Meet author Linore Burkard

An award-winning traditionally and independently published author, Linore Rose Burkard is best known for inspirational Regency romance. Her first novel with Harvest House Publishers, (Before the Season Ends) opened the genre for CBA. Linore also writes contemporary romance, and, as L. R. Burkard, YA/suspense. A magna cum laude graduate of CUNY, Linore now lives in Ohio with her husband and five adult children where she’s president of the Dayton Christian Scribes and active at church.

Tell us about your newest book.

Forever Lovely is a Regency time travel romance, a sequel to Forever, Lately.  The books are fast-paced fun with adventure, peril and romance elements that catapult the characters into time travel between Regency England (the time of Jane Austen) and the present day. In the sequel, I was able to develop a wonderful side character from book one, Miss Margaret Andrews, now three years older. She finds herself stranded in present-day New York along with St. John (whom we know and love from Book One). Margaret is desperate to find an invention to bring back to the past to make herself a name in society, for, lacking her sister’s famous beauty, she is known only as a bluestocking. St. John needs to get back in time for the birth of his first child. But the tallit, the “divinely magical” prayer shawl that transports them through time isn’t behaving, seeming to have ideas of its own. When Margaret is befriended by Stewart Russell, a young man curiously dressed in fashions of the Regency, she is soon enveloped in a life-or-death mix-up, while, to her astonishment, falling in love! Can she and St. John find a way to get back to the past? And if they do, what will happen to Stewart?

What inspired you to write your time travel series?

I’d watched a time travel movie years ago that I enjoyed but couldn’t help feeling there were so many missed opportunities for more humor. (Having written a screenplay since then, I realize now how very limiting that structure is.) But suddenly I had time-traveling characters in my head that wouldn’t stop talking, so I wrote Forever, Lately. It was great fun, but I wasn’t thinking of doing a sequel at that time. When I realized that many readers loved the story as I did, the sequel idea emerged. Unfortunately, life events hindered my progress. So, this book has been a long time coming. I’m thrilled to finally have it to offer to readers!

How would you describe this book to someone in a 30-second blurb?

Two Regency era time travelers get stranded in present-day New York City where they run into a deadly plot and must race the clock to get back to the past before the unthinkable happens.

What genre do you focus on?

My favorite genre is Regency romance, primarily because it’s rich with atmosphere, period details, delightful dialogue and costume, and all mixed with humor. It was a time when manners mattered and nominal faith was a given, but a woman’s fate depended largely on whether she married well.  As Jane Austen knew, these elements lend themselves to compelling stories and, happily for romance writers, compelling love stories with happy-ever-after endings. I also love the opportunity to portray the earnest faith that many Christians had in that day, Anglican or otherwise, and how that faith informs their love stories. (Austen would have considered it unnecessary, ‘preaching to the choir,’ as she assumed her audience was Anglican like herself, sharing the same values and moral codes.) There were many aspects to the Regency, both good and bad, but if I had to sum up the Regency romance in one word it would be “FUN!”

What is the hardest part of being an author?

The hardest part for me is having to say ‘no’ to other things to make room for writing, and often, how that looks to friends and acquaintances. Probably 90 percent of a writer’s social circle has no idea of the sacrifice of time that must be made to produce good writing, (and they’ll never understand).  I don’t mind that it’s a solitary profession, (I enjoy alone time), but it’s easy to feel that writing fiction isn’t as “worthy” as other ministries, especially when a church doesn’t really acknowledge that it is a ministry. Couple this with the usual obstacles to creativity—fear of failure, procrastination, family and home, perhaps a book that doesn’t sell—and it becomes toilsome. Yet all this propels me to the fact that it’s a matter of calling. Knowing that I have a calling to use a talent God gave me is what I fall back on, no matter which obstacle faces me at a given time or for a current project.

What’s the best part of your author’s life?

What I most enjoy besides the writing itself (which can also be difficult) is hearing from readers who were touched by my work. When they take the time to write me a note, it means they also took the time to find my business address from my website or newsletter, and that means something. Even if it’s just an email, that’s great too—either way, I know I’ve blessed someone. My prayer as a writer is to point people to a loving God in a way that is engaging (preferably with humor) and entertaining, because fiction should at least be that. And hearing I’ve accomplished that in someone’s life, especially when they’ve been blessed spiritually, is the best return I can get.

What’s one thing your readers should know about you?

What most readers don’t know is that Nick Harrison, then an editor with Harvest House, ran across my first novel a few times when it was self-published and requested a copy of it. I hesitated to send it since it had been rejected by two publishers (I knew nothing about publishing, and took those two measly rejections to mean I wasn’t good enough.) I think he had to contact me twice—God bless him!—before I sent it. The result was contracts with HHP for my first trilogy of Regency romances, beginning with Before the Season Ends. Nick is the one who really should get credit for the first true Christian Regency to hit the market, as it was due to his interest in the genre and persistence with me.

What are your favorite pastimes?

Except for reading, this changes over time, but currently it’s going for a swim in the pool, improving my Spanish with daily lessons, and wordy “brain games.” During baseball season, I watch the Mets. (Once a New Yorker, always a New Yorker.) I love cooking and making homemade products like cheese, toothpaste, laundry soap, hand cream, you name it. But recently, my back complains if I stand too long in the kitchen, so I’ve had to cut back on all that.

Do you have other books? We’d love to know.

I have a second Regency trilogy, “The Brides of Mayfair,” a YA post-apocalyptic trilogy, “The Pulse Effex Series,” my time travel, Forever, Lately, and two contemporary romance novels, Falling In (Love!) and One Cinderella Night. I have a novella that is perpetually free on Amazon, a short historical romance (Georgian era) called Three French Hens. Like most writers, I also have files of unfinished novels and an idea folder for ones I’d love to write. (I always find it curious when someone says they have trouble finding ideas. I have far too many for one lifetime!)

What are you working on now?

I’d like to finish a “Titanic love story” (working title, Unsinkable Love) where much of the action takes place on the ship, and for which I did extensive research. The book is at least 75 percent done, so I hope for a 2024 release. I have two children’s books calling out to me like kids who won’t go to sleep at night (they’re written, but not published), so I hope to get them out to the world in 2024 as well!

Website: https://www.LinoreBurkard.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/123347423926 or https://www.facebook.com/LinoreRoseBurkard