About
Linda McAllister, Journalist

Photo: Christina Frary

In her own words...
I’m a Freelance Magazine Writer.
Curious Observer.
Inveterate Traveler.
I’m tea, not coffee.
My current title is unfolding...
but Book Author hovers just above the horizon.
Past titles include Senior Market Research Analyst, Editor, Healthcare Communications Business Owner, Blogger and Contributing Writer for Magazines and Newspapers. Please refer to LinkedIn, Linda McAllister, Freelance Writer, for the fine print.
What's fueled my career, you ask?
Interviews with politicians, grieving adolescents, an U.S. Ambassador’s butler, billionaire business moguls. Doctors of every stripe and specialty. Gussied-up drag queens. A best-selling novelist who partied with Truman Capote.
But mostly everyday folks.
They come from every corner of the globe but have one thing in common…
A story to tell.
And I love telling their stories in print.
How It Began
My third-grade teacher told me, “You’re a good writer, Linda.”
Thus began a habit of jotting down my thoughts in a spiral notebook and immersing myself in library books that let me travel the world without leaving the nondescript suburban ranch house where I grew up.
My love of stringing words together to paint a picture continued throughout my education, following me to university where I earned…
  • BA in English, University of Missouri—Kansas City (UMKC)
  • MPA, Master’s in Public Administration, UMKC
  • MS in Journalism, William Allen White School of Journalism, University of Kansas
  • Membership in Kappa Tau Alpha National Journalism Honor Society
A corporate career in healthcare followed, but I didn’t call myself a writer until I interviewed then Kansas City, MO, Mayor Emanuel Cleaver for a regional magazine, crafted four tight paragraphs—and got paid for it. I was hooked.
Now
I’m a California desert dweller who grew up in the Midwest, which is my perfect yin/yang for a well-lived life. I split time between my happy place of Palm Springs (where I’m cradled in the safe embrace of the bulky San Jacinto Mountains and bathed in sunshine 350 days a year) and my hometown of Kansas City (where I love a saucy plate of barbeque and tree-lined boulevards frou-froued up by majestic fountains in grassy medians).