Spotlight on Guest Author Linda Mitchelmore

First a quick shout out – My debut novel The Girl on the Beach is out next Tuesday 24 January 2017 – Squeal!!!!! That which seemed unbelievable is now believable!

I have Linda Mitchelmore as my guest today. A fellow Choc Lit author, Linda has the sea in her veins, possibly because she was born within a couple of hundred yards of it in Paignton, Devon. Although she enjoys forays to the countryside, the sea always calls her home. That said, she is not the best swimmer in the world and prefers being on it, or looking at it, to being in it.

Linda began writing at the end of 1990’s when her hearing deteriorated (through earlier viral damage) to such an extent she couldn’t hear very much at all. Music, cinema, theatre and TV were all no-go areas so she retreated into a rather silent world of reading. She had an ‘I could write better than that’ moment when reading a short story but soon discovered – umpteen rejections down the line – that it wasn’t so easy to get published. But she persevered and now has 300 or so short stories/serials and around 50 articles under her belt. These publications gave her the confidence to try her hand at novels and she now has three full length historical novels, and two novellas (one historical and one contemporary), and one full length contemporary novel to her name, all published with Choc Lit.

But all work and no play makes Jack (and Jill) a dull boy (girl) so Linda is always ready to accept invitations to coffee and lunch – although these days as she’s so busy with writing she has to limit them to once a week.

Equally, all day sat on a chair in front of a computer is not good for the rear, so Linda is something of a legend locally pounding up and down the hills around her home in her Hotter lace-ups in all weathers – 45 minutes minimum per day, and half an hour more than that for preference. Thank goodness for Cotton Traders ankle length macs, she says.

As well as walking locally Linda walks on Dartmoor with her husband and also along the coast path around Torbay at weekends when time allows. She’s been known to walk six miles for a newspaper on Sundays.

And the joy of her life now? That has to be her grandchildren, Alex and Emily. She is a very hands-on Grandma and has been known to bribe her daughter to let her have them come to stop at weekends.

And should there be a little window of opportunity to get away from it all there is nowhere she would rather be than with friends, Jennie and Richard, across the channel in Brittany. Oh, and if she can take her bicycle and cycle the canal paths near their home while she’s there, then she is in heaven.

Linda‘s Books:-

TO TURN FULL CIRCLE – 2012

EMMA: THERE’S NO TURNING BACK – 2014   

EMMA AND HER DAUGHTER – 2015 

HOPE FOR HANNAH – 2013

RED IS FOR RUBIES – 2013

GRAND DESIGNS – 2016

All published by Choc Lit

I asked Linda a few questions:-

When do you write?

Morning is my best time for writing and the earlier the better. If I have a deadline or just that urge writers sometimes get to get things down – when the piece wants to write itself almost – I can work after lunch but I’m not at my best after about four o’ clock.

What are you working on now?

At the moment I’m working on a series of linked stories, all set in the same place. All are very character-led, and most are emotional and quite deep, although not sad or low in any way. There is some romance in there, too. It will probably only run to a novella length. I’ve also got rough plots written out for two other novellas, and a full length novel I hand-wrote some time ago is slowly finding its way into my computer system – slowly!

Where do you get your inspiration?

Where don’t I get it? A snippet of conversation, an item in a newspaper, a photo in a magazine, a postcard, a secondary character in one of my own short stories/novels I think deserves a louder voice, a fellow passenger on a train/plane ….. sometimes my head is too full of things!

Blurb for GRAND DESIGNS by Linda Mitchelmore

Carrie Fraser is an interior designer and cannot believe her luck when she is invited to work at Oakenbury Hall – a beautiful manor house in the heart of the English countryside. Nor can she quite get over the owner of Oakenbury Hall – the gorgeous (not to mention loaded!) Morgan Harrington. Morgan appears to have it all, but his previous life is clouded with sadness and heartache, which Carrie can relate to only too well. He is intent on running away from his troubled past to a glamorous, celebrity-filled existence in Cannes, but there’s a problem ….

Morgan is bound by his late father’s wishes to keep Oakenbury Hall within the family and have children (if possible) and the more time Carrie spends with him the more she yearns to be the woman to fulfil this wish. But the likes of Carrie Fraser could never be enough for a high-flying businessman like Morgan could she?

Thank you, Linda. I’ve read your latest Choc Lit paperback, Grand Designs, which is a lovely handbag-sized, tactile book. It is a sweet gentle romance. I wanted the heroine, Carrie to come and redesign my house decor and the hero, Morgan, to whisk me away to Cannes.

You can contact Linda on the following links:-

Facebook – linda_mitchelmore@facebook.com

Twitter – @lindamitchelmor (that is right without the ‘e’)

Website – http://lindashortstories.wordpress.com