About Me
My Work
Writing just always seemed right. Maybe it was my second grade teacher who wrote on one of my papers, "You're a writer!" You know how a nice word early on can motivate you. Whatever did, I decided that all of those literature classes in college had to do more than just satisfy units. I began to use my writing as a sort of therapy. Heck, I was often the shy outcast in school so writing gave me a voice. It allowed me to be someone I wasn't.
And then, somewhere in the multitude of careers that never took, I realized that some of the most interesting people come from the most mundane jobs. I ought to know. I had many of those jobs. And I began writing as the low guy on the totem pole who often wasn't heard. Or sometimes I'd write as the guy with the drinking problem, or the depressed one, or the one with anger issues--always as someone who had something to prove or something to escape. Like we all experience. In other words, people you can't always judge by their covers.
And eleven novels later, I'm still looking for those stories to tell.
My Community
I came up with my first character just driving to work one morning. I saw a guy in an expensive car and I started thinking: what would it be like to have it all--the money, looks, success?
With that came Nathan Kirkland of The Loner, probably one of the baddest of my characters and yet so beloved by my readers.
Then I went to the other extreme. In Ash Man I created Raymond Faustanetti: a cremator all of his adult life and a former homeless teen, a man who had nothing to his name. Except his pride. He came from another drive to work.
And sometimes I look for challenges in developing characters, like finding a way to make a cannibal a sympathetic person. That would be Dominic Hawkins of The Seared One, a man who definitely likes his meat rare and one who truly knows evil. Up close and personal.
Characters are everywhere around us in our own communities and beyond. Sometimes just talking to a stranger can trigger a potential protagonist or an idea. Again, I look for the most mundane of packages. They are people often overlooked in lieu of more excitement and pizzazz. Trust me: the best character is your Everyday Joe or Jolene.
So delve inside. You never know what you'll find.
Join My Journey
Got a thought? Additional questions about one of my novels? Please feel free to reach out at
PatriciaAGrayAuthor@hotmail.com
Or you can go to Contact Us
Never forget the power of the written word.
It's an art form we cannot afford to lose.