linda

We all juggle different interests and responsibilities in our lives. Besides being a wife and mother you dedicated your time and concentration to law. How difficult was it to push aside your love of writing during law school or did you make time for both?

Linda: I didn't have a lot of time for writing fun stuff while I was in law school. It was too demanding of my time and energy. Plus, I got married while I was in law school and had my first baby--also time consuming, though utterly enjoyable, of course. Despite all that, I did manage to write a couple of law review articles that were published.

Your first published fiction was in the form of short stories in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. It seems you were headed in that direction. You were also including romantic relationships in your writing. It seems as if you were on one road where left was mystery and right was romance. What led you to writing time travel romance and faerie tales?

Linda: I have to disagree about there being separate roads. I nearly always included romance in my mysteries, and suspense or mystery in my romances--still do!

For a while, I wrote what I considered to be mainstream fiction that never got published. The rejections I got then from agents and editors were "good ones. They liked my writing, but I'd done alot of genre crossovers--forbidden back then but totally acceptable now. One of my favorite stories was a paranormal science fiction romance that involved time travel, so it was both contemporary and historical. When it kept getting rejected, I looked around and realized there was a subgenre that accepted most of those elements, except for the sci-fi part: time travel romance. My first time travel romance, A GLIMPSE OF FOREVER, was my first published novel.

Tell us about some of these early romance novels. About the characters and the plots. Be sure to include information about Once a Cavalier from Jove and The Ballad of Jack O'Dair.

Linda: Even though I'd found a subgenre that worked for me, I nevertheless pushed the envelope a bit in A GLIMPSE OF FOREVER. In the majority of time travel romances, one of the protagonists, usually the heroine, goes back to the past from the present. In GLIMPSE, Abby Wynne is parched in the desert while traveling west on a wagon train in the mid-1800s. She is upset because, once her group passes some apparently insurmountable mountains, there's more desert at the far side. Grasping a fossil-laden rock, she prays that the others in her wagon train will survive--and she winds up in the present. That's where she meets her true love, Mike Danziger, but she finds she must go back to the past or Mike may never be born.

My next book was THE GLASS SLIPPER, my own version of Cinderella, complete with a real fairy godmother. Paige Conner's love interest? Prince Niko of Dargentia--a real prince, of course!

Then came POINT IN TIME, a time travel romance that takes place in my home town of Pittsburgh, near what is now Point State Park at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers to form the Ohio. Mariah Walker is a screenwriter who's sent back in time by a mysterious stranger… to "right a grievous wrong. And that wrong involves the mysterious--and irresistible--Thorn.

STRANGER ON THE MOUNTAIN also took me back to my roots, since I attended Penn State as an undergrad, and STRANGER takes place in central Pennsylvania. I didn't realize when I went to school there that the Nittany Lions--mountain lions--for which the championship football team was named were extinct in the area. STRANGER revolves around Dawn Perry's family legend, that no one in her family will find true love until mountain lions return. She certainly doesn't imagine she'll fall for an ex-con like Jonah Campion--not even when she starts seeing a mountain lion in the local hills.

Oh, and by the way, I've heard that mountain lions may actually be back in the area again!

THE BALLAD OF JACK O'DAIR resulted from my love of Alaska, which I've visited on several cruises. I had to write the ballad before the rest of the book. Folksinger Jessie Jerome, haunted in the present by the ballad and its hero Jack O'Dair, winds up in the time of the Klondike Gold Rush while trying to learn who wrote the song, and how much truth was in the tale it told. She finds that there really is a Jack O'Dair, and he's every bit as heroic as in the ballad! "Lawman Jack was bold in the Northland's cold. Jack struck the scoundrels down. With his wolf-dog Takuand his ulu, too, Jack tended Dyea town."

ONCE A CAVALIER was a story I had to write, since the modern-day heroine, Dr. Larryn Maeller, who owns a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, is drawn back to the time of King Charles II of England by a portrait of Thomas Northby, the Duke of Seldrake--who is holding a Cavalier of his own. The two dogs, from different times, meet on the grounds of Thomas' ancestral mansion, which triggers Larryn's voyage into the past. There, she's not only involved in royal intrigue, but as a doctor she's faced with the Great Plague of 1665--not to mention the Great Fire of London... and the man she can love for all time.

If you haven't guessed, I am owned by a couple of Cavaliers and have loved members of the breed for decades! One of my current Cavaliers is featured in my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter, mystery series… more about that to come.

Harlequin has also published a number of your manuscripts. Can you tell us about the Intrigue and Intimate Moments titles?

Linda: ALIAS MOMMY was my first Intrigue. In it, pregnant Polly Black is on the run from a horrible situation, in which she believes she killed her husband. A car accident leads to the birth of her baby--and the loving care of her doctor, Reeve Snyder. But Polly's being chased. Will the past catch up with her and her baby girl, and deprive her of her new love?

In MARRIAGE: CLASSIFIED, Sara Dawes agreed to a marriage of convenience with Detective Jordan Dawes to help him catch an elusive serial killer. She's attacked on their wedding day and can't recall that the marriage was never intended to be real. It'll be over once Jordan catches the killer--won't it? Or will Sara wind up dead first?

OPERATION: REUNITED takes place in the San Bernardino Mountains near L.A. Alexa Kenner, who runs a bed and breakfast, is engaged to a man she despises but his threats make it impossible for her to dump him. Years ago, she'd been in love with Cole Rappaport, but he's dead now. Or is he? A stranger who shows up at her inn, John O'Rourke, reminds her so much of Cole…

SPECIAL AGENT NANNY is one of the Colorado Confidential Intrigue series. Tough-guy Shawn Jameson, an undercover agent, is forced to work in a hospital day care center to find out who set fire to some hospital records critical to an investigation his agency is conducting. His primary suspect is the lovely Dr. Kelley Stanton, believed to have committed arson to hide a mistake. But would she really do something to endanger her own daughter, who's one of the day care center's charges? And can he resist his feelings for her while conducting the investigation?

In TOMMY'S MOM, four-year-old Tommy Poston witnessed the murder of his daddy, a cop. He stopped talking. New police chief Gabe McLaren believes that a law enforcement agency takes care of its own, so he intends to make sure that Tommy, and his mother Holly, have lots of cops around to help out around their home. One cop in particular--him. His intent is to solve Thomas Poston's murder, not fall for the slain cop's wife and son….

LAWFUL ENGAGEMENT is the third and last story in the Shotgun Sally's series. Cara Hamilton is a determined investigative reporter who's happened upon one heck of a story. Deputy Mitch Steele wants to know everything she learns, so he can solve the case she's involved in. Maybe working together can yield a lot more answers than working individually. But working together can also lead to romance.

In GUARDIAN OF HER HEART, the juggler who annoys Diana Englander in the plaza near the office building she manages turns out to be an undercover cop, Travis Bronson. He's determined to protect her from the menace who murdered her politician husband, which means spending a lot of time with her. And that, too, can lead to romance.

NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON is my only Intimate Moments so far, and it incorporates an idea I've played with forever. What happens when a writer's stories come true? Shauna O'Leary lost her love, private investigator Hunter Strahm, who chose not to believe that the tales the talented storywriter created came to pass. But when Shauna sits down at her computer, and the story that pours from her fingers involves the kidnapping of Hunter's young daughter, she can do nothing but contact him again and offer her help --certainly never intending that their romance be rekindled…

Fast forward to the future. Actually 2005. Berkley Prime Crime published SIT, STAY, SLAY with a very familiar dog on the cover. Who is Kendra Ballantyne and what kind of trouble is she in? What leads her to turn to petsitting until her license is reinstated?

Linda: Kendra Ballantyne was a litigator at a large and prestigious L.A. law firm when she was accused of an ugly ethics violation. Of course she's innocent but agrees to a temporary suspension of her law license to avoid a lengthy and potentially more damaging hearing before the State Bar. She's forced to resign from her firm, which means her generous salary disappears--as does her ability to support herself and her beloved Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Lexie. (See, I said before regarding ONCE A CAVALIER that there'd be more about Cavaliers in my responses!) While she's trying to figure out what to do so Lexie and she can continue to eat, a good friend, who owns a doggie day care center, asks her to help out when a client needs a pet-sitter, pronto--and the rest is Kendra history! By the way, the youngest of my two current Cavaliers is also a tri-color named Lexie. What a coincidence!

Why are some of her petsitting clients turning updead?

Linda: That's what Kendra wonders in SIT, STAY, SLAY… and the answers are there, eventually!

In your latest release, NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FERRETS (with another adorable cover I had to run out and get the book) Kendra still has her hands full with petsitting. More so when she finds a body in her client's apartment. Why is everyone pointing to the ferrets as the suspects? Do they make prison suits for the little guys?

Linda: Well, the ferrets happen to be running around in the same room where the corpse is found. And for those who've read the classic short story "Sredni Vashtar" by H.H. Munro (Saki), there's precedent for ferrets to do away with humans. But Kendra's got a soft spot for beings, human or otherwise, who are framed for murder, so she has to try to help clear both the ferrets and their falsely accused owners. Although there aren't ferret prison suits that I'm aware of, these poor guys are incarcerated at an animal shelter for a while as suspects and/or material witnesses… or at least evidence.

No need to ask, we all ready know you're working on the third book in the series, FINE FEATHERED DEATH. Kendra has her law license back. She litigates commercial cases, practices pet law and still has time to pet-sit. Talk about a lot on her plate. Can you tell us about Jeff and the macaw or are you sworn to silence until it hits the bookshelves next year?

Linda: I can't say too much yet, but the first murder victim is a bad-tempered attorney in Kendra's new law firm who happens to own a beautiful Blue and Gold macaw named Gigi. The main murder suspect? Jeff.

Will there be a fourth book in the series?

Linda: There's been some interest expressed by the publisher for more Pet-Sitter mysteries, but nothing's certain yet. Kendra and I are keeping our fingers crossed.

How do you promote your book? What organizations or e-groups have you joined?

Linda: I promote in lots of ways, since I'd love for petaficionados all over to know about Kendra's adventures. That means I do book signings and contact organizations and publications involving attorneys, pets or pet-sitters, as well as the animals featured in each book. I'm also always delighted to hear from readers who obtain my e-mail address from my website. One of the most fun results was a recent auction on E-Bay of an autographed copy of NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FERRETS that brought a tidy sum for the benefit of the California Domestic Ferret Association, an organization devoted to ferret rescue, and another's being auctioned, too. I encourage reviews--and always hope for good ones! I also attend conferences whenever possible, and speak on panels--notably, Malice Domestic and Left Coast Crime. I'm an active member of Romance Writers of America and belong to several chapters. I'm also a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. My website is hosted by NovelTalk, which helps to promote my books, and I enjoy participating in chats for them. Berkley Prime Crime also maintains a website that features its authors and their books, and I participate in their chats, too. Then there's my own website: www.LindaOJohnston.com
Come visit Lexie and me there!

--Denise Fleischer