And our Sue's Clues Mystery Author is: Linda Winstead Jones would rather write than do anything else. Since she cannot cook, gave up ironing many years ago, and finds cleaning the house a complete waste of time, she has plenty of time to devote to her obsession for writing. Occasionally she’s tried to expand her horizons by taking classes. In the past she’s taken instruction on yoga, French (a dismal failure), Chinese cooking, cake decorating (food-related classes are always a good choice, even for someone who can’t cook), belly-dancing (trust me, this was a long time ago) and, of course, creative writing.
Writing as Linda Winstead Jones, she pens romantic suspense for Silhouette Intimate Moments. Linda also writes for Kensington using the pseudonyms Linda Devlin and Linda Fallon. Her March 2001 book for Silhouette, MADIGAN’S WIFE, was a finalist for the Romance Writers of America’s Rita award, and HOT ON HIS TRAIL, an August 2001 IM, won the Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence. She’s a long-time resident of Huntsville, Alabama, where she lives with her husband of 30 years. Linda took just a few minutes out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions for us: You're so prolific and write under so many different names - do you have a hard time juggling your different personas and story types? Do you work on more than one book at a time? How "fast" do you write a book? Do you have a set schedule or do you just go with the flow?
There have been times when I found myself working on more than one book at a time, but it's not the ideal situation. I prefer to give each story my full attention while I'm writing it. Of course, there are often copy edits and galleys to handle while I'm working on something entirely different, but that's not as jarring as actually writing two stories at once. How fast I write a book varies. I like to have three months for each story, but have written a book in two months. The ideal situation for me is to write the first draft, and then stick the manuscript in the trunk of my car for a month. Why the trunk of my car? Because it's not close at hand, in case I decide to pick it up and read just a few pages. Also, if the house burns down, my baby is safe. <g> My schedule is pretty set when I'm writing a book. I do my best work in the morning and early afternoon. Late afternoons are for editing, research, and handling work on other books (copy edits and galleys) that come along.
As for working with another author, I have to say I can't imagine doing something like this with just anyone! Lori and I work in a similar fashion, we're friends, and the more we talked about this series the more exciting it became! We do not live close to one another, though some people assume that we do. We did a lot of the planning by e-mail. Once that was done I wrote SULLIVAN, which was the second book of the series. I mailed Lori my first draft (something that normally no one sees), she read it and made some notes, and mailed it back. Then she wrote Reese, the first book in the series, and sent it to me. I made notes and mailed it back to her. We continued through the entire series this way, with me writing book 4 before she wrote book 3, and then writing book 6 before she wrote 5, simply because we both write for other publishers and this suited our schedules best. And it worked. Out of all the wonderful heroes you've written about, which one is your favorite?
Inspiration comes from so many places, I can't even begin to tell you where the stories came from. Sometimes an idea grows over a period of years. Sometimes an entire story comes almost at once, and I can't write fast enough. I have been asked where I get my ideas. I have no idea how to stop them from coming! Riding in the car is a great place for stories to grow -- which is why whenever we go on a trip my husband always drives. If I was behind the wheel, there's no telling where we'd end up! :-) After a long day of writing, who do you pick up to read in order to relax?
Can you tell us what you're working on now and what you'll soon have on thebookshelves?
Coming up? Two books in April -- CLINT'S WILD RIDE (Linda Winstead Jones) for Silhouette Intimate Moments, and SHADES OF WINTER (Linda Fallon) for Zebra. You can learn more about Linda by visiting her website at: |
Linda has written in several romance sub-genres, since first being published in 1994. She’s written historical romance as Linda Winstead and fairy-tale and time-travel romance as Linda Jones, all for Dorchester Publishing. 
I've never had a hard time switching from one story type to another. I enjoy changing styles, and I think it helps to keep each new story fresh. I can get excited about writing a historical after finishing a romantic suspense for Silhouette. I like going from cops to cowboys to ghosts. 