Author Spotlight week - Excerpt from Summer Love

Moderator's Note: Leave a comment on today's blog and a winner will be picked on Monday to receive a PDF copy of Linda's release, "Summer Love." Check this post on Monday for the winner. Be sure to leave a good email in case you win so I can get ahold of you.

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Moderator Steph

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Enjoy this excerpt of "Summer Love" by Linda Swift.


Amy fastened her hair into a neat ponytail as Paula completed her makeup.

"I hope you haven't neglected studying because of me. Everyone but you seemed to be spending an awful lot of time on class assignments."

"Let's just say I planned ahead," Paula said, knowing it was worth whatever it had cost her to have this weekend with her daughter.

"I wish Sharon could have gone with us," Amy said. "She's missing a great opportunity to be with Derek."

"I don't think she's interested in Derek," Paula said mildly.
"Well, she should be. He's a great guy."


"But he's old enough to be her father, honey."

"Well, Dad is dating someone that young."

Paula drew her breath in sharply. "He is?"

"Oh, I thought you knew. Haven't your friends--?"

"I'm not in touch with anyone back home," Paula said quietly and sat down on the closest bed, feeling as though she had just received another blow to her solar plexus. "Do you know -- who she is?"

"No, Mom. I don't know her name, and I don't think she's from Tuscumbia. I'm sure he met her through the band."

"Band? What band?" Paula asked faintly.

"Haven't you talked with Dad lately? The country-western band he plays guitar for."

"I didn't know... about that either."

"Well, neither did I until I went home to get my things. As Dad was driving by our house, he saw Chris' car so he stopped to talk with us." She shook her head. "He looked so... different."

"How do you mean?" Paula asked, dreading the answer.

"He was wearing faded Levis and a tee shirt with the band's logo and gold chains. His hair is a lot longer now, and he's grown a beard."

"I see." And she could see it all in her mind's eye. Quent changed into a man she didn't know, a hip musician who moved in a world that was totally alien to the life they had shared together. "And the... girl?"

"She was sitting in his convertible, and the top was down so we saw her clearly, but we didn't meet her."

What did she look like? Was she pretty? "Convertible?"

"Yes, a red BMW. And Dad just said she was a singer in the band. He seemed sort of embarrassed about it."

"Then maybe they're not--"

"Oh, yes, they are. I asked a couple of my friends who follow the band. And they said Bootsie was about my age, and they'd seen her out with Dad."

"Bootsie?"

"That's her stage name, because her trademark is all the different boots she wears. But they didn't know her real name."

"I... see."

Amy crossed the room, put her arms around her mother. "Don't look so shocked, Mom. Chris says it's just a stage Dad's going through. He said he wouldn't be surprised if Dad came back to you when he gets it all out of his system."

"That isn't going to happen, honey," Paula told her sadly.

"I'm really sorry if I upset you, Mom. But I thought you already knew."

"I didn't. But it's okay." Paula made an effort to sound more cheerful. "And I'm glad I heard this from you instead of someone else. I'm sure the whole town knows about it."

"I guess so. Oh, Mom," Amy's voice was tearful, "I wish everything could be the way it was before..."

"Me, too, honey." Paula hugged her daughter closer. "But it can't be. So we have to make the best of the way things are."

"I know." Amy sniffed and wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. "And I'm proud of you for what you're doing. You have some really nice friends and you're different, too, but not in the silly way Dad is. I could never imagine you going out with a younger man."

Amy's words reminded Paula of Derek. "We should have been downstairs by now. Derek is probably double parked and wondering where we are."

Amy picked up her flight bag. "All set, Mom. Let's go."

Author Spotlight Week - Linda Swift shares her favorite movie

My all-time favorite movie is Gone With The Wind. I love the Civil War period of history and sweeping sagas with many subplots, deep-South settings, and elaborate costumes. I get so caught up in them that I feel a part of them. I can achieve almost this same sense of participation in a good thick book. (or ebook) But the visuals and sound do enrich the story for me. I loved the excitement of the battles, the drama of their struggles, and of course, the passion between Rhett Butler and Scarlet O'Hara. There will never be another Clark Gable.

I am fascinated by the fact that Margaret Mitchell wrote only this book and one other which was destroyed. (I doubt that it would have been another Gone With The Wind.) And what a lasting imprint she made with this one story. I had to write one Civil War book in my lifetime and I did. It is being released this July, in the first year of the Sesquicentennial four-year celebration. But wait, I'm getting off track here talking about books and authors instead of movies made from those books. I have to confess that I have seen few movies do justice to the books they came from. But perhaps that is because I am an author, not an actress and prefer books to movies overall.

Many of today's movies bore me with their shallow plots and loud, jarring music and fast action. Spoken like a person not in tune with the times, right? I'm sure my mother said the same thing about my taste in movies. To each his own.

Author Spotlight Week - Linda Swift shares her passion for writing contemporary romance

I began writing contemporary fiction because it was easier to write even though I've always loved reading historicals. As I get older, it becomes more difficult to keep up with the slang words and idioms of our present culture. And if a book isn't published soon after acceptance, the dialogue is outdated anyway.

An example of a story going out of date is the use of names of certain cars. And of course, we are cautioned never to use current news events in the present tense because that will be old news by the time the book is released. Clothing styles, hair styles, and names all have the potential of dating a book. Certain cultures, even within the United States, have customs and dialect that is peculiar to that group only. And these subgroups tend to retain language and custom continuity better than the population as a whole. I am thinking of a rural mountain setting I have used in a book and two short stories several years ago. I visited the area recently and found little changed. The same was true for a small town in the Midwest.

So it's safe to say that I prefer to write vintage or classical fiction, which is not quite contemporary but is not historical either. I like the World War II time period but I have not yet written anything set in that time. I plan to focus on the WWII era and backward from now on unless my muse dictates otherwise. History does require more research, most of which can now be done online. There are also old movies to watch for clothing and dialogue examples. Meanwhile, I have many contemporary books already published for readers to enjoy.

Author Spotlight week - Q&A with Linda Swift

STEPH: I'd like to welcome author, Linda Swift to the Author Spotlight this week. Linda will be talking about her latest Desert Breeze release, Summer Love. I don't know much about Summer Love. What's it about?

LINDA: Summer Love is a story about a woman whose husband, in his mid-life crisis, leaves her to "find himself." Now divorced from Quent, Paula has to make a new life for herself. She enrolls in a large university to prepare to teach. Here she meets Derek, an ex-U.S. Navy officer back in school for the same purpose. And in this book, Paula who has tried to be a good wife, mother, and daughter finally learns to focus on herself and what she wants. So the larger theme of the book is about self-actualization and becoming all you can be.

STEPH: Where did the inspiration for the novel come from?

LINDA: I saw a lot of that happening when couples reached mid-life. You know they say you should write what you know, and I've been married to the same man forever, but I think I can relate to the EMOTIONS an abandoned wife would feel. A divorced teacher I worked with told me I should have asked "some of us" what it's like but I wasn't writing a nonfiction article, I was writing fiction and I wanted it to be my words.

STEPH: Where is set? How important is the setting to the novel?

LINDA: The story takes place in one summer at a large southern university. And the whole story revolves around the setting.

STEPH: Did you have to do a lot of research?

LINDA: A whole summer of it! This is a case in point where I really did write what I knew. But the plot was entirely fiction. I wasn't Paula and there was no Derek. But because I really did spend a summer at the university in the book, I'm sure there was some speculation about this.

STEPH: How long did it take you to write?

LINDA: I had five chapters finished when I submitted it to Zebra/Kensington after an invitation from a Zebra editor I met at a conference. When the book was accepted, I got busy fast and finished the story in a few months. I also had an agent, acquired from the same conference, and he proofed and made suggestions as I went along. Which was a good thing since the Zebra editor did nothing.

STEPH: Cast the movie. Who are the leads?


LINDA: In my dreams. Sharon Stone would be Paula. And Kevin Costner would be Derek. Of course, if Paul Newman were alive, he'd be the hero as Derek had "Paul Newman eyes."

STEPH: What's your writing space like?

LINDA: My husband and I divide time between a condo in Florida and a patio home in Kentucky. In both homes I have my computer, printer and other needed materials in the guest bedroom. But this works fine because when we have guests, I'm not writing anyway. I don't have filing cabinets as I've always detested them. I put stuff in closets and drawers and when working, use the bed to lay out material I'm using. I call this my "open files" and they are at my fingertips for easy access.

STEPH: Do you have an ebook reader? If so, which one?

LINDA: I have a Kindle, just bought in November. I like it for reading on the sofa in the evenings but still read some books online. The Kindle is like my car, I can start and stop it, put in gas, but when something else needs attention, I call my husband. I admit I'm technically challenged.

STEPH: What was the last book you read?

LINDA: I've just read "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World." My hairdresser loaned it to me because it reminded her of a poem about Mary and Martha that I have in my book, HUMANLY SPEAKING, Conversations With God. I'm also reading chapters from some of the DB authors when I have the time between promoting books out March 1 and April 1.


STEPH: For Fun: What county would you like to visit that you haven't all ready?

LINDA: I'd like to see Ireland but I'd really prefer to include that in a long visit to England, Wales, and Scotland to "revisit" places I enjoyed while living there and would like to see again.

Linda's book, Summer Love is now avail with Desert Breeze.

BUY LINK:http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-152/Linda-Swift-Summer-Love/Detail.bok