PHOTO: Linda Ballou, travel writer and historical novelist, channels her love for nature and history into evocative and adventurous storytelling.
Adventure Travel Writing And Historical Fiction Combined
Linda Ballou reflects on the life of Isabella Lucy Bird, the role of landscape in storytelling, and how solitude and passion shaped her work during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Linda Ballou writes with the heart of a wayfarer and the soul of a storyteller. Her prose flows with the rhythm of hoofbeats and ocean tides, shaped by a life devoted to both physical journeys and inner discoveries. Whether she’s trekking through the verdant valleys of Hawai‘i or tracing the wild routes of the Rocky Mountains, Ballou brings to life the silent histories of place and people with rare emotional clarity.
Her work bridges the thrill of adventure with the intimacy of human resilience. In Embrace of the Wild, Ballou steps into the boots of the indomitable Isabella Lucy Bird, a woman whose own wanderlust defied the rigid boundaries of her time. Through meticulous research and a kindred sense of courage, Ballou offers not just a retelling, but a resurrection of Bird’s pioneering spirit—rendering it alive and urgent for the modern reader.
Ballou’s background in travel memoir lends her fiction a vivid immediacy; the landscapes she writes are never just backdrops but living entities that shape the hearts of her characters. From Wai-nani: A Voice from Old Hawai‘i to The Cowgirl Jumped Over the Moon, her stories celebrate the symbiosis between nature and identity, showing how adversity, when met with grace, can transform the soul.
Few writers capture both the ache and the ecstasy of movement quite like Ballou. In solitude, she found voice; in stillness, she uncovered momentum. Her work is not only a tribute to places long explored, but to the enduring will of women who dared to travel beyond what was expected—and write their own way forward.
What inspired your choice of Isabella Lucy Bird as the protagonist for Embrace of Wild, and how did her life resonate with your own experiences during Covid 19?
I have long admired Isabella Lucy Bird, the plucky English woman who rode solo in the Rockies in I873. I am an equestrian and have ridden in many of the places she describes in her book A Lady’s Life in the Rockies. I used her book Six Months in the Sandwich Islands to capture details for my first novel Wai-nani: A Voice from Old Hawai’i. I learned that her youth was filled with chronic pain and that to become a travel writer she had to overcome social and physical barriers. Even though she was the best-loved travel writer of her time (1831-1904) and the first woman to be inducted into the Scottish Geographical Society, she is not well-known. With so many connections and my love of Hawaii and Colorado, I felt her story was one I wanted to tell. Coved 19 clipped my travel writing wings and gave me the perfect opportunity to focus on Isabella and live vicariously through her adventures.
Your novel blends Bird’s journey through Colorado and Hawai‘i—how did hiking Longs Peak and exploring Waipio Valley shape your storytelling and character perspectives?
I spent three nights in Waipio Valley as was part of my research for my historical novel Wai-nani: A Voice from Old Hawai’i. Isabella spent a week in the valley as an honored guest of a Hawaiian Chief. Her descriptions of the valley in 1872 were invaluable to me. She provided rich detail about the place as well as the Hawaiian culture.
Isabella was one of the first to conquer Long’s Peak. But, she didn’t do it without the help of Rocky Mountain Jim. Theirs was a love story I couldn’t resist. She inspired me and millions of others to come to Estes Park. She went on to ride 800-miles solo in the Front Range of the Rockies.I was drawn to ride in her hoof prints and know the landscape she so beautifully captured in her writing.
In Embrace of the Wild, you give voice to Rocky Mountain Jim—what drew you to narrate this darker chapter of American history through his eyes?
Rocky Mountain Jim was an alcoholic and teller of tales. No one really knew the truth about him. This was an opportunity for me to place him at the Sand Creek Massacre, a sad chapter in Native American history that I feltdeserved attention. It also provided Jim with a backstory that made him a more sympathetic character to modern readers.
Your travel memoirs such as Lost Angel Walkabout share real world adventures—how did writing historical fiction differ in preparation and emotional engagement?
Writing a novel requires placing yourself inside the story world. You must imagine what your characters are feeling. You must research heavily and make certain you are being true to the history and authentic to the time period. I have to shut out distractions to write a novel.
Travel writing is much less demanding. It requires, research, paying attention to details and journaling while traveling. The goal is to capture a sense of place and take your reader with you on the journey.
You describe turning “Covid-19’s lemons into limoncello”—what role did solitude and travel limitation play in your creative process?
At first I was very angry when Covid-19 shut down my travel world. I was at the top of my game and didn’t want it to end. But, Isabella had long been on my mind and I felt it was a golden opportunity to write her story. Some people say I took liberties to write her story in first person. However, being Isabella in my mind for the years I was in isolation allowed me to survive depression, and thrive as a writer.
Isabella’s time in Hawai‘i influenced Wai-nani: A Voice from Old Hawai’i—how did you approach representing 19th century Hawaiian culture authentically?
Isabella’s book six Months in the Sandwich Islands was just one of the many books in my research. I read the oldest chronicles written by Hawaiian elders. I visited many of the sacred sites in the Islands and wrote many articles about what I learned over twenty years of research. I pride myself on straying true to the culture and history of the Hawaiian people. My story is set between1750-1819. Isabella was in the Islands in 1872. Her book provided vivid detail of the landscape, flora and faunawas helpful, but was not exclusive to my research.
Adventure travel shapes much of your writing—how do physical landscapes inform the emotional arcs of your characters in recent works?
Isabella’s body heals and she finds strength in the nurturing climate of the Islands. This enormous change in her life fills her with energy to forge her travel writing career that took her to uncharted lands. She finds a spiritual connection nature in her solitude in the unending beauty of the Rocky Mountains. She becomes more centered and determines to climb Long’s Peak to be closer to God.
Wai-nani spirits are buoyed in Moana, the grand and vibrant sea. She is cast out by her father because she wins in a surfing contest with warriors. She is a childless bride, so she must rise above the fact that her husband must have a child with another woman to provide an heir. She finds strength and solace in the solitude of the watery arms of the deep.
What key advice would you offer aspiring authors aiming to combine travel memoir and historical fiction in their writing careers?
Read the work of authors who have come before you.
I used Paula McClain’s circling the Sun which was a first person adaptation of Beryl Markum’s wonderful book Westinto the Night as a model for Embrace of the Wild. Tim Cahill is my travel writing hero. His travel well-informed travel essays employ a dramatic arc. They are often laugh out loud funny and satisfying at the finish line.
