Collison, Linda 1953–

PERSONAL:

Born 1953, in Baltimore, MD; married Bob Russell; children: three. Education: Laramie County Community College, A.D.N., 1982; attended Metropolitan State College. Hobbies and other interests: Outdoor sports, sailing, maritime history.

ADDRESSES:

Home— Kamuela, HI. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER:

Freelance writer. Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center, Denver, CO, registered nurse, 1982-92; Skydive Colorado, Loveland, instructor and jump-master, 1989-93; Skydive St. Louis, Jonesburg, MO, drop-zone assistant manager, 1991. Has also worked as a volunteer firefighter and a first aid/CPR instructor.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Grand prize, Maui Writers Conference, 1996; Books for the Teen Age selection, New York Public Library, 2007, for Star-Crossed; awards from National Student Nurses Association,Honolulu magazine, and Southwest Writers Workshop.

WRITINGS:

(With husband, Bob Russell)Rocky Mountain Wineries: A Travel Guide to the Wayside Vineyards, Pruett Publishing (Boulder, CO), 1994.

(With Bob Russell)Colorado Kids: A Statewide Family Outdoor Adventure Guide, Pruett Publishing (Boulder, CO), 1997.

Star-Crossed(young-adult novel), Knopf (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of essays, short stories, articles, and poetry to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Linda Collison is the author of Star-Crossed, a critically acclaimed young-adult novel. An award-winning writer of articles, essays, poems, and short stories, Collison has led an adventurous life, working as a registered nurse, a skydiving instructor, a volunteer firefighter, and a first-aid instructor. Her first two books,Rocky Mountain Wineries: A Travel Guide to the Wayside Vineyards and Colorado Kids: A Statewide Family Outdoor Adventure Guide, were coauthored with her husband, Bob Russell.

"Writing has played an important part in my life ever since grade school," Collison told CA. "Through writing I've managed to connect the pieces of my life: my victories and failures, my obsessions, heartbreaks, hard lessons, and hopes. And I can explore what it might be like to be someone else entirely. Or to have lived in another age."

Star-Crossed, a work of historical fiction, was published in 2006. An avid sailor, Collison also has an interest in maritime history, and she based the tale on one of her most memorable experiences at sea. In 1999 she and Russell helped crew the H.M. Bark Endeavour, an Australian-built replica of Captain Cook's eighteenth-century square-rigged, three-masted ship. "Aboard Endeavor we had a taste of what a sailor's life was like in those days," the author explained on her home page. "We heave-ho'ed the eighteenth century way, climbing the tarred ratlines to make and furl sail. We took turns steering the square-rigged vessel, we scrubbed the deck and everything in sight to pass the captain's ruthless inspections, and we took our turns toiling in the galley." The idea for Star-Crossed came to Collison one night while she was manning the ship's helm. As she commented on the Author's Den Web site, "I knew the setting, because I was living it. I was enthralled with it. And I wanted to explore what it might have been like to be a girl, a young woman, aboard a ship much like this one, back in the mid-eighteenth century."

Star-Crossed centers on Patricia Kelley, a prim and proper seventeen-year-old seeking her fortune in the West Indies. While attending an English boarding school, Patricia learns that her father has died, leaving her penniless. Determined to claim his plantation in Barbados, Patricia stows away aboard a merchant vessel bound for the Caribbean. After she is discovered, the young woman becomes part of the ship's crew, training as an assistant to the ship's surgeon by day and learning to climb the rigging by night. Though Patricia falls in love with Brian Dalton, a kindly bosun's mate who teaches her valuable survival skills, he cannot support her financially, and instead she enters a marriage of convenience with the surgeon. Together they combat yellow fever in Barbados, but when her husband dies, Patricia disguises herself as a man and returns to sea as a surgeon's mate aboard a frigate, where she is reunited with Dalton.

Star-Crossed garnered generally strong reviews, as critics compared the book to Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and Tanith Lee's Piratica. A contributor in Kirkus Reviews called Collison's novel a "well-researched, riveting adventure that brings to light an overlooked part of women's history," and Claire Rosser, reviewing the work in Kliatt, stated that the "details of life on ship, diseases, injuries and treatments, battles and politics, women who sailed with the men—these details are copious and realistic." Other critics focused on Collison's portrayal of her main character. According to Cheri Dobbs, reviewing Star-Crossed for School Library Journal, the author "does an excellent job of allowing her protagonist to develop." Dobbs added that although Patricia is at first self-centered, "ultimately she matures and becomes free of the shackles of convention." As Carolyn Phelan noted in Booklist, "this seafaring saga features a heroine who longs for both independence and love."