Q: Let me start with asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself.
Q: Would you tell us about your current book release FEAR IS LOUDER THAN WORDS?|
Linda S. Glaz interview with Susan Sleeman
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January 30, 2017
A: It is the best of stories…it is the worst of stories…wait! That’s another tale altogether. Let’s just say it’s a wonderful life. Sigh, I guess I’ve given away that I love books and movies, not necessarily in that order. I’m crazy about my family, theater, singing, writing, finding amazing authors (I’m a literary agent with Hartline), and just life in general. I’m a people person who loves to read about the human condition in all sorts of genres. Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? A: When I was thirteen and wrote this really horrible story about a man who sacrifices his life to save folks caught in a massive fire. It was cheesy, ridiculous, unbelievable, and corny, but I got an A and decided that would be a wonderful way to make a living (little did I know). Q: Could you give us the highlights of your professional writing career including how you got your first writing break? A: I wrote for eighteen years before my first novella was published. Sadly, I spent the first ten years or so thinking my writing was really good. I had so much to learn. Once I started digging in and honing my craft according to industry trends, I was able to rewrite everything I had and find an agent at a conference. I can’t say enough about how conferences help us not only to network, but learn the craft of writing.
A: I love stories that scare us senseless and then deliver us safely back to our homes. So writing suspense or romantic suspense is what I love. Louder is based on the celebrity of a conservative talk show host who is stalked by a listener, threatened by a city councilman, and terrorized by a man rising to the top of his field in Detroit. Q: Where did you get your inspiration for FEAR IS LOUDER THAN WORDS? A: One day while waiting in the doctor’s office, I saw the cover of a Newsweek(?) magazine that had a baby with wires attached all over its head. Big smile. Adorable. Giant blue eyes. The article was about designer babies. Before I was ushered in to say “Ah” the story was outlined in my own head. Q: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from this story? A: That we can learn forgiveness no matter the circumstances and begin to trust again. Q: What is your favorite scene/chapter from the book? A: I think the airport scene where first she kicks her carryon across the floor because she’s fed up with men! Shortly thereafter, she has an unexpected encounter when she doesn’t expect to see our hero. She smells his cologne first, then feels his hands around her eyes from behind. The surprise starts her on her journey of trust. Q: What inspires you to write? A: I can’t look at anything quite like a “normal” looks at things. When doing a talk about writing, I explained it this way. I pointed to an object hanging from the wall and asked the class what they saw. They all chimed in, “An old phone.” I shook my head and said, “No. I see a cord that could be used to wrap around someone’s throat and choke them to death.” They all got that deer in the headlights look folks get when they want to jump up and RUN! Q: How has being a published novelist differed from your expectations of the profession? A: Well, I haven’t made my first million yet! Seriously, it’s another job. One that I love to wake up to each day and go to sleep dreaming about. I didn’t know how completely it would take over my life. Q: What advice or tips do you have for writers who are just getting started? A: BE PREPARED and do your research. KNOW what editors and agents are looking for. Don’t appear an amateur in an industry where they are looking for professionals. GET CRITIQUE PARTNERS. They are gold! Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now? A: It’s called Blow Out the Candles and Say Good-Bye: Imagine your five-year old at a birthday sleepover. Imagine all the girls disappear. As five-year old girls disappear from birthday parties year after year across the US, the sister of victim number one is thrown into the kidnappers’ path when she moves to the remote Upper Peninsula of Michigan ten years after her sister is kidnapped. There, she finds it’s not only candles that light up the trusting, rural community. Q: When you’re not writing what do you like to do? A: Movies—old ones mostly. Theater, I love costuming. And traveling. Two of my three kids are scattered to the wind, and we have to travel in order to visit. Q: Where can readers find you on the internet? A: lindaglaz.com and hartlineagency.com Q: Anything else you’d like to tell or share with us? A: If you have a story in you, do your research, write…write…write a great novel, and then shop it around according to an agent or editor’s guidelines. Always come across as a professional and you’ll have an elephant-sized leg up on other authors. |
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Linda served in the military during a time when it wasn’t a politically correct thing to do. Her years as a meteorologist during Vietnam were filled with travel, teaching, and working with interesting characters. Winning awards, many of which were “firsts” for a woman in the Air Force, she experienced an array of unusual opportunities normally reserved for men. Breaking down barriers, she had the chance to stand out in leadership roles.
She taught karate and women’s self-defense off and on for thirty years, refereed soccer for twenty-five, fifteen of which she was one of eleven National Instructors for the largest youth soccer organization in the world. Teaching individuals from every socio-economic group to become referees and referees to become instructors, advanced instructors, and national instructors, she learned valuable tools in lesson planning and meeting critical deadlines.
Because of her extensive teaching opportunities across multiple spectrums, she has no fear of speaking in public or selling herself—shamelessly if necessary in order to market herself. She teaches and presents at conferences nationwide, and is a member of AWSA.
Linda is married to a terrific guy and is the mother of three amazing children, three wonderful grandchildren, and a foster cat (who has found her way, in name, onto the pages of two books). Who wouldn’t want to hear about an Ophelia? It was good enough for Shakespeare. Linda is an agent with Hartline Literary Agency and has two novellas and eight novels published.
She’s forever on the lookout for ideas that will turn into a suspenseful novel, and as an agent, is always looking for that next great blockbuster novel.
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