RRT: Welcome to Romance Reviews Today.

RRT: When did you first think about writing and what prompted you to submit your first manuscript?

LW: Like most romance writers my age, FLAME AND THE FLOWER by Kathleen Woodiwiss and all her subsequent books won my heart. She was/is my idol, and historicals are my passion. (Not to say I don’t enjoy the contemps I’m currently doing, but I am a history fanatic. ?

So I wrote my first two historicals in the late 70’s, but a divorce and single-parenting stopped my career before it got started. Around fifteen years later, my new hubby and I were cleaning out the attic and he found the manuscripts I'd tossed. He asked to read them and encouraged me, although they were not his “thing,” to write again. I did, and my first book for Zebra Heartfire — the one I’d written back in the 70’s, but now with major re-writing — came out in 1990. PIRATE’S WILD EMBRACE. I did fifteen historical romances for Zebra/Pinnacle as Linda Windsor and Linda Covington, and in 1999 switched to the inspirational market, taking the chemistry/smoke along with me and saving the fire for the marriage bed behind closed doors. I was astonished to find the tension is actually greater as a result and harder to write. Who knew?

RRT: How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?

LW: A lot. My late hubby used to say that he saw bits of me in all my heroines, my humor, independence, and precociousness in particular.? Like my heroes, he never knew what to expect when he came home to his heroine. Of course, more life experiences or those of friends and family appear in my contemporary books. Like the Jamaican horseback ride from Hades that I portrayed in IT HAD TO BE YOU. Except “I” (as I clung to its slippery BARE back and three strands of cropped mane (no bridle) of the SWIMMING horse to keep from being swept away in the obviously deep water) did not have a handsome, laughing cowboy hero to pluck me from the path littered with floating horse hockey deposited by said steed’s companions. But like my heroine, I kept saying over and over, “This was NOT in the brochure!” My cruise cabin smelled like a stable for three days in spite of sealing all clothes and swimsuit in a garbage bag, and I walked like John Wayne in heels and sequins at the formal night that followed our harrowing shore excursion. Like my heroine. ?

RRT: What books do you read for pleasure, and what authors?

LW: I like J.D. Robb’s books, Janet Evanovich, Angie Hunt, Brandilyn Collins and Terri Blackstock for mystery/suspense/thrillers. Give me murder and forensics for escape from pure romance. ? I’m addicted to the TV original CSI, NCIS, and The Closer. And for some warped reason, HOUSE, a doctor who demonstrates a dark side with sarcasm, yet heals people. But not without annoying the dickens out of me and everyone around him. Yet, I keep watching. Sigh.

RRT: Tell us a little about you new book, WEDDING BELL BLUES.

LW: This book is the first of the Piper Cove Chronicles, a romance with a dash of suspense series set in my home stomping grounds near Ocean City, MD. It’s about four best friends who vowed to leave the sleepy bayside village on graduation night and never come back. Now they are thirty-somethings and are still in, or have returned to Piper Cove. But it has changed as much as they. Love hasn’t been kind to any of the bosom buddies, who are as different as night and day. There’s sassy Southern belle Sue Ann, an incorrigible flirt; shy Jan, who always wants the kind of guy she shouldn’t have; Harley-riding tomboy Ellen, who calls ‘em as she sees ‘em, and control-addict Alex, ambitious, successful, and yet unfulfilled.

Alex’s story kicks off with WEDDING BELL BLUES. She’s planning the perfect wedding for her perfect little sister, something Alex has never been in her father’s critical eye, when her ex-husband shows up as the best man. Josh Turner abandoned his new bride for a successful career as a rock musician, until an accident ended it and led him to new faith and back to Piper Cove and Alex. He wants to show her that he’s changed, but Alex is as stubborn and controlling as the father she resents for the same reasons. It’s more than a matter of forgiveness. Neither Alex nor Josh is sure they are willing to go there again. And her father is doing everything he can to see that they don’t. And, if things aren’t complicated enough, there’s a blackmailer who could ruin all their futures if not stopped.

RRT: What type of writing routine, if any, do you work with?

LW: Oh dear. I can tell you what I WANT it to be. I’d like to get up early and put in a half a day or so (till 3 pm), a chapter’s worth (maybe 5000 words) of good writing. Good writing to me includes proofing what I wrote the previous day and moving on. The afternoons and evenings are for errands, exercise, and spending time with my family. But since my husband passed away going on three years ago, that is my goal, which I rarely attain. I’ve had to do major maintenance/renovation to our 200 year old home, which was restored to new status 25 years ago. I hired the major stuff, but the painting, finishing, getting the supplies, etc. have been on me and my wonderful mom, who lives in her own attached apartment. In May, my daughter bought her first home, and Mom and I have been doing all her inside wall repairs and painting. Now she has a new puppy, and guess who is taking it for walks and play every two hours? It’s a good thing I’m between books right now, although Jan’s story is percolating in my brain as I paint and play ball with the puppy. (She’s napping now?).

RRT: What sort of things do you do in your spare time? Any hobbies?

LW: See the above. ? Okay, other than work and decorating, I love to play guitar and sing. I am addicted to nonfiction books about early Christianity and, being of Irish ancestry, to books about the amazing accomplishments of the British and Irish druids. They were not the barbarians Caesar labeled them, by any measure.

RRT: What's up next for you?

LW: FOR PETE'S SAKE, book two of the Piper Cove Chronicles, will be coming out in April 2008. It's Ellen's story, Cinderella on a Harley, if you will. ? My Prince Charming is a sophisticated computer hacker-turned-security expert with a troubled little boy who needs special understanding. Opposites attract and risk all for Pete's sake when internet espionage puts the boy, his father's business, and government security at risk.

RRT: How may readers contact you?

LW: Not so many that I have to have someone else handle my email, but enough to keep me busy. So many relate to the issues I address in my books, such as the domineering/interfering father-daughter relationship in WEDDING BELL BLUES. Others just enjoy the love and laughter. I can’t seem to keep my sense of humor to myself. ? And some just drool over the heroes and love the heroines. I have had up to 5000 hits a month on my website and send out a periodic newsletter to anyone who enters my contests and signs up for it. I don’t send something out regularly unless I have something to say to my readers, who have become friends. (OKAY, I MISREAD THE QUESTION AS TO HOW MANY READERS CONTACT ME. HAVE I MENTIONED I NEED TO WEAR GLASSES MORE OFTEN?)

Readers can contact me through my website at www.LindaWindsor.com or email me at Linda@LindaWindsor.com

RRT: Linda thanks so much for interviewing with Romance Reviews Today.