I’m delighted to be hosting a guest post from Linda Huber. Linda’s latest novel Chosen Child is published in e-book today, 15th February 2016. It is available to buy on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Chosen Child

A disappearance. A sudden death. A betrayal of the worst kind.

Ella longs for a child of her own, but a gruesome find during an adoption process deepens the cracks in her marriage. A family visit starts off a horrifying chain of events, and Ella can only hope she won’t lose the person she loves most of all.

Amanda is expecting her second child when her husband vanishes. She is tortured by thoughts of violence and loss, but nothing prepares her for the shocking conclusion to the police investigation.

And in the middle of it all, a little girl is looking for a home of her own with a ‘forever’ mummy and daddy…

You can watch the trailer for Chosen Child here.

A Guest Post from Linda Huber

The long and short …

Having a book published was a lifetime ambition for me. Or maybe ambition isn’t the right word, because I didn’t seriously think it would happen. It was a dream.

I started writing when I was seven, for my Writer’s Badge in the Brownies, and discovered the power of creating paper worlds. Over the years my little stories for children became novels for children. In my late teens I sent one of these to an agent, who replied that a children’s book of 65K words was WAY too long. (Times change…) I wasn’t too downcast – for me, only the writing was important – losing myself in the story, giving my paper people a voice.

A few years later I had my first baby, and writing anything longer than a shopping list became a major logistical challenge. That was when I turned to writing for women’s magazines – and I learned something very important.

I chose my magazine, wrote what I considered a good short story, and sent it off. Back it came with alarming rapidity and a note: ‘Thanks, but not for us’. Huh, I thought, and wrote another story. The same thing happened. By this time, I was determined to succeed, but the penny didn’t drop until after the fourth rejection.

What I’d done was like giving your favourite meat dish to a vegetarian and assuring them it tasted lovely. I was writing what I thought were good short stories. But magazine-writing is different to writing books; stories and articles have to fit in with the concept and ‘feel’ of the magazine – I needed to write what they thought was a good story. After that, it was easier. I still had the odd rejection, but I also had over fifty stories published.

A novel, however, was the big dream, and in the late 90s I started writing The Cold Cold Sea. In a novel, you can explore your characters in a way that’s beyond the scope of a short story, and creating adult characters for adult readers was mind-blowing. I loved it. It’s so important to know your characters inside out – if they don’t react realistically to whatever situation you put them in, your carefully thought-out plot will fall flat. When I wake in the night, I think about my characters. It’s amazing what ideas come at 4 a.m. (The problem is, if I don’t write them down they are gone by the morning…)

My writing life now revolves round my novels. In 2012 I was lucky enough to find a publisher, Legend Press in London, so The Paradise Trees and The Cold Cold Sea were traditionally published before I self-published The Attic Room and now Chosen Child. Why did I turn to self-publishing? I had a wonderful time as a trad-published author, but book launches and events in the UK (I live in Switzerland) were using up all my holidays and costing more than the books were bringing in. Self-publishing gives you freedom to choose.

Much is the same – I have an editor, a proof reader, a formatter and a cover designer. One son works in IT and helps with my website. This leaves me free to write, engage with other writers and readers on social media, and promote my books. People often ask about social media, and I must say I was apprehensive in the beginning. But it’s brilliant – I’ve met several online contacts in real life now, and yes – social media helps promote books, though this is best done by getting to know people, not by tweeting ‘buy my book’.

And the future? Will I bring out a fifth book? I hope so. But wherever I am and whatever I do, writing will be a part of it.

About Linda Huber

Linda Huber grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, but went to work in Switzerland for a year aged twenty-two, and has lived there ever since. Her day jobs have included working as a physiotherapist in hospitals and schools for handicapped children, and teaching English in a medieval castle. Not to mention several years spent as a full-time mum to two boys and a rescue dog.

Ideas for her books come from Linda’s daily life. The Paradise Trees (2013) was inspired by her father-in-law’s struggle with dementia, and she started writing The Cold Cold Sea (2014) shortly after learning that a child in her extended family drowned in the 1940s, aged eleven. The Attic Room (2015) begins in one of her most-loved places, the Isle of Arran on the west coast of Scotland.

Chosen Child, her fourth psychological thriller, was inspired by a chance conversation in the queue for the bar at a wedding, and will be available from February 15th 2016.

Visit Linda’s web site, find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.