Born and raised in northern California, Linda Medley illustrated her first book, An Animal Alphabet, at the age of five. A few years, and a BFA degree in Illustration later, she illustrated her next book, Rudyard Kipling’s The Elephant’s Child for Putnam Publishing in 1986. Other books soon followed including Favorite Stories from Many Lands for Grosset & Dunlap, the "Scared Stiff" series for Golden Books, and illustrations for stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Brothers Grimm for Houghton-Mifflin’s California Series reading textbooks. Her illustrations also appeared in the magazines Turtle, Humpty Dumpty, and Children’s Playmate.

In 1994 Linda turned her hand to writing stories as well as illustrating them. The result was The Curse of Brambly Hedge, the prologue to the work she is best known for: the graphic novel fantasy saga Castle Waiting. A fable for modern times, Castle Waiting draws from the traditions of folklore, myth and fairytale to tell the story of an isolated, abandoned castle and the eccentric inhabitants who bring it back to life.

In the thirteen years since its inception, Castle Waiting has garnered wide-spread critical acclaim and won numerous honors, including several Eisner Awards, inclusion in the YALSA Great Graphic Novels reading lists, and a grant from the Xeric Foundation. In May of 2006 Fantagraphics Books published a 457-page hardbound edition of the first volume of Linda’s Castle Waiting stories; she is currently hard at work on Volume II, slated for release in 2008.

Click here to be directed to an outsite website, Amazon.com, for information on how to purchase the first volume of Castle Waiting.

Please visit her web site http://www.studiolio.com to view her other considerable accomplishments as artist/author.