Valley Girl & Vampire Lover: Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

Win a book and meet author Linda Thomas-Sundstrom today at the Book Boost!

We chatted with her recently and here's what she had to say...



TBB: Welcome Linda, please tell us where are you from?

LTS: I’m a California girl, born and raised. The “valley” actually, so I could legitimately say “like” before and after every word in a sentence if I wanted to. LOL And just so you know, I haven’t used that privilege. An American by birth and a Celt by heart, who is truly blessed to be a published author.


TBB: Tell us your latest news.

LTS: I’m feeling the effect of a bunch of aligned lucky stars at the moment, I have to say, because I’m totally (another Valley Girl word) thrilled. Two of my Vampire Moons series of books and novellas for HQ Nocturne were out so far this year, (Vampire Lover and Golden Vampire), with a third, Night Born, arriving as a Bite in August, and a fourth title early in 2012.

And if that wasn’t cool enough for an author, I just accepted an offer to write two more Nocturnes. This is pure author bliss. A dream come true. And that isn’t all. My lighter side of paranormal, harking back to my Barbie and the Beast story published in 2009, will be released online this month. Veronica and the Vampire is the second rather silly, girly story about the perils of paranormal dating. This is the year of schitzo Linda…. sharing the dark and light.



TBB: Those sound really clever. How did you come up with the title for this book?

LTS: With Night Born, I always have a title before I start writing. The title appears in my mind, like magic from some unknown universal whisper, and sets the tone. The words flow from that title. I know some publishers don’t allow authors to keep their titles, but I’ve been able to keep all of mine so far (knock on wood). I have about forty other titles pasted here on my office wall, and hope to get to them all someday. They call to me…


TBB: What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

LTS: I scribble notes and dialogue and sometimes whole sets of ideas… while I’m driving ! I swear, I wouldn’t do this if my Muse didn’t appear in the passenger seat with regular frequency. Something about driving makes the creativity flow…. So I keep a notebook handy and scribble when this happens, hoping for a red light. (Hope there aren’t any California drivers reading this. If there are, watch out for small white cars!)


TBB: Oh, my! Instead of "road rage" you have "road page". What do you like to do when you're not writing?

LTS: I teach classes at two colleges, take care of programs for my local RWA chapter, volunteer at my local library, hike, make meals for my family, and always think about writing. There isn’t ever a time when I’m not planning or plotting one story or another. Still, a major time-consumer is that I do care for a big stretch of land in the country. So I should add weeding to the list of pastimes.


TBB: Ick, weeding. You and my hubby would get along great. I call him "the weed man" around here. What has been your biggest reward as an author thus far in your career?

LTS: Being able to live the dream. Well, actually both dreams. I always wanted to be a teacher, and I am, and love that. I’ve always wanted to write, and now people can read my stories, and I’m really loving that, big-time.


TBB: Any final words for our readers?

LTS: I want to tell you that for those of you reading or considering my work, there is a special little bonus attached to the words I write. All of my books come embedded with tons of good karma, put there so that you all can share those lucky stars shining overhead, for helping this author to live her dream. I will continue to thank my readers every darn day.


TBB: Nicely said, Linda. Thanks for joining us and please share a blurb and excerpt with us before you go.

Blurb:


Love and hate, vampire and slayer—opposites too closely connected for their own good?

After her mother is nearly killed, slayer-in-waiting Danika Douglas vows to destroy the vampire she believes is responsible—Alexander Kent. An experienced vampire older than sin itself, Alexander possesses dark good looks and a strong sensual allure.

Danika knows a slayer and her target are chained together by fate, compelled to find each other. Yet she never expected them to share such a powerful attraction, leaving Danika torn between revenge and desire….


Excerpt:

"I've found you, you son of a bitch."

Danika Douglas hadn't stopped to think about whether touching a priceless painting might be committing museum sacrilege, or a crime. She'd been too immersed in the moment to care. Here he was again. The same face she'd found in a Baroque period painting two days before.

Exactly the same face.

Same wide brow and prominent, aristocratic features. Same penetrating blue eyes beneath the tangle of dark hair — here, seen only in profile, and in dashes of color and shadings, but the likeness was exact, give or take the hair style and clothes.

She had just won the bloodsucker lottery.

A telltale tingle of excitement flushed her cheeks and neck with heat. Shivers of apprehension chilled her back. It was always the same dichotomy of heat and cold clashing when her assumptions were correct. She might not yet have inherited her mother's ability to track the vampire in this painting with a Slayer's DNA-based, biologically built-in GPS system, but those powers were agonizingly inching toward her.

She felt him now, as if she had found him for real, and in person. Her gut reaction to his image was strong. His presence in the Renoir was like an icy breath on the back of her neck. She could almost smell him, beyond the aged oils of the artwork and the polished marble museum floors.

He smelled like . . . leather.

Like doom.

Want More Linda?

Visit her website here:
http://www.lindathomas-sundstrom.com


Pick up your copy of her book today! Click here.

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