Linda Glaz Celebrates Her Newest Novel

Karla Akins is the winner of our drawing!!!

With Eyes of Love

Barbara (Bunny) Richardson lives a perfect life. Wonderful family, amazing voice, and very handsome, very wealthy fiancé. But it doesn’t take long for her to realize he will always make decisions that benefit only him and his business. Barbara will never know the desires of her heart, only that she will be the beautiful woman on his arm. Then, when traveling with her family, Barbara is stranded in a flood in Tennessee, and the handsome man who comes to her rescue turns her perfect life into chaos. Two years later, when they find their paths have crossed again, Jackson, holed up in his room, refuses to meet with her. How could she love a burned and scarred freak, a remnant of Pearl Harbor’s destruction? A man who didn’t save a seventeen-year-old seaman who was counting on him? But Barbara has other ideas. She intends to shame the pity party out of Jackson and when that doesn’t work, she tries a dangerous game of making him jealous at his sister’s wedding. How deep is beauty? And do we get the chance to see real beauty with eyes of love?

I’d love for you to meet my friend, Linda Glaz, who also happens to be my literary agent with Hartline Literary Agency, and who also happens to be a very talented writer. I asked her lots of questions. Her great sense of humor shines through in her answers.

 

Question 1

Are experiences in your novel based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

Absolutely.  My mother's family traveled with her father (road engineer) When she was young and they did get stranded in a storm, but she was only 10 instead of 19. But it's actually based on my mom and aunt's friendship. All fiction, but the friendship was the point I was trying to make. They were closer than any sisters-in-law that I ever knew.

 

Question 2

Which of your characters is most/least like you, and in what way(s)?

Oh, the quiet one, Betty, would be least like me.  I'm a loud one!

 

Question 3

Do you read reviews of your books? If so, do you pay any attention to them, or let them influence your writing?

Absolutely do.  If there's constructive criticism, I want to take it in, roll it through my head and decide what to take, what to let go.

 

Question 4

What book are you reading now?

A middle-reader. Back Before Dark by Tim Shoemaker.  He writes amazing books for youngsters.

 

Question 5

What are your current projects?

I'm working on a historic novel about a young woman who runs a dance studio just as WWII is ending. The boy who stepped on her feet in dance school, is the same one who steps on her foot as they become re-acquainted.

 

Question 6

Do you have any upcoming events?

I have a book launch at the local library on Saturday, April 13th. All sorts of giveaways and "cake"!!!

 

Question 7

Can you tell us about some of the milestones you’ve reached as a writer?

Being able to finally retire from the day job, but that excludes my work as an agent. Love it all!!!  All!!!

 

Question 8

What motivates you to write, and where do you get ideas?

I can't look at a news blurb without thinking, yes! That would make a wonderful story. And my suspense novels come from my own fears.  One of my first books was about a house full of little girls kidnapped from a birthday sleepover. That was such a fear of mine while my girls were growing up.

 

Question 9

Do you have a life verse?

Very paraphrased. Me and the Lord. Between us, we can do anything.  Perseverance!

 

Question 10

Who is your greatest encourager?

My kids and my crit partners. I have the most amazing! crit partners in the world.

 

Question 11

Tell me about one of your personality traits.

Oh boy, that would take a couch and about $500 an hour.

 

Question 12

Where can people get a copy of your book?

Through Amazon; Christianbooks.com; many stores.

 

Linda’s Bio

Linda, married with three grown children and three grandchildren, is a complete triple-A personality. How else would she find time to write as well as be an agent for Hartline Literary Agency? She loves any and everything about the written word and loves when families pass stories along through the generations. If she isn't writing or putting together a contract, you'll find her taking a relaxing bath with her e-reader in hand. Her background in karate, soccer and the Air Force has allowed her to meet a lot of "characters" along the way. If you find a strange and weird character in one of her books, watch it! It might be you!!!

 

Linda’s Other Novels

 

Always, Abby

When Abigail Richardson visits the Judge family in Tennessee, the war is winding down, and Abby hopes to catch a peek of their youngest son and her pen pal for the last six years since they were stranded in the flood, William Judge. As he steps from the train and walks right toward her, her heart flutters in her chest. Yet, Will keeps on walking, all the way to the redhead beyond her. Jeannine. As he introduces the small orphan, Henry, that he’s brought back from the concentration camp in Germany, Jeannine makes it clear she doesn’t plan to be a readymade mother. Abby, on the other hand, takes “Hank” directly to her heart, and it’s Will who sees more than just a freckle-faced pen pal. Abby’s all grown up. But what of his promise of marriage to Jeannine?

--I love that these books are part of a story of a family, and are based around the actual, though fictionalized, friendship of two women. My mom and my aunt. And while some things are VERY loosely based on their friendship, it’s the friendship itself that I wanted to bring to light. Two women who shared more than most close sisters do. The kind of friendship that anyone would give anything they had to possess.

--Pearl Harbor is explored in book one to show the true horrors of war. As a veteran who served during Vietnam, I don’t have any firsthand experience of war, but male friends coming back gave me enough grist to help me understand just what our men and women go through. The surprise at Pearl left so many not only wounded, but scarred emotionally in a way that they never recovered completely. I wanted to show that aspect in the story and how a person could turn from God because of it. But also, how love can reach into the soul and help a person find their way back home, both emotionally and spiritually.

--The concentration camps in Germany didn’t play favorites, they were horrible to everyone, Jews, Gentiles, minorities, it didn’t matter. If you were on the Third Reich’s hit list, you ended up in a camp, and children didn’t fare much better than adults. Again in book two is a sobering account of WWII, but also a wonderful romance of young love found, love lost, and love found again. And the trust and love of a child who has been through more than most adults have faced in their entire lives, but the innocence that reminds those around him of God’s love.

 

The Substitute Bride (to be released August 6, 2013)

What happens when a young woman traveling west is aboard a train that derails? Hit on the head and unsure of who she is, she is greeted at the next station by a handsome rancher who tells her they are supposed to get married. That day!

 

Leave a comment and your email address to win a copy of With Eyes of Love. I'll draw the name of the winner on Monday April 8.