AccessRomance interviews author Linda Conrad.

AR: This month sees the release of the third book in your Night Guardian series. What can you tell us about this series and how the books are connected?

Linda: The Night Guardians is my six-book contemporary miniseries and one online-serial published by Silhouette Romantic Suspense (formerly Intimate Moments). The Night Guardians are a Brotherhood of young Navajo medicine men heroes who are fighting an evil cult of shapeshifters, known in the Navajo culture as Skinwalkers. It's a slightly creepy and very romantic set of suspense stories, told with attention to the Navajo legends and traditions. I said to someone the other day that it's sort of a Star Wars saga. The entire series starts near the beginning of the Skinwalkers reign of terror and ends when their current leader, the evil Navajo Wolf, is overpowered and unmasked. Each story stands on its own, but taken as a whole it was a wonderfully fun series to write and hopefully to read!

AR: The newest installment is SHADOW HUNTER. What's it about?

Linda: SHADOW HUNTER is Hunter Long's story. He is a Brotherhood medicine man by night and a Navajo Tribal Police Investigator by day. His story is a reunion romance, set in the backdrop of the vast Navajo desert buttes and cliffs. Hunter is a charming but primitive outdoorsman who is known as the best tracker in the West. He receives an assignment from both his Tribal Police superiors and from the secret Brotherhood to find and save the spoiled half-Navajo heiress he had loved and lost as a young man. It seems she and a baby have been kidnapped by the Skinwalkers. He sets off across the wild and remote desert he knows well, determined to save them both -- without letting his old lover get under his skin again. Hunter's story is full of both the majesty of the land and the passion and romance of getting a second chance at true love -- along with a little paranormal magic thrown in for good measure.

AR: Tell us a bit about the upcoming books in the series.

Linda: SHADOW LIES will be an eharlequin.com online serial beginning Feb 5, 2007 It's a short story and daily read featuring another reunion romance. This hero and heroine have not seen each other in seven years and when they find each other again, they must fight both the Skinwalkers and the guilt and lies that have come between them.

SHADOW SURRENDER will be a Silhouette Romantic Suspense release in Mar 2007. It is Lucas Tso's story. Lucas is the 'sensitive' and artist in the Brotherhood who must save the woman he has never met but has dreamed about all his life. His heroine,Teal, is a Navajo FBI agent who likes things in black and white but comes face to face with every magic, gray and impossible circumstance there is. Watching her begin to believe the unbelievable makes for a fun story.

SHADOW WARRIOR, a Silhouette Romantic Suspense out in May 2007, is a wonderful love story set against the backdrop of the Navajo tradition of in-laws marrying the widow or widower of a deceased sibling. It's the brilliant but arrogant Michael Ayze's story, and it was great letting Michael meet his match.

SHADOW SECRETS will be a Silhouette Romantic Suspense release in October 2007. A familiar looking stranger comes to Navajoland, seeking the truth about an old murder. Cisco Santiago's story brings him not only great danger and a truth he had not foreseen, but also a romance that nearly kills him and ultimately changes his whole life.

AR: What made you decide to write about the Navajo?

Linda: Ah, it's easy to say it was serendipity. I backed into it by doing research for another unrelated book. But the real truth is that the Navajo history, legends, traditions and people are so unique and rich I became fascinated and entranced enough to write seven stories.

AR: With the Night Guardian series, you switched from Silhouette Desire to Intimate Moments (now called Romantic Suspense). What are the differences and similarities in the stories you've written for those two lines?

Linda: Silhouette Desire has recently changed its editorial outlook. But when I began writing for them, they were short, passionate stories with room for some suspense and paranormal. In my opinion, back then they were related to the old Intimate Moments line only in a shorter format. My voice has always been well-suited for spicy and emotional romances intertwined with suspense and/or the paranormal.

And now for some questions posed by our readers of the AR All-A-Blog.

AR Reader: What is your work day like?

Linda: I wish I lived a normal life with normal working days. Sadly, there is nothing normal about how I work. In the beginning stages of a novel, I'll work when the spirit hits me -- at entirely odd times and in bits and snatches. Towards the end of a novel and nearing a deadline, I may work twelve or fifteen hours at a stretch. At those times when I am really into the story, my husband will have to force me to quit long enough to eat and sleep.

AR Reader: What is something about you that your readers would be completely surprised to find out?

Linda: I don't think anything about me is terribly surprising. Everyone knows I was born in Brazil and was a stock broker and certified financial planner in my old life. But maybe not everyone knows that at one time I ran autocrosses in my terrific little gold Miata. I was ranked and included in the Sports Car Club of America listings. Don't have time enough to participate anymore unfortunately.

AR Reader: Who are some of your favorite authors?

Linda: Lisa Gardner, Linda Howard, Suzanne Brockmann, Janet Evanovitch, Nora Roberts, Cindy Gerard, Nina Bruhns, and old favorites like Lillian Jackson Braun, Brad Meltzer, and I know I'm missing several others I love

AR Reader: How do you balance your working/family life with your writing life?

Linda: Are you supposed to balance them? Uh oh. Don't tell my family. I have them completely convinced writing comes first.

AR: Thank you for talking with us. On a final note, is there anything you would like to say to your readers?

Linda: Only to give them a big, sloppy cyber kisses of thanks for reading this interview and my books! And to invite them on over to my website www.lindaconrad.com to sign up for my newsletter or to stop in at my new www.myspace.com/lindaconrad page to see what's going on!

Interviews Index > Linda Conrad (January 07)