Interview With Multi-Pubbed Author, Linda Johnson

Today, I'm having a lovely chat with Linda Johnson, an author pubbed in four different genres. I've discovered she is a sister Berkley Prime Crime author, as well. All you authors out there writing in different genres be sure and pick her brain. As you'll discover, she's got a lot of irons in the fire. Let's find out how she does it. So, with no further ado, here's what we talked about.

Me: I know you’ve been writing for a while, Linda? How did you get started?

Linda: I’ve always written. Way back in school in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh, I used to save ideas for essays until a teacher assigned us to write one. I once started an epic sci-fi story about a boy and girl traveling through outer space together. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish it. But I did know after that how much I enjoyed writing fiction.

Me: When did you get your first fiction published?

Linda: My first published fiction was a mystery short story in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. It won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for best first mystery short story of the year!

Me: You were a practicing lawyer by that time, weren’t you?

Linda: Yes. I also had a husband, young kids and a full time job. I used to get up an hour earlier than anyone else in the household to write.

Me: And your first published novel?

Linda: It was A GLIMPSE OF FOREVER, a time travel romance. By that time, I’d finished a lot of novels that remain unpublished. The one I wrote before the one that got accepted received a lot of “nice” rejections because it incorporated too many genres--contemporary, historical, paranormal, sci-fi, romance--a no-no at the time, although anything goes today. But then I discovered time travel romance, an accepted subgenre that incorporated most of the areas in which I’d written. I just left out the sci-fi element: explaining how, scientifically, the time travel was accomplished in the story.

Me: Can you share your “call” with us?

Linda: At the time, I was an in-house real estate lawyer for Union Oil Company of California. I was sitting in my office when the call came from an editor at Dorchester Publishing. I was thrilled! I called my husband first to let him know that A GLIMPSE OF FOREVER was going to be published, and then I ran around like a nut telling my coworkers.

Me: How many novels have you written since then??

Linda: My most recent, FELINE FATALE, is number 25! It is number 9 in the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime.


Me: Wow! 25 novels. Are they all mysteries?

Linda: No. In addition to my earlier time travel romance, I have written romantic suspense for Harlequin Intrigue.

These days, I also write a paranormal romance mini-series for Harlequin Nocturne about Alpha Force, a super secret military unit of shapeshifters. The first one was ALPHA WOLF, published in January 2009. A Nocturne Bites--an e-novella--called “Claws of the Lynx” featured Alpha Force and was printed in an anthology called AWAKENING THE BEAST.

Me: Can you tell us a little about your Pet Sitter Mysteries?

Linda: The protagonist, Kendra Ballantyne, is a lawyer who lives in the Hollywood Hills with her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Lexie. I’m also a lawyer who lives in the Hollywood Hills, and my older Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is named Lexie. It’s quite a coincidence. However, Kendra is a litigator, so her law practice is more exciting than my transactional work. Plus, I’m fortunately not a murder magnet. It seems that Kendra and an awful lot of her friends become murder suspects.

Me: So what can we look forward to seeing from you next?

Linda: ALASKAN WOLF, a Harlequin Nocturne, will be a December 2010 release. In this sequel to ALPHA WOLF, a member of the super-secret military Alpha Force--comprised of shapeshifters--is deployed to Alaska on an important field mission. He will go undercover in his wolfen form to find out why glaciers are melting at an alarming rate that may have nothing to do with global warming. Will the lovely magazine writer he finds there help him learn the truth, or will she get in his way--either by shouting his true nature to the world... or by capturing his heart?

Me: And after that?

Linda: BEAGLEMANIA! My first Pet Rescue mystery will be published in March 2011. That series is a spinoff from my Kendra series, also from Berkley Prime Crime--and it’s been amazing to research. For example, I’ve observed training exercises of the Small Animal Rescue Team, part of Los Angeles Animal Services. Plus, I’m currently volunteering at Pet Orphans of Southern California, a wonderful private rescue organization in Los Angeles.

Me: Any more?

Linda: Oh, yes. There will be at least two more Pet Rescue mysteries. I don’t have a publication date for the second, but its title is THE MORE THE TERRIER. Plus, there will also be at least two more Alpha Force Nocturnes, as well as a couple more Nocturne Bites featuring Alpha Force.

Me: Anything else you’d like to add?

Linda: I’d love for your readers to come visit me on my website: www.LindaOJohnston.com as well as on Facebook (the link is on my home page) and my blog, KillerHobbies.blogspot.com

Me: Linda, good luck on all your releases. Care to leave us with any words of wisdom you wish you had known while you were trying to get published?

Linda: Thanks! In retrospect, I think I followed the advice I would now suggest to others trying to get published: Join a critique group. Join organizations like Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, and attend local meetings and national conferences to network and learn more about the craft of writing. Most of all, believe in yourself... and persist!