Linda lives in San Jose with her husband and yellow Labrador, Leia. When she’s not writing, Linda loves cooking and gardening. The most exciting part of her life, though, is when her adult sons and two grandchildren visit. Linda and I met at a Northern California Historical Novel Society meeting in 2019. We are both founding members of Paper Lantern Writers.

EC: You call your work heritage fiction, though you started with writing about flying horses. What
made you decide to start writing fiction?

LU: I write fiction because that’s what I read. My first love was fantasy, hence the flying horses. When I decided to write my first family story, I didn’t have enough information about the featured women to write a biography, so I fictionalized events for the gaps. It was also important to me to understand what they felt about issues of their time, and I had to infer that from their actions. So what I write is fiction.

EC: What was your favorite book as a child?

LU: I have loved to read as long as I could hold a book. One of my favorite birthday presents was a copy of Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss. I read all the Nancy Drew and Bobbsey twin books, of course, and loved any book that had a horse in it. I can’t possibly pick one favorite, so here are two. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle, piqued my interest in fantasy, and Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell, was one of the books that sparked my love of historical fiction.

EC: Family is clearly important to you. Have you ever had any troubles with family after you’ve
written about the person in your books?

LU: My immediate family hasn’t read any of my books, so no trouble there. My first heritage novel, Under the Almond Trees, is about my father’s mother, his aunt, and his great grandmother. The book came out six months after he passed away. I’m not even sure he knew I was writing it. The Aloha Spirit featured my husband’s grandmother. His aunts read and liked it except that they didn’t appreciate how their father (Manolo) was portrayed.

EC: You read very fast. Do you have a favorite book from the past year?

LU: I have read 37 books this year so far. One drawback of reading fast is that I don’t remember what I read. I can look at a title and remember I liked it (or not), but not the plot. So I reviewed my Books I Read monthly Instagram posts. Books I actually remembered made the short list for favorite of the year. Top titles were Horse, by Geraldine Brooks, which was my PLW Book of the Month pick in February, and The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang, which left me breathless thinking of such a headpiece.

EC: If you didn’t write Heritage fiction, what genre would you be tempted to write?

LU: My first three books are fantasy, and I did enjoy writing those. I also love Young Adult books, so that is a genre I might try. In my head, I have an idea for a series of picture books, which may be too far outside my realm. Someday maybe.

EC: How does living in California influence your writing?

LU: My novel Under the Almond Trees is set in familiar California locations—San Jose, Santa Cruz, Pacific Grove—so it was definitely an advantage when describing the setting. The Aloha Spirit is set in Honolulu, where I’m a frequent visitor. The River Remembers, however, is set in the Minneapolis area, a place I’ve never been. In that case, living in California was a disadvantage since I had no impression of seasons, flora and fauna, or even the Mississippi River. I researched it all on the Internet during the pandemic, and I sent the manuscript off to several Minnesotans that I’m acquainted with to make sure it was accurate.

EC: What is the best writing event you’ve ever been to?

LU: I love in-person events like conferences and book signings, and I’ve attended many good ones. My very best event, though, was the very first one I ever held. I’d had a short story published in a fantasy anthology and scheduled a book signing at my local Barnes and Noble. I told all my colleagues and friends, but the turnout astonished me. I sold twenty-eight copies of the book that night, and received many more compliments on the accomplishment of getting published.

EC: What is the best thing a reader has ever said to you?

LU: That they want to read more of my books. One weekend I set up a table outside a local coffee shop. On the first day, I sold a copy of the first book in my flying horse trilogy to a young teenage girl. The next day, her father came with her to buy the next two. He told me she’d spent the rest of the day reading my book and was almost done with it. She could hardly wait to get the rest of the series. Young people are notoriously honest with their opinions, so her words warmed my heart.

EC: If you could have dinner with one author, dead or alive, who would it be?

LU: I’ve met two of my favorite authors, Diana Gabaldon and Kate Quinn, at book signings and not had the opportunity to speak at length with either of them so I just spent a few minutes being a fan. A whole dinner, though? I think I would have to invite Anne McCaffrey, author of the Dragonriders of Pern series. Her delightful world continues to call me back to reread her books, and her compelling characters are friends by the time you’ve finished reading the series. I admire the talent to do that, as well as the perseverance to finish a fifteen book series (as well as several other sci fi series I haven’t read).

EC: Tell me about your next book.

LU: Innocents at Home comes out September 3. It features two of my female ancestors who were on the voyage with Mark Twain that inspired his novel Innocents Abroad. My story picks up when they return from the five-month trip. One of the women fell in love with Mark Twain, and the other hated him for some ill-advised sarcasm about his fellow travelers. The story follows both women as they reinvent their lives.

EC: What is your next project?

LU: I am just beginning to research my husband’s other grandmother. Her story is fascinating, and it already looks like it will be more than one book. She was born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, in 1899. She married young and had two daughters. She left her husband, taking the daughters with her. Two years later she’s with another man, having his son, and no sign of her daughters. Later, she marries the father of her son and they go to Germany to visit his dying mother. 1939 was not a good time for a Jewish woman to go to Germany, however. Her husband manages to leave, but she and her son are picked up by the Nazis. She survives
by interpreting for the Nazis, and her son, preteen at the time, escapes the camp. When they reunite and return to California, the three of them have to relearn how to be a family unit. Still researching, but the seeds of a good story (or several) are there!