Pat Backley is an English woman who, at the age of 59 , decided to become a Kiwi.
She is an author and mother of one beautiful daughter.
She now lives in New Zealand and when not writing, she loves to travel the world (COVID permitting).
She published her first book DAISY in late 2020, just before her 70th birthday and having discovered her passion, she now can’t stop writing, and has published six more titles since then!
She has also contributed to several other anthologies, so was delighted to be asked to write some short stories for this book: THE RELATABLE VOICES.
It is set in Alabama, Harlem and London and incorporates some of the evils of society like poverty, racism and snobbery, as well as some of the greatest that life has to offer, like family, friendship and love.
The underlying theme is that whatever our circumstances of birth, whether we are rich or poor, Black or White, we are all equal.
Hello author Pat Backley, welcome to the RV Book Fair! What is your favourite thing about being a writer?
The chance to put into my books all my own thoughts, feelings, beliefs and experiences. It is wonderful to either weave these into my fiction books, or to relate them honestly and truthfully in my memoirs.
If you were a superhero, what powers would you have?
The ability to make the world a better place, to make everyones lives happier. Not much of a tall order!
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
I am a pretty fast writer. My first one, written during lockdowns, with no distractions, was written within two weeks. Then of course it took me twice as long to edit and re edit it!
What inspired you to start writing?
Being bored during lockdown!
Although I now realise that it had all been inside my head for many many years. It is such a wonderful feeling to finally get it out of my head and onto paper!
Do you hear from your readers much? What do they say?
Obviously getting reviews on Amazon/ Goodreads etc. to every authors dream, but getting personal messages is even better. Just today I had emails from two readers, one saying how much she loved the cover of my autobiography and the other saying how much she had loved reading my first book DAISY and couldn’t wait to get started on the sequel THE SECOND DAISY. That is the stuff that dreams are made of!
As a child, what did you want to do?
I wanted to be an artist, a archeologist, an architect, a missionary or a writer. At one stage I also wanted to be a nurse or a teacher!
What are your guilty pleasures?
I love chocolate, red wine and watching rubbish on Netflix.
Where do you dream travelling to and why?
There is still so much of the world I want to explore. Prior to lockdown I had booked a trip to Russia, a place that had always fascinated me, but I guess with the war in Ukraine that won’t happen anytime soon!
What is your writing process like? Are you more plotter than panther?
I am a rather undisciplined writer. I guess coming to it later in life, with no formal training at all, I am pretty free range!
Ideas pop into my head and I start writing, with a rough outline, but no exact idea of where the story will take me. Often my characters seem to have a mind of their own and go off at a complete tangent to the plot I had in mind for them!
Discover more about Pat on her website: www.patbackley.com
