Featured Interview With Patricia Watters
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I had an interesting childhood. As the daughter of a psychoanalyst, I always wished my dad had an ordinary job, like selling insurance, but in later years I came to realize that all the psychobabble at the dinner table, almost every night, was a blessing in disguise as it’s helped me (more than I’d ever want to admit to my father), in understanding human nature, which it critical when creating characters. But to back up some… I was born and raised in the middle of the city of New Orleans, and all the time I was growing up I dreamed of living in the country. It took me a number of years to finally make that dream a reality.
Now, I live in a log house in the middle of thirty acres of evergreen forests in Oregon. I share my life with my husband, Ed, our cat, Izzy, and our German Shepherd, Maggie, whose sole purpose in life is to play ball. I love the quietness that comes with living in the woods. We have beautiful trails and I get good ideas when I take a break from writing to walk in the woods. My laptop sits on a coffee table in the living room so I can look out the window and see squirrels, chipmunks, and birds at the feeders just outside, so I have little desire to go to the city, which is about 35 miles away.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My fascination in books came at an early age, when my dad would read to me. I was also a very overactive child, so when I’d get out of hand, my mom would give me some paper and a pencil and tell me to write a story, which I loved to do. This carried over into school, and when we got a writing assignment I gave it my all.
At this point in my life I’ve been an author for over thirty years, and I still write every day, all day if I can. I currently have 21 romance novels and 3 non-fiction books available on Amazon. All of my books, including their covers and descriptions, are posted on my website. I also posted some photos of my little house in the woods, along with a house belonging to a family of tiny stuffed bears (3″ tall), so wear hand crocheted gowns, and with sterling silver utensils and on bone china. I’ve loved miniatures since I started collecting them at age five, and I invite everyone to go to my website and see the miniature Tudor house that the Ted. E. Bear family live in. I guess it’s my lot in life to live in a fictional world instead of the real one.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Some of my favorite authors are Kay Nolte Smith and her book, A Tale of the Wind, and Susan Kay and her novel about Queen Elizabeth I, Legacy. The thing is, all of my author friends read constantly, and the best kept secret (except that it’s about to come out) is that I rarely read fiction at all because I’m too busy writing it. When I take time away from writing it’s to read research material for my current book, or what’s coming next. Still, my favorite genre is romance. I enjoy reading and writing both historical and contemporary romance, but for my last twelve books, I’ve been writing about cowboys and living vicariously on the Dancing Moon Ranch, which I set not far from where I live.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The book I’m working on now is entitled, Imperfect Magic, and it’s Book 11 in my Dancing Moon Ranch series. Being part of a series, my hero and heroine had already been introduced to readers in earlier books, so the inspiration for the story came out of the series. However, the inspiration for the first book in my Dancing Moon Ranch series was based on an actual lawsuit over a botched procedure at a fertility clinic, when two women got sperm from the wrong men. That book is entitled, Righteous Lies. My heroine’s sister, who popped up toward the end of Righteous Lies, prompted me to write the second book in the series, which is entitled, Pandora’s Box. That story brought in the twin brother of my hero in Righteous Lies, and things just kept going from there. The 13-book series ended up spanning thirty years and two generations, and the books are intended to be read in sequence.
I started writing the series in 2011, and it’s been a great experience. I always wanted to live on a working guest/cattle ranch and be surrounded by cowboys, and now I am. It’s like the couples in the first three books, and all of their sons and one daughter, are my family. My series is getting great reviews, and a couple of reviewers equated it to the “Dallas” TV series, but without the sex. There is some sex, but it’s PG-13.
Because readers were excited and wrote to me as if these characters were real, I put together what I call, The Dancing Moon Ranch Family Album, and posted it on Amazon. In it are over 600 photos of the heroes and heroines in all of the books, including photos from the stories, the weddings, the houses my heroes and heroines built, their children, and what life is like on the Dancing Moon Ranch. It helps bring the entire series to life, and readers love having the “Family Album” accessible when they’re reading. I show samples of it on my website, along with covers and descriptions of all of the books in the series, so I invite everyone to check out my website and drop me a note, and I’ll respond.
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