Bookwild - All the Missing Girls By Linda Hurtado Bond: A Missing Sister, Brujerias and Revenge

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

This week, I talk with Linda Hurtado Bond about her new action thriller All the Missing Girls.  We dive into how her husband helps her write, and how her job as an television news anchor influences her writing.All the Missing Girls SynopsisAs a crime reporter for a Tampa TV news station, Mari Alvarez knows when an investigation enters dangerous territory. But with her estranged sister missing and almost no information to go on, Mari can’t trust anyone but herself to find the truth. Now she has just 48 hours to sneak into Cuba undetected, track down her sister…and pray to her orisha that she’s not too late.This is nothing like reporting in her neighborhood, though--a place she knows like the back of her hand. In Havana she has no contacts and only an ice-cold trail of cryptic clues. When Detective Tony Garcia offers to help, Mari puts aside her instincts and tries to let someone in. But soon they’re caught in a maze of lies, deception, and an undercurrent of the island’s own witchcraft, a sinister Brujería.Every lead draws Mari further into this world of shadows, especially when her sister isn’t the only young woman who’s gone missing. Each step pushes Mari and Tony toward a revelation they never saw coming. And as they close in on the horrifying truth, one thing becomes clear…no one will let them leave Cuba alive. Follow Kate on InstagramFollow Linda on Instagram Get Bookwild MerchCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackCheck Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck out the Imposter Hour Podcast with Liz and GregFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrian 

So flounced forward now I'm writing this book about Cuba and my editor says, oh, your hero's not macho, Hispanic, Latin, tough enough. And I'm like, well, that's funny. I married a macho, Latin tough guy. So I went to my macho Latin tough guy and I said, I need you to help me with this book. So I would just literally follow him around our rooms while he was painting, read him dialogue. And he'd be like, oh, no, no, no, that's not what, you know,

not what Antonio would say. And so he would change the dialogue. This week, I got to talk with Linda Hurtado, Bon. who is the author of multiple series. The book we'll be talking about today is All the Missing Girls. And it is a fast-paced action thriller that takes place in Cuba. There's no way for TV news crime reporter Mari Alvarez to get back into Cuba except illegally. But with her estranged sister missing and likely under the control of the guy who killed her mama,

Mari has no choice but to enter the country on an unregistered boat in the dead of night. Now she has 48 hours to find her sister, take revenge on her mother's killer, and escape before the authorities even know she's there. But there's nothing simple about it. With few contacts and a trail of cryptic clues, Mari and Detective Tony Garcia, along with her photographer, are caught up in a maze of lies, deceptions, and a sinister undercurrent of Brueharia witchcraft. Every lead draws Mari further into a world of shadows, and it soon becomes clear that her sister isn't the only young woman who's gone missing. But there's no one here that they can trust. And as they close in on the horrifying truth, one thing becomes clear. No one

will let them leave Cuba alive. This is a nail biter if I ever read one. It is action-packed, and it will have you guessing until the very end. And I love talking with Linda about how her job as an anchor has influenced her writing and the inspiration for this book. So that being said, let's hear from Linda. So before we dive into all the missing girls, I did want to get to know a little bit about you, Linda. So when did you know you wanted to write a book or when were you like, I want to be an author? Gosh, that started really young. I think I've been writing. I was I was the nerd in high school that walked around with like the notebook under her arm and we're just in a pencil because we used pencils back in the day, you know, and just

And just write whenever I had a chance and I was, you know, I was writing a romance when I was, I didn't even know what romance was, you know, in middle school and high school. So I've always wanted to be a writer, but I never thought I could make a living as an author. I never occurred to me you could make enough money. So I went to journalism route, which was kind of a combination of everything I love anyway, you know, being, um, current events I love. I grew up in the theater. So there's a little bit of performance aspect in television news and, and you write. So it was kind of a combination. everything I loved. So that's kind of how I went into journalism. Yeah, that's awesome.

And how did, so you are a news anchor now, and it sounds like you've done some other jobs related to journalism. How does that, how does that affect your writing of fiction? Well, they go hand in hand. I did actually have to take a lot of classes in, because basically as a journalist, a television news journalist, I have to tell somebody's story in two minutes. That's it. So you're really whittling down a story into who, what, why, where, and when. That's it. The bare one.

So when now you're going to write a 400-page book, you have to learn a whole different type of prose and type of writing. I had to learn story structure. I had to learn what a three-act story structure was. I had to learn how to stretch out a story and dive into more emotion. And so I ended up going to a lot of writers conferences. And then taking online courses and still today, like sometimes on the way in to work, I'll listen to craft books like Story Genius by Lisa Kornis.

Yes. I love her. Or I'll listen to it on writing by Stephen King or Masterclass. Shonda Lines was the last one I listened to because I was putting together a TV pitch deck to try to sell my series. And so I wanted to listen to her because she's the ultimate movie writer, right? So I don't know. I'm always learning. You can always become a better writer. So they're different. Writing as a journalist and writing is a novelist or definitely different. Yeah, it is. Like you're, you kind of have to lean into the fact that there is a bigger attention span for a novel than for the news for sure. And maybe you don't know everything about writing. And so, you know, open your mind up to the fact that there's still a lot to learn. Yeah. That's kind of what I did. That's, it's, it's, it's, it's, also really cool. You mentioned story genius because we got connected through Jamie Lynn Hendricks. And I was telling you the way I got connected to Jamie Lynn Hendrix was Ashley Winstead.

And Ashley Winstead, when she was on this podcast, brought up how story genius is what she uses to write all of her books. So we've just got connections everywhere. Right. That was a game changer for me because what she wrote really made sense if you're a thriller writer. It's like how to it dip the brain so that people put the book down. and they have to turn the next page. And she came up with the formula that really works. And if Ashley's using it, that's just more confirmation that it works. But I use that too much for every scene in every chapter.

Yeah. I read it too. And I agree with everything you're saying. It's just like, because I've been working on a book as well. And yeah, it's daunting, but it's so fun. But having craft books, like, was so helpful for me. me because it helped me like understand like oh there you can be creative and then also here's something that you can like kind of follow and I love how story genius is like all about like the

external plot like always bring it back to the emotional change that's happening I love that part of story genius because that's why ultimately people read and I don't think it's you know you could make bombs go off and you know planes crash whatever because I'm and I say that because right now I'm reading worst case scenario by T.J. Newman. And so this is the biggest disaster book ever, right? Like it's huge. But I, on the way to work, almost cried today, listening to a scene where a father realized he was going to die after a crash involving this plane. And his son was the only survivor in the back seat. And he was to his son saying his goodbye. And I'm like, I can't believe in a play cash book, she's about to make me cry because it all comes to emotions,

Right? Like we all want to feel something. So that's why we read. And yes, the bombs go off and all those, the bad guys can chase you and the monsters can come out. People don't know anything. They're not going to care and they're not going to read. Yeah. Totally. And I feel like, yeah, sometimes like people think thrillers wouldn't be the spot for that. But like, you're feeling all kinds of things in a thriller normally. Yeah. So how did it? So it sounds like you. read some craft books. How did your writing process with fiction develop? So do you plot it out for the most part? Or do you pants it and just get writing? So I'm a control freak. So knowing that, what do you think I do? I'm going to guess you plot a little bit. I'm a total plotter, but I guess it's because I'm writing mysteries and I'm jobs. So for me, it's like I don't want to write a book and have to rewrite it.

So I sell my book to my publisher now on synopsis. And so I really have to write a pretty complete synopsis anyway. And that being said, there are times the book changes. Like either my editor will say, okay, the ending didn't work or this twist didn't work or add another red herring character and in a mystery or thriller with a mystery. If you change just a couple of things, if you tweak a couple of things, changes the whole book. So sometimes it doesn't really end up to be exactly what you plotted, but I don't know the bad guy and I need to know so I can lay the red herrings. So that's

that I do plot. Yeah. That's how I felt or feel with the one that I'm writing right now. But we keep bringing up Jamie Lynn Hendricks. It blows my mind that she's like, nope, I don't want to know. I just want to write and find out while I write. And she writes these amazing twisty books. And I'm like, my brain can't even wrap around it. So she's my neighbor. Also one of my really good friends, blurbed, blurbed this book for me. Yes. And not only does the fact that she pantses it all the time blow me away, but how prolific she is, like, she'll go into her bedroom and shut the door and go, oh, I just wrote 3,000 words. And I'm like, I hate you, which I don't. of course I love her.

Right. A thousand words, like, just like that. And, you know, for me, I'm, because I have a full-time job during the day, I'm, I'm jealous that she's got six thousand pounds down every day or whatever she's doing. But I'm jealous in a good way. We're buddies. Oh, yeah. I'm proud of her.

She's a great writer. Yeah. I remember her saying she's like, I just make my, I can't remember exactly what the number is, but she's like, I just make myself write 1,700 words every day. And then I'm like, all right, I can go do the rest of my day. I'm like, well, that sounds amazing. Yeah, yeah. In four, and there's so many distractions all day, you know,

so many things you could be doing. Right. Well, my next one is kind of a two-part question. I know I saw with your first series that you wrote, that it was actually kind of inspired by your own real life relationship. So can you tell us a little bit about that? And then what draws you to writing romantic thrillers? Right. So I guess I should say I have two different series out.

And the first series is just under Linda Bond. So they are standalone romantic suspense books. So they're kind of like a James Bond movie, right? You're going to know there's going to be action, adventure, a mystery, a car chase. You know, the girl gets kissed and, you know, and Bond solves a mystery in the end, right? Yeah. So the second book in that series is called. Cuba undercover and the reporter is kidnapped and goes to Cuba because the person who kidnapped her

needs a story to be told because the media is not a free media in Cuba and knows that this reporter won't go unless he forces her to but he makes an exchange with her for some information on her father who she thought was dead and he's not he's still in Cuba so it's that kind of adventure in Cuba but at the time I guess my editor is said that my hero wasn't macho enough. I guess I should back up. I'll get to get I'll get so I did go to Cuba as a reporter when Pope John Paul II went to visit Fidel Castro and I did a number of on families from Tampa and my husband's family was one of them and that's how I met my husband. So there is that personal connection. I met him while reporting in Cuba. So flouse forward now I'm

writing this book about Cuba and my editor says, oh your hero's not macho, his Latin, tough enough. And I'm like, well, that's funny. I married a macho Latin tough guy. So I went to my macho Latin tough guy and I said, I need you to help me with this book. And he was painting at the time. So I would just literally follow him around our rooms while he was painting, reading dialogue. And he'd be like, oh, no, no, no, that's not what, you know, not what Antonio would say. And so he would change the dialogue. And I would read him this description of what the male character was doing. He'd be like, no, I wouldn't. That's not. That's not. That's not. not what he would do. And so he helped me write the book, literally, by doing that. And he also helped

me, I think, learn to write better male characters because I think women write men the way we want men to be, right? Right. In general. But I guess my editor was looking for really a more macho guy the way that real Hispanic guy on the running Cuba would be. Yeah. And so it taught me a lot about writing male characters and it was fun. Do it together, actually. Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool.

That is kind of cool getting to collaborate that way. So a lot of your books, both of these series, actually include like Cuban or Cuban American culture. So can you talk a little bit about kind of like the importance of having that in your books? And like it sounds like some of it must be influenced by like working with your husband on it too. Absolutely. And of course my husband's family. So my dad's Hispanic, but his family came from Guatemala.

So my husband is Cuban. He was born in Cuba. And his mother, it raised all of them to speak Spanish, helped raise my kids while I was working. And they live in West Tampa, which is a Cuban-American community in large part. So we raised our family in the Cuban-American community. So when you read, especially the second series, which is all the broken girls and all the missing girls, like you go into the kitchen and you're going to smell the sofrito and the onions and the green peppers and you're going to hear the way the family talks to each other and I'm going to take you back

outside the garden and hidden in the corner for the santa ria altar that everybody knows is there but nobody really talks about and you certainly don't show your American friends that your mom's got an altar out back so really dive into the rich culture and I wanted I love the culture because it's so family-oriented And family takes care of family. You'll see that too in the books, how important family is. And I wanted to bring that to society because I don't, I love rich cultural books. Like, I love that when you're taken into a world that you don't currently live in and learn something about a person's culture. Ari Elvarez is a Cuban-American reporter and her love interest is a Cuban-American homicide detective, her best friend and partner.

her best friend and partner is African-American TV photographer. And I just love the fact that in my books, in my publisher-intangled, embraced it. In my books, you have a very culturally diverse cast of characters, and that was important to me. Yeah. It was really, it was kind of crazy how my reading lined up because I read The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali right before I read your books. And hers did the same thing where she talks really extensively about like being in the kitchen and the smells of their food and like the different food that they make. And also there was like a big emphasis on what the family structure is like as well.

And so then when I started reading your book, I was like, this is like different culture, but like kind of the same experience. And she also had a character that was like obsessed with the evil eye. And then like I read that in like the first chapter of your book. And I'm like, what is happening right now? This is crazy, but it is cool. It's cool getting to hear other cultures. I think it shows that although we're very different, aren't we all kind of the same? Yeah.

I love that. The world needs to hear more of that right now. I mean, we can eat different food and we can practice a different religion. But at the end of the day, we love our family. And the kitchen is where so much happens. And we're all afraid of people in whatever form you may think that it's going to come at you, whether it's the evil eye or if you're Cuban, you wear like, I have my evil eye bracelet on right now. Nice.

Or the Al-Satari charm, which is what Cuban mothers put on their babies. So someone who's wishing them ill will, even if it's an inadvertent, it's not intentional. They are protected from that. I think it's a beautiful thing. I'm so glad you brought that up because it shows that even though we're in different parts of the world, our hearts are the same. Yeah. Yeah. And that cool fact for anyone who's listening, that bracelet shows up on.

the cover of both of your books. I thought that was so cool. Yeah, that's awesome. So I know, like, all the missing girls was pretty much picking up from where all the broken girls ended up. But what was your inspiration for this storyline for this book? This is a really cool inspiration. So first of all, I do write all my books as standalone. They're a series, but I write them so they stand alone because I can't assume that someone that's picking up all the missing has read all the broken girls. So you'll be able to read them all individually, but they are the same characters going through life, right? So what inspired all the missing girls was one of my trips to Cuba. I went to this beach town outside of Savannah, and it's a real beach town. It's called

Fusterlandia, and this artist turned this town magically into a giant piece of artwork. Like the dentist office has mosaic tiles and pieces of art, and it looks like a piece of art. And the bench where you'd sit on the bus is a piece of art and just the whole town is his artwork and so in my mind of course as a writer i thought well that would be the perfect background a place like that not that place but a place like that um for people to disappear behind the wall so i changed the name and made it ocean via ocean being the goddess of fertility as santa ria saint or eisha actually and young girls are drawn there because they either pray for fertility or there's a wishing wall where you can leave a wish you know your greatest wish in life will come true if you posted on this wishing wall so it's

kind of a magical place and then while I was reading it as I was writing it my beta readers were telling me do you know you're writing horror and I'm like am I thought I was just writing a killer I've never written horror before so I started listening to Stephen King's The Shining and on writing obviously he's the go to horror just to try to figure out how to play that off because I've never written, I went from writing romantic suspense to serial killer thrillers and this one with the touch bar in it. And so again, I just studied one of the masters to try to bring a little touch of what he does. So it's not, because I think what he does it's so fabulous is it's not necessarily over the top. It's just enough to be chilling, but beautiful.

Like the shine, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I was, I was, I, I had an author John Fram on earlier in July, and he wrote a book that he was kind of saying the same thing, where he wasn't aiming to write a horror thriller, but there were just like the little aspects of it, especially kind of near the end of the book, which is similar to yours, where there's just like enough elements there where you're like, oh, this is, this is kind of horror, but it's not like what everyone thinks of when you just say horror, basically. So that's cool. I hope you find it a little creepy. Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah, reading it in the dark at night alone is proceed at your own risk. Yeah. So you've mentioned Santa Ria a little bit, and that is like a big

focus in the book as well. And it's kind of derived from an African religion and Catholic holicism kind of all together. So was that something you always knew about or did you kind of research to include that in this one? I knew a little bit about it. Certainly not enough. So I did research. At the University of South Florida, there is a religious professor, professor of religion. Is that the way you say it? Who's an expert in Santa Maria. So I asked her to read the book. I would call her with questions. It was really important for me since I don't personally practiced Santaria to make sure that it was on, you know, was spot on and respectful. Because Santaria is not, you know, Santaria is used for good. And it was really developed,

as I have been told, by many African Americans who came to Cuba so that they could practice their religion, even though maybe their owners at the time they were slaves, wanted them to be Catholics. So a lot of the Auretias, they gave Catholic names to like Chango, as St. Barbara. And so you can see the statue of St. Barbara, but when they pray to it, they're actually praying to their Orisha Chango. So I thought it was actually a very brilliant way to stay true to themselves and at the same time, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's really cool. Also, the story kind of focuses around like sisterhood and how you, like, what you're willing to do, to like save someone that you love as much as your sister.

Did you always know that the story was going to be kind of about that bond? Yeah, because again, family in the Cuban American household, families, everything. So my main character, Mari, loses her mother and her father and all the broken girls. Also, family member who I want to make because I know people have read it. Yeah. So now you get into all the missing girls and it's literally just Mari and her sister Izzy. But they're estranged. Izzy is, you know, on the run, and Mari's determined to bring her back before something happens to her,

and then she's, you know, on this earth all alone. And so there's really a desperation, along with the determination to find her sister and bring her back, because it's her last living family member. And so some of the crazy things and dangerous things they do in Cuba is motivated by that. It's like, it's almost like, well, what do I have to live for if I don't find her? because I don't, you know, Marie's single. She'd like to have a relationship with this homicide detective, but he keeps kind of pushing her away.

And so this is her family. And at the end of the day, she's willing to do just about anything to save her sister. Yeah, yeah. Those are always, I know a lot of listeners I've even talked to, who love like the sister relationship or like even just like friend relationships being like, like two women in relationship. being at the core of books. So it is like, it's very compelling to read, I think, I think as we all relate to it a little bit. Right. You want that love. You want that bond that you don't get to pick your family.

But one thing you do is that it's an unconditional love. Like even if they piss you off, you're going to go to back. Right? Yeah. Like, because they're family and we're going to protect family. I might yell at you later on or at home and the door shut, but I'm going to, I'm going to depend you because you are my sister, right? And the second thing, you know, family is, and you could, vice versa, you could call up a family member and they're going to help you, even if they're going to lecture you while they do it.

They're still going to help. Right? It's, it's that thought that there's somebody in the world that you can depend on. Even if they're not going to let you down. So you mentioned that Mari's willing to do some dangerous things to figure out where her sister is. how do you approach writing action scenes? Is it kind of like all in your head or do you have to like lock it out?

How do you do that? So I tend to write very cinematically or maybe made for TV because I work in TV. And when I write on a day to day to day's basis, I mean, I am stripping everything down to the bare minimum as we talked about. So for me, and as a television news reporter, you shoot the video first. And so you write the story to the video that you have. So for me, writing has always been a very visual thing. And so I see it in my head. I've always assumed that these two books and the third book I'm writing that goes in this series,

The Phantom Pirate of Gasparilla, are going to end up on either TV or on the big screen. Like, I've always just assumed that because it were written that way. Like they were written to be movies. And when I turned in my last synopsis for The Phantom Pirate, my publisher said to me, wow, this book is very cinematic. it because I do see it in my head. Even when I'm just writing the synopsis, I write it on the, White Snyder, Save the Cat, Three Story Act structure frame.

Yes. Like in there. And again, I visualize everything. So I don't really lock out an action scene. I just visualize what it would look like in my head or what it would look like on the TV screen and kind of go from there. There's a lot of action in this book, which is why I hope I don't like it because, you know, men tend to like a book with a lot of action in it. Yes.

Particularly in this book, there is a lot of action. There is. Yeah. So we talked about kind of how with your other series, it was a little bit loosely inspired, but from your life. Is there anything, what, is there anything in Mari that is like, that is from you? Like, is there some of you in Mari? Or was she kind of separate and entirely? Well, she's a separate person, but there's certainly, of course, some of my characteristics.

She's very determined. She's headstrong and probably does things that she's not supposed to. I've been known to do that at a time of two. If you asked my husband, he'll tell you, I'm, I'm, you know, very independent, headstrong. And as you'll definitely see that in Mari. I think to be a good reporter, especially an investigative journalist, you have to have some cahawis like you have to have some balls right because yeah um you're gonna piss people

off you're gonna ask the hard questions you're gonna go where you're not supposed to to get the video until you're asked to leave um there'll be times that you don't break the law you know where the line is but you're going to walk right up and put your toes right on that line until someone tell you to move so yeah that kind of gutziness i wanted to bring to the character because that's a that's a real especially in today's media environment where there's, you know, a lot of angry people out there. And some people are not a big fan of the media or journalists or reporters anymore. Although, in my opinion, I have a free democracy. You don't have a free country unless you have a free media or a free business.

You know, my personal means. I will defend these headstrong reporters till the day I die. Yes. And we love a headstrong woman over here on the podcast and a vengeful one too. I think that's like the byline is like they took her sister. She'll take revenge. I was like, everybody's going to love this. Actually, you know, I'm working for this TV.

I'm working on a TV pitch desk because my publisher actually is going to pitch this for TV series. Fingers crossed everybody. And so the byline, the log line, whatever you want to call it, is seek justice. but what is it? Revenge. But serve revenge. Seek justice but serve revenge. In other words

there's a fine line between justice and revenge, isn't there? Yeah. Oh yeah. So this series explores that in all three books. It explores it does one person's justice become another person's trauma. And it went to end.

So that's our three books for that be. Yeah, that is so cool. Well, hopefully we'll all be crossing our fingers for a TV adaptation or movie. I'm assuming either would be, would be good. I would say yes, either, yes. Yeah, totally. It would be fun to see Mari come to life and become this person that people can follow like a Bosch or a Jack Ryan. And, um, yes. Oh, I love Jack Ryan. I do. Um, that would, yeah, that would be very cool for sure. So, um, it sounds like you are a reader, too. And I've been asking people at the end, if they've read anything recently that they loved.

So I want to read too women right now, um, her worst case in a yes, he's a fantastic action writer. Oh, it's just so good. Got the emotion down pat too. Yeah. And I read, okay, so you can tell the kind of books I like, because the book I read before then is James Patterson and Michael Crichton's eruption, which I loved that too. So I really think my next series of books after I get done with this series are going to be those high-octane action-adventure thrillers. And I'm even talking with the idea of writing under the pen name L.H. Bond. So Linda Bond writes romantic suspense.

Linda Hurtado Bond writes serial killer thrillers or thrill. LH, those big cinematic moves. movie type action adventure thrillers, like a Michael or James Patterson or T.J. Newman. And because that's honestly at the end of the day where I love to read. Just those big. Yeah. Yeah. I have that same experience. I read it comes out on September 1st, but fatal intrusion by Isabella Maldonado and Jeffrey Deaver. And it's kind of similar. Yeah. It has like action. It has serial killer. It has like

police procedural. It has thriller elements. I can't remember if I already said there are hackers involved. Like there's so much going on and I was like, I need to read more books like this. Like it's so easy to get totally addicted to them. So my next book, so you're talking about hackers, the phantom pirate Gasparilla. I wanted to talk about artificial intelligence because as a journalist, it's really a problem. Artificial. I think that there are there are great uses for artificial intelligence and there's no way to

around it it's here we all got to learn how to use it right incorporated in the early life but these deep fake videos and audios are so good now and so i wanted to play with the idea what if a serial killer was targeting a reporter that outed him by making deep fate videos and audio clips and making them go viral through hacking skill and putting her at the scene of crimes and taking her from hero to villain to the point where she could even get arrested and lose her freedom. It's totally possible to do today. Wow. And you don't even have to be a skilled hacker to do it.

So I interviewed a lot of cyber security law enforcement experts to find out what it is that cops are using AI for today. What are reporters using AI for today? What are criminals using it and how, right? And how it really mess up your life in a matter of, days and you would be able to stop it. So that's what and then the phantom pirate of Gasparilla because I've always wanted to write a book that takes place during Tampa's Gasparola. Do you know, are you familiar with that?

Mm-mm. I'm not. It's a month-long festival in Tampa based on the legend of Jose Gaspar, a pirate. And there's this land invasion of boats that come up Tampa Bay. And then these men and women dressed as pirates, and I mean full out dressed, makeup, outfits, they invade the city of Tampa. And then they party for a month. So there's parades, there's music festival, there's masquerade balls, there's, you know, there's an art festival. It's just a, it's an excuse to party for a month. But my thinking was, if you're a killer, what a great way to come into the city and hide in plain sight. Everybody's dressed up. Everybody's partying a little tipsy. Everybody's having a good time. And there's 200,000 people in one place at one time. How are they going to catch you? And it's also a good place to cause chaos if that's what you're looking to do. So, yeah. So that's the third book in the series is the Phantom Cardiff Gasparal. And that comes out February 10th. Oh, nice.

I love that premise. That is, I love when you, when authors do kind of like pull really relevant subjects and then apply it to whatever genre, the writing, that sounds awesome. Yeah. People need to know what A&I can do.

You know, it's got its uses and it's not going away and I have much respect for it. But it could destroy. That's the, Yeah, totally. Yeah, kind of like everything. Same thing with like the internet in general. Sometimes it's great because you can connect with people. And then other times it's terrible because you do the opposite of connecting with people. Yeah. And still get your money from your bank before you even know, you know, so. Right. Good and evil, right? Yes. It's always there. Well, since you, since we've heard all of these future plans of yours, where can people follow you to stay up to date with it?

Yes, so there's two ways. Author Linda Bond on social. So on Instagram, I'm author, Linda Hurtado Bond, and on Twitter author Linda Bond and and easy, right, to Bond. Yeah. My TV reporter social media is Linda Hurtado. Fox 13's Linda Hurtado.

And they kind of cross over because I have a segment on my show called Tampa Bay Reads where I interview authors, like I just interviewed T.J. Newman and I got Don Bentley coming up. and just interviewed a nonfiction writer today on 100 things to do in Sarasota before you die. So I love that I have this platform that I can use to, like you, help other authors and interview other authors. So there's a crossover.

Follow Linda Bond and Linda Hurtado. Nice. Well, I will put those links in the show notes. And thank you so much for talking with me today. Thank you. It's been a joy. You're wonderful. And I'm so glad Jamie Lynn hooked us up.