BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR LINDA CARROLL-BRADD

Historical romance author Linda Carroll-Bradd has widespread interests ranging from baking and crocheting to watching dog agility matches and reading thrillers by Swedish authors. Today she joins us to talk about a holiday story that almost went awry. Learn more about her and her books at her blog. 

Holiday Story Almost Gone Awry

I love writing romances set in the second half of the nineteenth century. In addition to the simpler lifestyle with fewer possessions and people needing to work together to put food on the table and clothes on back, new innovations happened every day. American society was an unobstructed melting pot during those decades. People from so many different countries comprised the citizens of towns of all sizes. (As has been traced by family genealogists, my ancestors on both paternal and maternal side arrived from Scandinavian and Ireland in the early 1800s. But I like to include some creature comforts so my stories usually occur after the Civil War.) The majority of the historical romances I write are set in small towns and usually one of the characters is first or second generation from a European country. I then delve into the ethnic customs of that country so I can include an interesting tidbit.

In A Vow for Christmas, my most recent novella, set in 1872 Gunnison City, Colorado, the only requirements were that the story takes place at Christmas time and that the heroine be a spinster mail-order bride. I made her of Scottish descent and researched foods, wedding customs, literature, songs, the plaid associated with her last name, etc. To build on the fish-out-of-water trope, I wrote her as introducing foods to the hero sheep rancher, like neeps (turnips), mince and tatties (seasoned beef and potatoes), and clootie dumpling (steamed pudding).

More than halfway through writing my story (with a looming preorder deadline), the plot approached preparations for the Christmas holiday. So I switched gears and went into research mode. Only to discover (to my great embarrassment) that the Scots hadn’t celebrated what they called Christ’s Mass since 1647. In Oliver Cromwell’s rule, Parliament in the United Kingdom had placed a ban against the celebration. Although the ban lasted only 15 years in Britain, the Scots maintained it until the late 1950s. Yikes!

Thankfully, I’ve been a writer long enough not to waste time in too long of a panic, and I pivoted. Instead of her bringing her holiday traditions to the family, she turned to the widower and his two small children. They share their traditions, and she finally learns about what she had always felt left out of while growing up around other children who celebrated the holiday. A save! Definitely I learned the lesson of making sure to do research on the critical elements before writing. Still, I’m very pleased with how the story turned out. I hope readers agree.

A Vow for Christmas 

Spinster Mail-Order Brides, Book 7

Vika Carmichael hopes a mail-order marriage to a Colorado rancher with small children will provide much-needed security. What she yearns for is a love match. But her new husband Chad seems set in his ways, including his devotion to his late wife. Will this family of three embrace her, or has she made the worse choice possible?

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR LINDA CARROLL-BRADD

Today Linda Carroll-Bradd, author of contemporary and historical romance, sits down for an interview. Learn more about Linda and her books at her website.

When did you realize you wanted to write novels?

Not until after I’d finished college and started raising a family. I kept envisioning different endings to the romances I was reading. Of course, when I tried, then I learned how many aspects are involved in creative writing.

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication?

I worked at writing on a part-time basis for twelve years before my first paid publication, which was a story for the confession magazines. My first sale to a book publisher came a couple years later.

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?

A hybrid. I’ve been published by seven traditional publishers and have also have indie-pubbed several titles under my real name and my erotic romance pen name, Layla Chase.

Where do you write?

In an office in our home in the southern California mountains.

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

I can write with or without music. When I want to create a certain mood or capture a tone, I’ll put on ethnic music connected to one of the characters.

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?

I draw from real life for the plots because I research a lot and visit museums on any of the car trips my husband and I take. I find working a real-life event into a romance plot a thrill. The characters are all from my imagination.

Describe your process for naming your character.

I use The Writer’s Digest Character-Naming Sourcebook and start with the nationality I believe demonstrates the character’s background. I strive for unusual names, because I was most often one of several Lindas in my neighborhood or classes while growing up. So, I want my characters to be memorable.

Real settings or fictional towns? 

Fictional towns laid over real settings. That way I can find a map, even a historical one, and picture how the town is laid out in comparison with the surrounding geography.

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?

 I work hard to give my characters something unique. One of my heroes does scrimshaw, a skill he learned from his time spent trapping in Alaska.

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

Can’t walk into a movie theater or start a movie at home after the opening scene has started.

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?

Pride and Prejudice because who wouldn’t want to be known 200 years in the future for her creative endeavor?

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours?

Starting on my writing path at least a decade earlier.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

People without the ability to wait their turn, either in traffic or in stores. People who are too me-oriented.

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves? Sunscreen for my easy-to-burn skin, wet wipes because I can’t stand damp sand on my skin, and a trunk filled with romance novels

What was the worst job you’ve ever held?

Telephone solicitor for vacation property as a high-school student. I didn’t have the maturity to handle rude hang-ups.

What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, because I loved the feminist bent of the retelling of the King Arthur tale.

Ocean or mountains?

Mountains

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?

Grew up in a city but always wished I could have lived in a small town.

What’s on the horizon for you?

I’m working on a couple of big-themed books that I hope to finish in 2018. One is a prairie historical I’ve been working on for several years involving a paroled convict half-breed and a Swedish immigrant on a homestead, and the other involves the Nez Perce tragedy and how the Army tracked them for months.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?

I write clean and wholesome stories that always have a bit of humor and contain lots of heart.

Tending Troubles, Book 6 in Lockets & Lace multi-author series

Traveling west to become a mail-order bride is the most adventurous act Bostonian Imogene Franklin ever did. Unfortunately, the groom chose another so now Imogene must make her way on her own. Dreading the idea of returning home to continue raising her siblings, she is reduced to waiting tables in the Dorado café.

Guilt hangs heavy over Reggie Othmann—ever since he brought home a childhood illness that claimed both his parents’ lives. The ink is barely dry on Reggie’s degree when he arrives home in Dorado to establish a medical practice. All he’s wanted since he was ten years old is to help people, but now he’s unsure of his future. When illness descends on the town, Reggie and Imogene tend the townspeople but is their emotional tie born of the closeness of the ordeal or perhaps something more?

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