About Ann Lineberger
Ann Lineberger is the author of Sunday Best (2018), The Adjustments (Full Fathom Five Digital, 2016) and New Spaces, Old World Charm (McGraw-Hill, 2004). Ann has worked as a reporter, editor, and writer for numerous publications, including Fortune, Entertainment Weekly, Cottages & Gardens, and Home Remodeling. She earned a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication from New York University and an associate’s degree from the New York School of Interior Design. Her independent studies program undergraduate degree is from Providence College. She enjoys spending time with her family, friends, and dogs, yoga, running, photography, reading, and escaping to Maine in the summers. In addition to writing, Ann is trained and has worked as an interior designer and realtor. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, two daughters, and two adorable mutts.
Read BookTrib’s reviews of Ann’s books, Sunday Best and The Adjustments.
Sunday Best (2018)
The Adjustments (2016)
New Spaces, Old World Charm (2004)
Biggest literary influencers:
John Kennedy Toole, David Sedaris, Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, Endora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Toni Morrison, William Styron, Michael Cunningham, James Frey, Jonathon Franzen, Laine Moriarty, Kathryn Stockett, Alice Sebold, Annie Proulx, Mary, Karr, Jeannette Walls, Kate DiCamillo, Polly Horvath, Mo Williams, and Roahl Dahl
Last book read:
Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty. I’m currently reading Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart
The book that changed your life:
The New Journalism (Picador, 1975), an anthology edited by Tom Wolfe and E.W. Johnson. My sophomore year in college I enrolled in a class that studied the work of writers that fall into the category of “New Journalism”, a term coined by the late Tom Wolfe, and The New Journalism was one of the textbooks. Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Michael Herr, Joe Eszterhas, Hunter S. Thompson, and Joan Didion are included in the anthology. New Journalism presents news in a lively and colorful way by seamlessly blending traditional on-scene reporting and novelistic techniques. It reads like the cinema and therefore can reach and inform a wider audience than conventional reporting. I had always been an avid reader and thought about becoming a writer, but it wasn’t until I read the work of these writers that I understood how I wanted to write.
Your favorite literary character:
I have three: Falstaff of Shakespeare’s Henry the IV and several of his other plays, Ignatius Reilly of Confederacy of Dunces, and Kenny Powers of the HBO series Eastbound & Down. They’re all terribly flawed misfits. Falstaff, Ignatius, and Kenny are self-destructive, gluttonous, vain, boastful, debauched, bawdy, and cowardly. They are also highly intelligent and hilarious. The situations they get into and their antics are always entertaining.
Currently working on:
A series of upmarket cozy comic mysteries titled Mrs. Alice Lee’s Detective Agency, which takes place mainly in New England and is a combination of three genres: mystery, chick lit, and satire. I’m also working on a memoir that is a collection of essays and short stories similar in style to comic yet occasionally tragic writings of David Sedaris. Lastly, I’m writing a series of humorous children’s books titled Lizzie & Ann. Lizzie is based on my older sister and in the books she does everything wrong, and I do everything right.
Words to live by:
Be kind even when writing about your family.
Advice to new and aspiring authors:
Read Stephen King’s On Writing, and take note of his Top Twenty Tips for Writers.
Testimonials
” “Ann Lineberger’s new novel, not a sequel to her previous effort, the highly-recommended The Adjustments, returns to the hidden, unseemly aspects of Fairfield County, Connecticut. As a Nutmegger, I was immediately drawn into her world and sly observations. It’s obvious Lineberger knows the territory and its proclivity to obscure the unseemly under perfectly manicured exteriors. This book takes on murder, swingers and a wacky religious cult – things one wouldn’t readily associate with the tonier suburbs of New York. A fun page-turner, the more lurid aspects of the tale are offset by the author’s quirky humor and eye for architecture and fashion in a world that values such things (and hides behind them). Sunday Best kept me guessing with its twists and turns. You should read it!”
- ~ Jacques Lamarre, playwright
” “Ann Lineberger cooks up a devilishly delicious blend of yoga, sexcapades, McMansions, videotapes, and a roaring bonfire of intrigue in The Adjustments, as she rips open the underbelly of contemporary suburban life. This scalding novel speaks to one indelible truth: people are rarely who or what they seem to be.”
- ~ Mark Rubinstein, award-winning author of The Lovers’ Tango
” “Are those well-heeled suburbanites flocking to their fancy yoga classes because they’re honestly searching for inner peace–or for something more exciting? You’ll find the scandalous answer in The Adjustments, a scorching page-turner that shows how a Connecticut town can be as hot as L.A. or Miami.”
- ~ Alan Deutschman, author of A Tale of Two Valleys: Wine, Wealth, and the Battle for the Good Life in Napa and Sonoma
” “Ann Lineberger has written a unique, intriguing, intense, captivating, suspenseful and entertaining novel. Sunday Best makes you think about what should provide happiness, love, and hope. I would recommend this novel for those readers who enjoy satire and mystery.”
- ~ Lindas Book Obsession