Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a full-time author. I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and lived in a world of make-believe, preferring that to reading, which I hated. I just wanted to live the adventures written about in books, so I concocted a world around me. The first chance I got I moved out of the city, and for the past 35 years I’ve lived in a little hand-built log cabin in the middle of 30 acres of evergreen forest in the foothills of Oregon’s Coast Range. My dear husband and editor passed away a few years back so I live alone with my German Shepherd, Sophie, my cat, Izzy and a mouse named Minnie Mousey. As for my writing, I’ve written 24 romance novels. I started off selling to Harlequin Soperromance and Avon-Harper Collins, but with the rise of ebooks I joined that bandwagon and never looked back. I love having COMPLETE control of every facet of the writing, including covers, editing, formatting, uploading and marketing.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is THE FINAL TURN, which followed on the heels of TALL DARK STRANGER, which is the first book in my CAJUN COWBOYS series. My inspiration came when I discovered, while tracing my ancestry, that I’m a Cajun, having descended from a man who lead 240 Acadian exiles from Nova Scotia to SW Louisiana, where they settled in and around Bayou in the late 1700s. With a little research, I learned that those Louisiana cowboys were the toughest cowboys in existence, often needing to round up cattle in swamps where alligators roamed and tangles of venomous water moccasins hung from trees. Other than one of my heroes wanting to raise alligators, I leave all that disturbing unromantic stuff out unless it’s important to the plot, and then all bets are off.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know if it’s unusual, but I can be at my computer from 5:00 AM until bedtime when I’m deep into writing a book. I’m a fast writer so I can complete a book in anywhere from a month to a couple of months. Spring is more difficult because I also want to be outside, so I take more breaks. One thing I thrive on is research, which I love to incorporate in my hooks, and in return I get a lot of praise from fans who claim they learn something new every time they read my books. That makes it all worthwhile.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
As for what books or authors influenced me, when editors in the publishing industry would come to conferences and tell budding romance writers to read, read, read every romance they can get their hands on to know what sells, I decided if I did that my writing would read like every other romance, so I read from other genres. My favorite author to date is Kay Nolte Smith and her book, “A Tale of the Winds.” It’s a saga that spans two generations. I love sagas, and that’s what I did with my 13-book DANCING MOON RANCH series, which spans 30 years and two generations. As characters are introduced, they remain with the stories as secondary characters throughout so my hero and heroine in the first story is very much present in the last, though 30 years older.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently writing the third book in my CAJUN COWBOYS series, which is entitled, FLIGHT OF FANCY. I’m about 14,000 words into it and it’s going well. I hope to have it available in a couple of months. However, the weather here in Oregon is beautiful and things are bursting into bloom, which cuts into writin time.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My best promotion tool is the Prequel to my DANCING MOON RANCH series, which is a perma-free entitled JUSTIFIED DECEPTION. It always gets readers into the series when I promote it though marketing outlets like Awesome Gang. At the end of that series it takes readers into my current series. I also respond to every fan who takes the time to tell be they liked a book or the series. I don’t do any social media, including Facebook, but I love corresponding with fans, and a couple of them have come to visit.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice to new authors is to learn to weave in story threads. These should be introduced early on, then woven through the story, and one by one, resolved in the later chapters. Weaving story threads also means not telling too much too soon. Elements of each subplot should be arranged into a logical sequence and these elements interjected into the flow of the story over its entire course, while also interwoven to achieve graduated dramatic complications.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
This advice came from a senior editor at Harlequin prior to purchasing my manuscript for a Superromance, and that’s to avoid the episodic trap. This is where a conflict is introduced, it builds to a dramatic climax, and in short order, maybe within the same scene, the conflict is resolved. But the story is far from over. There are still a few hundred pages yet to fill. The logical thing, from the viewpoint of a novice writer who understands the importance of keeping conflict going, is to introduce another conflict, have it build to a dramatic climax, and resolve it… and so on, until the story has reached the required number of pages when the hero and heroine can stop fighting and declare their undying love. The problem is, the plot is not defined. What the writer has created is a series of unconnected, or at best, tenuously connected vignettes that are contrivances to keep the hero and heroine apart for the duration of the story. This is where a knowledge of using story threads comes in and it’s essential to a well-crafted plot.
What are you reading now?
I only read for research and that takes me all over the place.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ll finish writing the CAJUN COWBOYS series, which I see as six, maybe seven books, then I’ll write the second edition of my memoir. The first edition is entitled AROUND THE BELT, which is about growing up in New Orleans in the 50s and 60s. It only comes in paperback, but those who’ve read it found if fun and interesting, especially some of my early escapades. After that I’ll probably plan another cowboy series, one set in the west. I love those cowboys, the old-style cowboys who don’t use crude language and who’d lay down their lives for their lady loves.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’d bring to this island, “The Secret Teachings of All Ages” by Manly P. Hall; The King James version of the Bible, mainly because I’m in the process of decoding the new testament, which is a marvel of mystery, based on manuscripts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls; “Louisiana Cowboys” by Bill Jones, so I could continue my research for when I’d get off the island; and a book of survival for if stranded on a desert island.
Author Websites and Profiles
Patricia Watters Website
Patricia Watters Amazon Profile