Q: How long have you been writing and what other careers or jobs have you had?
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Linda S. Glaz interview with Susan Sleeman
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December 18, 2017
A: I’ve been writing for over twenty years. My first job was a car hop for an A&W. What fun! Then I joined the Air Force before going to college. Loved it! Raised three kids while volunteering for 25 years in soccer: coach, referee, and national instructor. Also taught karate and women’s self-defense for 30 years. I worked in a physical therapy clinic for 12 years and then started as an agent. Like George Bailey, It’s a wonderful life! Q: Would you tell us about your current book release Blow Out the Candles and Say Good-bye? A: 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 U.S., 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: Where did you get your inspiration for this story? A: When my youngest was twelve, she went to a birthday sleepover in the middle of a huge snowstorm. When I had to take a pillow back to her, my evil twin (the part of my mind that thinks of bizarre things) wondered what I’d do if I got there and the whole house was empty. That started the idea, and while she was gone to the party, I wrote a 60-page summary for the basics of the story. Q: What i s the main thing you hope readers remember from this story? A: That a person never gives up. No matter what kind of mundane OR horrific thing that you face, you keep trying to find an answer. Q: How do you choose your settings for your books? A: I love, love, love Michigan. So I place as many here as I can. Q: Do you base your characters on people you know or are they totally made up? A: Totally made up…but let’s face it…there are usually composites of dozens of crazies we’ve met in our lives, or of wonderful people we’ve met. But me? I like the crazies! Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now? A: I’m working on a series: The Susan Bassett Mysteries. A woman whose husband of twenty years left her for a TEN! He loved to remind her how she was related to Elizabeth Bassett Proctor, the woman in the noose (tried as a witch but spared because she was pregnant, and yes, I really AM related to her). Her twin daughters are genius sixteen-year olds studying at Michigan State University. Susan works as a PI and is trying desperately to put her life back together. Like most of us, she’s a few pounds overweight, and while only 38, she has trouble seeing herself in a positive light. A slightly “younger” owner, Dek, of Endurance Point Gyms in the county is doing his best to get her attention, but she has trouble with the age difference. A slightly “older” sheriff, Adam Casey, who was her coach when she was in high school, also would like a chance to catch her affection. Murders happen at all three End Points, and that throws Susan, Dek, and Adam altogether to try and figure out whodunit. Add in a sleazy deputy that she used to have to work with at the sheriff’s department, and you’ve got tears, laughs, and murder! Q: If money were no object what vacation would you like to take and why? A: Ireland. Doesn’t everyone want to see Ireland? Q: What is the silliest thing you have ever done? A: Oh, boy. There are SO many to choose from. Honestly, it would be so hard to pick, but probably the time some bikers were throwing fuel on a fire where we all were camping with our kids, and no one would go get help. Dummy me jumped in my car and headed out to find a ranger. And the bikers heard and saw me leave. GULP! But it all ended well. Q: What is the hardest thing you have ever done? A: Got out of the Air Force. I loved it! |
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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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