Joining me today in The Loft is author Lyndi Alexander. Lyndi always dreamed of faraway worlds and interesting alien contacts. That's why she writes Sci-Fi romance. Now retired, Lyndi writes full time, when her nine cats allow her to reach the keyboard. In her spare time, she fosters kittens and cats for several local shelters, gardens and harvests at least one herb per summer, and volunteers at the local autism family support organization and ECOexplore, a science program through the North Carolina Arboretum. Lyndi lives as a post-modern hippie in Asheville, North Carolina, the single mother of her last child of seven, a daughter on the autism spectrum. She finds that every day feels a lot like first contact with a new species!
S: Good morning, Lyndi. Thanks for joining me today!
What do you think is the biggest issue facing romance authors today?
L: The sheer numbers of books that are competition for each one we write. Eighty years ago, the competition was more in the being accepted by a publisher end. By 2000, the self-pubbed authors became a threat to the trad-pubbed authors. Not in an evil way, but there are plenty of people publishing first-draft, non-edited pieces of dreck that are clogging up the way for all of us. Now ads tout the possibility of AI-generated books that can help anyone write their novels and get them in print. It’s hard to rise to the top.
S: It is difficult to get your name and your books out there.
If you could change one thing in the book publishing industry, what would you change?
L: I’d love to see publishers have a standard marketing support plan to help authors—I get it that we know who our fans are and can pinpoint the right areas to target, but with so much competition out there, any little bit would help.
Have you ever attended a writer’s retreat? Did you find it helpful?
L: I have, and I enjoyed it immensely. I get a great deal from co-working with other authors. Besides that, it’s nice to spend time with people who are my particular kind of crazy. No one in my family is particularly supportive of my writing, so being able to talk to folk who are is great.
S: How do you develop your characters? Do you use photos or a vision board?
L: I have begun to use Pinterest to gather inspiration. Character pictures, location sites, other details that might pertain. I personally could care less what I wear, but the heroine in "Cruel Charade," which comes out this summer, is a real clothes and makeup hound. So I picked out her outfits and pinned them as well. Readers can view my process at https://www.pinterest.com/lyndialexander/five-things/ I was all prepared to name this book "Five Things," after the grounding technique Bet uses in the story—and then a book with the same title came out about three months before I was finished.
S: Do you utilize tropes when writing romance?
L: I end up there sometimes. But I don’t set out to write “friends to lovers” or “second chance romance.” Once I have a setting and characters I like, then I start feeling out what plotlines will work out with those. Then I can tailor the story to fit something into blocks that I can explain to an editor. I tend not to write to formula, but prefer to write unique storylines.
S: What do you write first—the blurb or the book?
L: Definitely the book. I hate writing blurbs and put it off as long as possible.
S: Do you write in other genres?
L: I do. As I said I write the stories that come to me, not anything in formula….so the stories that come are in romance and romantic suspense as Alana Lorens, and sci-fi/sci-fi romance and fantasy/YA as Lyndi Alexander. "Betrayed" is my most recent novel, and it’s the 28th published by small press. It’s a science fiction romance about a space detective who gets way too close to her case.
S: What would you like to people know about you as a person or as a writer?
L: That I’m a nice person despite all the disease and death and killers and other dark things I write about.
S: What is the best/worst thing that has ever happened to you as a writer?
L: I had a great experience at a book signing yesterday. I had a bunch of Lyndi Alexander books on the table, and someone stopped and said, ”Oh, I have a series of hers about a young Chinese girl!” I asked, “The Color of Fear series…right? Did you ever meet the author?” She said no. “Would you like to?” I stuck out my hand. When she realized I was right there in front of her, her face just lit up. That was amazing.
S: What inspired "Betrayed?"
L: This story owes a debt to my Maquis Universal cohorts, a group that went for about 10 years online. Kylie and Griff’s characters were formed and fleshed out over the years of online RPG. Once the RPG closed, I wanted to memorialize the love story in writing even after the split from my ex-husband Eric. I will always appreciate and give credit to Eric, who created Griff from thin threads of imagination, and then made him worth loving.
S: Lyndi, as always, it was great to chat with you. If you' like to learn more about Lyndi and her books, please visit--
Website and Blog: https://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/
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lyndi-alexander
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/lyndialexander
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexander_lyndi/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlexanderLyndi
Thanks so much for hosting me!!
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