Around the Fire with Contemporary Romance Author, Linda Griffin.

Hi, Linda. I'm glad you can join me around the fire today. What can I get for you?
 I think I’ve told you about my hot chocolate addiction before, and now that we’re headed into warmer weather, I’ll have to mention that I love me some ice-cold sweet tea, especially with fresh, hot popcorn.

I've been spending time in the south and they specialize in sweet tea. So, while I grab a frosty glass and pop some corn, will you introduce yourself?
Who you are other than your bio?
I’m someone who believes that beauty feeds the soul, so I spend a lot of my free time in art galleries and museums, as well as savoring the beauty in nature. I also have a T-shirt that reads “Look for Beauty,” which I gave to Teresa in The Rebound Effect.

Ah, beauty surrounds us. We only have to look. I was just in the Smokey Mountains and let me say Wow! What interests besides writing do you enjoy? 
Other than those I’ve mentioned before, I like working jigsaw puzzles (like Frank and Kayla in Reluctant Hearts), although I’m not very fast and rarely work anything over 500 pieces. I also love watching Jeopardy and can often be found doing both of those at once.

My hubby and I love to do puzzles. Unfortunately our cat resents the puzzles and knock everything off the table. Who or what books or authors are your inspiration?
There are many answers to that question, but I’ll tell you my first one! I was six years old and read a Little Lulu comic book in which Lulu goes to a land of magical rocking horses. She then wakes up from what she believes was a dream only to find she has her horse’s tail in her hand. I stole that plot device for my very first story, “Judy and the Fairies.”

Does writing energize or exhaust you?
When the muse is active and the words are flowing, it definitely energizes me, which is a good thing because it also exhausts me when my characters favor carrying on conversations in the middle of the night.

Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
I read them all but try not to take them too seriously. As Richard P. Brickner pointed out, a novel is just a drink of water to a reader, even though it’s an ocean to the author.

I love what's called Easter Eggs and use them often in my work. Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
In Seventeen Days, the hero mentions an author who is actually a character in an unpublished story by my older sister. It wasn’t intentional, but an eerie coincidence, that something that happens to a character in Reluctant Hearts happened to me after I’d sent in the manuscript.

What was your hardest scene to write?
The climactic scene (no spoilers!) in “The Shape of Life” novella in Reluctant Hearts because I had looked forward to writing it and wanted to do it justice.

What is your favorite T-shirt with graphic or Meme?
I’m retired, so jeans and T-shirts are my regular attire, and I buy a lot of them on my travels. I have many favorites, but one in particular includes the words “Ask me about my book.”

Ha, I need that one. If you could eat anything in the world right now, what would it be? Normally it would be something chocolate, but right now I’m craving grilled cheese and tomato on sourdough!
Oh, yum. I just had a BLT on sourdough from a restaurant we saw on Guy Fieri's Triple D. It was delicious! Linda, thanks again for sharing your time with us Around the Fire. Would you leave a bit about your book and where to find out more?  

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​RELUCTANT HEARTS
by 
Linda Griffin
Contemporary Romance

Four couples, four stories:
Darien Francis and Richard Li meet during a bank robbery, but she’s afraid to love again.
Shane Kenniston and Beth Parker are reacquainted years after she had a crush on him, but she is a recent widow, and Shane’s life was upended by a false accusation.
David Early and Kate Howard meet in the Laundromat, but her life is consumed by the needs of her disabled child, and David isn’t ready for the responsibility.
Realtor Frank Ellison meets Kayla Barnes at an open house, but a mistaken first impression derails any chance of romance.
Can they all overcome the obstacles to love?

Buy links:
https://www.amazon.com/Reluctant-Hearts-Linda-Griffin-ebook/dp/B0BW2FQXNW
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/reluctant-hearts-linda-griffin/1143041313
https://books.apple.com/us/book/reluctant-hearts/id6445743648
https://bookshop.org/p/books/reluctant-hearts-linda-griffin/19721906

What others are saying
Reluctant Hearts by Linda Griffin is an engaging collection of four distinct short stories about
finding love even when we aren’t looking for it…Linda Griffin has a keen sense of timing and a
knack for shaping characters that are endearingly realistic and so easy to fall in love with!...Each
story and couple are so engaging that you’ll be hard-pressed to choose a favorite...Fully in the
realm of contemporary, the cast are working through issues familiar to all of us, adding that
enchanting sense that good things can happen in our modern, problem-filled world. However,
despite the difficulties the couples face, the romances discovered in Griffin’s writing are as light
and sweet as a lemon meringue pie. If you’re looking for a gentle collection brimming with
possibility, curl up with a copy of Reluctant Hearts.~ Indies Today

More about the author:
I was born and raised in San Diego, California and earned a BA in English from San Diego State University and an MLS from UCLA. I began my career as a reference and collection development librarian in the Art and Music Section of the San Diego Public Library and then transferred to the Literature and Languages Section, where I had the pleasure of managing the Central Library’s Fiction collection and initiating fiction order lists for the entire library system. Although I also enjoy reading biography, memoir, and history, fiction remains my first love. In addition to the three R’s—reading, writing, and research—I enjoy Scrabble, movies, and travel.
My earliest ambition was to be a “book maker” and I wrote my first story, “Judy and the Fairies,” with a plot stolen from a comic book, at the age of six. I broke into print in college with a story in the San Diego State University literary journal, The Phoenix, but most of my magazine publications came after I left the library to spend more time on my writing.
My stories have been published in numerous journals, including Eclectica, Thema Literary Journal, Avalon Literary Review, The Nassau Review, and Orbis, and in the anthologies Short Story America, Vol. 2, The Captive and the Dead, and Australia Burns.
Member of RWA, Authors Guild, and Sisters in Crime
Social media links:
https://www.lindagriffinauthor.com/
https://www.facebook.com/lindagriffin.author
https://twitter.com/LindaGriffinA
https://www.instagram.com/lindagriffinauthor/
https://www.pinterest.com/lgriffin08392487

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