Interview with LJ Garland & Debbie Gould

Books-n-Kisses is please to welcome the wonderful team of LJ Garland & Debbie Gould to that blog today to chat about their new book Sins of the Mind

DEBBIE: Thanks for inviting us, I’m excited.

LJ: Yes, thanks so much for having us today!

Can you please share with us a little about yourself

LJ: Though born and raised in the south, I’ve lived on both the east and west coasts. I love traveling, and  the latest adventures I’ve added to my Bucket List: Machu Pichu and Australia’s Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef. Someday, I hope to get to those places! I’ve been married to my best friend for over twenty years, spend my time home schooling three rambunctious boys, editing in the epub industry, and writing stories that I hopes catches readers’ imaginations as much as the characters and plotlines captivate me. In my spare time (what there is of it LOL), I have tons of hobbies, including building archery equipment from scratch and creating stained glass. I have a passion for anything that goes Boom! …from fireworks to high-powered combat rifles…it’s all good. My hubby and I are both rated helicopter pilots and spent our 10^th anniversary flying cross-country from east to west coast…an adventure I highly recommend.

DEBBIE: Born in Wichita Falls, Texas, at the age of two my mother and I moved to New Jersey, spending many happy years on my grandparents’ horse farm. You’ll sometimes find this setting as a backdrop in my stories. As a teenager, my mother and I found a new home in Vermont, which is where I currently reside. With a daughter in the Air Force (along with my six-year-old grandson), and two sons working for the family Well Drilling business, I now shuffle my time between a full time job as a nurse and my writing career. About seven years ago, while looking at over three hundred treasured books lining the shelves, I realized there was a multitude of stories of my own clamoring for release. Since then, I’ve seriously persevered in keeping the keyboard in constant motion.

Have you always wanted to be an author?

DEBBIE: First I wanted to be a Marine Biologist, then I wanted to join the Navy and be a chef on one of their boats, but I ended up being a nurse, then writing came along.

LJ: Well, I wanted to be the President of the United States until I was twelve. Then I smartened up! lol After that I wanted to be an actress. Did that for a while then moved to teaching college and that led to home schooling my three boys… Wow, I’m old!

Can you share with us your typical writing day.  Is there anything you have to have while writing?

LJ: Uh, a typical day? Do we have any typical writing days??

DEBBIE: No routine here. I keep telling her we need a routine, but she’s too busy drinking coffee all day.

LJ: Hey, it works, and we get the stories finished. Hmm…my mug’s empty. Back in a sec.

DEBBIE: See what I mean?

Most challenging or rewarding part of writing?

DEBBIE: Getting positive reactions from the readers would be the most rewarding. I’d say the most challenging would be coming up with a unique story they will enjoy.

LJ: Yeah. And I would add that first page. You always want to grab the reader and ensure they keep going. And reader tastes vary widely. Pretty daunting task, that.

Can you please tell us about your latest book(s)?

Our latest release is the first book from the Red River series. It’s a romantic suspense from Decadent Publishing called Sins of the Mind.

BLURB: Seven years ago, Abby Montgomery survived a brutal attack. Now she is ready to put her pain in the past and move on with her life. The problem is, one by one the men in her life are being viciously murdered. The detective assigned to the case, Ethan Parker, has demons of his own to hide. As the danger gets closer to Abby, so does Ethan. But can they get past his secrets before the killer gets to them? Sometimes the sins of the mind are more depraved than the sins of the heart.

How did you come with the idea for this story?

LJ: Well, as I recall, we were both on the same Internet forum. We’d known each other for…what? Two years, Deb?

Debbie: Yup, about that. We had been brainstorming a plot in one of the books I was writing (still unfinished, lol) and I showed her the first chapter of another story that had been screaming in my brain at me. She liked it, and I asked her if she wanted to co-write it.

LJ: That’s right! And I was excited because the story was interesting. Romance and murder, what’s not to like? So, we started brainstorming ideas and things got pretty intense and…what’s the word I’m looking for?

DEBBIE: Twisted?

LJ: Yes. That’s a great descriptor. But we both loved it and voilà, Sins of the Mind!

Can you share with us your current work in progress?

DEBBIE: We’re working on the next book in the Red River Series. Yup more murder, mayhem, and romance, lol.

LJ: Yep, we’ll be torturing the next characters even more than the first. Though, I think Sins of the Mind had several unexpected twists…and the characters got banged up pretty good.

Who are some of your favorite authors?

DEBBIE: Suzanne Brockmann, Stephen King, Tami Hoag, Cindy Gerard, Kat Martin, Lori Foster…oh the list goes on and on.

LJ: LOL I know! There are so many! Anne McCaffrey – her stories are so creative, yet easy to visualize. Her detailed worlds and series are inspirational, not to mention fun to read! Henry Beam Piper – his Little Fuzzy series is creative and memorable for sure! Orson Scott Card – Ender’s Game and all that came after was amazing. And he also did a nice twist on ‘What you think is true, might not be.’ Stephen King – because he didn’t write horror just for the sake of writing horror, there was a deep, psychological aspect that caused the blood to run cold. Dean Koontz – because his style of writing drew me. The way he wove his earlier stories was unusual, never in a straight line, which left me wondering how these diverse characters would ever collide. Suzanne Brockmann – for her high-action stories and her hero’s perspective. Robert Jordan – for his epic stories. Thomas Harris – psychologically terrifying.

Do you feel that any of your favorite authors have inspired your writing style? 

LJ: Absolutely! I think if I look at the list above, I can see bits of them all in my stories. Wow, talk about multiple personalities. lol

DEBBIE: Ditto, lol. I grew up on King, so sometimes my stories tend to be a tad dark.

LJ: Right there with you, Deb. Probably why we like writing together so much!

What is in your To Read Pile that you are dying to start or upcoming release you can’t wait for?

DEBBIE: Lori Foster’s A Perfect Storm and Christine Feehan’s Spirit Bound

LJ: Suzanne Collin’s Mockingjay and Linnea Sinclair’s Shades of Dark.

Is there anything else you would like to add? 

We can be tracked down at http://www.garland-and-gould.blogspot.com/ where we blog, chat about stuff, and interview other authors. –

L.J. can be caught at www.lj-garland.com and emailed at mail@lj-garland.com You can also tweet her at @LJ_Garland1 –

Debbie can be found at http://www.authordebbiegould.com/ and emailed at mountecho2006@yahoo.com. – We love hearing from people who have enjoyed our stories!

And you can find Sins of the Mind here!

LJ: Thank you so much for having us here today! We had an awesome time!

DEBBIE: Yes, thank you!