Please Welcome Mystery Author Linda Townsdin

with Linda Townsdin

We are delighted to welcome mystery author Linda Townsdin to Omnimystery News today.

Linda introduces Britt Johansson, a kickass photojournalist with a big heart and bad social skills, who follows a coed's murder to the wilds of the US/Canadian border and lands in the crosshairs of an international crime ring, in Focused on Murder (CreateSpace; February 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats).

We asked Linda to tell us a little more about her new series character.

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Photo provided courtesy of
Linda Townsdin

I enjoy reading mysteries set in small communities, and I'm drawn to stories that take place in northern climates, with unpredictable weather and people. I wanted to create my own story world and now that I've done it, I love it, and have two more in the Spirit Lake series nearly ready to publish. I don't like to categorize, but Focused on Murder is a suspenseful traditional mystery.

My story ideas are based on a social issue that haunts me, and then I have a rough idea of what's going to happen. But I never know which new characters will pop up, or what twists and turns are coming, and that discovery is the most fun.

I expected that to happen, but what I didn't expect was how creating this protagonist would change me. When I first imagined Britt, I thought I was creating someone almost the opposite of me. She's 34, tall and athletic, a tough photojournalist willing to make people uncomfortable to get her photos, blurts out whatever she's feeling or thinking, and doesn't like to delve too deeply into her own psyche.

I would have made a terrible journalist because I would hate to ask hard questions and put people on the spot. I'm deliberate where's she's spontaneous, and I'm a ruminator. And yet, I wonder if there isn't a shadow side of me that harbors some of those characteristics. Why do writers choose a certain type of protagonist and subject matter?

In addition to following the murder of a local coed, and getting involved in a dangerous high-stakes crime that requires every ounce of her strength and skill to make it out alive, at the core of my story is Britt's decision whether to stay in Spirit Lake or go.

I've moved quite a bit in my life — my grandmother used to say I had wandering feet. I don't wander that much anymore, but the desire is still there, and I continue to feel the loss that happens when you give up one thing to get something else.

So I created a character who longs to go and longs to stay and through following her adventures, I get to explore some of my own feelings about what that conflict has meant to my own life.

And, since writing about Britt, I've become much more physically active, and I take more risks. Not Britt's kind of risks, but the kind that build confidence in small ways every day. Is there a connection? Has my inspiration inspired me? I hope so. I look forward to how else Britt might inspire me in her next adventure.

[Thanks to Donald Maass, WriterUnboxed.com, for his thoughtful blog post on April 2nd, 2014 that prompted me to think about why I chose certain characteristics for Britt Johansson.]

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Linda Townsdin worked for years in communications for nonprofit and corporate organizations, most recently as writer/editor for a national criminal justice consortium. Her work included editorial and marketing assistance in projects involving cybercrime, tribal justice and other public safety issues. Her short fiction has been published in several anthologies, including the 2013 Capitol Crimes Anthology. She lives in California with her husband, and wouldn't trade her childhood in Northern Minnesota for anything.

For more information about the author, please visit her website at LindaTownsdin.com or find her on Facebook and Twitter.

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Focused on Murder
Linda Townsdin
A Spirit Lake Mystery

Britt Johansson is a former Pulitzer prize-winning LA Times photographer whose reckless behavior nearly ended her career. She gets a chance to redeem herself when she's working in Northern Minnesota and stumbles across an international crime ring that ultimately pits her and her brother against a psychopathic killer.

Her hometown of Spirit Lake is a perfect location for all kinds of dirty deeds: easy entry points along the vast wilderness of the US/Canadian border, an Indian reservation that's off limits to most law enforcement, and a dangerously mistaken perception that nothing happens in small towns.