The Fun of Multiple Personalities

Hi everyone. Alice here, and it's with great pleasure that I get to introduce you to one of my favorite people, Linda O. Johnston. I first met Linda in Denver, Colorado at a national RWA meeting. We both had the same editor and went to lunch together. The most memorable moment of that lunch was when we all started talking about "Where were you when..." moments. Linda and I mentioned John Kennedy and what we were doing when we heard about his death and how devastating it was... our editor chimed in with the fact she used to see him around NYC ... it took a heartbeat for Linda and I (the same age) to realize our editor (several years younger) was talking about John Kennedy Jr. after the plane crash that took his life. We were talking about his father, the assassinated president of the USA.

Linda is a wonderful writer, a lawyer, and a devoted lover of her pups. When we met, she also wrote Intrigues, but she has since branched out into exciting new adventures. Please help me welcome Linda O. Johnston!




My name is Linda O. Johnston, and I’m delighted to have been invited to guest blog here at the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA site. I have been a member of RWA for many years and love the organization. I live in L.A. and belong to two chapters: Los Angeles Romance Authors and the Orange County Chapter of RWA.

This is a busy year for me. I write in multiple genres, and will have four books (my books # 21-24!) and one e-novella published this year. My most current one, a June release, is a Silhouette Nocturne: BACK TO LIFE. It’s the story of a K-9 cop who has Valkyrie powers of restoring life to people close to death... sometimes. She saves a sexy SWAT officer early in the story, and the repercussions are nearly too hot to handle!

I also had another Nocturne published in January, ALPHA WOLF, part of my Alpha Force series about a super secret military force of shapeshifters. ALPHA WOLF features a hunk of a soldier who shifts into a wolf, and the lady veterinarian who saves his life. Yes, I guess lifesaving females are a theme running through some of my stories! My Nocturne Bites, also published in January, was an e-novella called CLAWS OF THE LYNX, featuring a member of Alpha Force who shifts into--what else?--a lynx.

So why do I believe I have multiple personalities? Well, in addition to the dark and sexy Nocturnes, I write light cozy mysteries--the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter series. The Kendra stories are written in first person, and she’s distressed by being a murder magnet. She and many of her friends become murder suspects, so she has to solve the mysteries to clear their names. And, yes, the stories all involve animals. Kendra happens to have a tricolor Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Lexie, and coincidentally, I do, too. We both also live in the Hollywood Hills, and we are both lawyers. Of course her law practice is a lot more interesting than mine. She’s a litigator, and I’m a transactional type, specializing in real estate. Another difference is that she’s also an avid pet-sitter, and loves it. Plus, I fortunately don’t stumble over dead bodies.

One of Kendra’s stories, NEVER SAY STY, was an April release, and the next, HOWL DEADLY, will be published in December. NEVER SAY STY features potbellied pigs, and HOWL DEADLY involves baby wolves at a wildlife sanctuary. I’m also working on a spinoff series from the Kendra books that will involve a pet rescuer introduced in HOWL DEADLY.

My legal career is the other factor to my multiple personality. I also write contracts. They’re much dryer than my fiction... although some people would say that contracts are just another form of fiction. Either way, it’s a tangent I enjoy.

So how about you? Do you find that your love of writing and/or reading fills your life with multiple personalities?

Please come visit me at my website: www.LindaOJohnston.com
I also blog weekly, on Thursdays, at www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com