Linnea Sinclair was born in New Jersey, USA. She studied journalism and criminology at Indiana University Bloomington (1972-1975) and Florida State University.

Sinclair is a former investigative news reporter and private investigator in the Central Florida area who has written for many private investigative journals. She owned Island Investigations.

She has stated to have been writing ever since she could wrap her fingers around a Crayon. Her first professional sale was the Fantasy romance Wintertide in 1999 to LTDBooks. Since 2004 she has been published by Bantam Books. Her agent is Kristin Nelson from Nelson Literary Agency. She is a frequent guest speaker at conferences and workshops for writers.

Genre

Sinclair's website proclaims her as a 'Science Fiction Romance author'. Nevertheless, she has written Fantasy Romance and Paranormal Romance as well. She has stated to like the term "Space Opera", and her books Finders Keepers and Destiny's Game have indeed been called so. She sometimes writes with a good sense of humor, and her books Finders Keepers and An Accidental Goddess have been called "funny". In a review of Gabriel's Ghost, Vicky Burkholder has wrote that 'Linnea blends science fiction, romance, world building and the paranormal'.

Creative process

Sinclair has said to always start with a "what if" involving a male and female protagonist, and to 'wrap the world, the setting' around that story. She has also said that her books unfold in her head much like a movie, in that she starts writing at page one and just keeps going.

Writer and PI

Sinclair blends her experience as a private investigator into her work. The male protagonist in her novel The Down Home Zombie Blues is a homicide detective in a Florida city. Various of her short stories are based on a psychic investigator (also abbreviated as PI).

While she was still a practicing PI and publishing with LTDBooks, she used the pen name Megan Sybil Baker. According to her website she didn't think her clients would approve the person who was keeping their secrets as a private investigator was also publishing fiction. The pseudonym Baker she created for herself when she was about ten years old.

Furzels and cats

Sinclair's novel Games of Command and the short story Of Cats, Uh, Furzels and Kings feature telepathic feline creatures called 'Furzel's. Sinclair has stated that these are inspired by her two cats Daiquiri (aka Daq) and Miss Doozy.

Wintertide series

• Wintertide (1999, LTDBooks, as Megan Sybil Baker; June 2004, Medallion Press)
• An Accidental Goddess (October 2002, LTDBooks, as Megan Sybil Baker; January 2006, Bantam Books)

the far future sequel to Wintertide

Dock Five series

These are written in chronological order, but not with the same protagonists.

• Gabriel's Ghost (April 2002, LTDBooks, as Megan Sybil Baker; October 2005, Bantam Books.) Protagonists: Chasidah Bergen and Gabriel Sullivan

2006 RITA Award winner, for Best Paranormal Romance

• Shades of Dark previously called Chasidah's Choice (July 2008, Bantam Books.) Protagonists: Chasidah Bergen and Gabriel Sullivan

2008 P.E.A.R.L. Award, for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Romance.

• Hope's Folly (24 February 2009, Bantam Books.) Protagonists: Philip Guthrie (Chasidah's ex-husband) and Rya Bennton

2009 P.E.A.R.L. Award, for Best Science Fiction & Futuristic Fantasy Romance

• Rebels and Lovers (March 2010, Bantam Books.) Protagonists: Makaiden Malloy and Devin Guthrie (Philip's brother)

Standalone novels

• Finders Keepers (October 2001, Novel Books Inc.; May 2005, Bantam Books)

2001 Sapphire Award; 2003 EPPIE Award, for Fantasy/Science Fiction/Paranormal Romance

• Command Performance (April 2002, Novel Books Inc.)
• Destiny's Game (November 2002, Novel Books Inc.)
• Games of Command (February 2007, Bantam Books)

2007 P.E.A.R.L. Award, for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Romance

• The Down Home Zombie Blues (November 2007, Bantam Books)

2007 P.E.A.R.L. Honorable Mention, for Best Futuristic Romance

2008 winner of Romantic Times 2008 Reviewers' Choice Award Winners for Futuristic/Fantasy Romance

Edited together with J.C. Wilder:

• Dream Quest, Nine Spellbinding Paranormal Romances (January 2003, LTDBooks), including the short story "To Call the Moons" by Sinclair (as Megan Sybil Baker).

Short stories

Most of these stories the author has put up on her Yahoo Group, not for distribution.

• "To Dance With Death" (1988, unpublished)
• "Gambit" (2000)
• Silent Run (2001), set in the same universe as Finders Keepers
• "How I Spent My Summer Vacation"

First place in Futures Magazine Short story contest

• "Macawley's List" (2000)
• "Of Cats, Uh, Furzels and Kings" (2004)
• "Rhapsody In The Key of Death" (2005)