Interview Linda Wallace
by
Jeannine Van Eperen
1) Hello, Linda, I’m very happy to get this chance to get to know you a little better. I understand that part of your story is set in Seattle and on a remote island. There are some beautiful islands in the Northwest, is the remote island in your story one of those or is it fictional? Are you from the Seattle area? And if not, how did you research the setting?
The remote island in Special Delivery is fictional but part of an archipelago of 742 real islands (172 of them named)--the San Juans. I do live in Seattle and have visited Orcas Island and San Juan Island, two of the only four San Juan Islands served by Washington State Ferries. In Special Delivery I expanded the ferry system to visit my fictional island where April and Tyler are taken, bound and gagged, when they are kidnapped.
2) How long have you been writing, and is Special Delivery your first effort?
I have written short stories for many years and began a novel I never completed when I lived in Hawaii. I started working on my first romance shortly before I moved from Los Angeles to Seattle. The heroine in that book was a salesperson who sold advertising for a major California newspaper. Do you suppose it might be a coincidence that I had just completed a lengthy stint as a classified advertising salesperson for The Los Angeles Times? That novel now has a permanent home on a dark closet shelf. Here in Seattle I wrote Special Delivery and Big Bad Wolfe, which will be published in March 2006 by Wings.
3) Is there any special reason your chose a bicycle courier for your heroine’s profession, or if not a profession--job?
I wanted an occupation for April that reflected her spunky character. I had been commuting to my job, which at that time was at a public middle school, by bicycle so I knew from first-hand experience that you have to be brave to ride the streets. Then I shared an elevator with a scruffy, intriguing female courier, and I knew I had found April’s profession.
4) Do you plot your stories or do you just write?
I plot my stories, at least the beginning and end with many of the major points in the middle planned. There is still plenty of room for new adventures to appear while I’m writing.
5) Tell me a little bit about your background and how do you bring that into your writing or don’t you?
I think, one way or another, all writers bring their background into their work. One of the great things about writing is that you can use everything you have ever seen, read or experienced in a new way. I am from a loving, supportive family in the Midwest. I’m sure my appreciation of home and family often shows through in my writing. A few years ago I took classes to become a Washington Native Plant Steward. Now I find plant lore beginning to play a larger role in my books.
6) What are your favorite hobbies and sports? Are you a bicyclist as is your heroine?
Well, my favorite hobby is reading! I enjoy art and theater. I’m a recreational bicyclist, not a professional like April. I also love walking and exploring both the city and the spectacular wilderness areas here in Washington. As a Native Plant Steward, I help maintain parks and forests. And I lift weights, swim and do yoga.
7) I understand some writers draw inspiration from music. Do you have any particular type of music playing as you write?
I prefer silence when I’m working. I attended a writers’ conference once where Stella Cameron had the participants write a love scene to sweeping, gorgeous music. The scene I wrote was pretty hilarious. When I read it aloud to the other members of the group, the reaction was hysterical laughter. Stella said she always plays music when she writes to keep her in the proper mood, sometimes the same piece over and over again. It obviously works for her, but not for me.
8) Do you have critique partners? And do you belong to any writing organizations? If you do, have they helped you with your writing career?
I did belong to a formal critique group, but some members moved away and others stopped writing. Now I meet regularly with two close friends to discuss writing, books and life in general. They are a wonderful support group; I don’t know how I’d get along without them. I’ve also belonged to Romance Writers of America. It’s a terrific organization that strives to keep beginning and professional writers well-informed. RWA taught me a great deal.
9) Are there any authors who have inspired you to become a writer?
Every author I’ve ever read! From when I first learned to read, I’ve always loved books, but for a long time it never occurred to me I could write one. Then I had one of those eureka! moments, complete with pounding heart and racing pulse, when I realized I could be an author, too.
10) If you began to develop your craft in school, is there a special teacher who encouraged you? Has anyone tried to discourage you for whatever reason?
I didn’t study writing at college. I began with a physical therapy major then switched to art history. In high school there was a special English teacher who told her students she was going to let them in on the secrets of symbolism. She said this in a way that made you think the FBI might come after her if their agents found out what she was revealing. I was thrilled. I loved the sense of mystery and clandestine knowledge, plus her manner reinforced my own budding belief that there were levels of meaning in books only shared by the initiated, and I was not yet a member of the club. No one has ever tried to discourage me from writing, though life has often interfered. Family and finances have to be taken care of before I can concentrate on my craft.
11) Are you working on another project? If so, is it a mystery?
I am currently working on a mystery. It is set in the tulip fields of Washington’s Skagit Valley.
12) Is there anything else about Linda Wallace that you’d like your readers to know?
Only that I share with them a love of books. I hope that everyone who reads Special Delivery will take as much pleasure in following April and Tyler’s adventures and romance as I did in creating them.