Linda Kay Hardie may appear as the classic cat lady, but a conversation quickly revealed the deadly mind for dastardly deeds that she applies to her fiction. Hardie is vice president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and is an award-winning author who has appeared in many anthologies, four in 2024 and three in 2023. She writes crime, horror, and fantasy stories but no romance. She tried once, and everyone ended up dead. Tragic. When not writing adult short stories, she writes stories and books for children, ages 2 to 12. Linda writes recipes and is the reigning Spam champion for Nevada (yes, the tasty treat canned mystery meat) for her blue-ribbon recipe. Her first writing award was in fifth grade, when she won a first place trophy for an essay on fire safety. In 2022, she was honored with the Sierra Arts Foundation Literary Arts Award for fiction. Linda is a member of Short Mystery Fiction Writers, Horror Writers Association, Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, and Cat Writers’ Association. She has a master’s in English from the University of Nevada, Reno, where she makes a living as a freelance writer and as staff working for Abyssinian cats. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome / Introduction 3:00 A Knack for Dastardly Deeds 7:15 Tech from the Early Days 11:35 Word Perfect and Open Office 15:25 Tech Refined but not New 21:00 Writing Stories, Short vs. Long 27:50 Brainstorming / the Subconscious 30:30 Charity Anthologies 35:30 Independent Bookstores 38:40 Closing Total Run Time = 39:41 LINKS Website  https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/620-writers-on-writing-linda-kay-hardie.html Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)