Bergers Book Reviews offers a warm welcome to Linn B. Halton, who has stopped in today for a chat:
What was your inspiration for writing Touched By the Light?
It certainly wasn’t the story I had intended to sit down and write, but after having given up work to look after my mother, within three months I found myself ‘home alone’. In between sorting all the things that follow a death in the family, and handling all the stages that go with the grieving process, I sat down to write. It filled my mind, and the hours until my husband came home from work and we could comfort each other.
So part of my day with filled with sadness and tears; the other part was filled with what is quite an intricate storyline, viewed from the perspective of five of the characters to varying degrees. It is essentially a romance. But it is a romance working on two levels, life and ‘the other side’. And yet I wouldn’t say it was ‘sad’ in any way, it is a romance which just happens to have psychic connections. Several of the incidents featured in the book are things that I have experienced in real life.
Have you ever experienced a psychic connection with another person or a particular place?
Yes. How often? More times than I can count on two hands! We have had thirteen different homes, from brand new houses, to several old cottages and a 250 year old Stone Lodge. The worst experience I had was in a property that we didn’t own and it was less than 20 years old!
Two years ago, a chance visit to an evening of Clairvoyance triggered a re-run in my head of experiences I’d had stretching back to early childhood. Things I hadn’t consciously linked or thought about, suddenly became clear – as if it was being shown to me. I wrote ‘Being A Sceptic Is Oh So Easy’ after that experience and it is available from Amazon on Kindle. It’s not something I’ve ‘launched’ or advertised extensively, because it’s just a collection of personal experiences and opinions. It includes amazing things that happened when my parents died (five years apart) that went a long way to turning me from a sceptic (even though I’d had experiences) into a believer.
What do you think might make someone more likely to have a supernatural experience?
The answer is I don’t know. I have dismissed so many things that have happened, because afterwards I convinced myself it was just imagination – that always worked for me. It was convenient and meant I didn’t have to think about what the implication might be if it was real. Then there are some things you just can’t ignore – if something touches you for instance. And finally, the thing that makes you groan inwardly – you share the experience with someone else, someone you trust implicitly so you can’t just turn your back on it. My husband was an even greater sceptic than I was, until we shared a few simultaneous experiences in a couple of our homes. It was a little uncomfortable and took us a while to adjust to talking openly to each other about it. Before that the whole subject was taboo!
I think perhaps some people are more ‘open’ than others, but then my own mother was a firm non-believer, with strong Catholic roots. But on a couple of occasions we discussed things that she herself had witnessed. One house we lived in we had to move because of the problems, and whilst she was prepared to tell me what she had experienced there whilst baby-sitting, she still walked away saying she didn’t believe in any of it!
Do you believe in life after death, and the ability to communicate beyond the grave?
Yes. I base this on nothing other than what I have seen, felt and heard. I obviously know a little about the subject, and I did research for Touched By The Light, but I am not an expert and I am certainly not a trained psychic or medium. I have asked for validation and proof from loved ones, because it is hard to let go of your scepticism, no matter what you experience. Your mind tells you it must be wishful thinking, simply because you don’t want to have to let go. What I received in return though, was one indisputable physical encounter and messages through two different mediums from both my mother and father that were unique and astounding.
When bits of conversation you’ve had prior to leaving your home are repeated by a medium you have never met before, it makes you sit up and listen. Then when that person is being ‘led around your current home’ and is being given a running narrative about the building and interior by someone on the other side – it’s bizarre. But it was my father proving to me that even though we’d had three different homes since his death, he was still there with us! The medium in question told me he had never had a spirit do this before and my father made reference to the fireplace in the sitting room of the cottage we lived in at the time. He told the medium ‘she hates that fireplace’. He was right – it was the first thing I said when we bought the property ‘I hate that fireplace, it has to go!’ and it did shortly afterwards.
Trivial? Yes, totally. But something that if it had been said to someone else, would be easily refutable – it’s either true, or it’s not! So if it wasn’t a real ‘message’, it was probably not the best thing to ‘throw in’ as it wasn’t ‘general’ enough to be safe! You see, the sceptic in me is always looking at all angles! But I can say that I now have a totally different view of life and the afterlife.
You’ve recently launched the website loveahappyending.com. Can you tell us a little about the site?
It’s a new concept – an interactive Reader/Author website which features 30 new Authors. It’s a way for readers to get to know an author as their career develops and to get actively involved. Associate Readers who link with, and support our authors, are a part of the team and everyone works together. As a new Author, to have someone to read your work and give you reviews, to call upon to be test readers of things that are not published and to have support via social media, is such a boost.
Our authors range in age group from 20’s to 80’s, we represent a wide range of genres and geographical split around the world. We’re out to prove that for authors without the benefit of a large advertising budget behind them, READERS do have the power to launch someone’s career. The way we look at it, every time a reader buys a book they are ‘voting’, we’d like them to ‘vote’ and link up with our new Authors. We are serious, but it is also about having fun – life’s too short!
Do you have any other books that you’re currently working on?
I have three completed manuscripts and the next one to be released will probably be ‘The Quintessential Gemini’. It’s a fun romance about a woman in her forties, who lives her single, professional life according to her daily horoscope. She is suddenly made redundant and the bottom falls out of her world. The astrologer she follows is becoming a world-wide celebrity and hands over the daily forecasts to a new guy – that’s when the fun begins……
Thanks for visiting with us today, Linn!
You can find Linn B. Halton on the web at:
Twitter Account: @LinnBHalton
Facebook Author: Linn B Halton
Personal website: http://linnbhalton.co.uk/
loveahappyending.com website: http://loveahappyending.com/
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