This week’s Author on the Couch is…

Linda Nightingale.

(Linda is the white angel on the left)

 

*GIVEAWAY* Linda is giving away a pair of silver-tone angel wing w/crystal drop earrings and a reader’s choice of one of her books!

Me: Tell me about an experience that had a profound impact on your life.

Linda: I love horses—all kinds, all shapes, all colors. Although I was breeding Arabians at the time, when I saw an Andalusian at a show, I fell madly for the magnificent breed.  I subscribed to Horse of Kings and began my search. I wanted a schoolmaster, an older stallion who was high-school trained.  A breeder I’d met at that show asked me to come to Virginia to see a beautiful 4-year-old stallion. Bonito was that stallion, and that was the beginning of my breeding Andalusians, training Andalusians, and showing Andalusians, particularly Bonito. In short, it was the start of a new life.

 

Me: What personality trait of yours helps you most as an author?

Linda: Stubbornness. It helped me persevere during all those rejections and all the negativity that haunts the journey to publication.

I could have papered my bathroom in rejection letters. @LNightingale #AmWriting #AuthorontheCouch Click To Tweet

Me: What personality trait of yours hinders you most as an author?

Linda: The need for instant gratification. I think a lot of people share that trait, these days.  Movies instead of books, audio books instead of paper books—that sort of thing.  I was asked, if I loved piano so much why I didn’t take lessons. The answer is that after the first lesson, I’d want to play like Chopin!

 

Me: What was your high point as a writer—a time when you were happiest, on cloud nine, flying high?

Linda: When I won the Georgia Romance Writers Magnolia Award for Excellence (Maggie) for an unpublished vampire novel. At that time, the big publishers weren’t publishing vampires. I was a newbie, that was my second attempt at a book, and I was surprised to be chosen. What happened?  A wonderful author Deb Smith referred me to her agent and her publisher.  Alas, I didn’t get published.

 

Me: What was your low point as a writer—a time when you questioned your path, a time when you felt really crappy about your writing?

Linda: I think my low point still occurs. I felt really bad that my first book Gemini Rising wasn’t selling and making me at least a few thousand a quarter. How did I get over it? I talked with author friends and discovered that sales were down industry-wide. This still occurs every time I have a book that doesn’t sell well, though I am more realistic now.

 

Me: Which of your characters are you most like?

Linda: Morgan D’Arcy. Why?  Morgan will always talk to me. If I get writer’s block, I can count on Morgan to cure me.  I also like everything about the character:

  1. His looks: He is tall, blond and blue-eyed
  2. His charm and wit
  3. His station in life:  He is a concert pianist, an English lord and a vampire.  As the latter he has watched history unfold since 1634.

 

Me: How many books have you written?

Linda: Eight books and one novella as Linda Nightingale.  I write erotic romance under the pen name Bianca Swan.  Bianca has two full-length novels to her credit (On Wings of Desire—available on Amazon) and soon a publisher who specializes in controversial material, Lot’s Cave will re-release Gemini Rising as Her Brother’s Wife.  Lot’s Cave is also republishing two Bianca novellas that were originally published by The Wild Rose Press.  There is nothing controversial in these two novellas.

Enter to #win silver-tone angel wing w/crystal drop earrings and one of @LNightingale's books. Click To Tweet

Me: How long does it typically take you to write a book?

Linda: Six months to a year.

 

Me: What’s the most painful part of the writing process for you?

Linda: The galleys. You read and edit your own work over and over, wanting to make it perfect.

 

Me: If you could be any character in any book for a day who would you be?

Linda: Isabeau (Sinners’ Opera) Why? She is Morgan’s love interest. In fact, their relationship borders on mutual obsession. She’d get to spend the day with him—and the night!

 

Me: How do you deal with rejection or bad reviews?

Linda: I will probably cry and moan for a day, then move on.

 

Me: What advice can you give others about how to handle rejection and bad reviews?

Linda: Don’t cry and fret, thinking your writing is not good and you’re wasting your time. MOVE ON. Next!

 

Me: What book do you wish you’d written?

Linda: I wish I’d written the first few paragraphs of Damage by Jacqueline Hart, and the prologue to the movie, The Libertine.  Johnny Depp delivers this monologue, and it is very moving.  Both, in my humble opinion, are beautiful writing.

 

Me: Tell me about your dark fantasy Gylded Wings

Linda: 

Angels in slavery? Brit Montgomery cannot believe it, until she is sent on a rescue mission to another dimension and witnesses the cruel practice first hand. The angel, Gyldan, is the most beautiful being she’s ever seen. She is drawn to him but sometimes beauty disguises wicked secrets. This man who rocks her world seems more demon than angel.

Gyldan, born into slavery, has one desire—fly free. When he escapes to Earth, he faces an alternate self-realization full of dark glory…and disbelief. Gyldan is bent on experiencing his newfound powers unmindful of the harm to Brit or others.

Confused and hurt by Gyldan’s erratic evil actions, Brit turns away. While Gyldan’s journey of self-discovery pulls him further distant, Brit finds acceptance in a solitary, comfortable life of her own until she realizes the day of reckoning has come. Will Gyldan be her final ruin or has he come back to her with a gift more precious than life itself?

 

Me: Share with us an excerpt of Gylded Wings.

Linda:

I, the mightiest of the Host, was forbidden to lift a finger in this battle, and my brothers were waiting to see what I would do.  A tremor of anger coursed through me.  I smiled and spread my wings to their full, resplendent span.

Look then, Fallen and Righteous, and take courage or be discouraged by the very sight of me.

Here and there in the amassed army of the Light, I met an angel’s gaze.  Gabriel, Uriel, Michael, and Rafael guarded the Four Corners.  It was a done deal, over before the first blow was struck. If I were leading Hell’s troops, the contest wouldn’t have been one-sided…but I wasn’t.

The wail of bagpipes shattered the tension.  Peacock wings arched proudly, Paimon, regal in a Royal Stuart tartan kilt, piped the Legions of Hell into battle.  He reached the end of the line of soldiers, wings shadowing Men in modern regimental dress, turned, and snapped me a smart salute.

Paimon, ah my Paimon, do your eyes accuse or invite?

I bowed low, my hair sweeping the ground.  Whether this gesture pleased or angered my old friend, sadly enough, I couldn’t sense.  All Hell broke loose, so to speak, when the mortal troops saw me.  Their knees knocked.  Horror contorted their faces.  Swords forged in Hell’s own fires clattered against supernatural shields.  The blare of Gabriel’s golden trumpet shook the ground.  A silver-voiced trumpet answered the challenge.

Paimon unfurled his wings and bent to his pipes.  Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. How fitting, how ironic that the Fallen—the stubborn, the proud, the doomed—would march into battle to that beautiful old hymn!

This selection isn’t the entire Prologue, but I think it is the best bit of writing I’ve ever done.

BOOK VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/LuVl93b_BE0


You can purchase Gylded Wings here:

   http://a.co/coWtnJP


You can find Linda here:

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/LNightingale

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/LindaNightingaleAuthor

Web Site:  http://www.lindanightingale.com – Visit and look around. There’s a free continuing vampire story.

Blog:  https://lindanightingale.wordpress.com/ – Lots of interesting guests & prizes

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4839311.Linda_Nightingale

Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/lbnightingale1/

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Linda-Nightingale/e/B005OSOJ0U
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Abbie Roads writes Dark Romantic Thrillers. Check out all her books HERE.

About the author: abbieroads