Is that really you?

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This Monday post is not by Linnea Sinclair who is well, but frantically busy.

Today I ( Jacqueline Lichtenberg ) am posting for you a Guest Blog by Linda Welch.

I ran into her on Twitter as http://twitter.com/welch6331 (who knows how? That's how twitter works; connects the most improbable people in improbable ways!)

I became intrigued by her description of her current novel. I confess I didn't expect it to be any good because it wasn't from an editor or publicist whose endorsement I rely on.

OK, so I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to high standards in fiction.

I was not really surprised though when I discovered IT WAS TERRIFIC! These off-brand nooks and crannies of the spreading apron of publishing are "where" all the really really REALLY good stuff went. Today a few writers are fighting to get that good stuff back into the big bookstores, and I think we're winning. Where we're not winning, the little side-channels of publishing are expanding and reaching larger audiences.

So you can't ignore the edges of the publishing field. You have to mine any vein you find, and I found one!

Linda Welch is a byline to memorize. Linda Welch is a terrific writer. And what's more, Linda Welch is definitely on our wavelength with Alien Romance.

Here are links to her novels on Amazon so you can read about them, and then there's a few words by Linda you will want to pay attention to.

Along Came a Demon on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Along-Came-Demon-Whisperings-1/dp/1449590845/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258761746&sr=1-2

Along Came a Demon Kindle Edition
http://www.amazon.com/Along-Came-Demon-Whisperings-ebook/dp/B002HWSVIM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1247960486&sr=1-1

The Demon Hunters on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Demon-Hunters-Whisperings-2/dp/1448697433/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260381056&sr=1-6

The Demon Hunters Kindle Edition
http://www.amazon.com/THE-DEMON-HUNTERS-Whisperings-ebook/dp/B002WYJPKI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1258423720&sr=1-2

-----------And Here's Linda!----------
The question I get asked most by my Twitter and Facebook followers? Am I the tall, slim, long-haired woman seen on my avatar? One Tweeter commented: “Your hair is beautiful.” A local journalist asked: “Is that really your butt?” followed by: “I find it very relaxing.” Much as I’d like to lay claim to having a “relaxing” bottom—or maybe not—sorry, no, that’s not me. She is Tiff Banks, the star of Along Came a Demon and The Demon Hunters, respectively books one and two of my Whisperings series of paranormal mysteries. I am nothing like her. Well, okay, the world of the supernatural is not foreign to me, but I don’t (at the moment) see Demons, and I haven’t seen a dead person in a few years.

I like to think Tiff is a little different to currently popular urban-fantasy heroines. Tiff knows nothing of the martial arts, and although she carries a gun, she’s no markswoman. Living as she does in the mountains of northern Utah, if she wore micro-skirts and revealing tops she’d freeze her butt off in winter. She’d break her ankle if she wore four-inch heels while trying to run down a suspect. Not that she’s homely; in fact six-foot-two Tiff with her long silver hair and pale skin is a striking figure, and a startling contrast to her new partner, a tall, copper-skinned Demon with glittering eyes and copper-gold hair. Detective Royal Mortensen will be a major player in Tiff’s life, but can an exotic Demon and a small-town Utah girl have a compatible relationship?

No, Tiff is not a butt-kicking, nerves-of-steel heroine, but she has a good head on her shoulders, unflagging determination, and an advantage other criminal investigators lack. She sees the dead victims of violent crime, who are earth-bound until their killer dies. To Tiff they look like regular people, and their whispering voices are the only means by which she identifies them. As they linger, waiting to pass over, their “life” consists of watching what goes on around them, and in return for a little of Tiff’s time, a little conversation, they’ll tell her what they see and hear. With the help of her spectral informers, Tiff will solve cases which leave the local police department baffled.

Having written the above, I realize I am something like Tiff Banks. From where does Tiff get her logical mind, if not from me? From where come her likes and dislikes, her opinions, her take on the world around her, if not from me? Like Tiff, I’m impatient and by nature suspicious. Like Tiff, I can be doggedly determined. Although I do not share my home with two dead people, I do know living people as irritatingly needy as Tiff’s roommates Jack and Mel, and my husband can be remarkably zombie-like when parked in front of the television. And I admit I might be just a touch cranky until I get my first cup of coffee in the morning.

If only I had Tiff’s figure, and her sexy Demon partner. . . .