Lattimer, Linda L.

 

Linda Lattimer lives in southern Georgia. Writing is a passion that allows her a sense of escape. Books take you places you can only read about and you meet characters who stay in your heart forever.

Linda enjoys traveling and seeing new places. She loves visiting out west. The scenery with its lovely colors, mountains, sunrises, and sunsets, offers beauty and serenity with many different stories.

Serendipity's Sacrifices Series

 

Interview Linda L. Lattimer

by

Maria Desrosiers

1) What inspired you to write Trio Of Discontent? Did you take it from an experience in real life?

Actually I thought of it after some travels I took out west and saw the difference in the landscape of Arizona and Nevada. Not to mention, I did have a friend, well, at the time, we thought was a good friend that more or less was a backstabber. Somehow the story started unfolding in my head and bingo it was on paper.

2) What are your favorite genres to read and or write in? How long have you been writing?

I think mystery first, then contemporary romance. Actually it varies with each day when the inspiration strikes. I can’t recall when I first starting writing. I know it was young. I enjoyed reading immensely and wanted to be a writer. When it was time for book reports, the teacher always called on me because she knew of the whole class I didn’t mind reading or composing a review on the book. I started composing different stories and kept them in a box for fear others would ask what I was doing. For some reason sewing, to some, seemed more meaningful than writing, but I didn’t have any desire to sew. And even today I really don’t have any desire. I tried to instill to my daughters to do what they feel comfortable with, not what I want them to do, if that makes sense. It seems each English teacher that I encountered, even in College, told me that they loved my stories that I had to turn in for some project and that I should think seriously about being a writer. I started sending stories off in 92 then things took a turn in our home life and I had to cease until 2002 when I decided to give it a go again. But if I had to do it over, I would have continued to pursue in 92 and found a way to work through the health obstacles that were in our life at the time.

3) When researching the setting of your stories, do you visit these places? Or have the settings been taken from places you've been to?

Sometimes I visit them and get the feel of the landscape almost placing the characters into the backdrop. Other times it is places that I have traveled in my life. This one was fresh in my mind after staying out at the Grand Canyon for eight months, and parts of Utah. I was able to visit Nevada, as well.

4) What is your favorite scene in your upcoming book, Trio Of Discontent? Or do you have one?

I think when Monique, Vincent and Colby are at the restaurant eating and Colby has unlocked some secrets as Monique goes through some transformation in her life. I like picturing the intense scene with Colby and Vincent over events.

5) What inspired the characters? Do you base them on real people you've met?

Most of my characters sometime stem from people I have encountered off and on in my life. It could be from people I have become acquainted in my travels, like with Vincent in this story, was someone we had met and indeed had a form of depression, along with Colby. Monique was a young girl that worked at one of the lodgings that we met that fit perfect for this role.

6) Do you have a favorite story that you've written? If so why is that one your favorite?

I think Skeletons Too Close To Home, my last one with Wings pops into my mind. My daughter keeps saying come on mother, write a second part to it, she bugs me every week about it and I have an outline but haven’t put it on paper. The characters in that book continue to stick in my head, especially when I think about the character of Charlie.

7) Do you have a website?

Yes, I have four places you can check my stuff.

http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/OurAuthors/LindaLLattimer/Home.html

http://coffeetimeromance.com/Boards/index.php

http://hometown.aol.com/lyndallattimer/myhomepage/writing.html

http://romanceatheart.com/bookshelf/lindalattimer.html

8) What made you decide to publish with Wings ePress?

A good friend sent me some e-book publisher sites and I searched the net and they sounded like a great place and I had read some of their books and just went with them. Lorraine has been incredible and a great angel.

9) What are some of your favorite Wings ePress Authors and books?

Wow Maria, I think all of them. Every book by Wings that I have read are just great! It is really hard to choose just one, you know? I love the mysteries at Wings, the romance, the young adult, I think I love them all, and again it is hard to choose the favorite.

10) Where is your favorite place to write? Are you neat and organized or chaotic?

I would have to say in a room looking out the window at the birds that fly around the nearby tree, while I listen to the Food Channel or old movies in the background as I compose. Other times I like sitting out at a lake and listening to the sounds as I’m writing. Sometimes I am neat but other times, it could use a good dusting and organizing.

11) Do you have another book in progress and what's it about?

Yes, A Man for Mom with Wings, and One Lane Bridge that my daughter and I did together. A Man for Mom comes out in September and One Lane Bridge in January.

A Man For Mom, a Paranormal Encore L’Amour Romance When a widow remarries after ten years, she finds it hard to get rid of the ghost of her late husband and the painful memories.

One Lane Bridge, a mystery from Wings ePress--January 2007

When a New York couple transfers to Utah, neither expects one is carrying a secret and a psychopathic killer is on their trail.

Interview Linda Lattimer

by

Phyllice Bradner

1) Let’s start with your book that is coming out in September, A Man For Mom, a Paranormal Encore L’Amour Romance. Your character is a woman haunted by the ghost of her late husband. Are you delving into the world of the paranormal in this novel? Have you had paranormal experiences of your own or is that an area that has interested you for some time?

It has a bit of paranormal to it, yes. I would have to say, yes, there are some things that I have felt and seen, especially after my dad died in 1991. Some people look at me like I am crazy but I know what I saw and felt. My children and I both have had some strange things happen since my husband’s passing, and, at times it is hard to stay in my house. That is why I usually stay at the lake and just compose stories. Honestly, it is hard explaining some of the things, although I am sure they have an explanation, but I know what I’ve felt and seen, if that makes sense. Even some of my aunts have seen and experienced unusual events in their lifetimes. Off the record, last September when I took the girls to Savannah, to try to get over Bob’s death, I chose an old historical hotel that used to be a funeral home because the girls, were like, hey mom, let’s stay there and see if it is really haunted. I must tell you, Suzanne and I shared the Mercer room, and it was an experience we will never forget.

2) In reading your biographical material I see that you lost your own beloved husband in 2005. (I am so sorry for your loss.) Was this book about a widow difficult for you to write? Or did you derive some comfort in writing about this painful topic?

It has been hard and everyone says it will get better with time, but I still wonder, when. Actually, this book really wasn’t that difficult because I had composed it back in the late eighties, so it was already done and only needed polishing. Yes, redoing it did seem to help in the comfort zone, a little. Actually, I think I have over 35 or more stories on disk that I have written in my lifetime.

3) Is there an underlying message in your new book, one that you could summarize in a few lines?

The only one that comes to mind is abuse. I believe if anyone is ever in a situation where abuse abounds, no matter how much love there is in a marriage, it is best to get out of any circumstance that could not be healthy for mind and soul.

4) Most of us authors who are “of a certain age” began writing well before the computer era. In fact, if you are like me and my sister, you probably started with a yellow wooden pencil and a sheet of lined notebook paper. At what point in your life did you begin to embrace the computer as a writing tool and the internet a possible venue for publishing?

Hmmm, I would have to say in the eighties, when my dad purchased a mobile home park and he made me his secretary. I got to go from legal pads to an old black typewriter--that I sort of miss--to a computer. I must say I am very happy with my laptop now, that is good, but things don’t seem to last like they use to.

5) During that ten year hiatus between 1992 and 2002, when you put the pursuit of publishing on hold because of problems at home, did you continue to write? Did you keep a journal or compose stories in your head?

I continued to write them all on those long legal pads, and then transferred them to disk. I have another diary-like journal in which I make little notes, and outline stories that I have not penned yet. Then I have many flooding through my head. I just need more time to put them all on paper.

6) Have any of your children followed in your footsteps and taken up writing as a career or pastime?

Yes, in fact all three of my children enjoy writing, maybe not as much as I do, but my middle one, Suzanne, has a book coming out with Wings in January. She and I worked on it together. It is a romantic suspense, entitled One Lane Bridge. The other two have written stories but I have not sent them off anywhere as of yet. They always write things and say, here Mom, help, finish it.

7) From which aspect of writing do you gain the most satisfaction: the character and plot development; the word-crafting and structuring of the book; the completion and publishing, seeing the finished product enjoyed by readers?

I think I would have to say all three. Yes, I am strange. The character and plot allow me to get into their head and almost make them come alive in my mind, almost like a part of the family. The word-crafting and structure allows me to experience what my characters endure. And the completion is like icing on the cake. It takes all of them, almost like adding eggs to the batter when you’re making a cake. Everything blends together beautifully.