My ALLi author guest this episode is Linda L. Garnett, a gothic supernatural thriller author who came to fiction after seven years in independent music journalism. We talk about how that experience shaped her approach to publishing, marketing, and building an audience, as well as the writing process that helped her turn years of unfinished manuscripts into a professional author career.
Listen to the Inspirational Indie Author Interview: Linda L. Garnett
About the Host
Howard Lovy is an author, developmental editor, and writing coach with a long career in journalism and publishing. He works with writers at many stages of their careers, with a focus on helping them develop their ideas and strengthen their work while preserving their unique voices. He lives in Northern Michigan.
About the Guest
Linda L. Garnett writes gothic supernatural thrillers for readers who want to be emotionally wrecked at 3 a.m. Her debut novel, Red Falls, reached No. 1 in New Releases in Occult Suspense and climbed to No. 7 on Amazon’s Best Sellers list in the category, earning 4.8 stars from early readers. It was named to the 2026 Shelley Book Awards longlist for paranormal fiction. Linda writes dark, atmospheric fiction in which the ordinary unravels and something unspoken takes hold. When she’s not writing about small-town secrets, she’s probably building playlists for books that don’t exist yet or researching obscure vampire folklore. The second book in the Veritate Triumphat trilogy, Red Falls: Bloodlines, is forthcoming. You can find Linda on her website, download her free Red Falls bundle, find her books on Amazon, or visit her links and social media page.
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Read the Transcript
Linda L. Garnett: I'm Linda L. Garnett, and I write gothic supernatural thrillers. My debut, Red Falls, is the first in a trilogy about a disgraced investigative journalist who uncovers a vampire conspiracy in a town that's not found on any map. It debuted at number one in new releases and a top-10 bestseller in occult suspense on Amazon, and it was just named to the 2026 Shelley Book Awards long list for paranormal fiction. I also write horror comedy flash fiction, so I tend to live wherever things get dark and a little strange.
Howard Lovy: Wow. So we'll have to probe your brain a little bit and see where that darkness comes from. But first — tell me where did you grow up?
Growing Up in Haunted Houses in Northern California
Linda L. Garnett: I was born and raised in northern California, and I also spent a little bit of time overseas as a kid. The detail that shaped me was that two of the houses I grew up in were haunted. Gothic wasn't a genre I chose — I guess it just always felt like home.
Howard Lovy: Chose you. Haunted — like literally? You saw things that go bump in the night?
Linda L. Garnett: Literally. When I was a child, there was a figure in one of the houses, and it pushed me down the staircase.
Howard Lovy: Wow. So — not Casper the Friendly Ghost.
Linda L. Garnett: No. No.
Howard Lovy: And I want to say — I absolutely believe in ghosts. I think I've probably seen a few in my life. So I'm just going to leave that there and let everyone think what they want about me. Did you go to college for literature?
Linda L. Garnett: No — I went to college for broadcasting. My degree is in mass communications, which covers broadcasting, advertising, marketing, and journalism.
Indie Music Women: Seven Years Championing Independent Artists
Howard Lovy: Did you become a journalist first, or did you go a different direction?
Linda L. Garnett: I took a bit of a sidetrack for a few years. Writing was always my first love, always my first career. But the most important career I ever had was founding Indie Music Women, where I was a music journalist for about seven years.
Howard Lovy: Tell me about that. What did that experience teach you about building an audience and championing work that the larger industry might overlook?
Linda L. Garnett: It taught me how to champion independent women artists in the music industry — and they catch the worst of an industry that doesn't treat indie musicians well to begin with. That perception that indie is cool doesn't really track with the reality. I've lived on both sides: indie music is cool, and indie authors get asked when they'll find a publisher. Same with indie musicians: ‘When are you going to get a real record deal?' But the experience taught me how to build an audience through storytelling, advocacy, and marketing, and all those skills transferred directly to writing and selling a book.
Howard Lovy: Is that starting to change for indie music? It seems to me that artists increasingly have to build their own following on streaming platforms rather than signing with a label.
Linda L. Garnett: I don't think streaming is helping indie musicians — I think it's hurting more than it's helping. The payout structure is the same problem. With indie musicians, you have to keep producing, keep getting work onto streaming services, keep building your audience without the support of a label — just like indie authors don't have a publisher behind them. They're really the same fight. You're building a business, building it alone or with whatever help you can find along the way. Award shows overlook indie musicians, especially women. So coming from that world to writing a book wasn't much of a leap. I just transferred the skills from my Indie Music Women platform to my author business.
Twelve Years of NaNoWriMo — Then a Writing Coach and Red Falls
Howard Lovy: When did you decide to make that shift? Did you always have a secret manuscript somewhere?
Linda L. Garnett: No. I always wanted to write a book, and at a certain point I just wanted to see if I could. I did 12 years of NaNoWriMo and wrote 12 messy manuscripts that I wouldn't call books — they're just collecting dust bunnies right now. And I thought: I wonder if I could really finish a book. A real book, just to see if I could. I didn't want to become published, I didn't want to be a bestseller. I just wanted to know if I could do it.
I found my writing coach through a newsletter. He had an outlining course for authors, I took it, and I got the idea for Red Falls. I outlined it, completed the course with him, then worked with him to write and complete Red Falls. And the end game was still not to publish it. But I found that I could do it, and I didn't want to be one of those people who said, ‘I want to write a book,' and then, ‘I wish I had written the book.'
Red Falls: Bringing Back the Vampire You Want to Run From
Howard Lovy: It sounds like you reached back into your childhood love of the occult for Red Falls. What inspired it?
Linda L. Garnett: I've been reading since I was four — my mom taught me. I've been writing since I was nine, when I wrote a Halloween play. I was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, whose stories were fantastic, and my favorite — Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. I read that at least once a year for years. I just love that book: the dread, the tension, all of it.
Red Falls is about Grace Fields, an investigative journalist sent to the town of Red Falls to cover the launch of a vampire book. In the process she uncovers a vampire conspiracy that she isn't meant to survive.
Howard Lovy: How much of your own experience in journalism influenced that character?
Linda L. Garnett: A little bit. I wasn't chasing stories I might not survive — but like Grace, as a journalist I would dig deep, I wouldn't stop asking questions, I would pursue a story to the end to uncover what was beneath it. Not giving up, not listening to people who said you can't do this. A lot of that transferred to Grace. She digs in. She asks all the wrong questions, which turn out to be the right ones, and uncovers a conspiracy that almost takes her life.
Howard Lovy: This is a gothic supernatural thriller at a time when romantasy dominates. Why did you decide to swim against that current?
Linda L. Garnett: Everyone's writing about the vampire you'd want to date. I just wanted to bring back the vampire you want to run from — lock your door. I deliberately wrote dark, dangerous vampires because that version had gone missing in the romantasy-dominated market, and I want it back. The payoff of swimming against the current is that I'm writing for a small, specific audience. But those readers are fiercely loyal, and there's a lot less noise to cut through.
From Pantser to Plotter-Pantser Hybrid: The Value of an Outline
Howard Lovy: You mentioned working with a writing coach while developing your craft. What did the coach do for you that you might not have accomplished on your own?
Linda L. Garnett: He gave me the structure. The outline process gives you a foundation for your novel — a touchstone you follow — but the end product is never going to match the outline exactly. It evolves as you write, especially through revisions. What he gave me was a repeatable process. When I started book two, I hit the ground running because I knew how to put the outline together and move forward. I was a discovery writer when I was doing NaNoWriMo, always have been with flash fiction and short stories. This was all new. I didn't think it would work for me, but once I got into it I thought: this really works, this makes sense. I can follow my story from beginning to end, shape it the way I want. The outline isn't a prison — it's just a guide.
Howard Lovy: So you're not quite a plotter or a pantser — you're a hybrid between the two. You need to know basically where you're going, but then let the characters decide what they're going to say and how they're going to get there.
Linda L. Garnett: And boy, do they.
The Launch: Eight Months Out, a Marketing Partner, and a Kidney Stone
Howard Lovy: Red Falls reached number one on Amazon new releases for occult suspense. What did your launch look like and how did you market it?
Linda L. Garnett: I have a marketing person who is absolutely fabulous. We started eight months out, looked at social media as a vehicle, and focused on building my email list — Facebook ads, different strategies that all work together. And then while all that's happening, you're getting your manuscript to the formatter, hoping it turns out well the first time. There are a lot of moving pieces that have to come together at exactly the right moment for the date you pick.
The launch date isn't set in stone — you can move it — and I did end up moving mine, because one of those moving pieces didn't arrive on time. No big deal. And then I got sidelined by a kidney stone and a five-day hospital stay.
Howard Lovy: Ouch. You can't plan for that.
Linda L. Garnett: No, you can't.
The Raven Quill Society, the Prequel, and a World Readers Can Enter
Howard Lovy: You built a pretty substantial platform — a book trailer, a free prequel, a special edition, a playlist. And the Raven Quill Society. How did you put all that together?
Linda L. Garnett: That was part of working with my marketing person. It all works together — all moving pieces that drive interest. I created the website myself and developed the brand, the mysterious dark aesthetic. She helped me shape the brand direction.
The prequel I offer to new newsletter subscribers is written from the point of view of one of the characters, covering the inciting incident — something that isn't in the book. Instead of offering a sample chapter, I thought offering a different character's perspective on the events leading into Red Falls would pique curiosity. The Raven Quill Society is my newsletter — subscribers get sneak peeks, book updates, and special offers. We just created a Red Falls bundle: the prequel, the playlist, a deleted scene, and character dossiers, available exclusively to subscribers for now. The whole idea was to make people feel like they're entering my world and that they're valued. And the book trailers on TikTok draw people in because the concept is so visual — the book is basically The X-Files meets Buffy meets Twin Peaks.
Howard Lovy: That's great. That's a lot of work for one person. You have a marketing expert to help, but you're still shouldering a lot of it yourself.
Linda L. Garnett: Yes. It's just the two of us.
The Micro-Niche: Fierce Loyalty and Less Noise
Howard Lovy: You mentioned having a micro-niche within a niche. Does that give you a more intimate relationship with your readers?
Linda L. Garnett: I think so. The X-Files, Buffy, Twin Peaks comparison really resonates — whether people grew up with those shows or are rediscovering them, they relate immediately, and my book has all those elements. And yes — that micro-niche means the readers I find are fiercely loyal. There's a lot less noise to cut through.
Howard Lovy: Do you nurture a dark persona for your readers, or are you just being yourself?
Linda L. Garnett: It's a combination. Yes — I would say it's me and this dark personality, and it's genuinely fun. Outside of work I have a completely normal, ghost and vampire-free life. Mostly. Besides books and reading — I have a TBR pile that could sink a small boat.
What's Next: Red Falls Bloodlines and Raven Mist Press
Howard Lovy: What are you working on now? You have a sequel in progress?
Linda L. Garnett: Oh yes. This is a trilogy. I'm deep in revisions for book two, Red Falls Bloodlines. The third and final book is Red Falls: No Illusions. There's a theme and arc running through all three, so they're not standalones — this is a complete series.
Howard Lovy: How do you find the time to write while you're still deep in promotion for book one?
Linda L. Garnett: I have a daily routine — a structured, non-negotiable writing time. I carve out four hours at a specific time of day and write for that period every day of the week.
Howard Lovy: You've been in the indie world in both music and literature. What do you think is the biggest challenge of being an indie author, and how does it compare with the indie music world?
Linda L. Garnett: I think the parallels are striking. Whether you're a musician or an author, you're running a business. Unless you're doing this as a hobby — which is a completely different thing — if you're looking for success, however you define it, you're building a brand, connecting with your audience, marketing. There's enormous crossover. And I believe having spent seven years in the trenches at Indie Music Women — running that platform alone, learning from the ground up — developed all the muscles I needed. That experience prepared me well to become an author and run a publishing business. I actually have my own publishing company, Raven Mist Press, as part of the author business. The two worlds run so parallel that I could move between them easily. I really do believe that.
Howard Lovy: Does Raven Mist Press publish only your work, or are you thinking of publishing others?
Linda L. Garnett: For now it's just my work — but in the future, who knows?
Advice: Write Messy, Find Your People, Don't Wait
Howard Lovy: What advice would you give someone just starting out who has dark stories inside them and needs to get them out into the world?
Linda L. Garnett: Just write. Write messy. It doesn't have to be a perfect first draft — just get your words on the page, get your story down. Make it messy, then go through your revision process. Find a writing group or a writing coach for support and feedback. Writing groups are gold. The ones I've been in — and still am in — provide the support, the encouragement, the feedback you need. You don't have to do this alone. And if you've got a story waiting to come out: don't say someday. Go now. Get it on the page. We're all waiting for those kinds of stories, believe me.
Howard Lovy: Absolutely. And ALLi certainly helps too — our forum is a great place for like-minded people to get together. Thank you very much, Linda, for giving us a peek inside your mind and the way you write, work, and market yourself. Best of luck going forward.
Linda L. Garnett: Thank you. It was a pleasure.
Howard Lovy: Thank you, Linda. Bye.
Linda L. Garnett: Bye bye.
