Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer a few questions for us at FAR. We appreciate all the hard work you portray in your work. These are being out early so we have them in the database when it's your turn to go up on our updates. Thank you again…

What are you working on right now?

I'm just taking a breather from the release of my contemporary romance; A Suitable Father by Zumaya (www.zumayapublications.com). I also write erotic romance under a pseudonym and have a couple of projects going under that name.

Who is your favorite author?

That's an impossible question for me! I read widely and enjoy Linda Howard, Catherine Alliott (British writer not well known here) Kathy Reichs, Anne Perry. It depends on my mood. I usually like to read something out of the sub genre I'm writing in. I love a good suspense as well as fictionalized history.

What is something personal that you believe your readers would like to know about you?

I married, three kids (all out of the nest) I spend a large part of the year in East Africa where I do volunteer work in a very poor part of Kenya, mainly working in schools.

What is your best quality as a writer?

I think the fact that I'm not afraid to try something new and write the book of my heart. I wrote paranormal when it was very low in popularity: Beloved Stranger, a romance with ghosts (from www.novelbooksinc.com) Journeys End, a time travel (soon to be released for Cerridwen, the mainstream imprint of Ellora's Cave) I tried romantic suspense with Dancing with the Devil (www.atlanticbridge.net). I ventured out with romantica ™ starting with a short story and then two novels.

What is your worst?

Not being disciplined enough to write every day.

Do you believe in writers block?

For me? Not really, but maybe only because I haven't really experienced it to any serious extent. If I come to a foggy part of the story, I let my subconscious work on it. But I have heard other writers talk about it, and I'm sure it's been a very difficult time for them.

Do you have a job besides being an author? What is it?

I was a teacher and school principal, but now as I said a lot of my time is spent working with teachers in Kenya.

As a child growing up who was your biggest hero?

Probably Charles Dickens, funny as that sounds. He wasn't a very admirable man and a very poor father, but there is a family tradition that he was my many-times great grandfather. My grandmother's name was Dickens and I believe an aunt researched it once, but I don't have nay details. But I greatly admired him as a writer.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I would have liked to be a doctor. I grew up in the UK and at that time you had to have good marks in Science. I was adequate, but felt I wasn't good enough to try it. Knowing what I know now, I don't think it would have been a problem. However, I loved teaching and being in schools.

Do your characters talk to you as you write? What do they say?

They most certainly do! When I wrote Dancing with the Devil, I had jazz the heroine and her story, but I couldn't 'see' the hero. In frustration I began to write and Pete Brown popped up within a half page saying: "here I am. I can do the job!" Lovely man. All my characters become very real to me.

What is the biggest misconception about being an author?

That writers go around looking for ideas. The problem is stopping all the characters and situations that continually beat at your brain. The second misconception is that anyone can write a book, if only they had the time. How many times have we heard that?.

What is the worse part about being an author?

Putting your work out there for critique and review. Every time someone reads my book, I quake at what they will say. No matter how many times people are kind, are complimentary, say they loved it, it doesn't change the fear.I think most writers are very insecure.

The best?

Apart from writing 'the end'? Getting good reviews, having fellow authors and readers send you a message to say they loved your book.

Could you please share some of your work with us?

The first chapters of all my books are on my web site, together with pictures and experiences in Africa. Please go to www.patriciacrossley.com and take a look around.

Thank you for being here and for answering our questions. Have a wonderful day.


Interviewed By:
Ruby