Award Winning Author Linnea Sinclair

Please welcome Linnea Sinclair, Award-Winning Science Fiction Romance Author.

Her awards include the RITA©, Sapphire, and PEARL awards. Linnea Sinclair's current booklist with Bantam/Random House includes FINDERS KEEPERS, GABRIEL’S GHOST, AN ACCIDENTAL GODDESS, GAMES OF COMMAND and THE DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES, and scheduled for release in 2008-09, SHADES OF DARK and HOPE’S FOLLY. She is also a John W. Campbell award nominee.

She has been compared to Dianna Gabaldon and Judith McNaught.
Linnea Sinclair books promise kick-butt heroines, science fiction action, steamy romance, and a good dose of fun.

Linnea, how long have you been writing and was it difficult getting your books
published?

I’ve been writing for so long I honestly can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing. I’m an only child and making up stories in my head was a favorite pastime. I began putting them on paper in junior high school. In my twenties, I was active in Trek fan-fic. But I never took the plunge to write fiction full time until I’d completed successful careers as a news reporter and a private investigator. I sold my detective agency in 2000, which was also the year my fantasy novel, WINTERTIDE, was accepted for publication by LTDBooks, a small Canadian publishing house.

Getting published in small press wasn’t that difficult for me. Getting a major NY
publisher to acknowledge that science fiction romance was an up-and-coming hot genre and that my small press books—and talent—could make the jump to the big time was considerably more difficult. But it was a jump I was determined to make and I concentrated, not only on winning awards with my books, but on promoting my books so that my name was “out there” in front of the reading public. My agent later told me that when Bantam bought me, they commented that I was the most well-known unknown they’d ever heard of.

I suppose it might have been easier if I’d decided to write in a different genre; mystery, perhaps, or pure romance. But science fiction romance is where my heart and soul is. I write what I love, and what I’d love to experience. For that reason, writing is an intense, personal experience for me and I try to bring that same experience to the reader. I have to write what I love, or I couldn’t write it.

How would you define science fiction romance (SFR) and what elements does the reader find in SFR that she can’t find in other stories?

Science Fiction Romance is, at its core, a science fiction/speculative fiction novel that has—equally at its core and in its theme—the romantic question between the main characters. It's written so that if either core element—science/speculative fiction or romance—were removed, the story would collapse. Or at the least, not be the same novel.

That means if the story's setting could easily—and without noticeable changes—be swapped from Port Rumor in Gensiira to Port St. Lucie in Florida, or from the bridge of a Zafharin huntership to the decks of a Carnival Cruise Line's ocean liner, then it's not SFR. And if the emotional relationship—and its eventual HEA— between the main characters could be removed and the plot would not be affected at all, it's not SFR.

The combining of the two genres sometimes boggles people. I'm not sure why. After all, the concept is not all that different from a chocolate cupcake. In order to something to be considered a chocolate cupcake, it must 1) contain chocolate and 2) be in the size, shape and form of a cupcake. Science Fiction Romance is just like that, only less fattening.

I don't know if SFR necessarily provides readers elements not found in other stories as much as it presents two (or more) elements they enjoy in one place. Tastes great and less filling, you know? The reader then doesn't have to sacrifice one favored plot element or genre for the other. Two for the price of one. If I think of any more bad clichés I'll let you know, but that's the gist of it.

Linnea, alpha women in space seems to be a recurring theme in your books, including Finders Keepers and Gabriel’s Ghost. What’s the appeal of the “kickbutt” heroine? Are you living vicariously through your characters?

Is there any other kind of hero in commercial genre fiction other than one who takes charge, forces things to happen? I suppose there is but for the kinds of things I want to read for fun, there isn't. Since everything I've written has to first please my reading tastes, then yes, my readers are always going to find themselves in cahoots with heroines (and heroes) who eventually grab the universe by the, uh, fruit basket and take control.

The appeal? Writing gurus like Dwight Swain, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Jack Bickham, James Frey and others have long pointed out that readers read to experience tension,
conflict; to participate—at a safe distance—in the resolution of a seemingly irresolvable problem. Our cultures' ancient myths and legends have featured powerful female figures (Hera, Freya, Quan-Yin, etc.). The female whose actions can change the outcome or resolve a problem is nothing new. In commercial fiction, it or rather she did go on sabbatical for a while. However, she's definitely back (and in more than one case, pissed!).

So I feel the appeal of the strong female protagonist is something deep inside many of us.

As for my living vicariously through my characters, let's see, I've been an investigative news reporter and a private investigator. Have I ever shot footage in a hurricane? Yup. Put my career on the line for a story? Yup. Forged through the Florida swamps for a story? Yup. Done live television (okay, not life threatening but definitely nerve-wracking when you're doing a live news feed and you're being attacked by wasps...)? Yup. Have I ever received death threats, threats to ruin me financially, illicit propositions, and faced the business end of a loaded gun? Yup.

So, do I live vicariously through my characters? Uh, no. Rather my characters and I share a similar adventurous attitude and a strong desire to survive.

What advice do you have for fledgling writers?


First, read. Read as much as you can in the genre in which you want to write.
Second, realize that writing is both an art and a craft. Yes, the muse must speak to you. But it’s up to you to put that creative inspiration in a grammatically correct form, or you’re wasting your and the muse’s time. Study and understand plot structure, characterization, conflict and dialogue. For all that fiction is freewheeling creativity, it’s also rules and regulations.

There are plenty of books out there to help you do this. My favorite is Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer. When I teach writing, I tell my students that if they can buy only one book, buy that one. It’s essential. Almost every published author I know has a dog-eared copy. From there, look for the how-to books by Jack Bickham, Nancy Kress, Debra Dixon and Renni Browne/Dave King. These books work no matter your genre.

Then find a writers’ group—locally or online—that has at least one published author in its ranks (preferably more than one). Get your work critiqued. Learn to give critiques in return.

Writing a publishable novel is hard work. Blessedly, it’s also a tremendous amount of fun. I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing—except, perhaps, piloting a starship.

Please tell us a little about your upcoming 2009 release.

In February 2009 Bantam will release Hope’s Folly, which is the third book in the Dock Five series that started with Gabriel’s Ghost. Folly is Admiral Philip Guthrie’s story. Philip is Chaz’s ex-husband, and while in Gabriel’s he straddled the fence between being a hero and being an obstacle, in Shades of Dark he has quite a lot happen to him, and as one blogger noted, is starting to sport his hero duds. He’s blossomed into a take-control, very sexy man and in Folly, he faces one of the toughest challenges of his life.

It's an impossible mission on a derelict ship called HOPE'S FOLLY. A man who feels he can't love. A woman who believes she's unlovable. And an enemy who will stop at nothing to crush them both.

Admiral Philip Guthrie is in an unprecedented position: on the wrong end of the law, leading a rag-tag band of rebels against the oppressive Imperial forces. Or would be, if he can reach his command ship—the intriguingly named Hope’s Folly—alive. Not much can rattle Philip’s legendary cool—but the woman who helps him foil an assassination attempt on Kirro Station will. She’s the daughter of his best friend and first commander—a man who died while under Philip’s command, and whose death is on Philip’s conscience

Rya Bennton has been in love with Philip Guthrie since she was a girl. But can her childhood fantasies survive an encounter with the hardened man, and newly-minted rebel leader, who it seems has just become her new commanding officer? And will she still be willing follow him through the jaw of hell once she learns the truth about her father’s death?

By the way, Romantic Times just gave Folly 4-1/2 stars and named it a Top Pick!

website: www.linneasinclair.com
FYI,
Linnea divides her time between Naples, Florida and Columbus Ohio.

Ask away ladies.
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