Sarah Palmer and Mindy Sue Watson were as different as two women could be. "Sarah & Zoey" is their story and the story of the one remarkable dog who saved them both.
Learn MoreLinda Watkins currently resides in Sedona, Arizona and, in another life, was a Senior Clinical Financial Analyst at Stanford University School of Medicine. She was born on the east coast, but grew up in a suburb of Detroit. Upon graduation from college (Carnegie Mellon, '70), she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where she lived and worked for thirty years. Taking early retirement, she moved briefly to Oregon then to an unconnected island off the coast of Maine (Chebeague Island, ME). She lived on Chebeague for seven years and it was there that she wrote her award-winning debut novel, MATEGUAS ISLAND. The island of Chebeague served as a model for the one depicted in MATEGUAS and, in fact, the house the Andersen family inherits was modeled on her 150-year-old home. She moved back to Michigan in the summer of 2013 and, in 2014, both MATEGUAS ISLAND and its sequel RETURN TO MATEGUAS ISLAND were published. Since publication, MATEGUAS ISLAND has been the recipient of several major awards: • 2014 Gold Medal in Supernatural Fiction, READERS' FAVORITE INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD COMPETITION • 2014 First Place Award in Contemporary Gothic, CHANTICLEER BOOK REVIEW, PARANORMAL AWARDS • 2015 Outstanding Novel in Horror/Suspense, IAN BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS In addition, RETURN TO MATEGUAS ISLAND was named 2015 Finalist in Horror by READERS' FAVORITE INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD COMPETITION and, like its predecessor, received a 1st Place Award in Contemporary Gothic Fiction in the 2015 CHANTICLEER BOOK REVIEW'S PARANORMAL AWARDS. The novel was also named “Finalist” in the 2015 IAN Book of the Year Awards in the Horror/Suspense category. Today, Linda is in the final stages of completing her next novel, SUMMER GIRL, a work of literary fiction. She is also working on a gothic mystery, STORM ISLAND, and the fourth installment in the MATEGUAS ISLAND SERIES, tentatively titled, DREAMS OF MATEGUAS. Serious about dog welfare and rescue, all net proceeds from sales of THE MATEGUAS ISLAND SERIES are donated to Linda's charitable trust, the Raison d'Etre Fund for Dogs, Dedicated to Rescue and Research.