Heeeeerrrre's Patti!

Welcome Patti. It's wonderful to have you on the first day of your Rhythm of Secrets Blog Tour. Patti is here to answer some questions as she starts her tour. Her third book, The Rhythm of Secrets has had five star reviews. Thank you Patti, I love being a part of your blog tour. This is AWESOME!


        Rhythm of Secrets Blog Tour 

 

About the Author

Patti Lacy graduated from Baylor University in 1977 with a BS in education. She taught at Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois, until she retired in 2006 to pursue writing full time. She and her husband, Alan, have two grown children. Visit Patti’s Web site at www.pattilacy.com.

Patti, where did you get your idea for Rhythm of Secrets?

Robyn, you got personal REALLY FAST! It’s a good thing we are friends. You know I’m a woman fascinated with the secrets women keep and why they keep them, so I guess you thought you could just dive in…

Oh! Back to your question!

On the morning of July 8, 2007, I opened the Chicago Tribune. Coffee (yeah, I’m an addict of this substance. Also tea and chocolate) sloshed onto the table…and I didn’t care. Gail Rosenblum’s article about a mother giving up…and then reclaiming…a child caught my heart and wouldn’t let go. The idea for my third story rustled right there in the newspaper pages, begging to be SET FREE! 

How long did it take to write? (Including revisions.)

Robyn, I wouldn’t have had a CLUE but Googled the date of that Tribune article. SO. It started around that time. Can YOU BELIEVE IT? It stopped around November 15, 2010, when I had another manuscript due.

Will you keep a secret? I was allowed not the usual ONE, but TWO have-at-its at the galley proofs. There were just so many rhythms to try to get in sync.

So…to answer succinctly, a REAL PROBLEM with me, we are talking OVER THREE years!! I had NO CLUE of that till you asked. THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!

What is your favorite part of Rhythm of Secrets?

Oooh, gracious. You need to know something about me. When I type that last letter on a book, I am DONE WITH IT! You see, the Spirit constantly nudges, tweaks…and I can’t STAND to see my past mistakes embodied in an actual volume because I can’t CORRECT THEM NOW!!!!

Robyn, I didn’t know you were so pushy! O-KAY! I guess the scene where Thelma, the stuffy secretary of my heroine Sheila’s pastor husband, comes a’calling…wanting church bulletin information AND gossip fodder!!! Then the big blow-up between Sheila and husband Edward. Oooh. You asked about ONE PART!!! Forgive me!!!  

Which of your characters is your favorite?

Definitely my Sheila, who’s masqueraded under THREE different names! I just LOVE those secrets!!!!

Do you read reviews of your books? If so, do you pay any attention to them, or let them influence your writing?

Oh, sure, I let my fingers do the walking to blogs and Amazon, especially early on. Then I try to forget the whole thing. Often it’s not constructive, and I have tissue-paper feelings. I mean, why put yourself through that? If we truly write for God, He’ll whisper a Holy critique.

I’ve got an agent with a brilliant knack for sifting through my stuff for a good story and unbelievable critique partners. That’s really the “influence” I need!

When I do read something hurtful, I try to rejoice in the knowledge that we live in a country where anyone can read anything and comment in whatever way they choose.

If you were to do your career as an author again, what would you do differently, and why?

Not whine about the twists and turns of the author’s life. NEVER criticize another writer NO MATTER WHAT. The Spirit’s helping me with a too-gabby and often negative nature on this one.    

Which of your books was the easiest/hardest to write?

Hmmm. I believe this third child, who I’ve nicknamed Secrets. I had to enlist SO MANY experts, read SO MANY books. Let’s see. A Thai national. Two Vietnam vets (or was it three). My usual stand-by, my doctor, and his helpful staff of nurses. Two firemen. Several octogenarian New Orleans residents who took me back to the 1940s. A master Southern gardener. Adoption experts. Amtrak engineers.

I’ll stop here. Research is WONDERFUL, but sometime it dragsssssssssss. 

Which of your characters would you most/least to invite to dinner, and why?

Oh! I’d definitely have Mary from An Irishwoman’s Tale, and HAVE HAD HER, not just to dinner but for a sleep-over or two! Then we were in Ireland for a week! Mary’s my best friend and cooks like a chef from a five-star organic slow-food restaurant. Just how I love to eat!!!!

Hmm. Who would I least like to have for dinner? I’m still ticked at Edward, Sheila’s husband in The Rhythm of Secrets, for his pompous, judgmental ways and really don’t want him in my house. Why am I finding it hard to forgive that man? I’d better go read Matthew 6:15.

Robyn, you are SO amazing! Thanks for the invitation. Now…when’s dinner???

To learn more about Patti, visit www.pattilacy.com. Early reviews and purchase information of The Rhythm of Secrets can be found at:

http://www.amazon.com/Rhythm-Secrets-Novel-Patti-Lacy/dp/082542674X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294768404&sr=8-1

About the Book

Sheila Franklin has lived three separate lives. Now a conservative pastor’s wife in Chicago, she is skilled at hiding secrets—a talent birthed during childhood romps through the music-filled streets of New Orleans. But when the son she bore at the age of eighteen comes back looking for answers and desperate for help, her greatest secret—and greatest regret—is revealed.
Eager to right past wrongs, Sheila’s heart floods with memories of lyrical jazz music and a worn-out Bible. But when her husband learns of her shady history, Sheila is suddenly faced with an impossible decision: embrace the dream—and son—she abandoned against her will or give in to the demands of her safe but stifled life. As she struggles to reclaim both her son and her identity, Sheila soon realizes that God’s grace spans both seas and secrets and that He is all she really needs. With dynamic writing that makes the reader feel the heartache of a teenage mother, struggle with the disillusionment of an abandoned boy, and revel in the idea of grace despite flaws, rising star Patti Lacy takes her fans on a journey they won’t want to end—and won’t soon forget.

Purchase the Book Online at:

• Available Now on Amazon.com
• Available on BooksaMillion.com
• Available on BarnesandNoble.com
• Christianbooks.com

For More Information

·         Visit the author online at http://www.pattilacy.com.

View the blog tour schedule at http://bit.ly/TheRhythmofSecrets