#Authorexchange-Linda K. Sienkiewicz

Author Linda K. Sienkiewicz writes women’s fiction/contemporary romance. Her debut novel is titled In the Context of Love.

In In the Context of Love, Angelica Schirrick wonders how her life could have gone so far off-track. She remembers her forbidden high school romance with Joe Vadas, the son of Hungarian immigrants. Scandal tore them apart, Joe disappeared, and she’s spent years trying to recover from the split. Shortly after, a devastating family secret shattered her sense of self, leading to a multitude of bad choices that include marrying a man with a missing finger and enough secrets of his own. She leaves her husband and, with two children in tow, begins a journey of self-discovery that leads her back home to Ohio. She must find a way to put the past to rest before she can be open to life and a second chance at love. And what if Joe returns? Will he help her, or tear her family further apart?

Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of #1 NYTimes Bestseller, DEEP END OF THE OCEAN, says: “With humor and tenderness, but without blinking, Linda K. Sienkiewicz turns her eye on the predator-prey savannah of the young and still somehow hopeful.”

Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of Michigan Notable Book MOTHERS TELL YOUR DAUGHTERS, says “Sienkiewicz’s powerful and richly detailed debut novel is at once a love story, a cautionary tale, and an inspirational journey. It should be required reading for all wayward daughters, and their mothers, too.”

Eggcerpt from In the Context of Love:

“That’s different.” His grasp was firm as he examined the top of the ring where the pointed end and the head overlapped, but you and I know he wasn’t really interested in the ring. He rubbed his thumb in the center of my palm, studying my eyes. A buzz ran up my arm to my scalp as if he’d pressed a button or a trigger.

“What’s a nail wrapped around your finger mean?”

“That I’m tougher than I look.” It sounded silly, spoken out loud, and I regretted telling him.

“Man, you’re one weird chick… the way you dress, the things you say.” He didn’t let go when I tried to take my hand back. Instead, he brought it to his mouth and kissed the inside of my wrist. The devil’s breath on my pulse. “Do you know how to love, or is being tough all you know?”

I gave him a cold, quiet stare, but he didn’t back off the way another man might have. He held me fast with black eyes that slid down my throat to settle between my breasts. My resolve melted like a chocolate drop in his hand. I’ll be honest: I imagined him picking me up from the stool and throwing me onto my back on one of the tables behind us, legs apart, right here in the bar, and me liking it. This push-pull game with a stranger in a business suit troubled and intrigued me. Pool balls clicked like cap guns. Child’s play. Double dare yous. I reminded myself I was done with one-nighters as I wriggled my hand away from his. I swallowed the last shot and set the glass down.

“Thanks for the drinks and the barstool analysis, doc. Session’s over.”

He hopped up to help me with my jacket, a gentlemanly gesture that made me self-conscious, as if I were undeserving. “It’s late. Let me see you home,” he said, smooth as a key turning a lock. I knew his routine. Next, he’d be pushing his way into my place, and then his way into me. He slapped a couple of bills on the bar for Rufus and said to me, “Wait a sec, gotta drain the monster first.”

His audacity made me laugh. The minute the cocky bastard turned his back, though, I was out the door. And I almost got away, too.

In the Context of Love can be purchased in paperback or e-reader on Amazon http://amzn.to/1IiVWEs  or Barnes and Noble http://bit.ly/1QFs340 

Here’s an interview with Angelica Schirrick, the narrator of In the Context of Love:

1. Do you have a nickname?
I’ve been called troublemaker, short stuff, hot stuff, cupcake, angel, and hure (by my German grandmother — don’t ask why), but most people call me Angie.

2. What do you do for a living?
I’m the marketing and community service director for Safe Harbor, a non-profit women’s domestic violence shelter in Cleveland, Ohio. Not too bad for someone with an associate’s degree from a community college.

3. What’s your most important goal?
That would be to raise sane children, which isn’t easy when they have a felon for a father. Of course, if I hadn’t married the sick bastard, I wouldn’t have two children to begin with. I can’t win.

4. Are you wealthy, poor or in-between?
I’m comfortable. So what if my plates are chipped, my end tables have water rings, chew marks from toddler’s teeth and dings from Tonka trucks? Who wouldn’t want a home out of House Beautiful with Pottery Barn furniture, cherry wood cabinets, granite counters and a sunken tub? I’m comfortable. Let’s leave it at that.

5. What is your secret desire or fantasy?
That’s easy – to marry Joe, the love of my life, the man who disappeared as cleanly as if he’d been tied to an engine block and dumped in Lake Erie.

Author Linda K. Sienkiewicz attributes her creative drive to her artistic mother, who taught her to sew, and her father, who let her monkey around with the gadgets in his workshop. Her poetry, short stories and art have been published in more than fifty literary journals. She has a poetry chapbook award from Bottom Dog Press and an MFA from The University of Southern Maine.

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