Changing things up a little here today with an author interview and book spotlight. Settle in and enjoy what Patricia Bradley dares to share with us.

Hi Donna and readers!

Where did you get the idea for your book, Deception, Natchez Trace Park Rangers, Book 4, and why park rangers?

I am so excited to be here—this is such a neat blog. The idea for a book set on the Natchez Trace was one that had been floating around in my head for a few years. The Natchez Trace stretches from Nashville to Natchez and part of it runs within thirty-five miles of my house. When I proposed the idea to Revell, I had in mind the stretch of four hundred and forty-four miles of the Trace that goes through Alabama.

My editor had other ideas—she fell in love with Natchez and “suggested” I set the story there. Since I’d always wanted to visit Natchez, I jumped at the chance to do tax-deductible research there. I visited four times before Covid shut my travel down.

Natchez is a beautiful small city, and way back in the 1850’s had more millionaires than anywhere else in the US. There are beautiful antebellum homes there as well as many historical sites, and great eating places, like Fat Mama’s Tamales and Jugheads.

As for why park rangers, I always wanted to be a park ranger. Now, I had in mind one of those rangers like at Mount Locust who did tours and talked about the historical Inn. Then I discovered those rangers couldn’t investigate, at least not on the Natchez Trace. There’s a whole other division for that—the Natchez Trace Park Rangers. They are all law enforcement rangers. Which put a kink in my plot. That information had me scrambling for a while.

How did you get started writing?

It’s like this. When I was thirty-five, I couldn’t sleep. I lay in bed tossing and turning, and would get up in the morning and say, “I fought the bed and the bed won.” Then one night as I stared at the ceiling, a man appeared in my vision. He stood looking out a window with smokestacks billowing smoke into the air. Then he turned to me and said, “This wasn’t the way my life was supposed to turn out.”

That got my attention, and I began to tell myself stories about what happened to derail him. Then other people came to live in my head, and they wouldn’t leave me alone until I wrote down their stories. Woman’s World published the first one I wrote, and I believe that was God’s way of encouraging me. Because it should never have been published—the guidelines stated 2500 words and I sent 4000. By all rights, the editor should have stuffed the pages in the SASE I sent (For those of you who never sent SASEs, that a self-addressed-stamped-envelope) and mailed it back to me. But she didn’t. She bought it and cut the extra words out. It would be many years before I was contracted for my first novel, though.

What can your readers expect from you next?

Deception is the last book set in Natchez, and the next books are the Pearl River Series. The series is set in the Cumberland Plateau just north of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It has been so much fun to write the first book that features Alex Stone, a female sheriff and a serial killer out to kill her. Nathan Landry is the chief of police in Pearl Springs, Tennessee where they live, and they have a kind adversarial relationship…but he’s also the love interest, so…

Oh, and I dipped into the Dark Web and computer games as well as chess for this one. I think my readers will enjoy it. And that brings me to the question I want to ask your readers: Do you prefer a beach or a mountain setting? I’ll give away a copy of Deception, The Natchez Trace Park Rangers, Book 4 to someone who leaves a comment (print for US addresses and ebook for all others).

Donna, this has been fun! Thanks for having me.

About Patricia

Patricia Bradley is a Romantic Suspense Selah winner, Carol and Daphne du Maurier finalist and the winner of an Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award. Three anthologies that included her stories debuted on the USA Today Best Seller List. She and her two cats call Northeast Mississippi home--the South is also where she sets most of her books. Her romantic suspense novels include the Logan Point series, the Memphis Cold Case Novels, and the Natchez Trace Park Rangers. She now hard at work on the second book in her new Pearl River series set in the Cumberland Plateau area above Chattanooga.

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Writing workshops include American Christian Fiction Writers, the Mid-South Christian Writer’s Conference, the KenTen and Scrivener retreats where she was the keynote, Memphis American Christian Fiction Writer group, and the Bartlett Christian Writers group. When she has time, she likes to throw mud on a wheel and see what happens.

You can find buy links for Deception at her website:

https://ptbradley.com/books/deception-natchez-trace-park-rangers-book-4/

And check her out here, too:

Blog: www.patriciabradleyauthor.com/blog

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