HEIDI'S PICK SIX - PATRICIA BRAY
Patricia Bray

HEIDI'S PICK SIX

1. Which of your characters is your favorite?

2. Tell me about your travels.
Every year I go on a biking trip. So far I've been to Maryland's Eastern Shore, Ireland (Kerry), Vermont, Nantucket, Maine, Nova Scotia, Blue Ridge Mountains, New York's Finger Lakes, Bryce/Zion in Utah, Quebec province and the Canadian Rockies. This year I'll be going to Crater Lake, Oregon. It's a chance to get away from everything (including the internet), and recharge myself.

None of these locations has been directly featured in my stories, but the way you interact with the landscape when you're out in all kinds of weather, traveling under your own power is something that informs how I write about my characters' own journeys.

3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
Yes, yes, yes.

4. What else can you do besides write?
Before writing consumed my time and creative energy, I was a quilter. My quilting had much in common with my writing style—periods of inactivity followed by bursts of frenetic quilting. My friend Stacey and I would take "Quilt-in-a-Day" classes, but rather than one quilt we'd make two separate quilts in that time. The instructor would warn the class that we were maniacs, and they shouldn't compare themselves to us.

5. Who are you reading right now?
6. Pop culture or academia?
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?

9. Food you could eat everyday.
Oatmeal. I have it for breakfast every day when I'm at home.

10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?

11. What kind of music speaks to you?
Folk music, particularly Irish and Scottish. I've an extensive repertoire of drinking songs and sea chanteys, and will often break into song when I'm doing repetitive tasks. I also like to listen to music when I'm writing, usually the same set of CDs over and over again for the entire novel.

12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
I outline extensively in my head and on paper. Before I start to write, I already know the beginning, middle and end of the story. If it's a new project, by the time I have the first two or three chapters written, I'll have an outline describing all of the turning points, and descriptions of each of the major characters. If I'm pitching a series, then the outline for the subsequent books in the series may only be a couple of pages long, but I'll continue to flesh them out as the project progresses.

I've just started work on the last book in the Chronicles of Josan, and I'm looking forward to finally writing scenes that I've had in my head for the past two years.

12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
13. Celebrity crush.
14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
15. Do you still watch cartoons?

Patricia Bray began her career writing historical romances set in Regency England before making the leap to epic fantasy with her Sword of Change trilogy. A resident of upstate New York, Patricia balances her writing with a full-time career as an I/T project manager.

In 2006 she launched a new fantasy series with the publication of The First Betrayal. The next book in the series, The Sea Change, will be released by Bantam Spectra in July 2007.


HEIDI'S PICK SIX, Heidi Ruby Miller, Patricia Bray, Sword of Change, The First Betrayal, fantasy, writing, author interviews