Based in Santa Barbara, California, Linda is a writer of short fiction and nonfiction, currently at work on a sprawling, tragi-comic road trip novel. A member of the Wiyot Tribe, Table Bluff Reservation, she plans eventually to incorporate Wiyot history into a novel set in the redwood forests of northern California.
Her past employment has been useful in preparing her for the writing life. She once worked at an airplane parts factory, soldering miles of brightly colored wires to circuit boards. Each day meant burnt fingers and lumpy boards, which failed to pass inspection. Perfect training for coping with literary rejection. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in entomology (that’s insects not words) she completed an internship in Public Health Vector Control where, among other unenviable tasks, she combed the pelts of dead sewer rats. Not, as you may think, to beautify them for open casket funerals, but to check for fleas and lice. There was also a brief romance with carpentry and power tools, which ended with a sawdust allergy.
Linda, the mother of three grown sons, lives with her Aussie husband and a Cairn terrier, who flunked out of obedience school.