Linda Gillard author of Star Gazing (check out one review here) was one author we felt we had to interview. Whether you are a fan or newly introduced; read what she had to say here:
1. What are you reading at the moment?
I usually have several books on the go. Some I’m reading for research, some are for pleasure. At the moment I’m reading
THE BOOK OF SILENCE by Sara Maitland
REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier
MAD BAD AND DANGEROUS TO KNOW by Ranulph Fiennes
2. What is your favourite book from your childhood?
It’s hard to choose between
THE SWISH OF THE CURTAIN by Pamela Brown and THE CHILDREN ON THE OREGON TRAIL by A Rutgers van der Loeff. I adored both of those. I grew up wanting to be an actress and did in fact go to drama school and act professionally for some years, so I suppose SWISH OF THE CURTAIN was the more influential of the two books.
3. Where do you get your inspiration?
It can be anywhere and anything, but it’s always something that makes me start asking lots of questions. Driving through the Glasgow suburbs one day, I saw a white van parked on the drive of an ordinary house. The lettering on the side of the van said “Bomb Disposal Unit”. My ever-curious brain immediately started asking questions. Was this where a bomb disposal technician lived?… What sort of a man does that kind of job? Then my novelist’s brain kicked in with more questions – interesting ones. What sort of boy grows up to become a man who will dedicate his life to the most dangerous job in the world?… And what sort of woman would marry a man like that?… And what would their marriage be like?… The answers to those questions became my 5th novel,UNTYING THE KNOT.
Website link – http://www.lindagillard.co.uk/untyingtheknot.php
4. Tell us about your latest book?
My latest book, THE GLASS GUARDIAN is a ghost story – an old-fashioned ghost story with a large neglected house and a vulnerable (though not young) heroine at its heart.
When I was planning my third novel, STAR GAZING I thought of making the hero some sort of ghost, perhaps the ghost of the widowed heroine’s dead husband, but in the end I decided readers would prefer a flesh and blood hero, so I abandoned my ghost story idea. But it didn’t lie down and die.
Most paranormals feature vampires or werewolves, urban settings, prolonged sex enjoyed by attractive young heroines who are quite capable of fighting their way out of a tight corner, with or without the help of the grouchy-but-gorgeous alpha male immortal. THE GLASS GUARDIAN is a very different sort of book.
My heroine is a 42-year old horticulturalist. Her career is in the doldrums and her emotional life is in crisis. A family bereavement has left her lumbered with a large old house on the Isle of Skye, in need of much refurbishment: Tigh-na-Linne, “the house by the pool”. It has a sad history, a beautiful garden and spectacular views. It’s where Ruth spent many happy summers as an only child. But Tigh na Linne also has a resident ghost – a ghost who needs Ruth’s help…
Several of my novels have examined the catastrophic consequences of falling in love with the wrong person. THE GLASS GUARDIAN asks, what happens when you fall in love with a ghost?…
Website link – http://www.lindagillard.co.uk/glassguardian.php
5. What are you working on at the moment?
I’ve had a year off writing because I was diagnosed with breast cancer last April and the rest of the year was taken up with surgery and chemotherapy, but I’ve recently started writing again. I’ve begun a new novel set in the Scottish Highlands (where I live). I don’t plan my books a great deal before I start writing. I just like to have an idea of the characters and I let them decide how the story should develop. But I think the new book will be a dark psychological tale about a troubled family who live in a decaying castle,haunted by their history and a family curse. There will be a love story (as there always is in my books) and there might be another ghost!
Linda Gillard at AwesomeBooks
( minor spoilers for the first three books)
A Dip in The Ocean: A review by Matthew McLarty,