Tag Archives: Lynda Bester

[Vampire Month] A helping Hand by Lynda Bester

11 Monday Mar 2013

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Today is Lynda Bester’s Vampire Month guest post and here she talks about the people who helped her get where she is today.

Hi, I hail from Florida South Africa. I am married with four children ranging in age from 17 to 2. Three girls, Savannha, Chyanne and C’era-Wayne and one boy, Dayne. I have 6 guinea pigs. I wrote my first book in my early twenties, but only got the guts together to have a book published last year. (Not the 1st one I wrote) It is a vampire paranormal romance and defiantly not meant for under 18’s. My vampires are great and sexy and the best part is they come in three’s. Yes, they are all triplets!! Triple the action, triplelyndabestercropped the fun.

I have a stack of books in the pipe line ranging from Paranormal romance, to contemporary romance and even futuristic romance. Yeah I like happy endings. I also have a fantasy book I am working on and a sci-phi. And wonders of wonders, I am even contemplating doing a general fiction, so stay tuned to my station because the music will be varied and I am sure at some point you will find something you like. Here are some links where you can get my book Total Surrender.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/271110

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=lynda+bester

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s?keyword=lynda+bester&store=allproducts&page=%2Findex.asp&prod=univ&pos=&box=

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16541655-total-surrender

http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Total-Surrender/book-ILsv0XdlLUmUqxU2f0_mMQ/page1.html?s=3Xb47OFk70W2g2ckxG2iaw&r=8

My webpage: http://www.lyndabester.co.za

@LYNDABESTER (twitter page)

Mermaid's Cove book coverWhen I started this is, I was not sure what to call it. Gratitude? Thanks? A light in the darkness? I still don’t know if I went with the right header.

Conquering your fear. That’s a good one, because I don’t know about all the other people out there, but when I decided to take the ‘big step’ last year, I was terrified!

I am sure I am not the only one that was. I can still remember the debilitating terror as I sat in front of the computer (mainly because I still feel that way when I am about to try something new) and the dread that coursed through me as I did the unthinkable (to me anyway) and took control of my dream and my future.

It’s like the first day in a new school where you hope nobody will notice you, so you create as little waves as you can. But that right there is the problem. Because you have to create waves. You have to be noticed. It’s the name of the game after all.

So instead of falling back on the old ‘fly under the radar’ you now need to take the silencer off your car, roar down the road and cheer each time it backfires, because then you are getting attention!

And that is freaking scary.                                                                                               

I am one of those people you can leave in a missile launch room and never fear that I am going to wonder what will happen if I push that red button. Never going to happen!

To scared, to timid, to spineless. That button will be safe from now until eternity. But again, that is not the way to go. You have to take risks, leaps of faith, blind dashing and naked streaking. All of those. And push the buttons!

It is one of the hardest things I have done. To reach out and ask for help and hope that at best, you just get ignored, or at worst, someone tells you to ‘take a hike and stay off my turf!’

But I was out there now, in the big wide world of the web and I did not know the first think about surfing. Or blogging, or facebook or twitter or…well that is a long list. And needless to say, I am still pretty clueless about all that. But I am learning.

Because of a few people, busy people, people with their own lives and careers to worry about. They heard my whimpers from my dark little corner and came closer to look. And they did not just stand and laugh and point and jeer. They smiled at me.

It was a virtual smile, but I could feel its warmth right through the screen of my computer. They extended a hand and said ‘Don’timage002 worry, it can be done. Let me help you’.

OMG. Those words changed my life. They allowed me to lift my head and take a look around. They let me take the first tentative steps in to a daunting world. And they didn’t scold me for making mistakes, they encouraged, they advised, they offered their wealth of knowledge to me so I could paw through it.

And boy did I paw. I think I dug holes so deep that they will never be able to fill them again. When I needed to lean, they stood firm, when I need advice, they pointed me in the right direction. When I asked really stupid questions they patiently answered.

Sure, there is the possibility that they were thinking ‘OMG I have a stalker!’ but not once did they not answer and email. Not once did they not share their wealth of knowledge with me.

So yeah, this rambling collection of words is to say thank you to three ladies that have been the guiding light in my journey to this point. They took the time to show me where the light switch was and how to operate it by myself. They could have just sneered and flicked it off, but they didn’t.

They didn’t have to help, but they did and in so doing, restored my faith in humans and allowed me the freedom to look around and actually see all the possibilities out there. Will I stumble? Sure. Will I fall? Without a doubt. Will they be there to pick me up?

What do you think?

So from the bottom of my heart I would like to thank Frances Pauli (francespauli.com) for patiently explaining things to me, sometimes over and over. For giving me web addresses and telling me about free downloads and how to do book covers and where to find pictures and what is legal and what is not and sometime just playing silly buggers. She is my sounding board and I’d like to think, my friend.

A heartfelt thank you to ‘Berta’ who I am sure does not want her name out here, so I will respect her privacy, but will still take the opportunity to thank her. The voice of reason when I needed one. The brutally honest task master when it was called for. The ‘mom’ who has your back when you are down and just feel like the world has just kicked you in the teeth. The person that says ‘Oh sweety, Its okay. Together we can do it. I’ll help you.’

And finally from my new friend in Australia. Hi Sue. Thanks you for that phone call that must have cost you a pretty penny. Thank you for the advice and the tons of information you sent me. Thanks for pointing out where I went wrong and how I might rectify it. Thanks for taking the time. (http://www.susancartwright.com/)

So to all you other nice people out there who I am sure would have helped if I asked them, thanks for being human and for understanding, and feel free to check out the websites of the saints above.

Thanks again

Lynda

[Vampire Month] Lynda Bester Interview

08 Friday Mar 2013

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Today’s victim for the Vampire Month interrogation chair is Lynda Bester. She lives in Florida, South Africa and is the author of Total Surrender and apparently has a lot of other books in the pipeline covering a range of genres. Check out her webpage on lyndabester.co.za.lyndabestercropped

1) What is the earliest memory you have of writing? What did you write about?

I was no spring chicken. I was in grade 12, so 17or so and lamenting the fact that I always did so badly in English. Then one day it occurred to me that considering how many books I read that surely I should be able to write. And as they say, the rest is history.

2) When did you decide to become a professional writer? Why did you take this step?

Total Surrender was my first book, and it was published September 2012, so last year.

3) What would you consider to be your greatest strength as a writer? What about your greatest weakness? How do you overcome this weakness?

I think my greatest strength is I write with humour. No matter how hard I try to make my characters serious, I don’t always
succeed. Although let me add, the one time I set out to right a really humorous book, my character was so, so serious that I didn’t know what to do with him.

My greatest weakness…mmm….well, I have been told I must show instead of tell, and as soon as I figure out how THAT works, I will attempt to correct it.

4) Tell us about the place where you live. Have you ever derived any inspiration from your home or from anywhere you have visited?

I live in South Africa, on the West Rand in Florida – yes there is one in South Africa as well! –  South Africa is really beautiful, but so far I have not incorporated it into any of my books. I am planning to write an ‘end of the world book’ that will hinge nearly completely on my neighbourhood and surrounding areas.

image0025) Which book, if any, would you consider to be your greatest influence and inspiration?

I love books. Ever since my teacher in primary school (grade 5 or so) advised me to read more because it would improve my spelling (I still cannot spell to save my life!) I began to devour books. I actually don’t remember much about my high school and would probably walk right past someone who sat next to me in class and not remember them because my head was always in a book. But it was when I read Christine Feehan’s Dark Prince that I was exposed to a world that totally captivated me.

6) What drove you to write about Vampires?

Well as I said, I was totally inspired and set out to read as many vampire books as I could. But there came a day – at the time a very sad day – when I had nothing to read (sacrilege!), so I decided, why not write my own vampire book. And there you have it. The H’lix and Gorr vampires were born.

7) What do you think is the attraction for Vampire fiction? Why is it such a popular topic?
I think it is all the possibilities that it offers. There is the hot sexy men. The beautiful sultry women. Eternal life and
the selling point for me? Not having to cook or go grocery shopping again. (I am talking about the blood only vamps. Oooh, maybe I can come up with a name for them? You know, like vegetarians have? Or is there already a name for that, besides vampire I mean? What about haemotarian? Or Haemovore? Is that already taken? If not I call COPYWRITE!) Sorry, sometimes I ramble on. (Oh! Just
thought of another one! Bloody guts! Or should that be bloody gutses? Huh? Huh? What do you think? Yes? No? You can vote on it!)

8) In a fight between all the greatest Vampires of fiction, who do you think would come out on top?

Dracula. Cause he is the original (I think) so he has all the moves. Unless Jackie Chang had to be turned, then all bets are off. OR Chuck Norris. Wait, he won’t even have to be turned.

9) What about in some other contest such as sexiness or dress sense? Who would win that one?

Well my vamps are quite hot. But um let’s see…I think J R Wards

Vamps are quite sizzling in the dress department and out of it if you know what I mean. But then again, there is a lot to be said for the elegance of the vampires of old. I like leather and exposed flesh and sweaty…so either one I suppose. But I think the Black Dagger Brotherhood.2Mermaid's Cove book cover

10) How well do you think one of your characters would fare against the winner(s) of the above?
I think Devlin would stomp anyone of them if they threatened Sable. But other than that he would just smirk at them and walk
away.

11) Tell us the basic premise behind your latest novel.

If my mean my latest, latest novel, well then that is about mermaids. It should be on Amazon as we speak. Mermaid’s Cove. Sorry vampire fans!! But I do have a number of vampire books in the pipeline, including the really serious vamp one and book 2 and 3 and 4 etc of the Surrender Series. Dark Surrender should be out by June 2013. But to get back to my latest novel, it hinges around a piece of land that the mer-people desperately need to keep safe, so to ‘protect’ it from the greedy humans, they have drawn up a contract with the land owners, that basically states that the land can never be sold etc. but the current land owner, knows nothing about the contract because his parents were killed before he could be told.