Say Hello to Author LYNDI ALEXANDER!

 

Welcome, Lyndi, and tell us a little about yourself.

Thanks, Liz! I’m an author and attorney practicing in the area of family law, living in northwestern Pennsylvania. I’ve been married to an absent-minded computer geek for ten years, and between us, we have eleven computers and seven children of assorted ages, the youngest ones with special needs, including autism.

Tell everyone about your journey to publishing a novel.

 I wrote my first novel when I was 14, and rashly sent it off to Doubleday, waiting for the checks to come in. As you might imagine, they didn’t accept it. Stories continued to come to me, and I wrote them, workshopped them, studied books about writing, went to conferences, made connections, and as of this year, I think I’ve written probably nineteen or twenty novel-length manuscripts. I’ve sent them all out here and there, but not till this spring did I “click” with a publisher, Dragonfly Publishing, and The Elf Queen came out in July. I’m happy to say that I’ve signed contracts also for two more books in the series: The Elf Child, which is due out next summer, and the Elf Mage, which will be published in 2012.

What do you like the most and the least about writing?

The best part about writing for me is when flow happens.  Every once in awhile, you get just the right mix of characters and actions and emotions and the words just come. My husband is a great partner in this regard, and we often debate What if? scenarios while I’m working on various projects.  Once the thought process gets rolling, it’s much easier to sit down and just pound out a chapter or two.

I’m not sure there’s any part I don’t like, at least not yet. I do have to admit that I thought the hard part would be writing the book—now I’m finding out that often the hard part comes even after the editing, in the collaboration to get the word out about your book into the market!

What are three things you cannot do without?

That’s an interesting question. I’d probably have to say:

 1) my computer, now that I’ve grown accustomed to that instant access to everything; and I love my netbook, because I can write anywhere!

2) coffee. Definitely coffee.

3) the camaraderie and exchange with other writers—it really energizes me!

Give us a peek into your latest published work.

In The Elf Queen, an urban fantasy set in modern-day Montana, Jelani Marsh finds a glass slipper on the city sidewalk and tries it on for laughs. The slipper shatters, slicing her foot, and dozens of tiny men scatter from the bloody remains. A moment later, her foot is miraculously healed and they’re gone.

This is the first in a series of meetings that will unravel everything she knows. In the following weeks, the sassy barista from Missoula, Montana, will learn she is not an orphan, as she’d been taught to believe, and that her life story has been a deception, right down to the circumstances of her birth. A menace arises from her family’s past that could threaten everything she holds dear, including her own life.

Two groups help untangle the mystery: her human friends—life skills coach Iris Pallaton, computer geek and gamer extraordinaire Lane Donatelli, and “Crispy” Mendell, an agoraphobic abuse survivor—and her new-found elf companions, Daven Talvi and Astan Hawk. Can she learn about her true roots and absorb the implications of her new life in time to save her friends, her family,  and herself?

What’s next on the writing horizon for you?

In addition to the Clan Elves of the Bitterroot series, I have received and accepted three other novel contracts this fall for these stories: Second Chances, a romantic women’s fiction book about a Pittsburgh lawyer hit by the recession, who finds herself out of a job and alone and is encouraged back to success by a Iraq war vet with cancer, twenty years younger than she is (Zumaya Publishing, 2012); a vampire crime thriller titled Love Me, Touch Me, Kill Me (Renaissance EBooks, 2011); and most recently, Deliverance, a romantic suspense story of a woman who runs a brothel in southern New Mexico and the Doctor without Borders who escapes from a vengeful Mexican drug cartel by hiding in her place (Wild Rose Press, 2011).  So I’m finishing up the final draft of The Elf Child now, then I expect I’ll jump into the editing processes for these other books soon after.

Is there anything you want to tell readers?

I’m so pleased to be able to share these stories that have rattled around in my head until they leaked out through my fingertips with all of you. I hope you’ll come and visit the Clan Elves’ site at http://clanelvesofthebitterroot.com to catch up on all the latest reviews and happenings. I look forward to entertaining readers for many years to come.  Thank you so much for this opportunity, Liz!

 

 

Lyndi Alexander has been a published writer for over 35 years, including seven years as a reporter and editor at the South Dade News Leader in Homestead, Florida. Her list of publications includes the non-fiction book 101 Little Instructions for Surviving Your Divorce, (under the name Barbara Walton, Esq.) published by Impact Publishers in 1999; stories in A Cup of Comfort for Divorced Women, in December 2008, and A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Parents, in June 2009. She regularly writes technology articles/television reviews at Firefox News (www.firefox.org/news), and blogs on a variety of subjects, including autism, science fiction and life at http://awalkabout.wordpress.com.