Today I’d like to welcome Patricia W. Fischer to Fallen Angel Reviews. Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for us today Patricia.

To start, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

For ten years, I was a nurse and worked in just about every part of the hospital except surgery and Labor and Delivery.

My specialty units were trauma and ICU, so as you can assume, I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie. During all that time, I’ve always written, always had a journal, and pen in hand, creating “great” stories (I thought they were great) until I finally decided to take a writing class and realized how much better my writing could be.

Your book Worth the Weight is scheduled to be released later this month. Can you tell us about it and where you got the inspiration for it?

When I lived in the dorms at the University of Texas, there were two girls that lived next to my roommate and myself. They had been best friends for a good ten years and did everything together. They were also both a good 50-70 pounds overweight. If you choose to walk everywhere on the UT campus, this can add up to some serious cardio (hills, long distances between classes, etc) and weight loss. One of the girls lost 70 in the first semester at school, the other one didn’t. Then one night, my roommate and I heard two girls fighting but couldn’t figure out who it could be because the girls next to us had been such great friends for so long. Come to find out, it was them. Apparently, they fought because of the weight loss and the change in the one who lost the weight. The thinner wanted to go do more things that the heavier one didn’t feel like she could to or wasn’t confident enough to try. The heavier one felt the other had become “Stuck up” and she lost her best friend “seventy pounds ago”. The heavier one quit school at the Christmas break and moved home.

Now, fast forward a good fifteen years and I’m watching the show “Extreme Makeover” and seeing these incredible results and changes of the people. They go home to their families and they have a new sense of purpose or confidence and I had to wonder, when the cameras are off and gone, what happens to the dynamics of the family? If you’ve had a meek housewife who was afraid to go to the grocery store because her nose was so huge and now you have a woman to is confident to go outside and looks amazing, how does the spouse deal with that? How do her friends handle the former wallflower or even a doormat when she’s no longer interested in letting life pass her by?

Megan (the heroine) came from the combination of those two events.

When did you decide to take "pen in hand" and write with the intent to publish?

When I lived in Dallas, I decided to return to school and earn my bachelor’s of nursing (I have an associate’s). There were a few pre-reqs I needed so I went to the community college to complete them (North Lake Community College in Irving). Walking down the hall one day, I saw a sign that said “Write for the school paper, get credit.” I figured that’d be an easy “A” because “I know how to write.” The first paper I brought in, they might as well have poured red paint on it because my professor (Kathleen Stockmeier) just wrote red ink everywhere. My first reaction was to tell her she didn’t know what she was talking about, but then I started listening to what she was telling me and I liked what I heard. She helped me improve my writing in a very short time and I came to the conclusion that I didn’t really want that bachelor’s of nursing as much as I wanted a bachelor’s of journalism. So, I switched over and then started writing for the paper. I liked being published because I felt I could reach more people that way than I could as a nurse, even if I never knew the affects of my words. As I proceeded farther into my studies, the story of Worth the Weight came up and I had every intension of getting it published. That goal really started to flourish after I joined San Antonio Romance Authors (SARA) and learned the in’s and out’s of writing and publishing.

Do you feel as if the characters live with you as you write? Do they haunt your dreams?

My characters are certainly with me as I write and they do tell me their stories all the time, in the shower, in the car taking the children to school, at the grocery store, as I fall asleep. Because I’ve based some of their personality traits on family members, it’s always a running line of possibilities for me and how these different concepts and ideas are there all the time.

How important is research in your writing?

I want to be accurate because I feel if I’m not, I’m disrespecting the reader’s intelligence and the time they are taking to read my book. My character is multilingual and I’ve asked friends and family members to read my translations to verify their accuracy and I’m particular about using current events during the book so I make sure those are on the right dates, the right stories, the right time frames.

From your website I’ve learned that you’ve had many different jobs in very diverse fields. Which job would you say was the most interesting? Which job taught you the most?

Each job certainly taught me about human nature but it gave me an incredible data base of possibilities for my book. As a nurse, I learned that all of us are human, no matter what we’ve done in life or how much we’re worth, we all have the potential to be rendered helpless with a wicked stomach virus or a heart attack. I’ve seen the power of joy, the intensity of loss, and the ugliness of fear and I think all of those helped me understand human nature a bit more and appreciate that I’ve got it pretty good.

My husband jokes about I’ve worked everywhere because I know these little bits of information to expedite things or how certain businesses work and that helps me create more real situations in my book and those to follow.

What was the hardest aspect of writing Worth the Weight? How did you overcome it?

The hardest aspects for me were finishing the book when I had about two chapters left and the sex scenes. I’ve never written sex scenes and I didn’t want it to come across canned or stupid but I needed them to be true to the character and her personality. I can’t have this nice, finding her way young woman suddenly rip into a chain of erotic phrases. In regards to finishing the book, my husband would walk in and say “Did you finish the book today?” and I tell him no because of the kids or laundry or the 900 other things I needed to get done and he’d point me to the computer and say “go write, finish it.” Finally I did.

As for the sex scenes, I was told my Delilah Devlin and Doreen Orsini to read nothing but erotica books for about a week and I’d figure out how to write a good sex scene. Plus, I asked my critique partners to look over it and give me their input. It’s been fun writing them and I’ll not be so anxious to write the next one. Funny thing is, in my next book, one of the characters is very pregnant and I have to write in the awkwardness of pregnancy and sex and keep it charged as well as entertaining and hopefully, endearing.

What’s your favorite time of day? Why?

It varies. If I get up early and have a bit of time in the morning, I enjoy sitting the quiet of the day or organize my thoughts. I love the evening, especially in the Spring because it is calming to me but crazy when talking about family (dinner, baths, storytime).
And I love it when I get to workout and that’s anytime of day because I use that time to collect my thoughts and organize my stories or simply not think at all.

You have 3 wishes, what are they?

1. To raise happy, healthy, confident, caring, intelligent, well educationally rounded, spiritually sound children and have the romance and like/love/lust alive in my marriage and life for a long, long time
2.Write quality work that keep readers coming back for more each time and counting the days when my next work comes out
3.To make a quality contribution to the world around me (refer to wish one) and to enjoy life to the fullest.

Do your fans' comments and letters influence you in any way?

The first group of readers I had was my monthly book club. One of the girls in the club wrote to be and told me the book encouraged her to leave her abusive husband. She’d already taken steps to leave him, but she read the book and told me it made her realize that things to get better and change is good. Honestly, I couldn’t believe it had made such an impact because I had just set out to write a story and it made me realize that words are incredibly powerful and they should be used in the best way possible.

Can you tell us what your currently working on?

I’m working on a few things, the sequel to Worth the Weight, tentatively called After Impact. It’s about the cousin, Sam, in WTW. Also, I’m outlining another series, more a mystery/suspense, a paranormal about a nurse (medical suspense—might as well put that nursing degree to use), and a couple of children’s books. Plus, I’m working on keeping my house as clean as possible and doing some major Spring cleaning.

Is there anything else you would like to add today?

I would like to say how much I appreciate the time you’ve taken to read this today and I hope you find Worth the Weight enjoyable to read and one that may inspire you to greater things for yourself and ultimately, the world around you.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing your comments and accomplishments!

Also, I write for a website called Hot Moms Club. It’s a great website for moms of the 21st century. My most recent article “Mom-Me Power” is on there. It discusses self-empowerment and building your own accomplishments. Check it out!

Thank you so much, Patricia, for spending time with us today! Readers be sure to visit Patricia’s website


Interviewed by: Tammy