Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
LINDA CONRAD |First Lines and New Beginnings
Author Guest / July 1, 2010

I just love having a new book on the shelves. Especially when it’s also the beginning of a brand new series. This series is a bit different for me. When I was young, I had a thing for stories that might have come straight out of the Arabian Nights. I watched all the Sinbad and Ali Baba movies and loved the adventure stories where a warrior hero rode in on a white horse to rescue the independent heroine from an evil sultan. But then, I also watched I Dream of Jennie on television and loved their blending of modern with the old fantasy. Wasn’t that series fun? I gave in to my old love of sheiks this year. My new series for Silhouette Romantic Suspense is called Desert Sons. HER SHEIK PROTECTOR(July 2010) is the first book in the series. It’s a little unconventional as far as sheik stories go. I think it’s more of an international romantic thriller. The series revolves around a modern family of Bedouins who find themselves embroiled in a bitter war of revenge with an ancient enemy. With an old-timey Hollywood noir feeling, HER SHEIK PROTECTOR is the story of an independent woman who ends…

Linda Conrad | What Do You Love to Hate?
Uncategorized / March 5, 2009

A witch appears in my newest trilogy, The Safekeepers, for Silhouette Romantic Suspense.  In fact, she’s a black witch who curses the Ryan family. Several white witches who do good deeds are in all three books too, but the witches don’t take up the entire plot.  I’ve also written about psychics, mediums, and Native American supernatural beliefs.  My editor and I call that light paranormal elements. Not long ago I was wondering if light paranormal was as popular with readers as dark.  Oh, I already knew about the popularity of those sensual dark vampire and werewolf stories.  Or at least I thought I did.  I happened to ask a readers group and my own newsletter subscribers what they thought.  Boy, did I get an earful! Buy SAFE BY HIS SIDE Buy IN SAFE HANDS “…straight paranormal is currently being overdone.”  “Vamps are sooo over.”  “I don’t care for vampire and the like in books.” “I’m a big paranormal fan who is tired of the vampires.”  And these are the nice replies! But at the same time as people complain about vampire books, one of the best-selling series currently is the Twilight series by Stephanie Myer.  And please don’t tell Sherilyn…

Linda Conrad | Why Do It?
Uncategorized / June 3, 2008

I had every intention of writing a blog about my latest release for Silhouette Romantic Suspense, SAFE WITH A STRANGER (the first book in my new trilogy called The Safekeepers.) The Safekeepers is a series of suspense novels about bodyguards for children–with the fun addition of Mexican witchcraft and a family curse. Or maybe I could’ve blogged about connected books. That seems to be my thing lately. My last series for Silhouette was six books long! I just don’t seem to be able to write single books anymore. I like fleshing out characters over several books and really enjoy revealing a series-long connection inside each book. But as I was sitting here at my desk, my mind wandered off (as it usually does,) and I began thinking about why I write at all. As I have said before, I hate to write. Really I do. Oh, I love telling stories. I love getting into the heads of my characters. I love doing research. And I love finding just the right word to make a sentence sing. But the process of sitting my back end into a chair and shoveling out the words makes me want to cringe. In fact, right…