R. W. Patterson

For the love of writing

Among other passions I pursue, I love words. I love the power of words--the spoken, written or thought words. I love the resonation, the vibration of words, appreciating their capacity to build bridges over chasms, heal that which is broken, uplift the spirit and inspire. The grace within the constructs of words is ceaseless. The smallest word, spoken with a smile, a twinkle in the eye, or a skip in a step, can bring light into the world, one person at a time.

I also love to write--my brain hums day and night--and I’ve been home-growing off-the-cuff characters since I was in elementary school. Closing my eyes is comparable to sitting in a theatre and watching a movie. In my head, there is a forever long-running script of dialogue, personalities, scenarios waiting to be put into context. Some characters I’ve nurtured longer than others. For instance, in the four-book paranormal romance series--Heart and Soul--I’ve grown Elaine and Ian (primary characters) for almost ten years. I started giving them a lot of attention on my three-mile evening walks years ago. As the mother of five sons, all born within a nine year margin, my reset button was my nightly walks. It gave me time to recenter, and daydream...nightdream, actually...and gave me time to start the process of letting go of unattainable perfectionism and judgement (self and of others) to fulfill a childhood goal: write a romance novel.

Ha! And one little sentence at a time, I did. Four novels, in fact. I’ve never been one to half-ass anything, and I guess my brain decided if I was going to create a well-rounded, come-full-circle life for Elaine and Ian, then I was going to be thorough. And so I was.

The books, Solace From Shadows, Light and Shadows, Dark Night of the Soul, and Light Over Dark Water, originally were one HUGE novel. Like over 1,000 pages of words...and 25+ chapters. Over time, they were broken into the four novels and elaborated. Many nights, and even during all-nighters, I felt like I was filling in a gazillion missing pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. But as time passed, the story evolved, and Elaine and Ian came to life within the digital world of ebooks. Yeehaw. And so it became--the Heart and Soul series.

 ...