Sit Down Saturday with Patricia Forsythe

Most of the time, when people ask me about being a writer, they have no idea I’ve been at it so long.  I wrote my first book on a typewriter, holding my youngest son on my lap.  He’s now in his thirties, and is a father himself.  I’ve written many more books since then, most of them for Harlequin Books, but I’ll never forget the challenge of writing and selling that first one.

Just about anyone who reads any kind of book can tell you that the publishing industry has changed greatly since those days.  The advent of the personal computer was remarkable.  My first one was an Apple IIe which would seem primitive now but was state of the art then.  I loved it because it freed me forever from White-Out and Korrec Type – it’s been so long since I used those products I’m not even sure I’m spelling them correctly. 

Printing books on paper was the publishing norm from the time of Gutenberg’s first printing press and will probably always be with us.  Electronic books are becoming increasingly popular.  They’re easy to purchase – a click of a button has them downloading to your electronic reader while your credit card is conveniently charged.  It’s a process I find seductively simple because it’s so much easier than going to a bookstore, although I still love bookstores.

The one thing that has never changed in all the centuries of publishing is a good story.  Since our caveman days, people have learned from stories, retold stories, made up stories.  The human craving for a great story is another thing that will always be with us.  Writers get their stories from everywhere – personal experience, a bit of gossip, or an overheard conversation.

In my first Harlequin Heartwarming, Her Lone Cowboy, a June release, I used stories and conversations I’d had with various military veterans I’ve known and I used those to create Caleb Ransom, a wounded veteran who has returned to the states determined to find a quiet corner of the world, raise cattle, maybe a few horses, and be left alone.  He succeeds pretty well for about a year – at least until Laney Reynolds moves in next door with her curious four-year-old son, Sam.  The little boy’s adventurous spirit and desire to make friends with Caleb and his animals keeps his mother at her wit’s end and pulls Caleb out of his shell and into their lives.

I loved writing this story and it’s my hope that readers will love reading it.