Influenced by Nanna

This month’s Women Honoring the West hails from Washington State. She lives only a couple of hours from me, which means we need to have a lunch date sometime.

Linda Jo Reed is an accomplished author who loves the outdoors.

Let’s meet Linda Jo!

What can be better than the mountains and the wide-open spaces of the West?

Room to spread arms out. Room to breathe. Land, lakes, desert, ocean. This is the State of
Washington, where I live. I have always lived here and raised my family here, though I drive long
distances over passes and gorges to visit them now. I have nearly driven off the freeway at times,
looking for Oregon Trail wagon ruts. Yes, they are still visible in places.

But what affects my historical western writing the most are the memories I have of my great-
grandmother, Clara. She was born in 1893 in the Midwest and moved to the Northwest in the
early 1900s at a time when her new home, Spokane, was just beginning its growth as the hub of
the Inland Empire.

In my earliest memories of Nanna, she lived in a narrow two-story house that was demolished to
make way for I-90. But I remember her kitchen with the old-fashioned cast iron wood cooking
stove and the warmer oven where she always kept Ovaltine (a chocolate drink) warm for us.

I would watch her feed the fire in the stove. Pick up the tool, lift the cast iron burner lid, shove in
the wood in and around the fire, drop the lid and put on a pan to cook bacon. And how did she
regulate the heat to bake a cake in the oven?

She washed her clothes in an old wringer washer, and I helped her pull the flattened material
out of the wringer and hang them to dry.

I remember some weekends when we were children, my sisters and I spent the night with Nanna.

She hand pieced her quilts while we all watched Lawrence Welk on her little black and white TV.

I write historical novels because I was fascinated by how things were once done and how people
lived “back then.” I still am. When I do the research, some of it seems a bit familiar. I am not
quite sure how I should cogitate on that.

While I don’t have horses or ranch animals, I do have cats, and they make appearances in my
books. Toby was a major star in Kevin’s Camp Surprise. He was a determined little guy who
seemed to have plenty of compassion.

My favorite character in the Wild Rose Ridge series, written with several writer friends,
surprised me.

Margaret Walcott is the matriarch of her family. She is tough, exacting and expects
much from herself and her children. She is elegant in appearance.

Yet she is a meddler.

Her character was developed most in Kellie’s Christmas Box.

I am now developing a new historical series set in Spokane’s early days. The series is called The
Inland Empire Story.

I am excited about it.

And so am I because I grew up in the Inland Empire too! (Carmen)

About Linda

Linda Jo Reed is a Western city girl. There are no ranches close by. However, she has lived in the
beautiful Pacific Northwest all her life. She loves the wide-open spaces and the changes in
terrain from mountain, desert, lush forests and ocean across her state. She loves the casual
lifestyle that allows for exploration of nearby ghost towns and mines. In good weather she
spends time on her wrap-around porch, enjoying God’s creation. And, of course, writing and
reading. She calls her nine grandsons her baseball team and is owned by two cats.

Linda Jo writes a weekly blog at www.lindajoreed.com. She has published three inspirational
non-fiction books and stories in several published anthologies. With several other writers, she
has published five stories in the Contemporary Small-Town Romance series of Wild Rose Ridge.
With her new Christmas story, Marianne, Linda Jo joins the Wild Rose Ridge team in writing a
line of historical novellas.

You have to check out the Wild Rose Ridge series. These books are so fun!

Linda loves to connect with readers. Drop your questions and thoughts in the comments.