Linda Hanley Finigan

In previous lives, Linda Hanley Finigan worked as a TV newscaster and as a Washington Congressional aide. As an independent filmmaker, she was recipient of a grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. In recent years, she has supported her fiction writing habit through freelance photo editing.

She graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo where she served as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Spectrum, and studied creative writing with John Barth. She holds a Master's degree in Radio, Television and Motion Pictures from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her newly-revised first novel, Love and War, began as a screenplay in 1979. She has also written two subsequent novels: The Weight of the Heart and The Stranger's Tale.

Published fiction includes "Rain, Heavy at Times," which won first place in a contest judged by novelist Margot Livesey, and was later published in the New York literary journal, Confrontation. Two other stories, "Simple Mission" and "Birth Mothers, Seeking" have also been contest finalists. "Simple Mission" is a Vietnam excerpt from Love and War, transposed to Iraq. "Birth Mothers, Seeking" was published in The Raleigh News & Observer "Sunday Journal" section highlighting Southern writers.

She grew up near New York City and counts among her quirkier memories the day she was part of the studio audience when the Beatles made their American debut on Ed Sullivan.

Excerpts from her new novel can be found at: www.loveandwarstories.com