Interview with Linn B. Halton

I’m delighted to welcome Linn B. Halton to the Blog today. Linn writes contemporary women's love stories that reflect life for Sapphire Star. Linn is an editor and featured author on loveahappyending.com. Tell us something of the genre in which you write. What is it’s special appeal for you?

My tag line is ‘life, love and beyond… but it’s ALWAYS about the romance, simply because I find categorising really difficult. Romance as a genre covers a wide spectrum and the way I write about it is more in terms of the eternal struggle to find happiness. Contemporary women’s romance is probably a better description, because I write about the baggage we all carry with us. Each one of us is unique, the one thing we share is that we all have problems.

What would you say are the major influences upon your work.

I have read and loved so many authors over the years, reading way above my age level from the age of eleven and upwards. Stephen King (who terrified me) and Sergeanne Golon, as well as the classics by Wilkie Collins, Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen. I think the librarians always assumed I was taking books home for my parents. Marriage, raising a family and a full-time career meant ideas for stories went into a journal for the day I could sit down to write. I then read authors like Marian Keyes, Cathy Kelly, Freya North, Anna Barrie, Sophie Kinsella, Judie Astley and continued to read old favourites like Ian Fleming and Ken Follett, to name but a few.

Being an avid reader inspired two main aims for my own writing style. The first that the reader should feel each character is ‘real’ and I often write about a character from more than one point of view. I also wanted the reader to feel I was sitting next to them, telling them the story and that whatever lessons life was going to teach the characters, the ending would always be uplifting.

Some writers need silence, others prefer music playing, or the bustle of a coffee shop.What is your favourite mode of working?

I can write in silence, or have background music playing as long as it’s an artist I like. My taste is eclectic. However, I don’t like TV noise or radio and I prefer not to have interruptions. I often write late into the night; I love it when the house is quiet and everyone else is in bed. Usually my cat, Mr Tiggs, sits with me. He’s no respecter of ‘being in the zone’. If he wants me to stop and sit with him whilst he eats, he doesn’t give up until I join him!

What is the best piece of craft advice you ever had?

Two stand out. One is to write what you know, or have experienced. Of course one’s imagination will then take over and that’s where research can then take it that bit further, but I know my limitations. The second was to accept that you can’t please everyone all the time. In THE RESTAURANT @ THE MILL there is a cameo appearance by a spirit named Sarah who wanders the mill and dips in and out of the story. One reviewer couldn’t see the point of including this character and yet someone else absolutely loved it. I respect every reader and reviewer’s comments and celebrate the fact that everyone has a different viewpoint. The wonderful thing is that feedback like this is golden for a new writer like me.

How did you devise the hero and heroine for your latest book?

My latest release is NEVER ALONE, officially launches tomorrow. It didn’t start with a character, but a real-life experience. I took a part-time job showing houses to prospective purchasers to give me a break for a couple of days during renovation work on an old cottage! I had the most awful experience in one of the houses I had to show, to the extent that I found myself unable to go inside. Rather difficult when you have a busy Saturday and eight couples booked in at half-hourly intervals.

It was the trigger for the story, the idea being that Holly Elizabeth Atherton has the perfect life until it all begins to unravel after one unfortunate psychic experience. I thought what if that incident makes her realise that it’s happened before and she’s chosen to ignore her psychic sensitivity? As her life falls apart her ‘perfect’ man, Will, is there beside her, but does he understand and what if the path she’s on in life isn’t the one she’s supposed to be following? What do you do when the going gets tough? Work harder. Work is a cure-all; being productive leaves you feeling positive and it’s uplifting to know you haven’t wasted time. Time is precious and life is too short to fritter it away. If life was plain sailing it would be boring, wouldn’t it?

Which temptation do you find the hardest to resist?

Chocolate and coffee when I’m under pressure. Two essentials and I’ve yet to find a healthy substitute.

Can you tell us something of what you are working on now?

I’ve started a complicated story called THE GLASS WALL, which is about a woman who has two soul-mates. I’m about twenty per cent in, when a chance ‘live’ Twitter conversation with two readers of THE QUINTESSENTIAL GEMINI, stopped me in my tracks. They wanted to know when the sequel was coming out and both indicated they interpreted the ending in two very different ways. It taught me not to make assumptions when you end a book with a question mark, and it made me laugh. Then I thought, I’d better ask the main character… and found the question mark was there for a reason. So I’m working on THE QUINTESSENTIAL ASTROLOGER right now. I hate loose ends!

“It’s a gift to be shown something that allows you to make a difference and alter the outcome of someone else’s life. However, the weight of the responsibility that goes along with that is huge and what about the ethics? The thing I have to ask myself is how did my actions change the future?” 

Holly is the envy of all her friends, she has lived with the gorgeous Will for five years and supported him every step of the way. His IT business is about to go global and they are on the verge of having all their dreams come true! A life split between homes in the UK and Los Angeles beckons, offering them a glamorous and exciting lifestyle they will both fit into quite perfectly. So when Will pops the question, why won’t Holly say ‘yes’? 

A series of terrifying encounters unleashes an inherited psychic connection within Holly. Her ‘perfect’ life is turned upside down as she struggles with the reality of her ‘gift’. Help comes from a chance meeting with medium Peter Shaw and she discovers that she is also being given healing and protection by the spirits of two people. One of them is her best friend’s brother, Nick, who died suddenly in tragic circumstances. Holly finds herself confiding in him in an attempt to sort out her own life. 

She begins to sense that the path she’s on isn’t the one she’s destined for, but is it too late to change things? The thought of hurting the people she loves the most causes her to bury her emotions, until fate takes a hand. Life is all about the choices we make … 

Thank you for sparing the time to talk to us today. Find out more about Linn here: http://loveahappyending.com
http://www.sapphirestarpublishing.com/linnbhalton 
Twitter: @LinnBHalton 
Facebook: Linn B Halton

Interviews on the RNA Blog are for RNA members, although we do occasionally take guests. If you are interested in an interview, please contact me: freda@fredalightfoot.co.uk