Author Linda Merlino

5 Questions with Linda Merlino

Q: What’s inside the mind of a suspense author?

A: On any given day the answer might change – to pull the reader through the pages of a fiction novel there has to be a twist they didn’t see coming – the mind needs to invent the unexpected.

Q: Tell us why readers should buy ROOM of TEARS.

A: The background of this story is 9/11.  We were all somewhere on that day-close or far.  Very few people escaped the impact of the magnitude of that tragedy.  Reading ROOM of TEARS is thought provoking, inspiring and asks us to believe in miracles.

Q: What makes a good suspense story?

A: ROOM of TEARS is more than suspense – it is a mystery revealed.  A good mystery keeps the reader wondering – wanting more-turning the page and not putting the book down.

Q: What is a regular writing day like for you?

A: My writing days used to begin at 5am and I would write for a few hours before I left for work.  I would resume writing in the evening gaining a few more hours.  Over the past year I have started to write longer at night and begin later in the morning.  My work scheduled changed allowing a later start.  Discipline is essential.  Perseverance and determination must co-exist.

Q: What do you find most rewarding about being an author?

A: Writing is a solo craft.  Some writers prefer to write without an audience.  When you make the leap and extend your writer’s neck out to even one person you become brave and courageous.  The best part of being an author: knowing that someone has been touched by your words.

Q: How did you celebrate the completion of your book?

A: Dinner & champagne!!! Clink – clink with the faces I love.

Excerpt:

  Chapter One 

 “Absorbed, Antonio neglected to notice that Diane had disappeared into the kitchen. He thought to ask her about the two men in the photographs, and when he turned in anticipation of seeing her next to him, he took a step toward where she might be standing. His right foot struck a pair of boots propped upright against the wall. He stumbled and put a hand out to that empty place where he thought she might be, but his face did not meet hers, and instead came within an inch of a firefighter’s helmet, the medallion of its FDNY ladder company polished and gleaming.

On the edge of that moment, trying to regain his balance, each breath he took tightened in his throat. Antonio began to gag. His mind raced. What could be happening? One minute he was looking at photographs and the next his throat was constricting. An acrid odor rose to his nostrils. He shook his head—the same faint smell he’d noticed from before, at the door, but stronger, sharp enough now to sear his soft membranes. My God, he thought and recoiled. Sweat sprang from his face and neck. A heart attack? He clutched his chest. No, not that. His heart was fine except for the galloping beat under his ribcage. Heat emanated from the helmet as if it had just come through an inferno. “My God,” he said aloud. Perhaps a fire burned inside the wall, hot enough to choke him.”

Buy ROOM OF TEARS here.

Linda Merlino is the author of Room of Tears (July 2013), Hudson Catalina (2008 & 2012),and Swan Boat Souvenir (self-published 2003). She began writing fiction as a young mother on the sidelines of endless soccer practices. Linda wrote anytime any place.  A manuscript filled a carton in the back seat of her car. The children have grown but her work continues still inspired by those early beginnings and the fulfillment of her writer’s dream.