The Anxious Author

Patricia Bates is a Canadian author who specializes in historical romance. Though Bates is originally from British Columbia, she lives in Saskatchewan, where she writes historical romances under her legal name.       “I don’t have a pen name for my historical romance,” stated Bates. “For the other genres, I write under a mish-mash of my name, nicknames, etc. I write historical fiction, historical romance, PNR, contemporary romance, gay romance, and contemporary romantic suspense. All but one of my books are super steamy, so I write for adults.” Bates published her first book, Master’s Mistress , in 2009. It was her love of romance and history that led her to write. She stated, “I was also heavily influenced by authors like Louis L’Amour, Heather Graham, and Julie Garwood. Inspiration comes from the little things around me. I have one book out right now that was inspired by the image of an old farmhouse. It's a dark, PNR romantic Suspense.” In a world where someti...

  Well, I hit 52 books. That's a third of the way to my yearly goal. Goodreads claims I'm 11 books behind schedule...but Goodreads also thinks I'm further along in my goal because It 'makes' me rate my own books. I don't review them, of course, but I do rate them. I could technically count them as books I've read since I have read them, but that feels like cheating. Soooooo, I'm sitting at a solid 52.     With summer being here and me watching my nieces and nephews more often, I'm sure there will be multiple juvenile books in my future. One kid loves a dino sports series, another loves Ispys, and the third is currently into anything unique (ie, popup books, pull-out books, bilingual books).     June isn't getting off to a good start, reading-wise. I had to DNF a book I'd really thought I'd like but ended up dreading reading. Currently, I'm reading a poetry book, a romance book, and a fantasy book. The romance book is for our June auth...

       I’m not a mom of human children. I have two fur babies, a black cat named Spook and an orange cat named Tarot, but my inboxes are filled to the brim with new mom emails and coupons I’ll never use. Why? Because I frequent baby name sites.  Character crafting is an artform within an artform. You have to craft a character to craft a story, but picking a name can be a painful process. I’ve found in my writing journey that character names develop one of two ways for me. Firstly, I sometimes hear a name and instantly a character forms inside my mind as if just by speaking the name they were spoken into existence.  Secondly, the character starts as a faceless mannequin and I have to paint on the features myself. Most often than not, my characters form by the second method. This means I have to search for names because the characters didn’t come to me with one like a big brand doll.  Baby name sites are a wonderful resource for us writers. You c...