It’s always fun to welcome certain folks back to Ramble On with me about new projects. Linda Poitevin is one of those folks. Linda is the creator of THE GRIGORI LEGACY series of urban fantasy (SINS OF THE ANGELS and SINS OF THE SON available now), and she recently debuted a new romance novel. You can see my previous interviews with Linda HERE and ALSO HERE, and sharp-eyed readers of my story “Chasing Satellites,” now available in the anthology BEYOND THE SUN, may notice a nod to Linda therein as well.
ANTHONY: Welcome back, Linda!
LINDA: First of all, Anthony, thank you SO much for inviting me onto your blog again—I’m truly honored to be here!
ANTHONY: You released GWYNNETH EVER AFTER recently. Tell us a bit about the story.
LINDA: I’m not very good at seeing the underlying themes in stories (I detested that part of high school English, lol), but a reviewer identified Gwynneth Ever After as a “Cinderella tale” and darned if she isn’t right! In my story’s case, “Cinderella” is an ordinary single mom/architect raising three children and juggling all the ordinary stresses in life, and her Prince Charming is a famous Hollywood actor. But all isn’t love and sweetness, because they have a lot to try to overcome. Gwyn’s and her children’s hearts have been badly damaged and she is fiercely protective of them all—and Gareth is harboring a secret that could drive her away forever.
ANTHONY: GWYNNETH is not at all connected to your “Grigori Legacy” series, correct? Where did the inspiration for this story come from?
LINDA: No, Gwynneth isn’t connected with the Grigori Legacy at all. It was actually written (and published) before Sins of the Angels was released. At the time, I was focusing on writing romance, had a huge crush on an actor who shall remain unnamed, and regularly walked past a house in my town that became my inspiration for Gwyn’s home — and her occupation.
And wanna know something weird? About three years after I wrote the book, I found out that home’s owner—who had renovated the house just as Gwyn did—was also an architect.
ANTHONY: That is a little eerie! Did you find that your writing or editing process changed because you were writing in a different genre?
LINDA: My writing and editing process is…well, I’d have to call it a work in progress, lol. Gwynneth Ever After came earlier in my career, so my process has actually evolved a great deal since I wrote it. For instance, I used to be a pure “pantser,” not plotting out anything in advance. That worked well enough with Gwynneth, but needed to change with the complexity of the Grigori Legacy series because there were just too many threads to keep track of entirely in my head. Now I straddle the fence between pantser and plotter, having just enough of an idea of what’s coming up to be sure I don’t miss something or—even worse—write myself into a corner when it comes to a future plot point.
ANTHONY: That last comment is a logical segue into this question, if you can answer it without spoiling the outcome: is GWYNNETH a stand-alone novel or the start of a new series?
LINDA: Gwynneth was written as a stand-alone, but I haven’t ruled out a sequel at some point down the road. Mostly because there’s a certain cousin in the book who really, really needs to meet his match, in my opinion. J Also, several readers have suggested a novella that perhaps features Gwyn & Gareth’s wedding…I’ve never tackled a novella, but it might be fun!
ANTHONY: What prompted the decision to self-publish this book after going the traditional publisher route for the first two “Grigori” books?
LINDA: My publisher was actually interested in taking on Gwynneth as well, but once I made the decision to release, I wanted to do so faster than they could manage. With almost a year and a half between the releases of books 2 and 3 in the Grigori Legacy series, Sins of the Son and Sins of the Lost, I felt I owed it to readers to fill the gap with something and my editor and agent were very supportive of the idea.
ANTHONY: That’s fantastic that they were supportive. What were the challenges of self-publishing? And why only in e-book form?
LINDA: The main challenges of self-publishing were the enormous learning curve and the sheer amount of information I had to sift through to find the answers I was looking for. It really is a “buyer beware” world out there when it comes to the plethora of services offered to authors who are self-publishing and you need to be very well informed in order to make sound decisions.
As to why only e-book, I honestly just haven’t had a chance to look at the possibility of print at this point. Again, I haven’t ruled it out.
ANTHONY: What would your two lead females, Alexandra Jarvis and Gwynneth, think of each other?
LINDA: That is such an interesting question. Both women are very strong in their own right—they’ve had to be, given the circumstances of their lives. I think they would recognize and respect that strength in one another if they were to meet, but I also think Gwynneth would want to keep her family as far away from Alex as possible if she knew even a fraction of what was going on in Alex’s life these days. Alex would be inclined to agree with her—the war between Heaven and Hell has no place in the lives of three small children and their mother.
ANTHONY: And speaking of Alex, when is the next Grigori Legacy book coming out, and what can you tell us about the plot?
Sins of the Lost will be out on October 15th—darker and grittier than either of its predecessors. Alex’s new relationship with Seth is struggling, Lucifer’s Nephilim army is on the brink of its birth, and humanity is beginning to disintegrate in the face of its own fear. Apart from that, all I can tell you is that bad things happen, Anthony…very bad things. (I’m beginning to become a little concerned about this sadistic streak I’ve uncovered in myself, lol!) Before readers become too upset with me, however, I’d just like to point out that the Grigori Legacy is not a trilogy and there will be a fourth book!!!
You can follow linda on Twitter @lindapoitevin, and “like” her page on Facebook, or go direct to her website for updates on all of her projects. GWYNNETH EVER AFTER is available in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.