Good Morning, Booklovers!
Join me for this week’s Coffee Chat interview with author Lyndi Alexander, bringing us her featured YA 3-book series, The Color of Fear.
Welcome, Lyndi! How do you take your coffee?
LA: I love coffee! Hi-test, not decaf, and adding flavored coffee creamer for variety.
Ally: Excellent choice. While I pour, please introduce yourself to readers.
BIO:
Lyndi Alexander always dreamed of faraway worlds and interesting alien contacts. A former journalist and multi-published novelist, she lives as a post-modern hippie in Asheville, North Carolina, a single mother of her last child of seven, a daughter on the autism spectrum, finding that every day feels a lot like first contact with a new species.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: “Since retiring to Asheville, I’ve become a kitty foster mom! I’ve lost count of the number of kittens and sick adults who’ve come through our home—except for the five we fell in love with and had to keep.” :)
Author Contacts:
Website/ Blog http://lyndialexander.wordpress.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lyndialexander13/
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4185290.Lyndi_Alexander
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Lyndi-Alexander/e/B005GDYPU2/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lyndi-alexander
Smashwords | Lyndi Alexander
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/lyndialexander
Lyndi Alexander always dreamed of faraway worlds and interesting alien contacts. A former journalist and multi-published novelist, she lives as a post-modern hippie in Asheville, North Carolina, a single mother of her last child of seven, a daughter on the autism spectrum, finding that every day feels a lot like first contact with a new species.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: “Since retiring to Asheville, I’ve become a kitty foster mom! I’ve lost count of the number of kittens and sick adults who’ve come through our home—except for the five we fell in love with and had to keep.” :)
Author Contacts:
Website/ Blog http://lyndialexander.wordpress.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lyndialexander13/
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4185290.Lyndi_Alexander
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Lyndi-Alexander/e/B005GDYPU2/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lyndi-alexander
Smashwords | Lyndi Alexander
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/lyndialexander
INTERVIEW:
Ally: What inspired you to write your featured book? Which of your books is your personal favorite? Why?
LA: I got the idea for this series back in the early 2000s. The post-apocalyptic aspect was one that seems to come around frequently, but pairing it with the rise of the cultish white supremacists was, at the time, something I really worried would be outdated. It was all in one book at first, much shorter, obviously, and I shopped it to exactly 101 agents and editors.
Finally, in absolute frustration, I mentioned it to Liz Burton at Zumaya, who was publishing a women’s fiction book of mine at the time, and she asked to see it. When I showed it to her, she basically told me one book was too short, and could I make it a series?
Could I? Are you kidding? This story and these characters are definitely the book of my heart. I am so glad the whole thing is finally published—and so topical right now!
Ally: How did you get your first article or story published?
LA: My first non-fiction article was a personal column I sent to The Peru Tribune just before I went to college, talking about the wonders of my grandmother’s Indiana farm. I got paid a whole five bucks. I was thrilled.
My first fiction was a sale I made to Women’s World romance stories, about finding love in the produce section of a grocery store. That paid $300. A little more satisfying. :)
Ally: Do the people in your real life show up in your writing? In what way?
LA: More often than I should probably. I like to use people’s names, just so they feel noticed—the characters often reflect their attitudes and actions. When I set stories in familiar locations, I include friends and neighbors I might have known there. After my divorce, a character I had long associated with my then ex-husband had a terrible accident in the final story of that trilogy. Ooops.
Ally: What blog would you recommend to other writers? And one you’d recommend to readers?
LA: For writers: I’d definitely recommend Kristin Lamb’s blog https://authorkristenlamb.com/ She has good advice on a whole range of topics, from character creation to story structure to marketing.
For readers: Yours! Because you have a fabulous line-up of guests!
Ally: Hey, thanks for the thumbs up! So what’s your next writing project? Do you have a projected release date?
LA: I’m working on a sci-fi romance that is a ménage story with two humans and a gender-shifting alien. I’m getting a whole education in using individual specific pronouns and exploring new sorts of relationships. I’m hoping to see it out in mid-2021.
Ally: What inspired you to write your featured book? Which of your books is your personal favorite? Why?
LA: I got the idea for this series back in the early 2000s. The post-apocalyptic aspect was one that seems to come around frequently, but pairing it with the rise of the cultish white supremacists was, at the time, something I really worried would be outdated. It was all in one book at first, much shorter, obviously, and I shopped it to exactly 101 agents and editors.
Finally, in absolute frustration, I mentioned it to Liz Burton at Zumaya, who was publishing a women’s fiction book of mine at the time, and she asked to see it. When I showed it to her, she basically told me one book was too short, and could I make it a series?
Could I? Are you kidding? This story and these characters are definitely the book of my heart. I am so glad the whole thing is finally published—and so topical right now!
Ally: How did you get your first article or story published?
LA: My first non-fiction article was a personal column I sent to The Peru Tribune just before I went to college, talking about the wonders of my grandmother’s Indiana farm. I got paid a whole five bucks. I was thrilled.
My first fiction was a sale I made to Women’s World romance stories, about finding love in the produce section of a grocery store. That paid $300. A little more satisfying. :)
Ally: Do the people in your real life show up in your writing? In what way?
LA: More often than I should probably. I like to use people’s names, just so they feel noticed—the characters often reflect their attitudes and actions. When I set stories in familiar locations, I include friends and neighbors I might have known there. After my divorce, a character I had long associated with my then ex-husband had a terrible accident in the final story of that trilogy. Ooops.
Ally: What blog would you recommend to other writers? And one you’d recommend to readers?
LA: For writers: I’d definitely recommend Kristin Lamb’s blog https://authorkristenlamb.com/ She has good advice on a whole range of topics, from character creation to story structure to marketing.
For readers: Yours! Because you have a fabulous line-up of guests!
Ally: Hey, thanks for the thumbs up! So what’s your next writing project? Do you have a projected release date?
LA: I’m working on a sci-fi romance that is a ménage story with two humans and a gender-shifting alien. I’m getting a whole education in using individual specific pronouns and exploring new sorts of relationships. I’m hoping to see it out in mid-2021.
Ally: Which of the trivia questions did you choose to answer?
LA:
Ally: Thanks for visiting with us, Lyndi. As we wind this up, please tell us about The Color of Fear.
LA:
- memorable book you’ve read - I love Anne McCaffrey’s dragon books and most anything by Stephen King. Hard to choose!
- most watched tv show - Firefly
- a movie you’ll always remember - Contact—how no one took Dr. Arroway seriously because she was a woman.
- If you were a color, what would it be? Deep forest green
- Your pets - All rescue kitties--- gray tabby Twilight Sparkle, calico Dilly, tuxedo Zig, tortoiseshell Reba, tuxedo Clarice, split tortoiseshell Daisy Mae, and cow kitty Korben Dallas aka Monster Boi
Ally: Thanks for visiting with us, Lyndi. As we wind this up, please tell us about The Color of Fear.
The Color of Fear (3-book series)
Genre: YA post apocalyptic
Rating: PG+
Terrorists launch a plague in the United States that spreads to kill most of the world’s Caucasian population. As the deadly bioweapon mutates, Tzu Lin Kwan’s father, a renowned medical doctor and biologist, defects from China to help develop a cure. His only daughter, Lin Kwan, is left behind in Hong Kong with her aunt.
Then Kwan’s father summons her from across the sea to bring him Chinese medicinal herbs. Lonely and missing her parents, she accepts the challenge, traveling with her sensei Li Zhong to the New World.
But a Chinese spy is on her trail, determined to kill her and Li Zhong, and when Kwan discovers her father has disappeared, she sets out on a journey to find him and deliver her precious cargo, a quest that she may not survive.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5HtphfL7TE&t=15s
Buy Links: Amazon (click)
Genre: YA post apocalyptic
Rating: PG+
Terrorists launch a plague in the United States that spreads to kill most of the world’s Caucasian population. As the deadly bioweapon mutates, Tzu Lin Kwan’s father, a renowned medical doctor and biologist, defects from China to help develop a cure. His only daughter, Lin Kwan, is left behind in Hong Kong with her aunt.
Then Kwan’s father summons her from across the sea to bring him Chinese medicinal herbs. Lonely and missing her parents, she accepts the challenge, traveling with her sensei Li Zhong to the New World.
But a Chinese spy is on her trail, determined to kill her and Li Zhong, and when Kwan discovers her father has disappeared, she sets out on a journey to find him and deliver her precious cargo, a quest that she may not survive.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5HtphfL7TE&t=15s
Buy Links: Amazon (click)
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