PATTY BRIGGS
Affaire de Coeur's March, 2010 Author of the Month

AdC: When did you start writing and why?
PB:I've always told stories sometimes writing down a scene or two. When I was in college I started working them into a book which I finished the year after I graduated. I sold that book (Masques) and I've been writing every since.

AdC: What is your favorite book? Author?
PB: I don't have a favorite book or author -- I love them all. I read a lot and have twenty or thirty authors who are automatic buys. Some of the newer authors whose work I've (re)read in the past week or so and loved are Nalini Singh, Lynn Flewelling, Lilith StCrow, Lois McMaster Bujold, Jim Butcher, Lorna Freeman, Jayne Anne Krenz, Louis L'Amour, Sarah Monette, Elizabeth Peters (her Amelia Peabody books are awesome). I also found out, when reading it to my children for the first time in twenty years, that I have Black Beauty (Anna Sewell) virtually memorized.

AdC: You write Urban Fantasy. How did you get involved in that genre?
PB: I've been reading it all my life. From the early (before my time -'cause I may be old but . . . ) works of urban fantasy meant people like Lovecraft. I read Anne Rice's Interview with a vampire in '77 when I was twelve. Fred Saberhagen had a delightful collection of stories beginning with "The Dracula Tapes" in which Dracula retells Stoker's book from his point of view and almost succeeds in making himself the hero of the story. I read -- still do actually -- Charles de Lindt, Mercedes Lacky, Tanya Huff and Emma Bull. I bought Guilty Pleasures the day it came out because -- hey, noir detective fiction with vampires must be awesome -- and it was. My editor, Anne Sowards, and I share our reading lists, so she knew that I loved the genre. When Susan Allison asked if any of their authors could write urban fantasy - Anne asked me to try it. I jumped at the chance.

AdC: What is your idea of a perfect day?
PB: Perfection is unpredictable. Sometimes its a day in which I set out to write five pages and get twenty-five. Sometimes it's when my horse and I get the canter (which is difficult for him because of his flat croup) just right or when my kids are happy or triumphant. It could be the day that my delightful new friend, my husband and I all stood at the top of the Arc d'Triomphe after a day of wandering the streets of Paris. Or just sitting on the back porch when the breeze keeps the hot summer sun at bay with my husband talking about what our plans for the next day might be. I have a lot of perfect days.

AdC: Do you have any hobbies?
PB: Does reading count? Seriously, my main hobbies are reading and horses. My husband loves kites, so I do that. For the past five years we've been fixing up our houses/farms -- it seems like we just get close enough to see the end when we move.

AdC: What is the worst thing about being an author? The best thing?
JK: Probably the instability of writing as a career. I have good friends who are well known and terrific writers who can no longer get published -- and I plan my life with that in mind. That is the only downside. My favorite things change without warning -- I love meeting writer's whose books I adore -- or readers who want to talk other people's books. I love the freedom I have to drop everything and go to my kids' concerts or gymnastic competitions. I love traveling and coming back home. I love seeing the characters I have in my head come to life on the page.

AdC: What do you expect to be doing ten years from now?
PB: Heh. Writing. Maybe riding into the sunset with my husband.

AdC: What can we expect to see next?
JK: I am currently revising Masques, my first book and Wolfsbane, it's previously unpublished sequel for release late this year. Dabel Brothers/Dynamite are bring out the books in comic and then graphic novel formats beginning with Cry Wolf but we'll also be doing Moon Called at nearly the same time.

AdC: What words of wisdom would you give to aspiring authors?
JK: Read. Find something else to do that puts food on your table, despite the myth, writers write better when they have a place to sleep and food to eat! Enjoy writing, and don't let the desire to publish ruin the fun.

AdC: Would you describe yourself as solid on the ground or chasing the stars?
PB: Both, I think. I get the essentials covered and then give myself permission to reach for the ring.

AdC: What do you consider your greatest achievement?
JK: I'd tell you it is my kids, who are the kind of people anyone would be proud to claim -- but I think the real credit for that has to go mostly to them. I'm inclined to say it is being able to sit a fast trot on a horse-- as a singularly nonathletic person, I feel that is quite an achievement. Perhaps it is when I wrote that first book from beginning to end.