Sena Zimmer asked Linda Holeman:

I loved The Linnet Bird, and wonder how much time you have spent in India? I truly felt like I was there and loved your descriptions of the country and it's people. After reading that book, my first of yours I have 3 more. I love women's survival books and your are the top of my list.

Linda Holeman Hi Sena,
Thanks for your question, and for your kind words. Interestingly, I hadn't been to either Calcutta or Simla when I wrote The Linnet Bird. I was a single mother and couldn't leave home for a long exploration/research trip at that point. So all my descriptions of those places in India were written exclusively through my own endless and almost obsessive reading - both fiction and non-fiction. But then later, after the publication of The Linnet Bird but during writing The Moonlit Cage and making notes for In a Far Country, I did go to India and spent a glorious month travelling through various areas. Now I have come to realize that in the writing of historic fiction (at least for me) it helps to start my research at home. Once I'm into the novel, I understand what, exactly, I want and need to know about the country I'm writing about, so I can narrow down my travel search. I love the fact that I have found a way to combine my two great loves: writing and travel. Thanks again, Linda

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