In this giant blogosphere, new kinds of relationships are being formed & tested as Artists from all over the world, chat and share ideas, art, common interests and become closer than relationships we make in reality. It’s strange to be sure yet even we, Inion N. Mathair, have made some of the strongest friendships we’ve encountered throughout our lives from our laptops.
So when we’re able to host an Author who is not only a connection from our networking sites, but is a close & personal friend that we work with locally in our beautiful town of Franklin, North Carolina…..well it just makes us downright giddy!
Today, Inion & I would like to introduce you our Blogging friends to another Author from the Smoky Mountains, Mrs. Linda Rue Quinn.
This lady is not only an extraordinary woman and brilliant writer. She is also a champion advocate for all things art and spends most of her personal time giving back to the artistic community by supporting other writer’s careers. She is married to an incredible man with a great sense of humor & has two beautiful children and three adorable grandchildren. Her book, THE APPLE FELL A Mystery/Thriller just so happens to be sitting on our bookshelf & is next in line as we are eagerly waiting to read this book.
Please say hi, to Author Linda Rue Quinn.
(INM) Hi Linda & welcome to Two Voices….One Thought!
(LRQ) Thank you so much for having me. I’m thrilled to be talking to you!
(INM) So tell us a little bit about your main character Heather Grace, from your book, THE APPLE FELL. (Without giving away any spoilers!)
(LRQ) You know the saying, “Write what you know.” Well in this book, I bled a little. I was Heather Grace to a certain extent. I was the young abused wife who had to “Do it scared” and leave my abuser and look over my shoulder while trying to come to grips with how my God could let this happen. Heather grew stronger one step at a time, as we all do. She loved, she made mistakes, and didn’t think she could be forgiven.
(INM) THE APPLE FELL…. How did you come up with that title?
(LRQ) There is a main character in the book who was the apple that fell far from the tree, as evil as his father was good.
(INM) The cover is striking and really catches your eye. We especially love the look of the metallic plate that appears molten & magical. Who did your book cover art?
(LRQ) I like to maintain as much control as I can, so I do my own cover art. I went to Barber Orchard in Waynesville and took about a hundred pictures of apples and apple trees, then played with the pictures in a photo program to show an apple falling in a different way, kind of like in a vacuum or black hole (or being flushed down a toilet). My second love is photography.
(INM) How long have you been writing, Linda?
(LRQ) All my life, but I put it aside to foster, adopt and then homeschool my children for half their school age years. They had some difficulties so I concentrated on them and my career. When I was forty, I looked back at my life and asked myself if I would have any regrets if I died that night. I had never seriously tried to publish beyond my local newspaper, and I “picked up the pen” again at forty.
(INM) Knowing you personally Linda & working with you on many projects within the Artistic Community of Franklin, we know that one of your passions just so happens to be ours as well; Poetry! It wasn’t the first time we met you, but the first time we met you as peers. Will you be coming out with Poetry in the near future?
(LRQ) I have some poetry in a journal but I have not done a lot of research into the craft. I don’t like restrictions or to follow a pattern. We’ll have to see about that one!
(INM) You truly are an Artistic soul with a deep love for books & respect for the craft of writing. What influences do you attribute to adding to your craft?
(LRQ) My parents were both teachers for a time–Dad full time and Mom substituted. They both encouraged us to read and learn all the time. I am also a research junkie. I read everything I could get my hands on to learn how to write better and attended conferences, workshops, and so on to improve. A critique group in Rock Hill, SC helped a lot. Those authors, including Gwen Hunter and Dawn Cook (Kim Harrison) helped me tremendously with their honest critiques of my work.
(INM) Who’s your all-time favorite Author, Linda; And what’s your all-time favorite book?
(LRQ) Author would be Frank Peretti for fiction and Ann Rule for true crime. My all time favorite book is Jane Eyre, from the time I was very young.
(INM) How long did it take you from beginning to end, to publish THE APPLE FELL?
(LRQ) About a year and a half.
(INM) Without giving away any spoilers, what chapter of your book was your favorite to write & why?
(LRQ) The first one, to grab my reader and hold onto them until they can’t help but to read more.
(INM) Do you have any more published works?
(LRQ) The Cyrano Game was published in 2012, another mystery/thriller novel. I also published several short stories, including “Mom, Everything’s Okay But…” in the anthology “I Wanna Be Sedated:30 Writers on Parenting Teenagers” (Other contributors were Barbara Kingsolver and Dave Barry–to name-drop); “A Pack of Gum”, a non-fictional inspirational story that won a nationwide contest on Fieldreport.com (no longer running); “Death is Too Hard” in the SCWW anthology Catfish Stew II; “Plagiarize This” in the aforementioned anthology; “Telemarketer Tag” in Catfish Stew IV.
(INM) So what’s next for Author Linda Rue Quinn?
(LRQ) I am working on putting together my short story collection while writing a sequel to The Apple Fell. The working title is “The Sharp Knife” and it will be thought-provoking and controversial; the hardest book so far.
(INM) Is there a genre that you’ve never written but that you would love to take a stab at it?
(LRQ) Humor in a book form. I have written in a short story form, but I’m thinking Erma Bombeck style and length.
(INM) This might sound silly but it’s a favorite of ours to ask. Who’s your all-time favorite Villain?
(LRQ) Gru in Despicable Me. Yes, I have grandchildren!
(INM) Linda, like us you chose to self-pub. Tell us why you chose that avenue and briefly what you feel about the new world of publishing that’s opened up a flood gate of Authors & changed the structure of the literary world.
(LRQ) It’s a crowded market! I self-published because I was tired of hearing, “We like your writing but it doesn’t fit our list” or “It isn’t what we’re looking for right now”, etc. Plus I can’t meet a deadline dealing with Fibromyalgia. I have to write when I feel good, and publish it when I am ready to let it go. I also like being able to have complete control. I can change the cover if I want to, as I did with both novels after initial publishing.
(INM) So what’s next for Author Linda Rue Quinn?
(LRQ) I am working on putting together my short story collection while writing a sequel to The Apple Fell. The working title is “The Sharp Knife” and it will be thought-provoking and controversial; the hardest book so far.
(INM) Is there any other hat’s Linda Rue Quinn wears? Perhaps, painter, singer, musician….
(LRQ) My family was very musical (my father was a band director and my mother was a soloist), and I followed suit. I played clarinet for 12 years. I love to sing in choirs and have done my fair share of solos (scared half to death) in church. I played piano but not very well! I’d love to stay I could draw something more than stick figures, but that would be a lie. I love photographing God’s creation in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
We can’t tell you how happy we are to have you here on Two Voices….One Thought! And we know we speak for all our friends that, THE APPLE FELL, sounds like an incredible read! We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future & wish you the very best with your books! For those of you interested in picking up your copy of, THE APPLE FELL, we will be leaving links as to where you can purchase your copy. We will also include Linda’s blog & any other sites that promotes Linda’s work. (We will also be offering a free copy of Linda’s book to a random Commenter, so be sure to vent!)
- http://www.amazon.com/The-Apple-Fell-LindaQuinnebook/dp/B00GFGE7JS/
- http://www.amazon.com/The-Cyrano-Game-Linda-Quinn/dp/1478381604
- http://authorlindaruequinn.com/ WRITING IS CHEAPER THAN THERAPY
- http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6510004.Linda_Rue_Quinn
- http://www.pinterest.com/lindaruequinn/
- http://www.linkedin.com/pub/linda-rue-quinn/20/3b4/2a4
- http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2qYGgQ5FZZ_bOhDTPsTYAQ YOUTUBE BOOK TRAILERS