Hi, I’m Linda Jo Martin. I was born in Oakland in 1952, and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area towns of El Cerrito and El Sobrante.

I love to read. I realized I had a problem back in first grade when my teacher couldn’t find any more Dick and Jane books I hadn’t already read. I switched to biographies and Nancy Drew while in elementary school. My mother gave me a copy of Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell, which left a lasting impression of what good writing can be.

In high school I kept a notebook for a variety of writing projects and in early adulthood, started to journal. I also carried on heavy correspondence with dozens of pen pals and remember many times they encouraged me by making positive comments about my writing abilities and interesting letters. If you are a former pen pal of mine, please do not hesitate to email me.

I attended Shasta Community College in Redding, California, graduating with an AA degree in Early Childhood Education in 1977. I also attended College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California, graduating with an AS degree in Legal Assisting in 1991.

For over twenty years while having and raising babies I made multiple unsuccessful attempts at writing novels. During this time I wrote quite a few short stories, poems, songs, memoirs, diatribes, legal documents, opinion editorials, and articles. One short story, Little Crocus, was published in Brilliant Star children’s magazine. Some of my articles were published in newspapers.

My children and I enjoyed lots of middle grade and young adult novels which I read out loud to them while we were homeschooling. I now often write in these genres. I also read and love historical fiction, mysteries, mainstream, literary, and classic novels. I read lots of non-fiction too.

My current goal is to revise my novels and submit them to publishers. I continue to write short stories, novels, and non-fiction, and to study every aspect of the fiction-writing craft.

Today I live in a cabin-like house in the middle of the Klamath National Forest in Northern California, twenty miles south of the Oregon border. I share this home with my best friend, a black dog named Bear, and two precious cats.