Patricia McLinn
Patricia McLinn (born in Illinois) is the author of more than 40 novels in the genres of romance, women's fiction and mystery fiction.
Biography Patricia McLinn attended Northwestern University, where she obtained her BA in English Composition in only three years. She continued at Northwestern, obtaining her Masters's in Journalism in her fourth year.
McLinn began her journalism career as a sports writer for the Rockford Register Star (Illinois). She went on to become the assistant sports editor at The Charlotte Observer (North Carolina) before moving on to The Washington Post. In more than 20 years at the Washington Post, she was copy chief for the sports department and an editor for the news service, among other positions.
McLinn began seriously writing as a break from chipping away at layer upon layer of wallpaper in a home improvement frenzy. According to McLinn, she began pursuing publication after hearing a talk by a writer who introduced her to the Washington, D.C. Chapter of Romance Writers of America.
In 1990, McLinn published her first novel, Hoops for Silhouette. Hoops was a RITA award finalist and won the New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf Award. Since then, McLinn has published an additional 40 books. Hoops, as well as books such as The Games (Winter Olympics) and Rodeo Nights, call on McLinn's background as a sports writer. Research trips to Wyoming have resulted in several of McLinn's subsequent romance series being set in that rugged state, as she discussed in a recent The Joys of Binge Reading podcast.
McLinn has written for Harlequin Enterprises, Delphi Books, and Belle Books, as well as independent e-publishing through A Writer's Work, and the usual array of commercial outlets. She has spoken about writing from Melbourne, Australia, to Washington, D.C., including being a guest speaker at the Smithsonian Institution.
She started a mystery series, Caught Dead in Wyoming, in 2012 with Sign Off, a finalist for the EPIC Mystery eBook award. The latest Caught Dead in Wyoming novel, Cold Open (Book 7), released in August 2018, and an eighth book, Hot Roll, released in spring of 2019. A new mystery with romance, set in Virginia and titled, Proof of Innocence, was published in May 2018. A sequel to that book, Price of Innocence, was published in 2021.
In 2018, McLinn started a podcast, called Authors Love Readers. The podcast, hosted by McLinn, is described as a weekly conversation between authors about how and why they create stories. Guest authors write in all sorts of fiction genres and take varied paths to publication – independent, traditional, hybrid and other combinations.
On The Web
Books
Series/Related Titles
Recognitions
- 1991 RITA Award Finalist - First Book, Hoops
