Biography
Sharon Linnéa is a bestselling novelist and award-winning biographer.
Sharon grew up in a home in which stories were appreciated and shared. Her mom was the principal and teacher at the local one-room schoolhouse in Hustonville, Illinois. Her dad, pastor of the First Baptist Church as well as the local high school bandleader, specialized in doing voices and telling tales. As they moved to larger churches in towns around Chicago, the local kids used to love riding to school with Sharon and her brother Stephen, as Bill had them convinced there was a boy named Bertram who lived under the bench seat and told jokes.
From a young age, Sharon had multiple worlds available to enter, stocked with friends real and imagined—like choosing a novel to play in for the day (or entering the multiverse before Marvel figured it out). Once she realized that, by writing the stories down, she could enjoy them again and again, a writer was born. Her first play was produced when she was in fourth grade, her first play for a general audience when she was in sixth.
After attending Wheaton College for two years, yes, in Jim Young's workout theater group—she transferred to NYU and with slight terror, headed for the big city. There she was a book editor for William Morrow and Taplinger, a staff writer and celebrity ghost for four national magazines, was co-author and editor of the book series Chicken Soup for the Soul, and was the founding Inspiration Producer for Beliefnet.com, and was a staff writer for Vision, the original iteration of the Hallmark Channel. The only time she used her original surname, Webber, was when she wrote Spidey Super Stories for Marvel and Children's Television Workshop. Because who, besides a webber, would write Spider-Man?
Sharon plunged into book writing with biographies Princess Kaiulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People about Hawaii's last crown princess, which won the Carter G. Woodson award "for distinguished books that treat topics related to ethnic minorities and race relations sensitively and accurately." She also wrote Raoul Wallenberg, the Man Who Stopped Death, which the Museum of Tolerance called "one of the definitive books about the Holocaust."
Her first trilogy of thrillers, Chasing Eden, Beyond Eden and Treasure of Eden, were written for St. Martin's Press with her best friend from 6th grade, the Rev. Dr. Chaplain (COL) Barb Sherer, often while Barb was deployed with the Army all around the world. E-book editions, published by Arundel, became Amazon bestsellers (once they were numbers 1,2 and 4 on the "thriller bestseller list" with some guy named George R.R. Martin squeezing in at number 3.) Plagues of Eden is the fourth book to continue the series. Arundel also published These Violent Delights, the first of the Movie Murders. Sharon worked with Axel Avian on Colt Shore: Domino 29, a YA spy adventure. She's also written a bunch more nonfiction books.
Her most recent books are The Bartender's Guide to Murder, Death in Tranquility, Death by Gravity and Death Among the Stars, which also feature recipes by internationally award-winning mixologist Jamie Brydalski.
Along with Crystal Paul Watson, Sheron co-runs the Creators Haven, which brings female artists to mansions 4 times a year to make art. The Haven has become a multi-cultural incubator that sends artists back to become leaders in their communities.
She now lives in a mountain aerie near Asheville, North Carolina with her husband, Robert Owens Scott. Their children have flown the nest, but return often to use the hot tub.
You can contact Sharon at Sharon@SharonLinnea.com
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