Around The Fire Presents Author Linda Griffin and her newest release, Bridges.

Hi everyone and welcome to my fire. It was a great weekend. Pete and I celebrated our 28th Anniversary! I have spent almost half my life with this man and wouldn't trade it for anything. If you know us, we're not fancy people. To celebrate we went prowling about Upstate NY visiting antique shops and markets. I bought some gorgeous mushrooms among other things at https://auntieelsfarmmarket.com/  and enjoyed a Shepherd's Pie lunch at http://www.curleyscorner.com/ Well enough about me I have to share that I am a very visual person. I love doing graphics and visiting art museums. 

​Welcome, Linda. Thanks for sharing my fire today. I have to tell you the first time I saw this book cover I was enthralled. Bridges is definitely on my To Be Read list. Whoever said you can't judge a book by its cover wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. Most times you can. So while I grab us a couple of cups of coffee, will you tell our other fire guests who you are other than your bio? 
I’m still the skinny little girl who liked to look things up in the encyclopedia and would rather read than eat and the teenager who had a new story idea every day. My years as a reference librarian honed my research skills, and reading book reviews for fiction orders helped shape my idea of what a novel should be.

Remember those big tomes, the encyclopedia? I was so proud to own a set. What interests besides writing do you enjoy? For instance, what do you read or hobbies you have? 
I love to travel and have been to 48 states—just Connecticut and Rhode Island to go—and three foreign countries. I particularly like taking road trips with my two sisters and my oldest niece, who are the best traveling companions ever. We’ve been slowed down a bit by the pandemic but did manage some interesting times in the state of Washington last fall. I also like to play Scrabble, and I’m not so much really good at it as very, very lucky. I like to read a variety of genres and subjects and have a long TBR list. Although fiction will always be my first love, I enjoy good writing of every kind, and lately I’ve been reading a lot of memoirs.

We have a sticker map on our camper and are filling in the states. Who is your network or support system?  
My sisters were my first readers and still support my writing. I also have a friend, a former colleague, with whom I began a regular correspondence seven years ago, and she has read a lot of my work and gives me the best feedback I’ve ever had. Fortunately, she likes my jokes!

My sis is my best bud too. Who or what books or authors are your inspiration?
I loved Elswyth Thane’s Williamsburg series, which I began reading in junior high school, and I can see echoes of her style in my work. Another early influence was my older sister, who wrote the kind of stories I wanted to write while I was still penning corny, cliched Westerns. I greatly admire Joyce Carol Oates and would like to be more like her, and recently I was blown away by Peter Rock’s My Abandonment.

Do you have any fun or outrageous talent?
It probably isn’t much fun for anyone else, but I can recite all of the Academy Award best picture winners, all 94 and counting.

LOL, you're like the Rain Man for movies. Tell me, what is your neighborhood like? 
I live in a very eclectic neighborhood of mostly quiet residential streets. It’s a great place for a morning walk. Two of my walking partners have been on the injured list, but I’ve had some wonderful ambulatory conversations with a friend and neighbor who is of Indian ancestry and grew up in Fiji. Although it’s nice and quiet here, we are only a block away from a main thoroughfare, so it’s very convenient too. I also like hanging out in historic Balboa Park with its variety of gardens and museums. My favorite restaurant is Casa de Pico, especially the grilled fish tacos and a drink called a California Freeze.

It sounds wonderful. What is your favorite mug?
I have a mug that a friend gave me, white with a very pretty blue inside and on the handles, and the words “I WRITE What’s your Superpower?” I also like the one that shows cows “in the reading moo-oo-d.”

Do you have a favorite childhood book or writing that inspired you to become an author?
Half Magic by Edward Eager was a big favorite. My mother got it for me through the Children’s Book of the Month Club when I was in fourth grade, and I read it enough times that I can still recite the first few pages by heart (“It began one summer about thirty years ago and it happened to four children...”). I was inspired to become an author or “book maker” long before that, as soon as I figured out that somebody created the words I was reading. I dedicated one of my books to “Dick and Jane, who first ignited my passion for the written word.”

If you could eat anything in the world right now, what would it be? 
Chocolate fudge layer cake with dark chocolate fudge frosting! With a big glass of cold milk.

What ridiculous thing has someone tricked you into doing or believing?
My older sister had me convinced that she spent her nights at the Western Rangers Camp and the letters I received from one of the rangers, always signed Che-e-e-e-e-rio, were genuine.

That's hysterical. What was your first job?
Watching a baby while his mother was hanging clothes on the clothesline in the backyard. I was four years old, and I earned a whole dime.

What subjects should be taught in school, but aren’t?
Logical thinking and how to evaluate sources of information. Algebra teaches logic, but seems to have fallen out of favor, even with math teachers.

What’s the most amazing natural occurrence you’ve witnessed?
The calving of glaciers from the deck of a cruise ship in Alaska’s Inland Passage. 

Linda, thank you so much for sharing my fire. Before you head out on your next adventure will you tell us more about your new release and where we can get more information about both Bridges and you?

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Bridges
by
Linda Griffin

After four romantic suspense titles, this one is an old-fashioned, slow-burning sweet romance, and the only body that turns up is at the grandfather’s funeral!

In 1963, Neil Vincent, a middle-aged World War II veteran and “Christian atheist,” is working at Westfield Court as a chauffeur. He spends most of his spare time reading. Mary Claire DeWinter is a young, blind Catholic college student and reluctant heiress. To secure her inheritance, she has to marry within a year, and her aunt is pressuring her to marry a rich man who teased and bullied her when she was a child. Neil and Mary Claire shouldn’t even be friends, but the gulf between them is bridged by a shared love of books. Can they cross the bridge to more?
 
Here's what others are saying
“Their friendship and budding relationship were written wonderfully…Overall, the story was sweet, emotional, and touching as both Neil and Mary Claire overcome the bridges standing between them.” – Still Moments Magazine

Get your copy today!
https://shop.aer.io/TheWildRosePress/p/Bridges/9781509241811-11180?ni=true
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QXQJFNT
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bridges-joy-griffin/1102348389
https://books.apple.com/us/book/bridges/id1606565402

Want to know more about the author?
https://www.lindagriffinauthor.com/
https://www.facebook.com/lindagriffin.author
https://twitter.com/LindaGriffinA

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