Robin Patchen {Writer Wednesday}

A little bit about Robin...

Robin Patchen is an award winning multi-published author, but only because she can't pursue her other dream.

If time and money were no object, Robin would spend her life traveling. Her goal is to visit every place in the entire world--twice. She longs to meet everybody and see everything and spread the good news of Christ. Alas, time is short and money is scarce, and her husband and three teenagers don't want to traipse all around the world with her, so Robin does the next best thing: she writes. In the tales she creates, she can illustrate the unending grace of God through the power and magic of story.

Connect with Robin...

Website: http://robinpatchen.com 
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5187882.Robin_Patchen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobinPatchen/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinpatchen
Purchase: Twisted Lies

Get to know Robin...

You and Writing 

It takes courage to write.

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a young girl taking in the world of beauty—the towering oaks, the bluest skies, the whisper of the breeze through the trees of my small New Hampshire town. I longed to capture those impressions with words, but I had no idea how. I grew older, and my vocabulary improved as my confidence waned. By the time I reached high school, I believed I could never be good enough to make a living as a writer. I went to college and studied Hotel and Restaurant Management. That lasted precisely one semester, during which I decided that if calculus was required for a business degree, then business wasn’t for me.

I transferred and switched to journalism. It wasn’t exactly the writing I wanted to do, but it was a step in the right direction. Journalism morphed into public relations and landed me a marketing job after college. Marriage happened, then children and quitting work and home schooling. Something else happened in those years. God pulled me out of that hole of self-doubt and infused me with the belief that He created me for a purpose, and I was valuable even if I failed.

I was forty years old when I started my first novel. Even at that age, with all that God-confidence, it still took courage to try it, more to let anybody read it. I finally had the courage, and it came when I realized that whenever I fell—and I inevitably would—I would always land in God's strong arms.

Your Writing

Let's talk about your book. Why did you write it?
Twisted Lies is the second in a romantic suspense series, and I wrote it because in the first book, Convenient Lies, I became enamored with a secondary character. Nate Boyle is a man who nearly died to protect a woman who’d dumped him, an old friend he hardly had any contact with. What were the long-term ramifications of that decision? This book opens with Nate moving out of his house in New York, planning to escape to New Hampshire, hoping for a life devoid of excitement and danger. That’s what he longs for. So of course, I had to wreck it.

Do you have a favorite character in this work? If so, why?
I started the book for Nate’s sake, but Marisa, the heroine, quickly rooted herself in my heart. It’s her love for her daughter that hooks me, that and her blind determination to do what she has to do, regardless what that means for her personal safety. Her four-year-old daughter, Ana, is another of my favorites.

What is one take-away from your book that you hope readers identify with?
Nate feels like he will never be a hero, because of something that happened in Convenient Lies—I won’t give it away. I hope readers learn along with Nate that courage isn’t fearlessness. Rather, courage is doing what’s right, despite that fear. Heroes are regular folks who decide to act in the face of their own terror. We all have the ability to be heroes.
What was a challenge you faced while writing it?

I’ve tried to keep the faith element in these books very subtle in the hopes of appealing to a broader audience. I would dearly love to stay comfortably in the Christian book world, but I have felt for a while the Lord encouraging me to step out, to reach readers who aren’t yet believers. I’m not sure yet what that’s going to look like, but I’m trusting God with the results.

For me, the biggest challenge with this book and its predecessor was filtering in truth without being blatant about it. I want to stir the reader’s soul, to create soft soil the Lord can plant into. I hope I’ve accomplished it.
Did you get to do any fun research for the book?

I had to do a lot of research on the 2008 real estate crash—that wasn’t fun at all, and the vast majority of what I learned didn’t end up in the book. (To my readers: You’re welcome. I didn’t want to bore you as I had been bored.) But since many of the early scenes take place in Acapulco, I got to spend some time on a cyber tour of that Mexican city. Someday, I’d love to visit it and the little towns in central Mexico I spent so much time researching.

Writing

What’s your encouragement for younger writers aside from “keep writing”?
If you’ve done any writing at all, you already know how hard it is. And you already know you have to keep writing, because practice makes perfect. Except I don’t think that’s true. I think practice makes patterns, and if the patterns are bad, then the results will be, too. So your job is to make sure your writing patterns are excellent. How do you do that? A few ways:

Read great books, read them with an eye for story and prose, and read both inside and outside the CBA. There are excellent writers in the general market, and if you steer clear of romance, you can find plenty that are relatively clean. I recommend this because the general market has a much broader scope of books, writing styles, and talent than the Christian market does, simply because it’s so much larger.

Read craft books. It’s amazing to me that people will spend hundreds of dollars to attend a writers conference but will balk at the cost of a book. I attended an all-day seminar by a great writing coach last year. In it, he barely scratched the surface of his book, which you can get on Amazon for $14. The exercises are in there, and if you do them, you’ll improve. Also, check out online courses available through ACFW and other organizations. They’re very affordable and can teach you so much. (I’ll make some recommendations below.)

Join a critique group. I’m a freelance editor, and you’d be surprised at how many people will offer to pay me to read manuscripts that nobody else has ever seen. Most of the mistakes I see, especially from newer writers, would be addressed in a good critique group. ACFW’s Scribes is where I met most of my critique partners, and I wouldn't publish a book without them.

Finally—you knew I was going to say it—write all the time. Not long after I became a Christian in the nineties, I started journaling. Twenty-plus years later, I still do it. In fact, I don’t just journal, I write my prayers. I have boxes and boxes of used journals, loose leaf paper, and spiral binders filled with my ramblings to God. Even though I know no human will ever read them, I try to write well. The Audience I’m writing for deserves my best. I believe that the practice of writing my prayers daily has vastly improved my writing ability. That’s not why I did it, of course, but what a great benefit.

Are there any books or resources you could recommend to younger writers looking to grow in their craft?

• Every book by Donald Maass
• Plot and Structure and other books by James Scott Bell (I haven’t read all of his books, but the ones I have read have been excellent.)
• Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King
• Story Genius by Lisa Cron
• On Writing by Stephen King
• Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
• Margie Lawson’s online courses (I’ve only done one, but it was excellent)
• 5 Editors Tackle the 12 Fatal Flaws of Fiction Writing. (The caveat here is that I’m one of those five editors. The other four are excellent, and I love how this book is set-up, with before and after examples.)

You

All right, let’s keep things real: Flowers or chocolate? …Or books?
Books, definitely! But some chocolate to go along with them is always nice.

What’s your most memorable (good or bad) Valentines date or gift?
My husband proposed on Valentine’s Day, so I’d have to say my engagement ring is the most memorable gift.

What are you currently reading?
I just started Stranger Things by Erin Healy. I’m about to start The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass. I’m also reading Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert.

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Robin Patchen {Writer Wednesday}

A little bit about Robin...

Robin Patchen lives in Edmond, Oklahoma, with her husband and three teenagers. Her third book, Finding Amanda, released in April, and its prequel, Chasing Amanda, released in July. When Robin isn’t writing or caring for her family, she works as a freelance editor at Robin’s Red Pen, where she specializes in Christian fiction. Read excerpts and find out more at her website, robinpatchen.com.

Connect with Robin...

Website: http://robinpatchen.com/
Robin’s Red Pen: https://robinsredpen.wordpress.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5187882.Robin_Patchen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobinPatchen?ref=hl
Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinpatchen
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Robin-Patchen/e/B00A289790/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1439253210&sr=8-1
Purchase: Finding Amanda


Author Interview | Robin Patchen

You and Writing

Tell us a little bit about yourself: How did you start writing? What has kept you writing?
...I always loved to write, but when I was young, I lacked the confidence to believe I could ever make a living as a writer. I majored in Journalism in college, but then I took a job in Marketing and Public Relations, which seemed more secure (and paid better) than a straight writing position. I quit work to raise kids and then home schooled them, and though I read voraciously during that time, the only writing I did was in my journal. I’d never attempted to write fiction and didn’t believe I’d want to, but I had this story bouncing around in my head, and I thought that if I didn’t put it on paper, it might just drive me mad. So when my husband gave me my first laptop for my fortieth birthday, I decided to write that story down. From December through March, I wrote my first book, a 700+ page epic women’s fiction/romance/suspense novel that will never see the light of day. The book wasn’t good, but it taught me that I was made to write fiction, and I’ve been writing stories ever since.

Do you have a favorite book or work that you’ve written?
...I was sitting in church when the pastor asked a question that shook me—“What are you unwilling to sacrifice for Christ.” I’m sure the rest of the sermon was good, but I wouldn’t know, because my mind went immediately to my answer, which led to an idea. By the time I got in the car that summer morning, I had an entire story plotted and ready to write. It was the only time I’ve ever felt the Lord gave me a story. I wrote the book last year, and it’s about a woman who reaches out to her creepy neighbor because, as she tells her boyfriend, “God loves creepy people, too.” Unfortunately, the creepy neighbor happens to be a rapist. It’s the most unique thing I’ve ever written, and I think the story is beautiful. My agent wasn’t as impressed, unfortunately, and it’s outside of my brand—I’ve been focusing on suspense lately. So it’s still on my computer, but someday, I’m going to publish it.

Your Writing

Tell us a little bit about your book . Why did you write it?  
...My first full-length novel, Finding Amanda, released in April. It’s about a woman who writes a memoir about the psychiatrist she had an affair with when she was a teenager. She plans to publish it—until the psychiatrist finds out. It’s also a love story about a married couple struggling to cope with their own sins and shame. 

...I love this story, because I believe there are a lot of women who have things in their past they aren’t proud of, situations and choices they regret. This story is about facing those accusing memories and realizing that we who are in Christ are valuable and worthy and forgiven. So it’s a story about overcoming shame, but it’s also a fun, fast-paced suspense. I also released a novella this summer, Chasing Amanda, which tells the story of how Amanda and Mark, the protagonists from Finding Amanda, meet. He’s a marine about to ship out to Afghanistan, and she’s a college student and the target of a stalker. I loved writing the novella, because I had already fallen in love with Mark and Amanda, and it was so fun to write them as younger versions of themselves as they walk through their romance.

Do you have a favorite character in this work? If so, why?
...Mark, because he’s such a flawed but loving man. He has no idea how to convince his wife he loves her, but he tries so hard. I feel like a lot of our husbands are just like Mark. The feelings are there, but they can’t figure out how to show them.

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Writing

When you write, what is your overall intention with your stories?
...I believe that, first and foremost, stories are meant to entertain. My goal is to write stories my readers can’t put down, characters they’ll remember long after they’ve reached the end. If my readers learn a little something or find some encouragement for their lives, too, all the better. But first, I want to entertain.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors for writing and/or publishing?
...Most great writers read all the time. They read in their genres and outside, they read Christian and general market books. They read fiction and non-fiction. And they make a point of reading great books. Great writers skip the mediocre—that’s not who they want to emulate. They read the best.

...And great writers write. Often. Maybe not every day, but more than once or twice a month. Great writers practice writing. The best writers practice all the time.

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Thanks so much for being my guest Robin! I love that your favorite work is yet unpublished. That may sound strange, but I think that's really neat. You love it no matter what happens to it :) I also love your advice - reading is the best way (in addition to writing)! Thanks again and I look forward to hearing about more books from you :)

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Almost forgot our WINNER from last week! 

I had the lovely Caryl McAdoo on the blog sharing about her book "Daughters of the Heart". Our winner is...

Kim Amundsen

Congrats Kim! Contact me via the form to the right and we'll get you your book :)