Interview - Linda K. Silva, author of Across Time

Today's 5 Q&A is with Linda K. Silva, author of Across Time.

1.) Who are you?
I just published my eighth novel titled ACROSS TIME. I have been writing for 20years. I wrote 4 horrid novels when I was younger...until someone asked me why I didn't write cop stories, since I had been one way back in the dark ages. I fought that urge, not being a mystery reader at the time and because police work was not a match for me. Instead, I took my Masters in English to education and I have been a teacher for the majority of my life. I prefer to touch young lives rather than arrest them. Nonetheless, one day, Delta Stevens sprang into my head, as well as my heart, and so I wrote. And wrote. And the next thing I knew...there she was, and there a publisher was, and there was the beginning of my writing career and my love of the irascible Delta Stevens. Like a love affair that sneaks up on you, Delta and her cast of characters came into my life, changing me forever. Perhaps it was Delta, maybe it was writing itself, but my life transformed dramatically.

Publishers have come and gone as the industry has changed dramatically. With Borders and Barnes and Nobles pushing out the smaller bookstores, smaller presses went with them...and so ended my publishers and Delta. But I kept on writing...and now, I have published 8 novels in a variety of genres ready to go...if only I could find an agent!

Traveling also aids in my teaching world. I have been a teacher for 23 years, teaching everything from 4th grade to college, and I now teach at Linn Benton Community College as well as Nicolet Community College in Wisconsin and Darton Community College in Georgia. I love teaching online, and teach everything from American Minority Literature to World and British Lit, Tech Writing, and composition.

When I'm not teaching, I am travelling all over the place, and just recently returned from a trip through the Panama Canal and South America. Travel is my muse, and I see her as often as I can.

I guess, in short, I have a great time and a wonderful life, and I've told people that I want my headstone to read "She lived an enviable life." I guess that's what I want for the people I love...for them to live the kind of life they envision...to write if that's what they want, to be a farmer if that is the life for them...to do and be what they dream because I am living proof that dreams come true. After eight published novels, I have a new dream, and I'm making steps every day to make that one come true.

2.) How did this book come about?
I have always been fascinated by the concept of past lives. There are just too many inexplicable things in the universe that can’t be covered by “miracles” or science. A couple of years ago, on a lark, I had my past lives read. I was at the boardwalk and it sounded like something fun to do. I told the reader nothing about myself, so when we sat down for the reading I was a complete stranger who didn’t really take any of this seriously. The woman proceeded to tell me that I had once been a German warrior. I was a little amazed and surprised because I have a tattoo of a warrior on my back (that she could not see) and I was fluent in German. The language came up so easily to me, I had to take college German in high school. Anyway, as the reading went on, she looked right in my face and said, “There is a reason you hate circuses.” My friend who was with me almost fell off her chair. It was impossible for this woman to know that I hated circuses. I hate everything about the circus. I hate the smell, I hate clowns, I hate all of it, and yet, I have never been. Not once.

When I was eight years old, my parents tried to take me to the circus, but I fought like a wild Banshee when they tried to get me into the car. I fought so hard, they eventually stopped trying and made me stay home. They never took me to the circus, and I never went, but I hate it nonetheless. I couldn’t even tell you why I hate
the circus, especially since it is clearly an irrational fear based on…on what? So you can imagine my surprise when she went on to explain why I was afraid of the circus, but that’s a story for another day.

3.) Jesse and Cate are very strong girl/woman characters in this story. Who are they modeled after?
Wow. Good question. I think that all characters are an amalgam of the people we know...or want to know...or want to be. Jessie is a combination of a younger Delta Stevens, my first series' character, and who I was as a young girl.

4.) Have you experienced any past life regressions? If not, would you like to?
I have always been fascinated by the concept of past lives. There are just too many inexplicable things in the universe that can’t be covered by “miracles” or science. A couple of years ago, on a lark, I had my past lives read. I was at the boardwalk and it sounded like something fun to do. I told the reader nothing about myself, so when we sat down for the reading I was a complete stranger who didn’t really take any of this seriously. The woman proceeded to tell me that I had once been a German warrior. I was a little amazed and surprised because I have a tattoo of a warrior on my back (that she could not see) and I was fluent in German. The language came up so easily to me, I had to take college German in high school. Anyway, as the reading went on, she looked right in my face and said, “There is a reason you hate circuses.” My friend who was with me almost fell off her chair. It was impossible for this woman to know that I hated circuses. I hate everything about the circus. I hate the smell, I hate clowns, I hate all of it, up and yet, I have never been. Not once.

When I was eight years old, my parents tried to take me to the circus, but I fought like a wild Banshee when they tried to get me into the car. I fought so hard, they eventually stopped trying and made me stay home. They never took me to the circus, and I never went, but I hate it nonetheless. I couldn’t even tell you why I hate
the circus, especially since it is clearly an irrational fear based on…on what? So you can imagine my surprise when she went on to explain why I was afraid of the circus, but that’s a story for another day.

5.) What's next?
Next? I just finished the fifth novel of the series and the fourth of a new series featuring an empath. I'll just keep writing and reading and travelling, hoping I can touch readers and take them away to wonderful lands and mystical adventures.

Thanks so much for having me here! I am having a
blast with all of this!

Thank you, Linda!