Linked by Penny Benjamin

by | Mar 3, 2022 | Author | 1 comment

Thank you to the Author’s Lounge for giving me the opportunity to meet you all and share a bit about my life and my debut novel ‘Linked’.

I was born and raised in central Alberta. I grew up on my parent’s farm west of Drayton Valley, VerDon Rainbow Valley Ranch, had the largest herd of permanent buckskin horses in the world. My mother, a chef, started Country Style catering and my father, a welder, had Vern’s Welding. Having the three family run businesses instilled a strong work ethic into us from a young age.

My mother taught us that reading, and writing were an escape. I wrote songs, poetry, and short stories mostly for myself, and most remained in my head. Some however were written and entered by the school into contests where my efforts were recognized and subsequently published in the local newspaper. I never thought of myself as a writer, just a kid who lived in her head, and made things up to pass the time.

I always loved books, we had volume collections of Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Hardy Boys Mysteries. Although I no longer remember the feel of their spines in my hand or their pages in my fingers, I know deep down they were a big part of my life.

As I got older, my reading interests branched out, fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, and romance. I loved authors Catherine Coulter, Jane Feather and Virginia Henley to name a few.

I tried to share my love of escaping into another world by reading with my kids. Their imagination flourished with the Septimus Heap stories by Angie Sage, Lord of the rings and the Hobbit by JRR Tolkien and countless others by Terry Pratchett

Around 2004-2005 I wrote two novels, Linked and A Widow’s Kiss. My mom read and edited them and encouraged me to get them published. When she died, the wind left me and the desire to share was placed with the need to hide myself from the big bad world. My sons grew into fantastic young gentlemen and with their encouragement I decided in 2019 to get them published.

Linked was released January 31, 2022, and A Widow’s Kiss is expected later this year.

When the publisher sent me a copy of Linked and I held it in my hand, that was the first time I dared to think of myself as a writer, and possibly an author.

The mind has always held a fascination for me. I guess in a lot of ways we miss what we have lost. When I was 16, I suffered a bad car accident, suffered two collapsed lungs and a torn spleen and was unconscious for two weeks. Coming out the other side of that, I had found that a lot of my memories were gone only scattered fragments of what should have been there.

For many years afterward I don’t even remember dreaming, but when I became pregnant with my first son the flood gates opened. I didn’t regain my lost memories, but I did begin to dream, vivid, reoccurring and sometimes troubling. I researched deeper into the subject in an effort to understand my own subconscious thoughts.

Researching became addictive and one thing led to another. The meaning of dreams to various dream states, lucid dreaming, shared dreams, and past life ties through dreaming. I wrote poems about dreaming and when what I wanted to say no longer fit in the confines of a poem, I wrote Linked.

Linked is written for anyone 16+ who likes, romance, contemporary, historical, or paranormal stories. Linked should have a little something for all. I hope that readers can escape while letting them see inside the world of dreams and perhaps allowing them to find the answers to their own reoccurring dreams should they have them. May Emma’s story show them there are always connections and that confronting ones’ tragedies, can make anyone come out stronger on the other side.

Linked is about a young woman who after suffering a series of setbacks in her life, childhood shyness, teenage rape, and now this most recent tragedy deaths of her family, Emma is in a downward spiral. In her alcohol-induced haze, she finds strength in the most unexpected of places. At first, she did not realize what was happening or why. Now she is starting to understand, but can a little girl from another time and a man she just met give her a future?

Why don’t you find out.

Available worldwide online and in select stores. Digital and paperback.

1 Comment

  1. Kate

    hello Penny. this is the lady that used to teach you to ride bareback in the ring on the ranch for rodeo queen. yep…brandi, trav and Whitson. mom.
    was thinking about your mom this morning and I finally found you. so proud of what you have accomplished in your life.
    sad to hear that mom is gone though. I have always missed her…
    anyhow wishing you the best in your career and life.
    love and light

    Reply

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