know, obviously contacts the authorities, authorities don’t have a clue where she’s come from. She doesn’t know where she’s come from. I just, I love a good amnesia story, but that one just, oh my God. Oh, I still, when I think about when it, when it all starts unraveling, it’s bad, just real bad, but anyway, in a good way.

Patricia McLinn [56:42] Interesting that you mentioned amnesia because, um, I have amnesia. I have, I have lost three days from a car accident.

Laura Marie Altom [56:52] Oh my gosh.

Patricia McLinn [56:54] And, um, I didn’t really want to write an amnesia story until I could figure out how to deal with it. So, and oddly enough, my amnesia story has smartass humor in it. So my, my character pretends that she has amnesia.

Laura Marie Altom [57:14] Oh my gosh, that’s brilliant.

Patricia McLinn [57:15] That’s how I, I dealt with, I think it was a way of working out some of my thoughts about losing these days, uh, from my memory, which had, had been really spectacular, but not quite so, so good after that.

Laura Marie Altom [57:30] Wow. So how did you, okay, so now the writer in me is kicking in. I got to know like, I mean, are you okay to talk about it?

Patricia McLinn [57:37] Sure, sure. It was years and years and years ago. Yeah.

Laura Marie Altom [57:40] So what happened?

Patricia McLinn [57:43] I was driving to work at the Charlotte Observer after, right after Christmas. And I, the last thing I remember is going out to my car, um, and, but from police reports and witnesses, I was driving, um, four-lane highway, not divided. I was in the left lane, a guy lost control of his car from the other, coming the other direction and came 90 degrees across. And the other witnesses said that I tried to go, I tried to go left first to avoid, avoid him, but there was oncoming traffic. So I pulled as far and as hard as I could to the right, we ended, which meant that his car came into the, um, driver’s area of my car.

And, and we ended up on the front lawn of a, of a business. And then they said that, um, you know, they took me into the emergency room. They said that I had, I had regained consciousness. And what happened was, uh, a friend who is also the wife of a coworker, um, came to the hospital to be with me initially. And she was the one who recognized that I was asking the same questions over and over. I was articulate. I would ask, you know, ask good questions, but that I wasn’t retaining that I had asked them or whatever the answer was.

Laura Marie Altom [59:07] Wow.

Patricia McLinn [59:08] Um, it was, it was quite, quite the thing. They called my parents in Illinois and said, if the family’s gonna get here, get here now, because they’d had a blood pressure that dropped precipitously. And one time they figured out what it was and fixed it. They never really knew what the other time was. And—

Laura Marie Altom [59:29] Wow.

Patricia McLinn [59:30] The first thing I remember is, um, that day, but very, very small snippets. I can remember tipping my head back and looking to the left and seeing the machine monitoring me and seeing the lines fairly regularly and thinking, Well, that should be okay. That, that should be a good sign. And the next thing I remember was my parents being there. So this is, I don’t know, five, six, maybe longer hours. Um, oh, probably more like eight hours after. And my mom on one side and my dad on the other.

And there’s two things my, uh, I asked my mother two questions. Was anybody else hurt? And, Was it my fault? And the other thing I remember is holding, I was holding their hands, and my dad had a cold, and he had put, he always had cloth handkerchiefs, and he had put a clean cloth handkerchief between our hands, so I wouldn’t get his germs.

Laura Marie Altom [100:37] Oh, my goodness.

Patricia McLinn [100:38] And I can remember moving, working my thumb to move the fabric, to hold his, to touch his hand.

Laura Marie Altom [100:44] Ohhh. Oh my God.

Patricia McLinn [100:45] Yeah. And then the next thing I remember is like two days later when they were going to make me stay in the hospital longer, but my sister and brother-in-law and their five kids were supposed to come and visit for New Year’s, and I told the doctor, Either let them all in, either let me out, or you’re letting them all in at the same time.

Laura Marie Altom [101:09] Right. Right.

Patricia McLinn [101:10] The doctor looked at my mother, and my mother said she means it. So they let me out. Yep.

Laura Marie Altom [101:18] Oh my goodness.

Patricia McLinn [101:19] But then it was months and months and months where I would remember I’d asked the question and then I couldn’t remember the answer, that was really—

Laura Marie Altom [101:26] That had to be scary.

Patricia McLinn [101:27] And, uh, the neurologist said in very technical terms, Your brains have been scrambled. You know.

Laura Marie Altom [101:36] That’s real training.

Patricia McLinn [101:37] Yeah. Yeah. Um, that I had this, I had a severe concussion, very severe concussion. And, uh—

Laura Marie Altom [101:42] Wow!

Patricia McLinn [101:43] —you know, I was just going to have to wait to see how things sorted out.

Laura Marie Altom [101:47] Whew. Goodness, that’s quite a story.

Patricia McLinn [101:50] Yeah. I should use more of that in a book someday. Huh?

Laura Marie Altom [101:53] I think you probably should. You don’t, I will.

Patricia McLinn [101:57] Nope. Dibs. Dibs.

Laura Marie Altom [102:01] Isn’t that funny now, a lot of times—

Patricia McLinn [102:03] Yeah.

Laura Marie Altom [102:04] —we gotta call dibs on those stories.

Patricia McLinn [102:05] Yes. Now, what is your most recent book? Oh, you mentioned the one that is that November. Do you have another one coming up?

Laura Marie Altom [102:11] I have, uh, the November one and then I had December 8th, Christmas Cookie Baby drops. And that is the first in my new SEAL Team: Holiday Heroes series.

Patricia McLinn [102:24] Okay.

Laura Marie Altom [102:25] And so my whole tag on that is, oh, gosh, see if I can remember. Holiday fun with a dash of danger. So, they all open with kind of a life or death situation. And this one opens with a plane crash.

Patricia McLinn [102:40] Oh boy.

Laura Marie Altom [102:41] Uh, but it, this was fun. This was actually, it’s a, I got the rights back, and I thought this was the second book I ever did with Harlequin. And I thought, Oh, well this will be fun, just a fun release. You know, my readers will get to see it because, you know, it’s been out of print forever. And, um, once I got diving into that, it needed a total rewrite. So even if somebody ever has read this, it’s totally a thousand percent redone and, uh, just, that’s been a lot of fun just to revisit those characters in the town.

And so the whole series now is based out of this town, Kodiak Gorge, in Alaska. And so I’m working on the second book now and it comes out, so it’s Happy New Year, Baby. And it comes out December 29^th. Please, God, if I can get it done in time.

Patricia McLinn [103:35] Always, always the hope, right? It’s interesting how you look at some of your old books and some of them stand up so well and amazingly well, and then some really, you think, Hmm. Okay. Okay. Let’s wrap up with, Oh, I want to say you gave your URL and we will have that in the show notes.

Laura Marie Altom [103:54] Oh, okay. Thank you.

Patricia McLinn [103:56] I always think it’s much easier to read than to—

Laura Marie Altom [103:59] Oh, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [104:00] —hang onto it in your head to listen to it.

Laura Marie Altom [104:01] For sure.

Patricia McLinn [104:02] Though for folks who, who want to explore that. So we’re going to ask you some, either or questions here just to get, just for the fun of it really. Um, cake or ice cream?

Laura Marie Altom [104:12] See, now it’s not that easy. What flavor of ice cream versus if it’s white cake with white frosting, I’d got to go with cake. If it’s like rum raisin, I’ve got to go with that. Can’t like, I’m more complicated than that. Next.

Patricia McLinn [104:29] Okay. Tea pr coffee?

Laura Marie Altom [104:33] See, there again. Is this like a mocha Frappuccino with whipped cream. See, and then tea it’s gotta be, you know, orange spice or else I won’t like it. I dunno. It’s another toss-up.

Patricia McLinn [104:48] Okay. I think, I think this one might be easier for you.

Laura Marie Altom [104:51] Alright.

Patricia McLinn [104:52] Dog or cat?

Laura Marie Altom [104:53] Oh, dog.

Patricia McLinn [104:56] Day or night?

Laura Marie Altom [104:57] Day.

Patricia McLinn [104:59] Cowboy boots or hiking boots?

Laura Marie Altom [105:02] Hiking.

Patricia McLinn [105:03] Really? Now that surprised me.

Laura Marie Altom [105:05] I Love to hike. I would hike any day, anywhere.

Patricia McLinn [105:09] Toenail polish or bare toenails?

Laura Marie Altom [105:11] Polish. French, please. I like a nice French pedicure with wide stripes.

Patricia McLinn [105:17] Oh my. Okay. Very specific. Um, leggings or sweats?

Laura Marie Altom [105:23] Can I do yoga pants? What do those, what do those fall under?

Patricia McLinn [105:28] Hmm. Um, really neither, because—

Laura Marie Altom [105:32] You’re teaching me a lot about myself. Pat.

Patricia McLinn [105:36] You’re not very good at either or.

Laura Marie Altom [105:40] No.

Patricia McLinn [105:36] Um, okay. Uh, gardening or house decorating?

Laura Marie Altom [105:45] House decorating, but I love both.

Patricia McLinn [105:48] Paint or wallpaper?

Laura Marie Altom [105:49] Oh, I love the wallpaper, but it’s not in right now. So I got to go with paint currently, but I’m hoping for a wallpaper comeback.

Patricia McLinn [105:58] Mustard or ketchup?

Laura Marie Altom [106:00] Oh, ketchup, can’t stand mustard.

Patricia McLinn [106:03] Best China or paper plates?

Laura Marie Altom [106:05] Okay, if I’m on deadline, paper plates, otherwise best China.

Patricia McLinn [106:12] Save the best for last or grab the best first?

Laura Marie Altom [106:15] Save the best for last, always.

Patricia McLinn [106:18] Okay, well, this has been a delight, Laura.

Laura Marie Altom [106:21] It has. It’s been fun.

Patricia McLinn [106:23] I really, really appreciate your taking the time and joining us today and hope all of you will come back next week to get to know another author.

That’s the show for this week. Hope you enjoyed it. And thank you for joining Authors Love Readers podcast. Remember, you can always find out more about our guest authors in the show notes, and you can find out more about me at www.patriciamclinn.com. You can also send in questions to be asked of future authors at podcast@authorslovereaders.com

Until next week. Wishing you lots of happy reading. Bye.

 

 

Today, Patricia McLinn talks with Barbara McMahon, author of 87 romance novels and counting. Patricia and Barbara discuss sources of inspiration for writers, the dedication and consistency required to write so prolifically, and the “scathingly brilliant” ideas that sometimes change the course of a book.

You can find Barbara on

* her website,

* Facebook

* and Twitter.

Thanks to DialogMusik for the instrumentals that accompany this podcast.

 

---

Transcript: Authors Love Readers with Barbara McMahon

Patricia McLinn [00:00] Hi, welcome to this week’s Authors Love Readers podcast, where we delve into the stories behind the stories. We’re asking authors questions. Some of them fun, some of them serious, and from their answers, you’re going to learn things you never knew about the people who write the stories you love. My name is Patricia McLinn. I’m your host and designated question asker.

Barbara McMahon [00:24] Hi, I’m Barbara McMann. I’m an author who loves readers.

Patricia McLinn [00:28] Now let’s start the show. Welcome to another edition of Authors Love Readers. And this time I am delighted to have Barbara McMahon here. Barbara McMahon is one of my great writing buddies. We met, you know I don’t know what year it was, but it was, uh, the Romance Writers of America national conference in Hawaii.

The last time they have had the conference in Hawaii, I don’t think they ever will again, cause it was a fairly small group, which I thought was wonderful. And Barbara and I sat next to each other, McLinn and McMahon, at the literacy signing that they always have. And it’s usually at the beginning of the conference and Barbara thought I was funny. So, forevermore we have been friends.

Barbara McMahon [01:19] And I still think you’re funny.

Patricia McLinn [01:21] Yay. Yay. And Barbara has written how many, how many romances?

Barbara McMahon [01:29] Eighty-seven.

Patricia McLinn [01:31] Oh, my gosh. Oh my gosh. She started as she wrote for Harlequin and Silhouette. Writing for a Harlequin romance, right?

Barbara McMahon [01:41] Correct.

Patricia McLinn [01:43] And who else? Tell us all the ones you wrote for.

Barbara McMahon [01:45] Okay. So I also wrote for Silhouette Desire for Silhouette Special Editions and for Harlequin Superromance.

Patricia McLinn [01:52] Yes, all sorts of books. And now she is an independent author. She has the rights back to, um, some of those past books, and she is also writing new romances.

Barbara McMahon [02:05] That’s right.

Patricia McLinn [02:06] We’re going to start with some quick questions here just to let people get started to know you.

Barbara McMahon [02:10] Okay.

Patricia McLinn [02:11] I’m going to say, what is your favorite taste? And I do mean food, although it’d be interesting. She asked me do I mean food or do I mean clothing? So now I want to know both.

Barbara McMahon [02:21] Oh, okay. So I guess my favorite is pizza followed by dark chocolate. I, and I don’t have a, you know, I don’t have an ethnic one, like Italian or, or Tex-Mex or something like that. But my favorite food is pizza and I love dark chocolate. And then in clothes, I go through really casual Western attire.

Patricia McLinn [02:40] Do you have cowboy boots?

Barbara McMahon [02:42] Absolutely.

Patricia McLinn [02:43] Absolutely. Okay. What is your favorite color?

Barbara McMahon [02:46] Blue. Dark blue. I have nine dark blue T-shirts. I can go weeks without ever wearing another color.

Patricia McLinn [02:55] Well, how did that start?

Barbara McMahon [02:57] I have no idea. I have always liked blue, and I like all the shades, but I really like navy. And so, you know, anytime I go somewhere, and there are navy blue T-shirts on sale, I buy them. And then I realized the other day, cause I do laundry once a week, that, oh my gosh, how long could I go with nine shirts and never wear another color? Probably infinitely.

Pre-author jobs: guide for blind skiers, flight attendant, VP of software firm

Patricia McLinn [03:19] My next question is, what surprising jobs you’ve held.

Barbara McMahon [03:23] One you may not know about is I was a guide for blind skiers.

Patricia McLinn [03:28] I didn’t know that.

Barbara McMahon [03:30] Yep. I had to go through training.

Patricia McLinn [03:31] When did you do that?

Barbara McMahon [03:32] It was several years ago, actually, shortly after I had done several, I fell and injured my knee, and I haven’t been able to go skiing again, but I did it for one season, and it was a lot of fun. And, um, mostly I had kids, teenagers that were blind and special programs would bring them up to the snow, and then our group would guide them.

Patricia McLinn [03:52] So you should tell people where you live in general.

Barbara McMahon [03:55] Oh, I live in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, not too far from Lake Tahoe.

Patricia McLinn [04:00] So she has lots of, lots of opportunities to, to have the snow to ski.

Barbara McMahon [04:04] Absolutely.

Patricia McLinn [04:06] That’s cool.

Barbara McMahon [04:07] I have snow at home too.

Patricia McLinn [04:08] So I have to ask you if, then I have to ask you a related question to get the answer I want.

Barbara McMahon [04:13] Okay.

Patricia McLinn [04:14] Uh, what other day jobs have you held?

Barbara McMahon [04:16] I was a flight attendant during the Vietnam War, and then I ended up being a vice-president of a software development firm before I quit to write full-time.

Patricia McLinn [04:25] And did you want to do those jobs? I mean, did you always want to be a writer and you were doing those other jobs to support yourself, or were those the jobs you had hoped to have and then you went naahh.

Barbara McMahon [04:37] No, I actually have been writing since I was a teenager, and we had a “quote,” a literary magazine at my high school, and I used to write for that. And then a friend of mine and I would spend our summers writing these mysteries and things like that, but I didn’t think of being a professional writer. What I really wanted to do was work in the Foreign Service. Then I, I did a stint as a flight attendant and got to fly all around the world, which I loved, and that was my goal.

Then I ended up getting married, and my then-husband did not want to be a person attached to a foreign person, you know, in a foreign embassy or something like that. His job was in the Bay area, so we stayed here, and I gave up that dream. And then I just worked and worked and, but wrote on the side. And then after I had published several books, I thought, well, I’m just going to quit this other job and write full-time.

Patricia McLinn [05:28] Good for you.

Barbara McMahon [05:29] It’s been fun.

Patricia McLinn [05:30] Good for you. So when was your first book? When was your first?

Barbara McMahon [05:33] Um, 1982.

Patricia McLinn [05:35] And when did you go full-time?

Barbara McMahon [05:36] It must’ve been 1992. So for ten years, I wrote on weekends and sometimes in the evening.

Patricia McLinn [05:44] Do you have a strong fear? And if so, do you use it in your books?

Barbara McMahon [05:48] No. I mean, I don’t like spiders, but I don’t use them in my books. I guess I could, but it’s like, don’t tell people that, I mean, I’m kidding.

Patricia McLinn [05:58] Barbara is very sane. No, no fears, no phobias. I was sorta hoping there’d be a closet one that, that I’d hear about.

Barbara McMahon [06:08] Yes, exactly.

Patricia McLinn [06:09] That I could use against you.

Barbara McMahon [06:10] But, no. Sorry. Sorry to disappoint.

Patricia McLinn [06:12] Okay. Do you have a saying that your mother or father used that you hear yourself saying now?

Barbara McMahon [06:18] Because I said, so that’s why.

Patricia McLinn [06:21] And does it work any better than it worked on you?

Barbara McMahon [06:25] No, not really. And mostly, I can only say to my grandkids, and they are intimidated just a wee bit, but now my, my daughters, they just laugh when I say it.

Patricia McLinn [06:33] Okay. Most writers, now Barbara may be the exception here, have a bad habit word, you know, a word that crops up and, you know, hopefully we know about it and we go back in and check for it, but it, it’s showing up when it should not. I, I have said this over and over. Some of mine, uh, include just and really. Very will show up too. What do you, what’s your bad habit?

Barbara McMahon [07:00] Two. I would say one is just, like you were saying. And at the end of the book, I go back and search on just and eliminate them or change the word sometimes to merely, but mostly eliminate it, because it’s like, Oh my gosh, I said it again. And the other bad habit I have, and it’s not really a word, it’s starting without a subject. You know, just jumping in with the, the phrase that includes the verb and going forward. And then when you read back, it’s like, well, that’s very abrupt. So then I’ll add an I or a he or she or something like that.

Patricia McLinn [07:32] Oh, that’s interesting. I have a tendency to use the phrase, um, it was not dadadada, it was… Which actually is harder to search for because it has the variable in the middle of it.

Barbara McMahon [07:47] Uh, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [07:48] So I, I get a lot of, it was nots that I wanted, but they can’t find this other phrase without going through the, it was nots. So, I have multiple bad habits. I have bad habit phrases.

Barbara McMahon [08:02] Oh, I do too. One is the dark of midnight. And I had a, I had a reader who got a whole bunch of my books at one time. And then she wrote me and she said, I really enjoyed them, but do you know, on every book you say, In the dark of midnight? And it was like, Oh no, do I? So I haven’t said, I don’t think I’ve used it once since that reader brought it to my attention, but apparently in six books, I said it.

Patricia McLinn [08:24] That’s terrible though, that now you’re so conscious of it. So there’s probably a spot where it’d be exactly perfect to use it, and you can’t use it.

Barbara McMahon [08:31] I would not let myself use it.

Patricia McLinn [08:34] You told us that the phrase that your, that your folks used and that you now use, how about, do you have a motivational or upbeat quote that you like?

Barbara McMahon [08:42] The one I like best is, I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me. It’s from Philippians. And it is one that I have used for many, many years. It gets me through everything.

Patricia McLinn [08:53] That’s, that’s a real foundation—

Barbara McMahon [08:55] Yup.

Movies for a deserted island: Where Eagles Dare, Kelly’s Heroes, and The Sound of Music

Patricia McLinn [08:56] —for you. Okay. What three movies would you take to, with you to this strange desert Island that allows you to play movies?

Barbara McMahon [09:03] Okay. Let me see. You’ll probably laugh at these. One I would take would be, um, Where Eagles Dare, which was a Richard Burton/Clint Eastwood action flick. And another one—

Patricia McLinn [09:15] Ohhh, a World War II—

Barbara McMahon [09:16] —I would— Yes, World War II. And the other one would be Kelly’s Heroes, which was Clint Eastwood, also in World War II. And then the other one I think I would take would be The Sound of Music.

Patricia McLinn [09:26] Well, those are interesting. I was thinking the first two, there’s sort of a theme there of overcoming adversity, certainly, you know, all war—

Barbara McMahon [09:36] Yeah, big odds to overcome.

Patricia McLinn [09:39] Interesting. And then why The Sound of Music?

Barbara McMahon [09:40] I don’t know. It’s so upbeat and cheery. And of course, once you hear those songs, they resonate through your head for days afterwards. That would keep me company on the desert Island.

Patricia McLinn [09:49] So you be off singing the songs.

Barbara McMahon [09:52] That’s right. And dancing around like Julie Andrews did on the hillside. I know you can picture me doing that even in jeans.

Patricia McLinn [09:57] I can, I can, I can very much picture that. Okay. I’m going to ask another kind of strange little question. If your writing were a color, what would it be?

Barbara McMahon [10:10] Well, of course, it would be blue.

Patricia McLinn [10:12] Oh, okay.

Barbara McMahon [10:13] Blue is my happy color and I’m happy when I’m writing, so it would be blue. But it would probably be a light smoky kind of blue, not navy.

Patricia McLinn [10:20] Not navy. Yeah. I can see that. Okay. So where did your story, your love of story come from?

Barbara McMahon [10:28] I can’t remember.

Patricia McLinn [10:29] Do you know?

Barbara McMahon [10:30] I, I, my mom had told me, I started reading when I was about four and I can’t remember ever not reading. And I can remember as a kid, I had a bedtime, I’m not sure kids do these days, but I did. And so I would dutifully go to bed with a flashlight and a book. And as soon as they said goodnight and closed the door, I was under my covers reading.

Patricia McLinn [10:50] Oh, yep.

Barbara McMahon [10:52] So classic for that generation. Don’t you think?

Patricia McLinn [10:55] I did that too.

Barbara McMahon [10:57] Did you?

Patricia McLinn [10:58] Under the covers with a flashlight.

Barbara McMahon [10:58] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [10:59] No, like no adult could see through that.

Barbara McMahon [11:03] Well, I actually—

Patricia McLinn [11:04] Through the sheet.

Barbara McMahon [11:06] I shared a room with my sister and I was afraid the light would wake her up. So that’s why I would go underneath, and you know, and I’m sure you did it too. I’d be up so late, I’d be so tired the next day, but I couldn’t tell anybody why.

Patricia McLinn [11:18] I don’t think they expected anything of me except for being tired the next day, because I’ve long been a night owl.

Barbara McMahon [11:24] Oh.

Patricia McLinn [11:25] So I didn’t have to explain, but the other thing I used to do, I’m the youngest by a bunch. So my older siblings and my parents would be downstairs and I swear all the fun started when I got sent to bed, I’d be sent to bed and all of a sudden, there’s all this laughter downstairs. So I would sneak down. The first half of the stairway—

Barbara McMahon [11:44] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [11:45] —to where, where it opened up into the, into the downstairs room.

Barbara McMahon [11:50] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [11:51] And I’d be there listening. And my mother would say, Are you in bed? And I would pound up the stairs and jump from the landing to the middle of the bed and then say, yesss, like she had no clue what I was doing. So, yeah, I, I don’t think I was cut out to be a spy.

Barbara McMahon [12:17] No, probably not.

Patricia McLinn [12:19] Question from a reader.

Barbara McMahon [12:22] Okay.

What sparked the idea for One Stubborn Cowboy

Patricia McLinn [12:23] She says, Where do your stories come from? I know one author who dreams her stories. Another has a character suddenly taking up residence in her head. So how are your beautiful stories born? I love that. She says the stories are beautiful.

Barbara McMahon [12:38] I will see something and it will spark my imagination. I came out of the grocery store one night, um, and in the handicap parking place was a pickup truck with this really cute cowboy sitting inside behind the wheel. And as I walked by, I saw a wheelchair in the back of the truck. And so right away, I thought that’s gotta be his because whoever else was in the truck is no longer in the truck.

So then I started thinking of an injured cowboy. How would that happen? While he was rodeo cowboy, he got, um, injured being bucked off the bull or something like that. And then it just developed into a whole story, which was One Stubborn Cowboy, one of my first Desires. Another time—

Patricia McLinn [13:20] That’s great.

Barbara McMahon [13:21] Another time I was at the Amador County fair. I live in Amador County, and it’s a rural county. It’s, it’s big on cows and cowboys and things like that. And I was sitting down resting and eating an ice cream cone, because we’d just been walking all over the fairgrounds and this cowboy, of course, with two little girls, I mean, maybe nine months each, one in each arm. They were big enough to sit up by themselves and look around and all, but they looked like they probably weren’t walking much.

And I thought, well, that’s a great idea. What if there’s a single dad with twins. So that was another book, Daddy and Daughters. Another one I got was from a Lacy J Dalton song, which is country music. And, um, I put it back from that. So I get ideas from everywhere and then they just sparked something in my mind.

Patricia McLinn [14:18] Okay. So when you start, you have that idea, then how do you actually start the book? How do you start writing? Do you do work with that idea? Do you outline, do you take notes or do you just start writing and do you start writing at the beginning? Um, or—

Barbara McMahon [14:32] The first couple of books—

Patricia McLinn [14:34] —somewhere that’s not the beginning.

Barbara McMahon [14:35] Unlike you, my dear. Um, some books, I wrote two or three books, um, back in the day, when you had to write a whole book before they would buy it, at least Mills and Boon wouldn’t buy it without the whole book. Then when I started going to contract with just proposals, they insisted on an outline. So then I’d outlined the book and then my editor would say, You never follow this outline, but it’s okay, cause your books turn out okay. But they would insist on the outline every time. So in a way, I have a very vague outline on what’s going to happen, but a lot of it just as I’m typing, it was like, I have this scathingly brilliant idea, and then I add that to it. So, and then I have to go back and lead up to it. So I, I consider myself an outliner that’s a panster.

Patricia McLinn [15:20] So you have to track back—

Barbara McMahon [15:22] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [15:23] —in the, so you’re writing a sequentially, but then you have this scathingly brilliant idea and you have to go back and, and drop in hints and stuff to make it work from the beginning.

Barbara McMahon [15:33] Exactly.

Patricia McLinn [15:34] So you’re sort of, you’re sort of sequential, but you do jump.

Barbara McMahon [15:38] Yeah. So does that make me a hybrid?

Patricia McLinn [15:41] Yes.

Barbara McMahon [15:42] I think so too.

Patricia McLinn [15:43] And now that you are, you are a totally independent author, as am I, has that changed the way you write at all?

Barbara McMahon [15:48] No, because the habit’s in place after eighty-seven books, it’s, it’s hard to change what’s ingrained.

Patricia McLinn [15:54] What’s been the easiest book you’ve written. Can you think of one off the top of your head, out of the eighty-seven, it was just a joy to write?

Barbara McMahon [16:00] It was the One Stubborn Cowboy, and I had a week’s vacation and it was during the time my kids were in school. I wrote solid for one week and got the first draft done. I’ve never before, nor since done that, but that story just flowed like crazy.

Patricia McLinn [16:18] Oh, that’s wonderful.

Barbara McMahon [16:20] But I wish I could do it again.

Patricia McLinn [16:22] I was just thinking that I would love to recapture it. When, then this is a question from a reader. When you finished a book, do you miss the characters? Do you think about them afterwards? And, and if you do, has that ever led to, uh, an additional book about characters?

Barbara McMahon [16:41] It has. Yes. Yes. I miss the characters because I’ve been living with them for months and, you know, I write for a period of time in the morning and then the rest of the day, I’m thinking of what I’m going to write next or doing some research or something like that, about the book.

And, and so I’ve really lived with these people for months, and it’s like a friend that visited and now has gone, and you miss them. And I’ve never done a sequel because of it, but I have then gone back and added epilogues. Just like, Oh, well, let’s just think down the road a bit. And how did these people fair? And so that’s sort of fun—

Patricia McLinn [17:17] Interesting.

Barbara McMahon [17:18] —to go back and see, um, Oh, here we are nine months later and they’re still very happy.

Patricia McLinn [17:24] That’s cool that you add the epilogues. That’s a good idea too.

Barbara McMahon [17:29] Well, it’s, it’s nice because then your book doesn’t necessarily end with, with happy ever after and you wonder, is that true? And then it’s fun to see them later in the, they really, the love has even blossomed more, and they’re just really happy, and that makes me happy too.

Patricia McLinn [17:44] Yeah. Living the life that, that the book’s set up for them. I know you’ve heard me say this before. I often think of my books as not having happily ever afters at the end, they have happy beginnings. Cause what the characters have gone through and learned in the course of the book has taken them from two people who couldn’t have a real committed relationship at the beginning to two people who could have—

Barbara McMahon [18:09] Right.

Patricia McLinn [18:11] —a committed relationship at the end. And so the epilogue then gives you a, a glimpse into that beginning of, of their new life.

Barbara McMahon [18:20] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [18:21] I liked that. I may steal that.

Barbara McMahon [18:23] I’m happy to share.

Patricia McLinn [18:26] Well, thank you. Um, do you have books that are unpublished or half-finished that it just never quite jelled and, but you’ve held onto them?

Barbara McMahon [18:37] I have three historical ones that I wrote back when Rosemary Rogers and Kathleen Woodiwiss were so popular. And I actually sent one of those off. And, um, the, I don’t even remember what house it was in, this was down before, this was like in the 1970s. And it came back with this three-page critique, and I didn’t know anything then.

And I said, Sadly, they don’t like my book. Had I known then that an editor doesn’t spend three pages of critiques, if they’re not interested in the book, my whole life could be different now. But I put it away, I put all three away and, um, no, I never did anything with them. And I don’t know. I mean, I still have them, but they’re typed. That was before computers.

Patricia McLinn [19:26] You could get those scanned in.

Barbara McMahon [19:28] Yeah, I could.

Patricia McLinn [19:29] What, what era were they? What historical era?

Barbara McMahon [19:32] Revolutionary War.

Patricia McLinn [19:35] Oh, interesting. My favorite. I really liked that period.

Barbara McMahon [19:40] I do too.

Patricia McLinn [19:41] Which of course is the reason I wrote my historical and 1880s Wyoming. Just spending all my life studying colonial and revolutionary—

Barbara McMahon [19:51] Right.

Patricia McLinn [19:52] —in the US, where I knew the research. No, no, I went to do the harder stuff. But, see, I think there’s a future there for you, Barbara, if this contemporary gig gives out—

Barbara McMahon [20:05] You have a backup.

Patricia McLinn [20:07] —no problem.

Barbara McMahon [20:08] I was a history major in college. And so I thought, well, I’d write about this because, you know, I get to do all this research and all, and after, and I only tried with the one book I had in the meantime had written the others, waiting for the response and, um, and I thought, you know, this takes forever to research and if they’re not, and to buy it, I’m wasting my time. And that’s how I went contemporary. Cause I thought, I know this timeframe. I don’t have to look up, you know, how they dressed or what kind of conveyances they rode in or stuff like that. So yeah, if this ever goes up, I might go back to it. Unlikely.

Researching tools: cattle ranches, fire station, Google Maps and Google Earth

Patricia McLinn [20:39] Let’s talk, let’s talk a little more about research because some people think, well, there’s no research in contemporary cause you’re living the time, but I find there always is every book there’s research. Um, do you like research? Do you do it all before? Do you have, do you have a routine that you follow with the research search?

Barbara McMahon [20:58] I do research. And one reason I like to write cowboy books, and like I said, I live in a rural county, I have a friend who actually owns a cattle ranch, and anytime I have questions, I ask her things. Um, I did a book once for, about a wildfire, which are prevalent in California as you well know. Um—

Patricia McLinn [21:16] Yes.

Barbara McMahon [21:17] —and so I called one of the local fire people, and he spent a long time telling me about the nature of fire and what to expect in the terrain I was picking up and things like that. And my biggest, biggest win has been Google Maps and Google Earth. Because it used to be if I was writing for another location, I would go and get all the travel books I could get from AAA or from the library and read up on everything I could about the topography and the architecture and customs of that area and stuff like that. And now you can go online and actually walk the street practically that your heroine’s going to walk or ride the range.

Barbara McMahon [21:56] I did a, uh, long jump, which is what’s called, um, hot air balloons that go long distances. They’re like contests, you know. And so it was set in Spain. And so I took off in Barcelona and in Google Earth, you can go, you can say how up, about how high above the earth you go. So I went as high as hot air balloons go, and then just went in the direction the balloon would go. And I was able to describe all of what they would have seen.

Patricia McLinn [22:27] Isn’t that amazing.

Barbara McMahon [22:28] I love Google Earth. So yeah, I guess I do research on almost every book, at least some facet of it. And it’s easier when doing the Western ones because I’ve got, um, friends that are in the cattle industry, but you know, I like to do other things too, and there’ll be readers who aren’t enamored with cowboys, and so I try to do rich guys and sexy guys and business tycoons and things like that, too.

Patricia McLinn [22:55] So, do you have a favorite type of character to write about?

Barbara McMahon [22:58] Yeah, I like cowboys.

Patricia McLinn [23:00] There is something about them. When you’re working on a book, do you have a certain routine that you follow?

Barbara McMahon [23:07] Yes, I get up every morning and have breakfast. And then I, some people don’t eat breakfast, so, and then I sit down—

Patricia McLinn [23:15] That’s true.

Barbara McMahon [23:16] —and I work probably from maybe eight or eight-thirty in the morning until about twelve-thirty, and then I go have lunch. And then in the afternoon I do, you know, any research I need to, or other things I, you know, I’m involved, there’s things, I’m a volunteer for different organizations. So I’ll, I’ll do stuff like that. And then the next morning I’ll get up and the same thing.

And I listened to the same classical music I have for twenty-some years, because it’s like when I have on those headphones and that William Tell Overture starts, I go into this zone and the time just flies by.

Patricia McLinn [23:49] That’s such a great piece of music too. I mean, I think we take it for granted because it’s used for commercials—

Barbara McMahon [23:55] Yeah. Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [23:56] —and things like that. I love the pace of it, and I, I listened to a variety of music, but one of the pieces I listened to our, um, theme songs from Errol Flynn movies. And I find the faster the music goes, the faster I type.

Barbara McMahon [24:06] Me too.

Patricia McLinn [24:07] So, when it’s going **Hums a tune** I get a lot of words in. We’re good, we’re going to have to put together a collection of fast-paced, classical music for writers to be productive.

Barbara McMahon [24:21] Oh, that would work. That would be really good.

Patricia McLinn [24:23] So what’s your favorite part of the process, and what do you, what’s the most difficult for you too?

Barbara McMahon [24:29] My favorite part is starting. It’s so hopeful and, and it’s building a picture of the character that I hope the reader sees is as what I see, you know. I have a picture in my mind and I try to describe them, not just physically, but personality-wise as well, so that others will see what I’m envisioning in my head.

And then the middles are hard sometime. I know where I want to go, but it’s like, how do I get there logically, you know, I don’t want, I don’t want something to feel contrived or, or too coincidental or something like that. So, so that part’s probably the hardest for me. And then I sort of slow down at the end because I’m getting ready to say goodbye, and maybe I’m not ready to say goodbye to them yet. And I do slow down a little at the end.

Patricia McLinn [25:15] So is it is the end, your least fav— No you said the middle is kind of your favorite.

Barbara McMahon [25:19] The middle, yeah, that’s my least favorite.

Patricia McLinn [25:21] Do you have tricks to get past that?

Barbara McMahon [25:24] Yeah, sometimes I start mid-book and try to, um, brainstorm other ways to make it fresh and a bit different and unexpected. Sometimes I like to say, can I just make this unexpected, and then go a different way. And so, sometimes I do that, and then if I get the scathingly brilliant idea, then I can include that here. And then I have to go back of course, and lead up to it.

Patricia McLinn [25:44] What, now you’ve written so many books, and you started eighties when, again, as I was, you started when you were a toddler, I’m sure.

Barbara McMahon [25:54] Of course.

Patricia McLinn [25:55] Um, having been a toddler flight attendant, previously.

Barbara McMahon [26:00] Yeah, I was probably—

Patricia McLinn [26:02] Those little three-year-olds walking down the aisle of the plane, telling you to put your seatbelt on.

Barbara McMahon [26:08] That’s right. Oh, you’ve captured the scene perfectly.

Patricia McLinn [26:14] So, but you’ve written these books and, and you’ve had, um, a very career, a very successful career. How do you think you’ve changed as a writer over the years? And have, have you had just one change or has, have you, can you see sort of the ages of Barbara McMahon as an author?

Barbara McMahon [26:36] Well, I started out writing for Harlequin in their London office and they’re a bit more formal in their speech and sentence, um, set up than Americans are. And so I do notice that if I go back and look at earlier books, they seem more, almost literary rather than fast-paced and keep moving so you see what’s happening to the characters. And my more recent books in the last fifteen years or so maybe, um, I think are, are more suited to our lifestyle now, you know, you, you’ve got some fast-paced things going on and then you take a break and that would be probably where someone to put the book down and go cook dinner or something and then come back and pick it up again.

Barbara McMahon [27:17] So, yeah, I definitely see a change, to a degree, not hopefully not too much, but to a degree in that. And since I’ve gone independent, one of the things that Harlequin harps on, bus or sweetheart, is making it very generic because it’s going to be sold to, you know, a gazillion foreign countries and in foreign languages and things like that, so it needs to be very generic, and I feel I can really write more to the American market now that I’m, um, an independently published author, so that it’s a lot more like the lifestyle I lead.

Patricia McLinn [27:51] And more specific, yeah.

Barbara McMahon [27:53] More specific to the United States.

Patricia McLinn [27:56] Yeah, and more specific to the character, I think, often because the character is in the United States, but, um, I used to have those, ahem, discussions with some of my thirty-two editors that I had for my—

Barbara McMahon [28:11] Oh my gosh! Thirty-two? Oh my God.

Patricia McLinn [28:14] Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. And you know, they, they would want things that could apply to anybody. And my point was, but this character isn’t anybody, it’s this specific person.

Barbara McMahon [28:27] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [28:28] So yeah, we were never a great, I was never a great fit there. Um, so that the publisher and I were never a great fit, but those days are past, now we’re Indies.

Barbara McMahon [28:38] And I love the freedom now. I mean, I feel like I can, can write as fast as I want, or as slow as I want. Um, I can write what I want and not write to the market, so to speak, just write what makes me happy and hope it makes people who read it happy.

Patricia McLinn [28:54] That’s interesting. Cause you have even been published, always in romance?

Barbara McMahon [28:58] Yes, always in romance.

Patricia McLinn [29:00] What things do you believe that people think about the romance, um, genre and are sure they know that just isn’t so. In other words, what misconceptions do people have about it?

Barbara McMahon [29:17] I think if people are not already reading romances, they think they’re fluff. And I have a, I was on a nonprofit committee with another woman, and it came up what I did, as a romance author. Uh, I never read those, I read histories. And I’m thinking, they’re genre fiction too. So, so I think the perception is they’re not as in-depth reading, and yet they, more than anything, have universal appeal because you’re going for the assumption, I mean, what’s better than falling in love?

But, but then also you can connect into sadness sometimes or anger or envy. I mean, you can go through all the emotions that everybody feels, and that’s why some people do so well in other countries because it doesn’t matter too much about the situation, they’re touching into those universal feelings that, that we all have. And I think it’s enriching to find out how some people deal with those, even if it is fiction.

Patricia McLinn [30:17] How do you feel when you’re writing about characters who are sad? Do you find that that affects you?

Barbara McMahon [30:23] Oh yeah, I’ll be sad. And I still have some books that if I go back and reread them, I start crying and I wrote the stupid things. So it’s like what in the world, but, but hopefully, the sadness of that situation comes across. And I’m not sure that every book’s an emotional roller coaster, but I think if you have different emotions surface, it makes it a more enriching read rather than just straight through. So I been trying to get just a little bit of difference out of that underlying emotion pain, being falling in love.

Patricia McLinn [30:58] You mentioned emotional roller coaster and my mind immediately went to, um, every book is an emotional roller coaster. For me as I’m writing it. But ups and downs, a lot, a lot of scary turns. So, when you’re writing, um, I know you’re, you’re a little more even keel, but, um, do you celebrate different, do celebrate beginning a book or ending a book or having it be published?

Barbara McMahon [31:28] Sad to say I no longer do, but in the early days, every time I’d get a new contract, my husband would take me out to dinner and we’d celebrate. And then, then when I finished a book, we’d go out to dinner and celebrate and, and then after awhile it became like, Okay, they bought another book, but I’m busy, I can’t go out to dinner. And then we just, after a while it’s like, okay, well this is your life. This is not an extraordinary thing anymore. It’s, I mean, I’m blessed to be able to write this long, but in my own lifestyle now it’s not an extraordinary thing. So no, we don’t celebrate as much as we used to.

Authors are people too

Patricia McLinn [32:04] Well, that’s a, that’s an interesting point though, about the, this is your life. And I think, um, sometimes people meeting writers, uh, think we have these very different lives from, from other people. And I will often post on Facebook or Twitter about, you know, taking leaves out of the gutter. Oh yes, the glamorous author life, you know. But do you think that writers view the world differently from other people or approach things different? Are we, are we that, are we different? I guess.

Barbara McMahon [32:45] I think we’re different. When I have spoken to groups, they always ask, where do you get your ideas? Always. I have yet to meet another writer who asks me that. And I think the difference is, we have more ideas in our head then we will ever live long enough to write. And people who are not writers don’t. And so, yeah, I think that makes us different. It was a gift that we were given than other people were given other gifts to, you know, to do in their lives. And that was a gift given to us.

And, you know, I love to, like, if we go to Disneyland, I’ll sit out with the grandkids so I can watch people walk by. I like that kind of stuff. If I’m riding on the train, I eavesdrop on the people talking just to hear, you know what they’re talking about, how they’re saying things, trying to guess what might come next. That kind of analytical kind of stuff maybe, and my friends don’t do that, my non-writing friends don’t do that. So yeah, I do believe we see the world differently.

Patricia McLinn [33:41] Yeah. Barb, I’ve said this in some other, um, talks that I’m an eavesdropper. Uh, and when I go like to a restaurant with other authors, sometimes there’s this sort of scrambled to get in the best spot to either eavesdrop or watch the whole room or the, or the super-duper, the, the double, daily double is to have a place where you can do both. And Barbara is one of the authors that I wrestle with who’s going to sit in the best spot. Try to get to the good chair first.

And you can tell there’ll be a group of authors at a meal. And, and we tend, because we spend a lot of time alone, um, when we do get together, there’s a lot of talking and then all of a sudden there’ll be this lull, and you know, there’s a good conversation going on at a nearby table and everybody’s mentally taking notes.

Patricia McLinn [34:41] So, okay. Here’s a question from a reader. You actually answered kind of one reader’s question about where your stories come from. So we’ve covered that, but what is your favorite place to write? Does it have an inspirational view, and why is that your favorite spot to write in?

Barbara McMahon [34:58] My computer is set up by a window. I live in the Sierra Nevada mountains, so when I look out, all I see is trees. And to me, that is peaceful and serene and tranquil, and I really like it. Sometimes in the fall, the, um, some of the needles, not all of them, but some of them fall, especially from the fir trees and they’re gold, they turn gold. And so if they’re falling in the sunshine it’s just like golden snow almost falling down. Of course you only have to blow the driveway cause they make a terrible mess. But, yes—

Patricia McLinn [35:29] The glamorous life of a writer, right?

Barbara McMahon [35:32] Exactly. But while they’re falling, they’re gorgeous. And you know, I got my desk by the window and I’m just there every day. And again, you slip in front of the computer, you put on the earphones with the same old music I’ve been listening to for decades, and you just zone out and write. And I have tried taking my laptop out on my deck. I’d have even a wider view, but, but no, it doesn’t work.

Patricia McLinn [35:56] Oh, really? You, you can’t work out on the, on the deck?

Barbara McMahon [36:00] And I’m sure some of it, and maybe it would work, because now I’m thinking about it, I have, when we’ve had a power outage or something up here for a long duration, I have gone to the library and been able to work there, but I also think I miss my music and listen to it while I’m working.

Patricia McLinn [36:18] Yeah, I do think that. Maybe authors in particular are, um, trainable, like Pavlov’s dogs, you know, that we, we get certain cues and when, if we’re smart, we create those cues so that we can get back into the writing mode.

Barbara McMahon [36:33] I absolutely agree. I mean, I just consider that my training over, you know, I’ve been doing this for thirty-some years and that’s what works and, and I do often say I’m like Pavlov’s dog. You know, I put the earphones, I can’t hear the phone. Don’t answer the phone. Um, my husband knows not to come up and talk to me when I’ve got earphones on. And, um, and then between writing books, I do editing of course, before I’m ready to release it and I don’t listen to the music then. Um, and so it’s a different mindset in a different way of working. And then when I’m ready to start creating again, I go back into the same mode.

Patricia McLinn [37:11] Yeah. I find when I’m editing, even if. I, I, I’m listening to the words, at least in my head from, you know, from when they’re on the page, when I’m writing, I’m listening to the voices in my head.

Barbara McMahon [37:23] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [37:24] If that—

Barbara McMahon [37:25] Yeah, it does.

The freedom of self-publishing and Play-Doh covers

Patricia McLinn [37:26] —makes sense. Yeah. So you do your books tend to, once you, you start, you have the idea. Well, you’ve said you’ll have scathingly bright, brilliant ideas during, so do they tend to, to change a lot from the start, from your conception to what they end up as?

Barbara McMahon [37:42] They don’t change a lot, but often the ending will be different. And, um, and it’s like, you know, this is what I envision right now today. And as I get into the stories and, and, you know, develop the characters and, and come up with these other things to make them distinctive, and it says, Oh, well, he really wouldn’t do that kind of thing. And so then I’ll slightly change it, which then ripples through and goes all the way to the end. So the basic concept is there from start to finish, but yeah, I will often have the different ending than originally anticipated. I say it used to drive my editor nuts, but, but she knew, I mean, she never asked me to go back and change it like I had it on the outline, and now I don’t have to answer to anybody but me, and so I can make the change whenever I want.

Patricia McLinn [38:29] I don’t know if the listeners, um, can get the visual of when you’re saying you don’t have to answer to anybody but you, and probably on both ends of this call, there are authors going taladadada dancing around the room. Don’t have to answer anybody else. Uh, following up on the stories whether they changed from conception to publication, have you had any that really surprised you?

Barbara McMahon [38:56] No. I don’t think so. I don’t know what you mean by really surprised me.

Patricia McLinn [39:01] So you have, it sounds like you have a pretty good grasp on what the story is at the beginning. Some of us don’t.

Barbara McMahon [39:09] Oh, no. Yes. I’ve heard about writers like that. I can’t fathom—

Patricia McLinn [39:16] And you love us.

Barbara McMahon [39:17] I do. I do, but I can’t fathom how that works. I’m very linear. I start at the beginning and go to the end. The, the road there might veer slightly and have a different ending, but it’s still pretty beginning to end.

Patricia McLinn [39:31] Okay. I love you despite that so, we’ll forgive you. Here’s a question from a reader that will, I think, take you back to your traditionally published days. When the cover image doesn’t match the character description, a pet peeve of mine says this reader, how does it feel?

Barbara McMahon [39:53] Oh my gosh, I hated it. We have, as, when I worked for another publisher, all of those that I worked for, we had these elaborate fill out the cover detail sheets. I mean, there were pages long, and they asked, what color are their eyes? Who cares, you can’t see the eyes anyway, and they’d ask you the hair color and like, what do they look like? And what are they wearing? And where’s this—

Patricia McLinn [40:15] What jewelry they wore.

Barbara McMahon [40:16] —then it’d be something totally different. And you think, what in the world is that? And it wouldn’t match anything. And it’s like, I spent hours doing this form that you had, that was several pages long. And it’s like, Well, put that one aside and let’s go with this one. And, yeah, it used to drive me too. Pet peeve, hmm, yeah, I think so. Did I, was I, too strong? I used to drive me nuts!

Patricia McLinn [40:41] It does. It is a crazy method.

Barbara McMahon [40:43] I have to tell you this one. I did this one story and, um, I had the guy be blond, and the hair came back on the cover, looking like Play-Doh like yellow Play-Doh, and I never have had a blond hero ever since I said, if this is what they do with the blond, they’re dark from now on.

Patricia McLinn [41:03] Oh, but now see, I get to challenge you to have a blond hero, now that you’re an independent, and see what you come up with, I bet you come up with something that is not Play-Doh. For readers who are, who might be new to you, where, what are a couple books that you would say would be a good place to start reading you?

Barbara McMahon [41:25] I don’t know. I have eighty-seven favorites, so narrowing down all these children to one or two is really hard, but maybe one that I was really fond of was The Rancher’s Bride. And it was a modern-day marriage of convenience story for older people. He already had a grown son and I have like two stories going in it. His, the, the heroes love affair, and then his son’s love affair. I liked that one a lot.

Patricia McLinn [41:53] Oh, nice.

Barbara McMahon [41:54] And then another one that I liked a lot was Angel of Smoky Hollow, and it was, uh, a burnt out violinist from New York Philharmonic, goes down to Kentucky of all places and learns to play bluegrass. And there’s more to the story than that—

Patricia McLinn [42:12] Cool.

Barbara McMahon [42:13] —but I thought that was a nice story.

Patricia McLinn [42:15] Well, and those, those are good stories for new readers to be introduced to, to your works. That’s great. Uh, how about, um, even with your most loyal readers, and I know you have a lot of really loyal readers, there must be a book or two that maybe you think has been overlooked a little bit, that isn’t as well known by your, by your loyal readership as others. Do you have those hidden gems?

Barbara McMahon [42:44] Actually, none come to mind. Pretty much, pretty much, they all seem to sell, you know, within a range of each other. I haven’t had any that, that nobody’s ever read or never has gone anywhere.

Patricia McLinn [42:58] Okay. Well, we’ll leave, maybe we’ll leave that question open. If any of your readers have books they want to nominate and say are one of Barbara’s hidden gems—

Barbara McMahon [43:07] I’d love that.

Patricia McLinn [43:08] —they don’t think has gotten as much attention as, as the stories deserve.

Barbara McMahon [43:13] That would be really interesting to see. I like that idea.

Patricia McLinn [43:17] What’s coming up. What’s well, what’s your most, really most recent release. Let’s start with that.

Barbara McMahon [43:22] I had a novella out in December called The Cowboy’s Special Christmas. And a year ago I did A Soldier’s Christmas, and I’m trying to start a new deal of every year having a novella out at Christmas and, um, so I’ve got two down and hopefully quite a few more to go. And then, um—

Rocky Point series and Christmas novellas and more cowboys

Patricia McLinn [43:43] And will you do it like a different occupation each year?

Barbara McMahon [43:45] Yes. I’ve already thought of the one for 2018. He’s going to be a doctor from Doctors Without Borders. So, it’ll be the Doctor’s Christmas or the Doctor’s Hometown Christmas, but you know, something they’ll have Christmas and doctor in it for the title. I don’t have the title yet, but, um, yeah, I’ve already got the idea for the hero for that one. And then, um, I have, I did a series of Christian inspirational books called Rocky Point, Maine, and I have the latest, one of that one that’s due out in the spring called Rocky Point Inn. It’s about an innkeeper and the, she’s, she’s watching, her best friend died and she’s watching her daughter until the best friend’s estranged brother shows up to claim the daughter. And you can imagine if the sister and brother were estranged, how close that family wasn’t.

Patricia McLinn [44:32] Yeah. And when will that be early out?

Barbara McMahon [44:35] Probably April, but maybe as late as May.

Patricia McLinn [44:38] And are you working on something else for, for past that? Do you have something else in mind?

Barbara McMahon [44:43] Yes, I have, um, uh, cowboy series. Cowboys again. Um, one is The Reluctant Cowboy. One is The Cynical Cowboy, things like that. It’s an eight-book series of brothers and cousins that, um, live on or around this ranch in Wyoming. I’m going to Wyoming too. I love Wyoming. I love your book set in Wyoming.

Patricia McLinn [45:02] When are you going to Wyoming?

Barbara McMahon [45:04] Oh gosh, I haven’t been there in years. I need to go again.

Patricia McLinn [45:08] Oh, okay. Yes. Oh, you meant you were going to Wyoming in your books?

Barbara McMahon [45:11] In my book? No.

Patricia McLinn [45:13] Yeah, it’s great.

Barbara McMahon [45:15] One of my favorite states.

Patricia McLinn [45:18] And where is your ranch set? Where in Wyoming is it?

Barbara McMahon [45:22] Near South Pass.

Patricia McLinn [45:24] Okay. That’s an area I have not been in very much, actually, haven’t been in at all. I’ve been, so I still have much more of the state to explore. Road trip.

Barbara McMahon [45:34] I know, I know. Isn’t that fun. And I haven’t been there in a while. We should go back. I should talk my husband into going back.

Patricia McLinn [45:39] It would be a lot of fun.

Barbara McMahon [45:41] It would be.

Patricia McLinn [45:42] Okay. And so tell readers where they can find out more about you and about your books.

Barbara McMahon [45:47] Okay. I do have a website, barbaramcmahon.com. And, um, I have books on all platforms from Amazon to Google, to Kobo, Apple, Nook, all of those. And, um, I have a readers list. If they want to sign up, they can go to my website, and there’s a signup place there. And I’ll send you information when new books are coming out.

Patricia McLinn [46:08] That’s great. Is there anything, this is my, my favorite journalism question, is there anything I haven’t asked you that I should have?

Barbara McMahon [46:16] Oh my gosh, I don’t think so.

Patricia McLinn [46:18] Okay. Then we’re going to go to the rapid-fire epilogue questions. You have to say, you have to pick one or the other.

Barbara McMahon [46:25] Okay.

Patricia McLinn [46:26] And we’ll start with appetizer or dessert?

Barbara McMahon [46:29] Dessert.

Patricia McLinn [46:30] Binge watch or make the watching last as long as possible?

Barbara McMahon [46:34] Make the watching lasts as long as possible.

Patricia McLinn [46:37] Oh, you drag it out. Do you? Okay. Cake or ice cream?

Barbara McMahon [46:41] Chocolate cake.

Patricia McLinn [46:43] Day or night?

Barbara McMahon [46:45] Day.

Patricia McLinn [46:47] Toenail polish or bare toenails?

Barbara McMahon [46:50] Bare toenails.

Patricia McLinn [46:51] Dog or cat?

Barbara McMahon [46:52] Dog.

Patricia McLinn [46:53] Tea or coffee?

Barbara McMahon [46:54] Tea.

Patricia McLinn [46:58] Now that was a tough one for you.

Barbara McMahon [47:00] Well, I like lattes, but they’re mostly milk.

Patricia McLinn [47:03] Cruise or backpacking?

Barbara McMahon [47:07] Backpacking.

Patricia McLinn [47:09] Sailboat or motorboat?

Barbara McMahon [47:11] Motorboat.

Patricia McLinn [47:12] Which is eerier to you, an owl hooting or coyotes howling?

Barbara McMahon [47:17] Hmm. I guess the owl.

Patricia McLinn [47:19] Mustard or ketchup?

Barbara McMahon [47:21] Mustard.

Patricia McLinn [47:22] Best China or paper plates?

Barbara McMahon [47:24] Paper plates.

Patricia McLinn [47:26] Save the best for last or grab the best first?

Barbara McMahon [47:30] Save the best for last, especially if it’s dessert.

Patricia McLinn [47:35] On that note, we’ll wrap up. I will say, thank you so much to Barbara for, for joining us this week. Hope you all have a great week of reading and we’ll come back to Authors Love Readers next week. Bye.

Barbara McMahon [47:53] Bye. Thank you.

Patricia McLinn [48:01] That’s the show for this week. Hope you enjoyed it. And thank you for joining Authors Love Readers podcast. Remember, you can always find out more about our guest authors in the show notes, and you can find out more about me, at www.patriciamclinn.com. You can also send in questions to be asked of future authors at podcast@authorslovereaders.com

Until next week. Wishing you lots of happy reading. Bye.

 

 

Patricia Lewin writes contemporary suspense and romance novels. She’s published 11 novels and is currently writing Out of the Woods about her favorite character, Erin Baker.

In this discussion with host Patricia McLinn, Pat shares her love of storytelling, her favorite books and authors, and how locations in her life are relevant to her stories.

You can find out more about Patricia’s suspense novels at PatriciaLewin.com. Her contemporary romance novels are available at PatriciaKeelyn.com. You can also connect with her on:

* Facebook

* Twitter and

* Pinterest.

Thank you to DialogMusik for the instrumentals that accompany this podcast!

---

Transcript: Authors Love Readers with Patricia Lewin

Patricia McLinn [00:00] Hi, welcome to this week’s Authors Love Readers podcast where we delve into the stories behind the stories. We’re asking authors questions, some of them fun, some of them serious. And from their answers, you’re going to learn things you never knew about the people who write the stories you love. My name is Patricia McLinn. I’m your host and designated question asker.

Patricia Lewin [00:23] Hi, I’m Patricia Lewin and I’m an author who loves readers.

Patricia McLinn [00:27] Now. Let’s start the show. Hello and welcome to this edition of the Authors Love Readers podcasts. Our guest this time is Patricia Lewin. I had to hesitate because she’s also known as Patricia Keelyn, and Patricia, who I will probably slip and call Pat at some point, maybe throughout, is one of my best writing buddies one of my longest term writing buddies too. We met, shall I say the real year?

Patricia Lewin [00:59] Well, I don’t know which is worse, saying the real year or how long ago it was.

Patricia McLinn [01:05] We were both toddlers. It was, it was my very first Romance Writers of America conference in Boston, and I had sold my first book but it hadn’t come out yet. It was 1989. And it was standing in line to register for the hotel. She claims she doesn’t remember, she forgot me. But I remember. So we have known each other all this time, ups and downs, few tragedies here and there, lots of good news, lots of fun times and changing our writing too, we both have ventured in different ways.

Patricia McLinn [01:54] So this is going to be an interesting conversation because, as I said, she has two names. That’s because she’s writing two things. Patricia Lewin is doing thrillers. And Patricia Keelyn has the romance, and where Patricia, Pat started her writing. So to get us started, get us loosey-goosey here, we’re going to do some quick, quirky questions.

What are some surprising jobs you’ve held, Pat?

Pre-author days: chemistry lab for frozen potatoes and IBM programmer

Patricia Lewin [02:22] Well, um, surprising I worked in a chemistry lab as a chemical lab technician. I was a little different, um—

Patricia McLinn [02:30] Did you blow anything up?

Patricia Lewin [02:32] No, it was, it was for a potato, a frozen potato company. It was a long time ago, and we did testing to make sure that there were no chemicals in the frozen products. Um, it was a lot of fun actually.

Patricia McLinn [02:45] You didn’t blow up any frozen potatoes? Oh, what an opportunity.

Patricia Lewin [02:48] Wouldn’t that have been a mess? Yeah, but um, but I only did that for a short time, but my main job before writing was that I work for IBM as a programmer computer program. And also surprising or not.

Patricia McLinn [03:03] Well it is I think it is a little bit surprising because a lot of authors come from teaching, few number of us from journalism, there are a fair number of escaped lawyers, but not so much from the computer world. So that’s interesting. Okay, do you have a childhood book that addicted you to stories?

Patricia Lewin [03:25] Yes, the Black Stallion series by Walter Farley.

Patricia McLinn [03:30] Oh, oh, I love those.

Patricia Lewin [03:32] I could not get enough of them and my, I started with those, um. I have three older sisters, and one of them, I’m sure I was annoying her, she took me to the library to get rid of me and took me to the section of the book, the kids store, and that’s where I found the Black Stallion, and she never had to worry about getting rid of me after that because books worked.

Patricia McLinn [03:55] That’s, and that’s a great series. And a lot of people don’t know as a whole series that it wasn’t just the first book.

Patricia Lewin [04:01] Oh, yeah, and nothing in for a while after reading that is a kid, and I’ve actually gone through this with kids I know now, nothing was ever as good for quite a while after that.

Patricia McLinn [04:13] You know, there’s a whole series of books like Misty of Chincoteague and—

Patricia Lewin [04:18] I read those too.

Patricia McLinn [04:20] By Marguerite Henry. Yes. She was from the little town in, Illinois that was next to my little town in Illinois.

Patricia Lewin [04:26] Really?

Patricia McLinn [04:27] Yeah.

Patricia Lewin [04:28] That was, that series was part of my search to find something as good as Black Stallion. And what was the other one though? The black race horse? What was it Black Beauty. Black Beauty wasn’t as good either. Be interesting to read them as adults and see what I think of them now.

Patricia McLinn [04:45] I don’t know if I want to read them as an adult because I want to hold on to that feeling and especially as adult writers because it can make it harder to read books, purely as readers.

Patricia Lewin [04:59] That’s true.

Patricia McLinn [04:50] So I may not look at them again. But, okay. Did you ever have a story from your pre-author days that you rewrote the ending at least in your head because it didn’t end right?

Patricia Lewin [05:13] The Black Stallion. Are you detecting a theme here?

Patricia McLinn [05:18] Yeah.

Patricia Lewin [05:20] I really do not remember because it was a long time ago. How I rewrote the end but the ending bug me, and I didn’t want it to end that way. So that’s why I rewrote the ending myself.

Patricia McLinn [05:33] And do you think that led you a toward being a writer?

Patricia Lewin [05:38] Possibly. I mean I started becoming a little obsessed with it at that point. I don’t think is as a kid it ever occurred to me that I could actually write as a profession, but that was the first experience I had with writing and then moved into other stuff when I was in high school there was different too.

Patricia McLinn [05:55] You know, Pat, most authors, at least this is my theories, have a bad habit word. Often they use it all the time and have to take out. So what’s yours

Patricia Lewin [06:07] You want mine now or my original one when I first started writing—

Patricia McLinn [06:11] I want both.

Patricia Lewin [06:12]—my first start, my first books I wrote, I was the queen of should’ves and would’ves and could’ves.

Patricia McLinn [06:19] Ohhh.

Patricia Lewin [06:20] Yes, and I had a critique partner who at that point was very vocally pointed out to me that that was incorrect. There was no should’ves, would’ves, and could’ves, but then later on, I moved into— I’m very good with the words still and yet. She did something still … or yet. So now to this day, I still have to go, still have to go and find some of those words and pull them out because I tend to go crazy with them.

Patricia McLinn [06:52] Oh, that’s it. That’s really interesting. One of mine is really.

Patricia Lewin [06:55] Really?

Patricia McLinn [06:56] I have to I do—

Patricia Lewin [06:57] Really?

Patricia McLinn [06:58]—search and replace or search and delete it’s— Yep. And very and just—

Patricia Lewin [07:00] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [07:01]—when I’m trying to intensify it’s the really and the very. And when I’m trying to diminish it’s the just, and you know, you just have, you just, there I go, you have to use the strong enough for the right, the right word for the situation and not rely on those crutches.

Patricia Lewin [07:21] That’s true.

Patricia McLinn [07:21] I like my crutches.

Patricia Lewin [07:23] But still.

Patricia McLinn [07:24] Yes, but still and yet.

Patricia Lewin [07:28] And yet. Yes.

Movies for a deserted island: Avatar, Lord of the Rings series, and Aliens

Patricia McLinn [07:29] Okay, what three movies would you take with you to a desert island that somehow let you play movies.

Patricia Lewin [07:35] Oh my gosh, Pat and I are going to disagree on these so much.

Patricia McLinn [07:40] yeah, we’re gonna be on different Islands.

Patricia Lewin [07:42] I know. Different Islands. Um, Avatar. Can I say the whole Lord of the Rings series?

Patricia McLinn [07:51] Oh, that sneaky.

Patricia Lewin [07:53] Yes, and this is one Pat really isn’t going to like, Aliens the second one. Not the first one. Aliens.

Patricia McLinn [08:01] Yeah, we’re on different move, different islands.

Patricia Lewin [08:03] But we’ve known that for a long time.

Patricia McLinn [08:05] Yes, we have. Yes, we have. Okay, I’m gonna ask you one more. On your … you’re right-handed.

Patricia Lewin [08:12] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [08:13] On your right hand, is your ring finger or your index finger longer?

Patricia Lewin [08:19] My index finger. Well, no. It depends on how I twist the fing— My ring finger.

Thrillers written under Patricia Lewin name, such as Blind Run

Patricia McLinn [08:24] Okay. I’m just curious that it has no significance that I know of. I’m just curious. All right. Now we’re going to talk about some, some more about the, about writing in your works and your books. What’s the easiest book you’ve written? That it was just a joy to write.

Patricia Lewin [08:44] Probably Blind Run.

Patricia McLinn [08:48] Okay. And that’s the first of your thrillers?

Patricia Lewin [08:50] First of my thrillers is a stand alone. Although I have gotten so much feedback about having a sequel and I did set it up for a sequel. But it—

Patricia McLinn [09:00] Including feedback from, oh, somebody else who might be on this podcast, maybe?

Patricia Lewin [09:06] Possibly. Have you told me that I need a sequel? A lot of the, I mean—

Patricia McLinn [09:10] I’ve told you that.

Patricia Lewin [09:11] I actually set it up for a sequel, and I wanted, I plan to write it the sequel, right after writing Blind Run. I had it all plotted at that point, and my publisher at that time didn’t want the sequel, they wanted something completely different.

Patricia Lewin [09:32] But as far as the writing goes, Blind Run came fairly easy easily to me. I had, it was just something I wanted to write thrillers so bad that it just kind of came.

Romances, such as Keeping Katie, written under Patricia Keelyn name

Patricia McLinn [09:38] Mmm, and at that point, how many romances had you published?

Patricia Lewin [09:42] Nine.

Patricia McLinn [09:44] Do you think that, that we— Do you feel like you were always meant to write thrillers?

Patricia Lewin [09:50] Yes, I do. I think that that is, I enjoy writing romance, and I enjoy, I enjoy reading romance more than I enjoy writing romance, but the suspense came, comes easier to me than the actual writing of action and with some emotional components obviously, but the actual tension and everything suspense comes much easier to me than the, the tension in a romance.

Patricia McLinn [10:18] What do you think people who ask you about writing romance and writing thrillers? What do they get wrong about, the, about the different approaches to the two different genres?

Patricia Lewin [10:35] The different approaches to both romances and thrillers?

Patricia McLinn [10:40] Yeah. I’m just, I’m thinking that there’s probably expectations from readers about how a romance author might attack a thriller and, and then go back to a romance. How, how you would shift gears and I’m wondering if those expectations are right, or if you think it’s what your experience has been.

Patricia Lewin [11:06] To me, they are two separate ways of thinking when I’m writing, and I’m not sure I’m answering your question the way you want. It’s, one is the focus, in a romance, the focus is on the relationship and on the love story and you can trickle in some suspense, which I tended to do in my later romances, was there’s always the more romantic suspense lite, LITE than heavy romantic suspense.

Patricia Lewin [11:26] Whereas the suspense or thriller is almost the exact opposite. All the focus is on, you know, the bad stuff and you in the more if you can put an emotional component with that that, that makes the suspense of the thriller stronger. I mean there are very successful thriller writers who write just straight action and that’s not me. I need to add that component, that emotional component. And I actually think that writing romance first helped me write better suspense, because I can’t completely get away from the emotional component of the characters.

Patricia McLinn [12:17] So it made makes you go deeper into your characters in the thrillers.

Patricia Lewin [12:23] Right. You’d asked me earlier somewhere about my favorite quotes and just made me think of one. Michael Haig says about, that all story is about emotion whether it is the sweetest romance or the most hardcore thriller or science fiction story. And I think he’s right. If your characters don’t feel, whether it’s just fear or whether it’s love, they have to feel something, and I think writing romance, helped me to put elements of emotion into my suspense whether they are fear or whether they are love. Does that make any sense?

Patricia McLinn [13:01] Yes. You said that you said that it was a different way of thinking. Do you find if you’re, that your mood or how you’re feeling about things Is affected by what you’re writing?

Patricia Lewin [13:16] You mean affects the genre that I want to write in or just affects the writing in general?

Patricia McLinn [13:21] No, affects your writing. Say you’re writing a thriller, are you then in a, in a different kind of mind frame because you’re writing a thriller from what you might be when you’re writing a romance? In other words, which one should I wait for you to be writing before I call up and ask a favor?

Patricia Lewin [13:42] No, I don’t think, I don’t think that my mood affects which of the genres that I want to write in. My mood is actually there I can write.

Patricia McLinn [13:51] I was asking the opposite, whether the genre affects your mood.

Patricia Lewin [13:55] No, I don’t think so.

Patricia McLinn [13:56] Okay.

Patricia Lewin [13:57] Sorry.

Patricia McLinn [13:58] You even keel people you. So when, when you published your first book— When your first book got published, and Pat started out in traditional publishing, as did I. How— Did that change your writing process at all?

Patricia Lewin [14:17] It did quite a bit. I was working at IBM when I wrote my first book. Actually, I wrote three books before I sold one, and I was working at IBM. So I was writing on weekends and on lunch hours, and instead of going on vacations. I would write so it was constant and a month after or a month before my very first book came out, I left IBM. It was a variety of circumstances, it was not because I thought I was finally going to be able to support myself writing one book. But then, so then, suddenly I had to write full-time, and it was, it was a transition to suddenly go from writing in every available moment to having time.

Patricia Lewin [15:09] And at first it worked because I had a very insightful young editor, who threw a contract out on at me and said we have a slot open, but you have got to write this book in eight weeks and I don’t think I can do that now, but I did it then so it got me into the process of, of setting up my time, you know so many hours a day, although I actually I do page counts. How many page counts a day? So that’s what happened

Patricia McLinn [15:34] And you still do that. How many page count, pages—

Patricia Lewin [15:36] I’m not as good as I used to be. There’s a lot more distractions now. It’s easier the, what I found over time, it’s easier to get distracted, and it’s easier not to have a steady rhythm when you have all day.

Patricia McLinn [15:54] Mmm, that’s true.

Patricia Lewin [15:55] And there are people that are extremely good at that. I am good at it in spots. Sometimes I, you know, can go every day and write whatever my page count is, and sometimes I can’t.

Patricia McLinn [16:08] What’s your favorite part of the writing process?

Patricia Lewin [16:11] Oh, I love story building. Story building and creating, creating worlds and connections and people and, and scenarios. I love story building.

Patricia McLinn [16:22] So is that necessarily before you start writing, or is that while you’re writing as well?

Patricia Lewin [16:28] Both, I start off beforehand. You know, I have this whole thing going on in my head, and then the story building goes on as I write. And on the flip side, the hardest thing for me is the actual putting words on paper. Well, not a paper, on the screen, because I’m bit of a wordsmith, and so I sit there and fuss, you know, over sentences or paragraphs instead of just getting the story out. The story’s all in my head, you know, but it’s a little harder for me to actually, you know, get the words in the screen.

Patricia McLinn [17:11] And then how does that affect your editing? So if you’re, if you’re fussing word-by-word in the draft process, are you pretty well set when you go to edit?

Patricia Lewin [17:24] Yes. Yes. I’m, I’m pretty close to a first draft writer, meaning by the time I get done with the book, it is pretty close to being finished. I do go through, of course, again. And when I was writing for traditional publishers, they went through it several times. And I always had to do some revisions, but the book is the actual writing and everything is pretty clean when I get it done, um, the first draft. Now, there may be structural issues sometimes or planning problems more of those than there are actual craft issues.

Patricia McLinn [18:01] Have you ever edited something out of a book or, or had something edited out, that you still mourn?

Mourning character names in Once a Wife and It’s a New World

Patricia Lewin [18:08] A character name.

Patricia McLinn [18:11] Oh.

Patricia Lewin [18:12] I, my—

Patricia McLinn [18:13] A character name.

Patricia Lewin [18:15] —Um, in my book, Once a Wife, which I think was my third. Give me a sec, I think it was my third, third book.

Patricia McLinn [18:23] And it’s, and it’s back out now.

Patricia Lewin [18:25] It’s back out now and actually. Since I thought about this question, I thought, Oh, maybe I can go back and change this now. My character and my editor told me years later that this was in her opinion the best of my books, my romances.

Patricia Lewin [18:40] The character is half Shoshone Indian and she was raised on a reservation and her, I picked her name as a shy name. It was Kya, KYA, and when I submitted it, the senior editor, not my editor, but her boss, told me that I couldn’t use that name because it sounded too romancey. This is a romance, right?

Patricia McLinn [19:05] Yeah. Yeah.

Patricia Lewin [19:06] So for all the editing process, I had to change her name, change it to Sarah, which is a little standard romance author, a romance character name, but I could not stop thinking of her as Kya because that’s what she was to me through the whole process of writing the book, but I thought—

Patricia McLinn [19:26] That—

Patricia Lewin [19:27] Go ahead.

Patricia McLinn [19:28] I was just going to say I have a similar story.

Patricia Lewin [19:29] Okay.

Patricia McLinn [19:30] and I did change the character’s name back when I brought the book out myself. It’s A New World, my second book. The heroines first name is Eleanor, and she becomes involved with a man who is a modern-day Irish immigrant to the United States, and she, I very carefully found her name. I wanted it to sound a certain way. I wanted some hard sounds, and I wanted it to be connected to Gloucester, Massachusetts, which is where the book is set.

Patricia McLinn [20:00] And I also spent, this is back pre-internet days, I spent an hour plus on the phone with this wonderful woman from the Chamber of Commerce on Cape Ann, which is where Gloucester is, looking up to make sure that there was no family that actually had that name, because I didn’t, I said nasty things about the family and I didn’t want there to be a real family that I accidentally insulted.

Patricia McLinn [20:30] So in my, in my world, her name was always Thatcher. Eleanor Thatcher. There’s a Thatcher Island by Gloucester and no, there was then no Thatcher family. And the editors came back, I think it was a senior editor again and said you cannot call her that because our UK readers would be upset with a woman named Thatcher sleeping with an Irishman.

Patricia Lewin [21:01] That is so ridiculous that, that is as weird as mine. You know, I—

Patricia McLinn [21:08] Yep.

Patricia Lewin [21:09] Traditional publishers, sometimes they had very strange ideas.

Patricia McLinn [21:12] In the traditional published edition, she was, what was she? Halston, I think, which I never liked, so I blithely changed her back.

Patricia Lewin [21:25] Even the last name change that is even stranger than a first name change.

Patricia McLinn [21:29] Yeah. Yeah.

Patricia Lewin [21:30] Well—

Patricia McLinn [21:31] So, we both had that, that episode. And now, how do you go about naming characters?

Patricia Lewin [21:38] It’s kind of a varied process. I kind of troll around. I look through baby books, and I really am stuck on a story until I get that name, but I’ll use Xs for a while, but the name has got to have the right feel for me. And I will go look up meanings of names like, I did in my last romance that I just put out an April. The character’s name is Daniel, and it just fit. He is a beast, and he communes with animals, and it just seemed to fit with the whole biblical.

Patricia McLinn [22:11] Oh, yes.

Patricia Lewin [21:16] Daniel and the lion, you know.

Patricia McLinn [22:18] That feel. Yeah.

Patricia Lewin [22:25] Yes. So names, I go a little crazy with names and find the right one. And that’s why Sarah in Once A Wife, really bothers me because although Sarah is a beautiful name, it just did not fit this character. And it just, you know, what I would love to hear from your readers if they responds, if I would change the name now the book has been out again digitally for, I don’t know, a year and a half more, it is probably one of my bestselling books. What if I change her name now? Is it too late?

Patricia McLinn [22:54] No.

Patricia Lewin [22:55] Would I drive everybody crazy?

Patricia McLinn [22:59] Why would it? Because the people who have already read it have read it, and it would be for the new readers coming to it.

Patricia Lewin [23:06] Yeah. I might do that.

Patricia McLinn [23:07] I say change it.

Patricia Lewin [23:08] Okay. I’ll do it.

Patricia McLinn [23:09] You know me. I’m a rebel. Touching off how you look for names, this sort of connects. This also goes back to the world building. What sort of research do you do, and how, when do you do it and do enjoy it or is it a chore?

Patricia Lewin [23:28] I do my research differently for both for the romances and for the suspense. When I started writing my Lewin books, my thrillers, I did an immense amount of research with, for about the CIA because my characters— My books are not really about the CIA, but my main characters are CIA officers or ex CIA officers who kind of … go off the rails, so to speak. I did a lot of research on the CIA, I read everything I could find out then.

And then I also had a connection with a woman who was one of those serendipitous things, where I met her I was looking, originally I was looking for something, I actually originally I was going to make the character and I say and it just wasn’t working and I met this woman and she was an ex CIA analyst who was a budding writer. And she couldn’t write anything like I was writing because of her non-disclosure agreement with the CIA, but she could help me to certain extent.

Patricia Lewin [24:28] So I did an immense amount of research on that, on the CIA because it was so integral to the story. Now other types of research like for my romances or actually for some of the peripheral stuff in the suspenses, I kind of write through it and then go back and look and see if I’m right. Especially the romances I did this a lot. If I wasn’t sure about something I’d write something through it.

I’d write through it and I highlighted then I go back and I found that 90% of the time that I was right that I would had guessed right, you know, like locations or things like that. The suspense I can’t do that because obviously I didn’t know anything about CIA before I started and then locations, you know, I try and visit locations or I write about places I’ve lived and then I love going to research locations.

Patricia Lewin [25:28] Anyway, I do have a funny story about a location research thing that Blind Run was set the San Juan Islands, which is off the northern coast of Washington, and I had lived in Oregon, in Portland, for years. So I had a really good feel for the Northwest and what it was, and there’s some pieces is an island and it’s some pieces that were about Northwest weather and how you know, it’s very cloudy and rainy there and cool. And so there was that, kind of a lot of that in Blind Run. And I recently got a review back from somebody who was telling me that I obviously had never been there because the San Juan Islands was a one of the few places in the Northwest where there was not rain. Okay, so I was freaked out.

Patricia Lewin [26:15] Well, recently this summer I went and spent some time on Orcas Island, which is on one of the northern, big islands in the San Juan’s, and come to find out there is a portion of the San Juan Islands in the Olympic Rain Shadow, which doesn’t have a lot of rain, but the rest of them are all rainy and cloudy just like I said. I asked two or three tour guides about this, and they always kind of looked at me, and they said that’s reasonable. Why would I think there isn’t rain here, it rains all winter long. So that was kind of an interesting thing. Anyway.

Patricia McLinn [26:38] To be proven, right? That’s always wonderful.

Patricia Lewin [26:41] Well, it’s freaked me out because I thought, Oh my God, did I get this book wrong? You know and it was just one reviewer and, and he obviously had been to the part of the Olympic Rain Shadow where there, wasn’t raining. My book is set in the fake Island on the very north side of the San Juan’s almost a bit ago.

Patricia McLinn [27:01] In this rainy part.

Patricia Lewin [27:02] In the rainy part.

Patricia McLinn [27:04] Okay. Here’s, here’s a question from a reader. This says, Where do your stories come from? And the reader went on to say I know one author who dreams her stories. Pat and I have a mutual friend who dreamed her stories, their special one. Another has a character suddenly taking up residence in her head. So, how are your beautiful stories born?

Patricia Lewin [27:27] I think that a character or situation just kind of starts intruding on my thoughts or situation. Blind Run came to me because I had this idea about a man having to protect children. I had a vision of the desert and I had a vision of him having to protect kids and him being, you know, wishing he was, he’d rather be dead than alive, but he doesn’t have the nerve to pull the, the trigger and then these children redeem him. So that’s where it started with that one. Sometimes. I can’t even tell you where it starts but it usually is a situation that pops into my head and then I have to find characters that fit it or sometimes it’s character, but I’m much more situational where I start with a situation then and then I find characters that can play out that situation.

Patricia McLinn [28:08] Yeah, I’m much more characters. They start talking in my head.

Patricia Lewin [28:12] I know I’m the weird one.

Patricia McLinn [28:14] You are. I’m totally normal, I hear voices. What’s your problem? So from that, from that start, from the situation that comes in your head. Do you, do your stories often change a lot from that point to where you publish it?

Patricia Lewin [28:39] Yes, very much so. I mean, I start playing around with it. I start, you know, working out the details and, and trying to find how the situation can work and that it often changes before the end. I remember one of my romantic suspenses, I don’t even remember which one well, I was writing as Keelan. I had a reviewer come back to me said, Oh my gosh, this is so wonderful. I didn’t know what was going to happen next.

Patricia Lewin [29:14] And I thought to myself, That’s because I didn’t know what was going to happen next. I mean, I learned before I wrote the Lewin books that I had to plot these things out but, those first romantic suspenses that I wrote it as romances, I didn’t know what I was doing, and I didn’t know where the story was going to go. So I would write myself into a hole and then had to figure out how to get those characters out of the hole I put them in. I was lucky that it worked. I don’t think it would have worked that easily with the, with the thrillers.

Patricia McLinn [29:37] So how do you plot ahead of time? Do you outline? Do you write a synopsis? Are you just doing notes? How do you plot those thrillers?

Patricia Lewin [29:47] I do a free-flow outline with an idea, you know, I mean, I just I, knowing that, knowing that the outline can be changed, nothing cast in concrete, but I just write bullet points and then sub-bullets and every now and then I’ll, a piece of it will grab me and I’ll write maybe a section of dialogue and then as I start writing if something is bugging me if I’m not, if I’m not finding a solution or the way I had originally done it is not working, I will then take a little side thing I do another outline like, why is this?

Patricia Lewin [30:10] You know, how, what about the scene? What am I trying to accomplish in this scene? And will it move the story forward? The other thing that I find for Thrillers that I actually I was working as an editor for a while, and I did I would do this with some of my thriller authors, my romantic suspense authors, is I have to define what the bad thing is. What is the bad stuff that my character is going up against and then, and that is really integral because until you, until you know what your characters are fighting against you’re kind of, you don’t have story. So I will also add that on the side. So it’s kind of a free flow type of outline type thing.

Patricia McLinn [31:10] And do you do a lot of work with your, with your bad guy characters or bad women characters?

Patricia Lewin [31:17] I do. I find a lot of times that the, um, your antagonist is what, is could be a really interesting character and sometimes you have to be careful that they don’t take over the story and it’s come to them in different ways.

Erin Baker series, Out of Time and Out of Reach

Patricia Lewin [31:30] For instance, in the second of the Erin Baker series, Out of Time, which takes place in Cuba, which was so much fun, but anyway. I had a character, she wasn’t the main antagonist, but she facilitated the main antagonist and she was a brilliant researcher while I had it as a man, like, you know because who knows why. Because that is the tried and true, you know. He’s a—

Patricia Lewin [31:45] And one of the people that was helping with the researcher was a friend of mine who has a MD PhD in molecular genetics and she says, Why does he have to be a man? Can it be a woman? And I don’t know why I never thought of that. I was using her as research, I mean and, so that was kind of cool. So then I could once I had her as a woman instead of a man, then I could really flesh her out and she became a much more interesting character than if it had just been a man.

Patricia Lewin [32:15] Plus then I named it after, I named the character after my friend, so she really loved that.

Patricia McLinn [32:22] What— Did she get destroyed at the end of the book or could that character show up again, sometime?

Patricia Lewin [32:40] She disappeared.

Patricia McLinn [32:42] Aha, which of your stories has surprised you the most?

Patricia Lewin [32:48] I think Out of Reach because I fell in love with my main character.

Patricia McLinn [32:50] Okay. Well, wait now let’s explain Out of Reach. So, you did Blind Run was your first thriller.

Patricia Lewin [32:52] Right. And it was a stand alone.

Patricia McLinn [32:53] And Out of Reach was your second thriller.

Patricia Lewin [32:55] Yes and it was the first—

Patricia McLinn [33:06] They’re not related. But then Out of Reach is the first of a series.

Patricia Lewin [33:10] Yes. Out of Reach is the first in what will be a three book series at this point. I’m working on the third but Out of Reach was the first one and it is about a CIA officer, Erin Baker, and I just fell in love with her. She always say that not only do I like her, I want to be her. She’s tough and she’s brilliant and she’s got lots of baggage. So I fell in love with her as a character, and I tend to be, I tend to more fall in love with my male characters, but this one I really like Erin. And that’s why there had to be a second and, now working, which is Out of Time. This is the one that takes place in Cuba. And now I’m working on the third one, which I’m hoping to get out early next year.

Patricia McLinn [34:06] You going to get it out early next year?

Patricia Lewin [34:08] It’ll be done by early next year. We’ll have to go through the whole editing process and everything and we’ll, we’ll see

Patricia McLinn [34:12] That, that sort of segues into, I was going to ask if you miss characters as you did with Erin in Out Of Reach, where you kind of missed her when, when the book was done and you wanted to do another book with her. Do you miss characters when you’re done with them? A reader asked this and it was because she misses the characters when she’s finished a book that she really likes.

Patricia Lewin [34:38] Well, I was obviously obsessed with Erin Baker it, for my other books, earlier books for my romance was I was more obsessed with the characters while I was writing them, you know calling family members my character’s name et cetera. But Erin just kind of. Stuck in my head, her story was not done in my head and she’s still the character I think about well, of course because I’m writing the book, that part of it, but I will also admit that the Blind Run characters have stuck with me and it just goes back to the fact that the thrillers grab me. Some of the characters in in Blind Run have stuck with me too, but mainly Erin I think of all my characters is one that I just had to write more about her. I had to know what was going to happen to her.

Patricia McLinn [35:27] When you when you finish a book, do you celebrate or do you celebrate beginning a book or publishing or, you know, do you have do you have particular celebrations?

Patricia Lewin [35:38] I don’t have particular or things that I do other than just collapsing or doing nothing or you know going to movies or having a glass of wine or two, but I don’t have any particular ritual that I do. It’s just kind of like something is come out of you when you’re done. It’s like oh my gosh, it’s over. Okay go on. Let’s go on.

Patricia McLinn [36:00] Re-entry to normal life.

Patricia Lewin [36:02] Re-entry and everything gets put off at the very end there, you know, the house gets to be a disaster. You know, I haven’t talked to my husband or kid in, my daughter, in a while, you know that kind of things and so all that stuff can resurface after you get done with the book.

Patricia McLinn [36:17] Do you remember the movie Romancing the Stone?

Patricia Lewin [36:20] I do.

Patricia McLinn [36:22] The beginning sequence—

Patricia Lewin [36:23] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [36:24] —she’s finishing a book and she goes around and she can’t find anything to blow her nose on because she’s run out of all these things.

Patricia Lewin [36:32] Yes. That’s, that’s very much the way it is. Yes.

Patricia McLinn [36:35] Reality-based people think that’s funny. It’s not so funny. When it’s you.

Patricia Lewin [36:41] When my husband would follow me around the house sometimes and I would do things like, you know, put the milk in the stove or the microwave away or put things away in the wrong places obvious wrong places, like cold stuff in the because your mind is elsewhere. Your mind is not on the everyday stuff.

Patricia McLinn [37:00] I had a neighbor and Virginia who rang my doorbell one day at like ten-thirty in the morning, which is very early for me.

Patricia Lewin [37:08] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [37:09] And I came down was quite grumpy and she said, I know, I know you’re on deadline, but I was worried because you left your car doors open all night.

Patricia Lewin [37:21] Yes, I can see you do that.

Patricia McLinn [37:23] Which is very unlike me in ordinary times and, it’s okay. You’re forgiven. I think she had this vision of a massacre in my, in my house. Of course, that started me in other story ideas. What do you read for fun?

Patricia Lewin [37:40] You know, I read all over the place, but I read a, something that I have not let myself write, and so I enjoy it immensely is Science Fiction and Fantasy, you know, I because I don’t, you know, you like stuff you don’t like it, but I know tend to tear it apart like I do suspenses, you know, I write is somebody else’s suspense. I’m, I’m trying to figure out how they put it together when it works. You know, why is it so good or. Why is it not so good? I don’t do that with Science Fiction and Fantasy. If I don’t like it, I just stopped reading it, it’s tempting to actually write it because I do love it.

Patricia McLinn [38:17] In addition to writers looking at things as writers, and I refer to it as seeing the man behind the curtain, do you also think that writers look at the world or other people differently than most people?

Patricia Lewin [38:33] It’s possible. I mean, we’re always looking, we’re always seeing story ideas and every little thing. I remember years ago my critique group and, this is going to this is going to sound, maybe heartless when JonBenét Ramsey was murdered and we were sitting around in our critique group the comment was, If I was writing this book this is who would be done it, who would have done it. Yes, we look at story ideas and say story things are happening in the news and saying okay. This is how I would do it.

Patricia McLinn [39:04] There are a lot of studies now that story is part of the human condition and that that the brain processes story mostly the way it does real events, and I wonder if kind of the flip of that is true that story is our way of processing horrific things.

Patricia Lewin [39:30] It’s true.

Patricia McLinn [39:30] Or other things that are happening that we’re observing and possibly experiencing and to, to look at it as a writer you’re, you’re involved in it emotionally, and yet you’re also observing which I think in some ways is protective.

Patricia Lewin [39:55] Very much so.

Patricia McLinn [39:55] Or you could.

Patricia Lewin [39:56] Yeah, because I for you know, something is something is bothering me a lot I have on occasion written a short story where I changed things. Or if you’re upset about something you can and I’ve done this with a couple of things and if I write a little short story about making things different or changing things. It makes me feel better. Even if it’s just a story. Does that make any sense?

Patricia McLinn [40:29] Yes. Absolutely it, we have control.

Patricia Lewin [40:34] Well, you know, I think that’s what it is. I think this I think most writers, we do have a bit of a control issues. You know, when we write we control the universe.

Patricia McLinn [40:43] Isn’t that lovely and we did such a good job of it.

Patricia Lewin [40:45] We do and good always triumphs, you know, the world is set right.

Patricia McLinn [40:51] In our books. Yes.

Patricia Lewin [40:52] And our book, yes.

Patricia McLinn [40:54] Okay. Here is another question from a reader says, What is your favorite place to write and why? Does it have an inspirational view?

Patricia Lewin [41:03] I have to write at my desk in my office on a desktop. And no, no inspirational viewing. I have the blinds closed. I do use music though. I listen to classical music while I’m writing and my usually Chopin piano concertos, my-my thought is, you’re going to laugh, is genius will inspire genius. But no, I, um, I know a lot of writers use their laptops and things and go and write in different circumstances, and I haven’t quite gotten the, I haven’t quite got the comfort level of right I would feel like I’m playing when I’m writing on my laptop. So I’m at my desk in an office setting, and it’s right here in front of me. I know that’s not very exciting, right?

Patricia McLinn [41:47] So you’re trying to possibly block out some of the other visual stimulation so that you’re not distracted from the vision that’s in your head.

Patricia Lewin [41:58] Exactly and also well also because it’s a writing cue or a trigger when I’m at my desk. That’s what I’m supposed to be doing. And that’s why I listen to classical music. I can’t listen to any music with words in it, because I will start singing and then we know we won’t get any writing done.

Patricia McLinn [42:18] I will start typing the words.

Patricia Lewin [42:20] Hold on up either tried it, but so I, so you’re right up and it’s like the music is white noise. It’s beautiful white noise, but it’s white noise and it does block things out.

Patricia McLinn [42:33] Well, and especially I think if you play the same music over and over it defin— It’s a, an element of Pavlov’s dogs. I hear this music I write. And it also it’s a there’s a certain rhythm to the music and I think that can carry you through, and keep you writing where you might otherwise have gone with a distraction.

Patricia Lewin [42:57] Yeah, you’re probably right. I mean it just it does and I do listen to the same music. I know authors some authors write different music for different books, and I’ve tried that it doesn’t really work for me. I always keep going back to the piano the Chopin piano concertos. I mean, there’s lots of other classical music with that, words out there, but why do I keep going back to the Chopin? I don’t know. And I think what you just said is probably it’s just it’s a trigger. It’s, it’s what I’m used to and it just soothes me and gets me concentrating on the words I’m trying to put down.

Patricia McLinn [43:32] That’s a great thing to have found for you.

Patricia Lewin [43:34] Yeah, I don’t know where I’ve been doing it for a long time. I don’t know where it came from.

Patricia McLinn [43:39] Okay. Ready, ready for another reader question.

Patricia Lewin [43: 41] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [43:42] This, this is more applicable more to the traditional world. But let’s see if it has any in your Indie publishing too. Says, When the cover image doesn’t match the character description, a pet peeve of mine says the reader, how does it feel?

Patricia Lewin [44:03] Drives me crazy. I have been blessed—

Patricia McLinn [44:09] I knew that answer.

Patricia Lewin [44:11] Yes. I um, I must have had some really great covers and no really horrible covers, but my original Blind Run cover, the original suspense, although it was a beautiful cover, it drove me crazy because it’s two characters and it looked like a, um, older girl, kid and a younger boy racing out on a pier into a really glassy ocean.

Okay. Well. It drove me crazy because the boy in the stories the older and the girl was younger, and there’s a third person, and they’re an adult running with them, and they’re running off to a pier in a turbulent Pacific. I know these are really minor things, right, so it drove me crazy because the cover just, I said, you know, you got this all wrong, and they basically told me to be quiet and go away.

So that is what that was one of the first things I changed when I went indie with this book was that I got the cover the way I wanted it. So yes, it drives me crazy when the cover is wrong.

Patricia McLinn [45:13] I see, I thought I knew what the answer to that one was going to be.

Patricia Lewin [45:16] You did, huh?

Patricia McLinn [45:17] I did.

Patricia Lewin [45:18] What do you think it was gonna be.

Patricia McLinn [45:19] That answer.

Patricia Lewin [45:20] Oh, okay.

Sally Field moments and mistaken for lost relatives

Patricia McLinn [45:22] So, do you have other, do you have good stories about communication with readers or encountering them, or how have you dealt with readers? For how long have readers dealt with you?

Patricia Lewin [45:36] You know when my first romances came out and I would go to writers conferences, it would always surprise me when somebody would come up to me and say, You’re the writer. You’re the author who wrote Keeping Katie or whatever, and it was like I’m looking behind me trying to figure out who you’re talking to, you know, that can’t be me. But now online, I get some really, I don’t have any, overarching stories but except for the fact that you do get some really great readers communicating with you sending you email or, or reviewing your books or talking to you. Sending you private notes when they read stuff that you know, that might be considered, you know, you know because we talk a lot online and the calm you down about things so I have been very. Thankful for my readers. They keep me writing.

Patricia McLinn [46:30] I remember receiving my first letter from a reader with my very first book, and I got it, and I looked at the return address and it’s from Oregon, and I thought I don’t know anybody in Oregon. What, how is this possible? And when I read the note it was, it gave me chills because she got from the book what I had hoped people would get from the book. And I often say reading is interactive that we as authors put material out there, but that’s only half of it. The other half is what the reader takes from it. So this was, this was a click what I put out was what she, she got from it and then she wrote to me saying how much she loved it and I was like, Oh my gosh!

Patricia Lewin [47:26] It’s a wonderful feeling, isn’t it?

Patricia McLinn [47:30] It was, it was a fabulous feeling. There was also this little tiny piece of me that said, Oh my God, strangers are reading my books.

Patricia Lewin [47:26] I find that with looking at good reviews too. It, just when somebody loved something that you put so much time in, it’s just like, oh my God, they’re talking about something that I did and it’s very surprising for all the readers out there, it really is surprising when people like what you did because you just, you know, we live in our little bubble.

Patricia McLinn [47:58] It’s a Sally Field moment.

Patricia Lewin [47:59] A Sally Field moment?

Patricia McLinn [48:01] They like me. They really like me.

Patricia Lewin [48:03] Exactly. I had, actually, your talk about the same you think about a funny story I had about a reader when I was writing romance, who this really isn’t about the book, this is about how she contacted me. She contacted my publisher, who sent me a letter because they will never give your address out, and put me in contact with this woman who was convinced that I was her husband’s sister who had been put up for adoption when I was born.

Patricia McLinn [48:33] Oh my God.

Patricia Lewin [48:33] And I could not convince her that I was not this person and she kept saying all I know it’s really upsetting to find this out and blah, blah, blah. But you know, I was number four of six kids. Believe me, after three, they would not have adopted a fourth, but it was very interesting.

Patricia McLinn [48:52] And it’s not like you guys don’t look like each other at all.

Patricia Lewin [48:55] Oh, yeah, we, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [48:56] Some of you.

Patricia Lewin [48:57] Yeah, but she was convinced because of my last name that I was her brother’s long-lost sister. And I kept saying I wish I could say I was, but I’m not.

Patricia McLinn [49:07] There’s a book in that, Pat.

Patricia Lewin [49:09] Actually. I never about that, but you’re right, there is a book in that one.

Patricia McLinn [49:13] Dibs.

Patricia Lewin [49:15] My story. You probably get it done faster than I would.

Patricia McLinn [49:19] Of all your books that are done so far, as opposed to the ones you’re going to write really fast now, ahem, are any of them what you would consider an overlooked gem something that even, even your loyal readers may not have come across?

Patricia Lewin [49:39] Well in the romances, I think, well from any suspense, Running for Cover always surprises me because it’s kind of buried in the— I’ve two series in my romances, and it’s kind of the theme series, you don’t have to read them in order. It’s kind of buried like third or fourth in that series and people don’t seem to get to it. And if you like, you know romantic suspense is more romance than suspense, although they are obviously running through the entire book, I think for romance readers, that’s the one that I think that gets overlooked a bit. And as far as the suspense is go, I mean, I don’t know I, you know, I loved Out of Reach, but then I love the whole Cuba thing and Out of Time. So it’s kind of hard to say, but for romances, I would say Running for Cover.

Patricia McLinn [50:24] Well, so for somebody who’s new to you, hasn’t read your books yet, what would be the best book for them to enter say the romances first and then the thrillers.

Patricia Lewin [50:35] if you like, you know, family-oriented romances, then I would say Keeping Katie because those three books are part of a series called a mother’s heart. They’re all about women who are mothers but in different ways, I mean not necessarily biological mothers, and they’re more about family and the love of family and children as well as the romantic loves.

Yeah. Keeping Katie is my first book and I loved it. So, so I would say if you like family-oriented stories that you would start with that. Those books are all themed, it doesn’t matter which order you read them in. if you like something a little more action than you start with the, The Protector series which are all, all the heroes in those books are ex-protectors, military or cops or something. And they all have a little bit more of an element. Some of them have more suspense than others.

So the first one in that series is Loving Lindsey, but it doesn’t matter what order you read them and you could read them all over the place.

Patricia McLinn [51:38] How about your thrillers?

Patricia Lewin [51:40] You know the series, I mean Out of Reach is, Out of Reach seems to be the book that I have got, when I was traditionally published originally in hardcover and I got the best reviews on Out of Reach of any of my books as far as in Publishers Weekly and everything, you know, Blind Run is kind of my baby and I do plan to write the sequel to that, but Out of Reach is the book that seems to have the most seems to be more compelling I guess this is maybe the right word.

Patricia McLinn [52:10] And this is another question from a reader. I love this one. If you could write a book with any author alive or dead, who would you want to work with and why?

Patricia Lewin [52:20] Oh my gosh, that would be a really hard decision. It’s almost the same thing as asking me who my favorite authors are, which is, since everybody I know is an author, is an unfair question. But, you know, I’m going to cop out and go with, you know, one of the big names. I would I mean just to meet somebody like JK Rowling’s you know, I don’t write that kind of book. So maybe that’s not a good answer but you know—

Patricia McLinn [52:48] Well why, why would it?

Patricia Lewin [52:50] Because of her incredible skill of detail. And putting stories together that are immensely complicated. I mean you can like the books or not, but they, you can’t ignore the skill there. The skill of any, remember story building is what I love most about writing, and her to be able to put together this really complex world and have it all mesh. I think that is a phenomenal talent.

You know the other author that I adore his skill is still storytelling is Stephen King. I don’t write that kind of stuff either. So why would I want to work with him? I don’t know, just because he has this really great storytelling ability. For people that I write what I write I probably Lisa Gardner I would want to work with Lisa, you know, because she writes the same type of book that I write and you know, it would be interesting to work with her.

Patricia McLinn [53:50] Okay. Is there anything, I’m thinking of I’m, I’m sitting here thinking of authors and working with them and what you learn and, and I think even like Stephen King even though you don’t write what he writes. I think there could be a great deal that you would learn that anybody would learn—

Patricia Lewin [54:09] He’s an incredible storyteller. I mean, he really is, and so you would learn that aspect of it from him. And you know what? When I say Lisa, I really like her books to, that would be more of a collaborative type thing where I don’t know. I’m sure she could teach me something. I’m sure but not like, you know, Stephen King or JK Rowling’s you know that you could actually, you know, I could actually identify what it is they could teach me.

The other author that I would really love to write work with is Robert McCammon. He is probably one of my all-time favorite authors, and his incredible ability to tell a story and, and it doesn’t have the complexity as JK Rowling, I don’t know if anybody does, but he does. He’s also a great storyteller and a great writer. And I would think there would just be an incredible amount to learn from him, and he writes all over the place rights all kinds of stuff.

Patricia McLinn [55:07] It’s a fun question, isn’t it?

Patricia Lewin [55:09] Well, it’s an interesting thing to think about because I never even, you know, I have a list of authors I’d like to meet but would I like to work with them? I mean in a certain sense working with somebody like JK Rowling could be very intimidating, you know, and even more intimidating than Stephen King. I would be so in awe of her ability that it would be a sin intimidating. So I never even thought about actually working with another author.

Patricia McLinn [55:34] I think I would tend to take somebody who is dead, just because there’s always the possibility you could run across the live person, you know in real life and but the dead person you can’t so you take the opportunity of the question to go for somebody who is impossible in real life.

Patricia Lewin [55:55] But if you’re working with him—

Patricia McLinn [56:00] How’s that for logic?

Patricia Lewin [56:02] But if you’re working with them, it’s okay to run into them, right? Because you’re working with them.

Patricia McLinn [56:06] So, as we’re close, getting closer to the close here, tell us about your most recent release.

Patricia Lewin [56:09] The one I’m working on or the one that just came, that the, um, the last book in—

Patricia McLinn [56:13] The most recent release. The one that came out.

Patricia Lewin [56:15] Okay, that was be Out of Time. And that’s the second book in the Erin Baker thriller series.

Patricia McLinn [56:20] What’s the significance of that title?

Patricia Lewin [56:22] Because she’s on a deadline. She has to she, it takes place in Cuba. She gets sent into Cuba to investigate a missing agent or officer, they don’t call CIA offi— agents. They’re officers, and there is a real short time span. She goes in, she’s half Cuban. Looks are so Miami, which I spent most of my life in South Florida so that fit, and she goes in to investigate and the way they get her in undercover is that her estranged father runs a medical facility that’s something like Doctors Without Borders. But I did make up a thing, didn’t use Doctors Without Borders, and that’s her way in but that’s not who she goes investigate.

Patricia Lewin [57:22] She goes to investigate a missing officer who happens to be a friend. So I have the dynamic there of an estranged father who left her at a very young age, and she has all these built, this is the emotion thing all these built up emotions, and she’s very unhappy with the CIA at the moment, but she is only there because of this friend of hers is missing so we have the combination of the emotion and the action and this bad stuff. She goes in they think it’s going to be a slam dunk that she’s going to go in and come right out. And of course that never happens in books right has to get worse and worse and worse.

Patricia Lewin [57:50] So I really. I loved writing that book. The whole Cuba thing was fascinating, having spent most of my life in South Florida with the huge Cuban population, and, um, and I had to do a ton of research on Cuba. I actually tried to get into Cuba and at the time I had to submit an application to the State Department, and they turned me down. But so that is—

Patricia McLinn [58:10] They’re so short-sighted and not thinking that book research is a good reason—

Patricia Lewin [58:15] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [58:16] —for any trips.

Patricia Lewin [58:18] I might be able to get in there now, but I couldn’t at the time. And, and you know, I had friends say, Oh just fly through Cuba, I mean, fly through Canada or fly through Mexico and I’m thinking, oh, yeah, I’m going to do that and then I’ll be the one they make an example of an American in Cuba and get charged. So I didn’t do that.

But one of the things that I loved about this book, and I won’t tell you, but the ending to me leaves Erin, I always like to leave Erin with little bit more baggage, and she does end up with a lot of baggage to this book and which is the trigger for the book I’m working on now. The one that’s her follow-on.

Patricia McLinn [58:50] Have the title for that one yet?

Patricia Lewin [58:53] Out of the Woods.

Patricia McLinn [58:56] Ah, okay.

Patricia Lewin [58:58] Yes, and it started as a short story, and it just kind of, because I was trying to have her reconcile where she was at the end of the book, and it just became much bigger than a short story can handle and, and basically she has to come to terms with the kind of person she is. And she is basically a protector. That’s what her, her whole thing in life has been she’s a protector and a warrior and she’s been fighting that forever. And in this book, she has to come to terms with what she is. And what she is meant, why she is here. Does that sound a little too philosophical for you?

Patricia McLinn [59:34] No, no. Pat, where can readers find out more about when Out of the Woods is coming out and about your other books?

Patricia Lewin [59:43] Well, they can go to my website, which is PatriciaLewin.com and Lewin’s, I have excerpts out there. I have a brief blog, and I will post about Out of the Woods as I get a little further along where I can actually give you a time that’s a little bit closer than early next year.

Patricia McLinn [01:00:10] And how about the romance books?

Patricia Lewin [01:00:11] That’s at PatriciaKeelyn.com. And you spell Keelyn, K-E-E-L-Y-N is much more active than my Lewin website, and I can’t even tell you why that is but that, there’s always something going on there. I’ve blogs and giveaways and things like that. At this point, I don’t have any crossover between the two, and this is actually going to be a question for your readers is that I find that there are a lot of, a lot of romance readers read everything. There’s a lot of crossover that my romance readers will go read my suspense folks. I don’t find that there’s crossover the other way around, and so I’ve been considering putting both websites under an umbrella site with links to both websites so that you can cross over, and I’m not sure whether that’s a good idea or not.

So I’d love to hear what readers think about that an umbrella site that would either be my, I don’t know, just something where you go to one place, and then you can go to either my suspense books or my romance books. So I’d love to hear what readers think about that.

Patricia McLinn [01:01:18] Okay, and we will also have those URLs and others in the show notes for folks to find Patricia’s books. Now, we come to the what I call the epilogue. Rapid-fire either/or questions.

Patricia Lewin [01:01:36] Okay.

Patricia McLinn [01:01:37] No warnings. Well, I’ll give you a warm up one, appetizer or dessert?

Patricia Lewin [01:01:43] Appetizer.

Patricia McLinn [01:01:44] Day or night?

Patricia Lewin [01:01:45] Day.

Patricia McLinn [01:01:46] Toenail polish or bare?

Patricia Lewin [01:01:48] Toenail polish? After you said bare, I’m thinking Bears. I’m going, what is one thing have to do with the other.

Patricia McLinn [01:01:54] You’re thinking EAR instead of ARE.

Patricia Lewin [01:01:57] Exactly. Polish, definitely polished

Patricia McLinn [01:02:00] Tea or coffee?

Patricia Lewin [01:02:01] Coffee.

Patricia McLinn [01:02:02] Dog or cat?

Patricia Lewin [01:02:03] Cat.

Patricia McLinn [01:02:04] Knew we wouldn’t agree on that one.

Patricia Lewin [01:02:05] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [01:02:06] Which is eerier to you, an owl hooting or coyotes howling?

Patricia Lewin [01:02:11] Coyotes.

Patricia McLinn [01:02:12] Sailboat or motorboat?

Patricia Lewin [01:02:15] Sailboat.

Patricia McLinn [01:02:16] Save the best for last or grab the best first?

Patricia Lewin [01:02:19] Save the best for last.

Patricia McLinn [01:02:21] Paint or wallpaper?

Patricia Lewin [01:02:23] Paint.

Patricia McLinn [01:02:23] Mountains or beach?

Patricia Lewin [01:02:25] Oh, this is a really hard one because I can never make up my mind. I used to play this with my daughter, and I love both the mountains and the beach, so I would have to have a mountainous beach. I really don’t know the answer to that one because I love them both

Patricia McLinn [01:02:39] Cake or ice cream?

Patricia Lewin [01:02:41] Ice cream.

Patricia McLinn [01:02:42] Yoga or walk?

Patricia Lewin [01:02:44] Walk.

Patricia McLinn [01:02:45] Garden or house decorating?

Patricia Lewin [01:02:47] Do I have to do either? Probably house decorating of the two would-be least of the two evils.

Patricia McLinn [01:02:55] I was good guessing that one. Leggings are sweats?

Patricia Lewin [01:03:00] Sweats.

Patricia McLinn [01:03:01] Cowboy boots are hiking boots?

Patricia Lewin [01:03:03] Hiking boots.

Patricia McLinn [01:03:04] Oh, I thought that might be another do I have to do—

Patricia Lewin [01:03:06] To be honest, I don’t like boots period of any kind, and cowboy boots, you know, hiking boots have a function cowboy boots, don’t seem to have one. Well, I guess if you’re a cowboy.

Patricia McLinn [01:03:10] Yes, they do.

Patricia Lewin [01:03:12] If you’re a cowboy, they are, but—

Patricia McLinn [01:03:20] Okay. Well, it’s been lots of fun to have one of my longtime, we won’t say oldest, we’ll say one of my longtime writing buddies here, and hope that the listeners will come back for another session of Authors Love Readers and hope you have a great week of reading.

Patricia Lewin [01:03:39] Thanks, Pat.

Patricia McLinn [01:03:40] Thank you. That’s the show for this week. Hope you enjoyed it and thank you for joining Authors Love Readers podcast. Remember, you can always find out more about our guest authors in the show notes and you can find out more about me, at www.patriciamclinn.com. You can also send in questions to be asked of future authors at podcast@authorslovereaders.com. Until next week wishing you lots of happy reading.

Bye.