Interview with Author Anne Patrick

Anne Patrick is the author of more than a dozen novels of Romance, Mayhem & Faith, including the award-winning and best-selling Fire and Ash, Lethal Dreams and Sabotage. Anne looks at the dark side of life while her alter ego, by the name of Kinzie Monroe, writes Inspirational Romance. Anne’s books may be darker in subject matter, but they all carry messages of hope and faith. Born and raised in Oklahoma, she now makes her home in Kansas.

“Anne Patrick’s heroines are usually strong willed, witty, and often very opinionated … combinations that usually land them in situations where death seems imminent.”

Hello, Anne. Your novel is considered Romance/Inspirational/Suspense. Wow! Now that’s quite a mixture! Just that alone intrigues me. Please tell us about your new book, Sabotage.

Would love to! District Judge Katie McKinley takes her career very seriously. No one knows that better than her old childhood friend and first love, Graham Bishop. Her ruling cost him his family’s ranch. So it’s no surprise, when an attempt is made on her life, the sheriff turns his suspicions to Graham. Katie feels horrible knowing what her ruling cost her old friend, and knows his outburst in her courtroom gave the sheriff every right to suspect him. The Graham Bishop she grew up with would never harm her, though...or would he?

Where did you get your inspiration for this novel? Do you get any ideas from real life experiences?

To be honest I'm not sure what inspired this story. I suppose the inspiration for my heroine came from my experiences while working as a transport specialist. I was part of a two-person team and our job was to transport prisoners to and from court and to correctional facilities. My time spent in the courtroom gave me a healthy respect for our judicial system.

A Reviewer wrote, “A beautiful love story and just the right amount of suspense.” Is it difficult to put suspense in a love story?

Since I'm a suspense junkie that aspect of the story always comes first for me. Then once the characters come to life the romance just sort of comes naturally.

I understand what you mean. This novel is considered Romance/Inspirational. What kind of inspiration do you give the reader…if you know what I mean?

Katie lost her husband in the war in Iraq. Despite her strong faith, she is struggling to find the courage to read the last letters David sent to her and move on with her life. Her journey is similar to the verse in the book of Jeremiah. "The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle no one can figure out. But God searches the heart and examines the mind. He gets to the heart of the human… God picked up the pieces and put me back together again! He is my Praise!" 

That’s beautiful. Now it’s time to tell us something about the real you that we’ll never forget.

I've had the awesome privilege of going on several short-term mission trips out of the country. I've witnessed many miracles in the mission field that left me in awe of our creator. Once in Honduras, our great God sent my team an ice cream truck in the middle of nowhere so we could treat the children at our worksite. The one that stands out the most, though, was a worksite accident where He saved my life. We were working in Jamaica, constructing a new church when a seventy-five pound board came crashing down on me. It struck the left side of my head and sent me head first into a cement wall. Now normally we work in areas where we're miles away from a hospital but this time we were much closer and our driver, who just arrived as the accident happened, was a registered nurse. After two hours in the emergency room, I walked away with a few stitches, a mild concussion and the blackest eye you could imagine. Perhaps the real miracle was the bill we had to pay before treatment, which amounted to $22 US. That's right, only twenty-two bucks! Here in the U.S. it would have been at least a thousand dollars, which we didn't have on hand. 

I love hearing stories of faith and miracles. It shows how the Lord is watching over us. Thank you so much for this interview. I thoroughly enjoyed it. To learn more, visit Anne's website and her Blog: Stories of Romance, Mayhem, and Faith. She loves to hear from here readers!