Linda Ballou
AUTHOR

Linda Ballou

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Writing for My Life
My writing is not just a rewarding creative expression. It is my way of sorting out who I am, a healing mechanism, and a way to cope with the challenges that come my way. At the tender age of thirteen, I was rudely uprooted and transplanted from Southern California to Haines, Alaska, a tiny town at the top of the Inside Passage. In this isolated valley, I turned to books for company, walking in nature for solace, and journaling my reflections. The Chilkat River valley, teeming with wildlife, remains one of the most beautiful places I’ve experienced in my lifetime of travels.
When I turned 18, I returned to California to attend college in Los Angeles. I put myself through university selling real estate. I earned a degree in English Literature and graduated, exhausted and disillusioned by the materialistic society I lived in. I dropped out of society and landed on the North Shore of Kauai to think about it all and test my writing ability
It was here that I met the heroine of my first novel Wai-nani: A Voice from Old Hawai’i. Ka’ahumanu, the favorite wife of Kamehameha the Great, remains a controversial character in Hawaiian history. She was a childless bride who became his confidante and companion. When he died, he bestowed upon her the power to rule with his son. She was a magnificent athlete, brave, passionate, and caring, dubbed the “Mother of the People”. She embodied the empowered, self-actualized woman that I so admired and wanted to become.
Publishing Wai-nani was a monumental step forward in my writing life. I had to be brave like Ka’ahumanu and lift the dragon’s tail of fear from my path. It meant taking the risk of failure and possible rebuke from Hawaiian scholars. It moved me towards personal liberation and believing in myself as a writer. It required taking responsibility for having a voice and becoming part of the “Long Conversation”.
I returned to California, where I supported my eating habit by selling real estate. I took up horseback riding. My mare was my best friend. We rode the hills and dales around our barn, entered jumping events, and became a team. One day, while riding her, I felt a tingle in my lower back. The next day, I was down for the count with a herniated disk. I was forced to give up my Gingersnap and the riding world.
The nerve pain was mind-bending, but the thought of losing my mare and the horse world I was so invested in was devastating. I couldn’t sit for any length of time, so I stood at my breakfast bar to write The Cowgirl Jumped Over the Moon. Writing the story took my mind off the nagging sciatic pain in my legs.
Eventually, I healed. I put the love of horseback riding, writing, and travel to work and became an adventure travel writer. For the past couple of decades, I have enjoyed traveling around the globe hosted by various outfitters.
When the pandemic set in for the kill, my travel wings were clipped. At first, I was angry about not being able to continue the life I loved, but once again, my writing saved my life. Isabella Bird, an intrepid Victorian Age explorer, ventured to parts of the world where they had never seen a white woman. I had long admired her pluck and writing skills. I determined to fictionalize her life and times in Hawai’i and Colorado. The result, Embrace of the Wild, was featured on the BBC docuseries Trailblazers that aired in the U.K. in 2022. Writing this book got me through two years of isolation and brought exciting new exposure to my work.
In retrospect, I see how my writing has been my coping mechanism, a means of fulfillment, and a form of self-actualization. I released Lost Angel Unleashed, the third book in my Lost Angel Travel Trilogy, in 2023. In it, I share my lonesome beginnings with some of my favorite travel memories.
I live in the Santa Monica Mountains in southern California, where I enjoy the tranquility and the beauty of nature all around me. I believe that being in nature can be our salvation.
Sincerely,
Linda Ballou
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