Colleen Vanderlinden

Colleen Vanderlinden has never been all that great at zeroing in on just one thing, which is why she's thrilled to be a staff writer for Love to Know, where she can write about her passions. Gardening, green living, nature and outdoors, witchcraft, poetry, novel writing, herb growing, flower farming, herbal remedies, soap making... she's done all of these things and many others, and her natural curiosity has allowed her to share the things she's learned with others. She's published hundreds of articles and blog posts in various online media, as well as in national and regional magazines. A homeschooling mother of four, she lives in beautiful northern Michigan with her family and an ever-growing menagerie of pets.

Education

Wayne State University: B.A., English

Certifications and Awards

RT Book Reviews: 2017 Reviewers Choice Award for Best Small Press/Indie Romance

Detailed Experience

Gardening-Obsessed

Colleen has gardened in everything from a tiny borrowed plot, to an indoor food garden, to her current rolling nine acres. While her first love is edible gardening (she's even had two books published on the topic: Edible Gardening for the Midwest and Vegetable Gardening for the Midwest, both published by Lone Pine Publishing), she's been focusing more on herb growing during the past few years, which has led to a new avenue to explore: making herbal teas and other treatments.

Also in the works: she'd love to open a flower farm on her land in the next few years. Because flowers are happiness.

Green Witch

She's also a practicing green witch, with a focus on herbalism. This works very well with her gardening obsession, and gives her an even stronger tie to both her garden and her land in general.

Novelist

Colleen has published forty novels in the past eight years, mostly under her own name, but under several pen names as well. She's written urban fantasy, paranormal romance, fantasy romance, science fiction romance, and superhero fiction. Under her pen name, Ella Linden, she's also written contemporary romance. One of her Ella Linden novels, Lost with You, won the Best Indie Contemporary Romance award from RT Book Reviews in 2017. She was also nominated for several books in her Hidden and Copper Falls series. She continues to write fiction, currently working on an epic fantasy romance trilogy.

Naturalist

Colleen is an amateur birder, and also frequently forages wild edibles in the woods near her home. She finds joy in creating and keeping nature journals, and has recently started learning to paint with watercolors to enhance her journals.

Homeschooling Mom

At one point, Colleen was sure she wanted to be an elementary school teacher, but her student teaching experience made it clear that she wasn't meant for the classroom, and she majored in English instead. But, when her oldest daughter was born, and then three more children in the next six years, she felt called to homeschool, and has been doing so for 16 years.