MCKENNAS ALWAYS STOOD THEIR GROUND
He was a handsome, enigmatic stranger with dark secrets. But Rhys Lindgren was no match for Aileen McKenna... She'd come to the remote town of Wolf Creek to study wolves in the wild. But instead, found more than she bargained for: three dead bodies and frightened townsfolk convinced that a predatory wolf was on the loose. Aileen knew no animal was capable of that kind of carnage, and she intended to prove it. But would Rhys take her into the snow-covered woods to do just that? She'd have to be alone with him, secluded with him, and accept his untamed ways to draw out a beast...
Having finished her work in her third-grade class, Patricia started reading the book she’d just taken out of the library — Double Date. Noting this was a "Senior" book (meaning for seventh- and eighth-graders), a very suspicious Sister Mary Ursula confiscated it. The nun returned the book the next morning with the suggestion that Patricia confine her reading to history. An independent thinker even then, Patricia continued reading young-adult romances.
At 12, baby-sitting for one of her mother’s friends, Patricia picked up a women’s magazine and found the first installment of Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt. Enthralled, she asked to borrow the rest of the magazines so she could finish the serialized novel. She was instantly hooked on gothics, the precursor to the romantic suspense that she herself writes today.
Writing was always a part of her life. At 15, she took a part-time job with a local newspaper answering phones and taking ads. She convinced the owner to let her rewrite the wedding announcements. Her talent with words duly noted, the owner hired her as the youngest stringer ever to work for the paper.
At 16, she was reporting on the city council meetings in her suburb and creating controversy that kept the editor’s phone ringing. That summer, she took over the sports section when the sports editor went on vacation.
Unable to afford the journalism program at Northwestern University, Patricia settled on being a commuter student at the University of Illinois and earning a degree in American literature. There, she also discovered that she was seduced by images as well as words. After obtaining a master’s degree in television production, she worked in educational media.
But that love of fiction never died. During the big surge of romances hitting the shelves in the late ’70s, she realized she wanted to write romances herself. She tried, gave up…and a few years later tried again. She gave herself a deadline — one year to get published or forget it.
This happened to be the first year of her marriage, and she was still working a full-time job. Luckily, she’d married "the most supportive man in the world." And even more luckily, she sold a young-adult romance at the 13th hour. Actually, in the 11th month of that year she'd given herself.
How did it happen? She won the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart for Best Young Adult Manuscript. Of course she wasn’t at the conference to learn of this. A friend called the next day. And mysteriously, a few weeks later, she received a Golden Heart in the mail with no letter, no official notification of her win. But that seemed to be the norm for her writing career at that point. The same friend who had called her also said the editor who'd read her manuscript for the contest was saying that she was "her" author and "her" new book.
So Patricia waited…and waited for a phone call from the editor. Three weeks later, the editor called and asked if she had ever made an offer. Patricia said no. The editor said she hoped Patricia would accept her offer, because the book was already in production.
Patricia’s writing career was on its way. Many books and years later, she’s still at it.
Research is an integral part of Patricia’s writing process. Recently she and her husband spent some time on a working cattle ranch in New Mexico to get the authentic details that she feels brings a story to life. Travel for research is the best part of the deal as far as she is concerned, especially if it involves animals. For some of her books, she swam with dolphins, photographed wild mustangs, and howled
