LINDA BOLTMAN

2009 was a turning point in Linda Boltman’s life. Her two children had just graduated from college when she was laid off from her job, putting a sudden halt to a long, professional career. It seemed the perfect time to keep a promise she had made to herself decades before. Reaching into her bucket list to pursue two life-long dreams, Linda took up college classes in writing and watercolor. This changed her life.

She returned to the psychological thrillers and romance novels she loved growing up to write Man in the Moon. Jigsaw Press picked up her first novel and Man in the Moon was released July, 2011 in both paperback and eBook on Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Smashwords, offering 10 formats, such as Kindle, Nook, Sony, Apple, Diesel and Kobo.

Thypical of her Type A, ADHD personality, at the same time Linda started watercolor painting and three months later won 2nd place in the student division at the Del Mar Fair. She won 2nd place in the advanced division the following year and in December, 2011 her artwork had a 2-page feature spread in IdeaGems Magazine (www.ideagems.com).

Her stories and poems have been published in every almost edition of IdeaGems Magazine, Adventures of the Average Woman and Tough Lit Magazine since October, 2010 in both their magazine and eBook form in both the U.S. and England. Her story, The Captive was accepted by San Diego Writer's Ink for their yearly anthology as one of San Diego's finest writers. Other of Linda's stories and articles have been published in Grand Magazine, GreenPrints Magazine and The San Diego Reader.

Since releasing Man in the Moon, Linda has gone on to publish seven other eBooks on smashwords.com including, Lover's Leap, The Copper Box, The Valet of Darkshire Manor, The Captive, Moon Pies, Plum Loco and The Christmas Challenge.

Now an empty nester, Linda incorporates her colorful life-long experiences into her hobbies of traveling, writing, painting and photography while taking every opportunity she can to be with her two grown children, David and Erin.

Man in the Moon is a tightly written, fictional, fast-paced thriller.

When a young computer genius out of the small town of Elroy, Wisconsin discovers a way to modify data from the Human Genome Project to create the perfect DNA, a double agent whose allegiance has always gone to the highest bidder is lured out of semi-retirement by the opportunity of a lifetime. Now this aging professional, once at the top of his game, will again meet his CIA nemesis in a fast-changing world populated by a much younger, and smarter, generation.

To get his hands on the greatest discovery the scientific world has ever known, he's going to have to up his game. But years of solitude, paranoia, isolated stakeouts and endless hotel rooms have taken their toll. As he wrestles with the knowledge that he is losing his professional edge, and maybe his grip on reality, the most difficult decisions of his life begin with a mysterious third player who would dare try to beat two old lions to the kill.

Man in the Moon was released by Jigsaw Press July, 2011. The book is available in both paperback and eBook at Amazon.com / Kindle, Barnes and Noble / Nook and Ingraham’s, and Smashwords.com offers 10 other formats, such as Sony, Apple, Diesel and Kobo. I hope to have an audio version shortly thereafter for my sight-impaired friends.

"Man in the Moon" has been released on Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and Smashwords and is available in either paperback or in eBook for Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions and others.

A sample reading of the book is available on all of the websites, so even if you don’t buy my book, read the sample. I'd love any reviews or comments you might wish to add to their site. It will get other people to order it and buy it!

If you want to buy either paperback or eBook, here are links to the websites below.

Barnes & Noble – offers Nook and paperback:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/man-in-the-moon-linda-boltman/1104017233?ean=9781934340004&itm=6&usri=man%2bin%2bthe%2bmoon

Smashwords – provides almost any type of eBook format / make sure you take a look at the bottom of the page for a sample reading and the various formats:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/69580

(Note: enter Linda Boltman in the Smashwords search field for other eBooks by Linda)

Amazon.com – provides either paperback or Kindle eBook:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1934340006/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&qid=1309433260&sr=1-1&condition=all

(Just a note – if you enter Linda Boltman in the search field, several other of my publications in Adventures of the Average Woman will come up)

I want to thank everyone for their interest and continued support over the past several months. I certainly hope you enjoy reading my book and look forward to your comments.

Thanks!

Linda Boltman

(Now officially an internationally published author)

The Captive is a fictional, fast-paced thriller complete at about 900 words.

The Copper Box is a sci-fi thriller.

The Valet of Darkshire Manor is a psychological thriller.

The advertisement simply stated, “Wanted – valet for large household. Must love animals.” Desperate for a job, Edwin Thorpe responded and was immediately accepted. A train ticket arrived within a week for the evening departure to Darkshire the following Friday. There were no further instructions. Now he stood at the train depot, a small satchel in hand, about to be greeted by two very strange men in long, dark capes.

Edwin had been a valet for almost forty years now, trained by his father’s cousin in the art of caring for the rich, yet in all the years he had been a valet, never had so little been asked of him. He had never been privy to such an unusual employer. Parties went on until early dawn, Lord Darkshire and his Russian Wolfhounds went hunting late at night, and staff spoke in low whispers. All in all, Edwin Thorpe wasn’t quite certain what to make of it.

Download a free eBook copy of The Valet of Darkshire Manoron Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/113684

Lover’s Leap is a fictional, fast-paced psychological thriller.

Plum Loco is a humorous, heartwarming story about a single woman's quest to replace her favorite red plum tree after firefighters are forced to cut it down in an attempt to save her home during the San Diego Witch Creek Fire of 2007. Grateful for the firefighter's extreme efforts to save her house, she is devastated at the loss of the three. She had nurtured and loved it since it was a sapling and it had grown into a beautiful twelve-foot tree that was a haven for butterflies and hummingbirds. Lost without it, the author goes on a quest to find a replacement. The resulting story is her journey to bring the red plum home.

Moon Pies is a humorous look back at a first true love.

There’s no way a woman from a small farm town in northern Illinois can be prepared when her future mother and father-in-law reach down and spit chew into a Campbell’s soup can. But when my boyfriend, Rick invited me to join him for a drive to the hills of Georgia for a family reunion, chewing tobacco was only the start of many surprises. I didn’t anticipate, however, that I would be the cause for the family being run out of town.

Moon Pies was first published in IdeaGems Magazine's Adventures for the Average Woman in Apriil, 2011. Download a copy of Moon Pies on smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/90093

The Christmas Challenge is a warm-hearted look at a family Christmas.

THE SHERIFF

I just published The Sheriff, a psychological thriller set in the Midwest. The teaser reads:

Otis is a tough old bird. A product of an abusive father and a mother who never provided any love or affection, he’s grown up a loner. Circumstances have placed him in difficult situations, even as a child. As a result, he’s become somewhat hardened, a characteristic that has served him well as a Sheriff.

Deciding Otis could use some help, the City Council hires Freddie, a young man fresh out of the Police Academy. Idealistic and sensitive, Freddie is shocked by Otis’s cavalier attitude, especially over the tragic death of a well-loved farmer, Clarence Rasmussen. Determined to be the best Deputy he can be, Freddie’s decisions change Otis’s life in the most unimaginable way.

The Sheriff can be found on Smashword’s website at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/245657

I am currently working on several other books, including a collection of short stories in "Tales From a Twisted Mind, Volume 1," due to be released before the end of 2012. Short stories I anticipate including in this volume will be The White Crane, The Grand Canyon Trip, Voice in the Dark, Head Held High, The Job and The Move to Cedar Springs. As usual, these are all psychological thrillers with a slight "twist" at the end for a delightful, unexpected surprise.

I have several other stories in the works, including:

AN UNASSUMING MAN

For Henry Ridler, life is a series of deliberate ruts. For thirty years his routine has never changed. Every day he sits in the back corner of a small basement office, lit only by a flickering incandescent light, with everything neatly in place. He eats the same lunch every day at 12:00 and has the same snack, prepared the same way, every day at 3:15. His lifestyle and his job fit neatly within his OCD behavior. But when a young, brash, insensitive manager is hired to oversee him, Henry’s world comes crashing down. Steve Sheidman taunts Henry relentlessly, pushing his buttons like no one else ever has. For Steve it’s a game, but he has no idea the deadly impact his cruel behavior has on this seemingly mild mannered man.

THE UNPRETENTIOUS HERO

Milton J. Smidley looks exactly as his name implies. A bald, middle aged man, now a little bit older and bit heavier than during his prime, Milton sports a pair of black horned rimmed glasses that consistently perch on the end of his nose. Only five-foot-four, he walks like a duck in a hurry, his feet waddling outwards, his neck thrust forward ahead of his gait. Yet strangely enough, in reality, Milton is never in a hurry.

You see, Milton is not in a particular rush to get anywhere. His life’s hours come in a slow succession of consistency. Like a clock whose second hand clicks from one second to the other in uniformity, Milton’s minutes click from day to day. He hadn’t wished his life to be so, life just sort of happened. Comfortable in the rut he has created, his daily routine changes little. For the most part, he’s never been an interesting human being, even as a child. On August 10, 2008, that all changed.