Linda O. Johnston

Linda O. Johnston's first published fiction appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for Best First Mystery Short Story of the Year. Since then, Linda has had several more short stories published, plus eleven romance novels, including romantic suspense for Harlequin Intrigue, and a novella. Her short story "Love on Sunset Boulevard" is included in the Sisters in Crime, Los Angeles Chapter's anthology Murder on Sunset Boulevard.

A practicing attorney, Linda juggles her busy schedule between mornings of writing briefs, contracts and other legalese, and afternoons of creating memorable tales of romantic suspense and other fiction. Armed with an undergraduate degree in journalism with an advertising emphasis from Pennsylvania State University, Linda began her versatile writing career running a small newspaper, then working in advertising and public relations, and later obtaining her JD degree from Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh.

Linda has taught romance writing at California State University Northridge College of Extended Learning. She has also spoken at several chapters of the Romance Writers of America and other writers' groups, libraries and bookstores.

Linda is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and also belongs to Romance Writers of America, participating in the Los Angeles, Orange County, and Kiss of Death (romantic suspense) chapters.

Linda's mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime featurs Kendra Ballantyne, Esq., pet-sitter. Kendra is an attorney who lives in the hills above the San Fernando Valley with her tricolor Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Lexie. Linda is also an attorney who lives in the hills overlooking the Valley, and her tricolor Cavalier just happens to be named Lexie.

Linda is currently working on a spin-off series from her Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series about Lauren Vancouver, a pet rescuer who is introduced in HOWL DEADLY. She is also working on additional Silhouette Nocturnes in the Alpha Force shapeshifter series that started with ALPHA WOLF and the Nocturne Bites "Claws of the Lynx," which is contained in the print anthology AWAKENING THE BEAST.

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