If you missed the big news, I just released my third poetry book Stages of a Healing Heart last month! Check it out here. It's spring over here in Washington state and the pollen has been destroying me. But! The nature here fails to disappoint. I've only seen 2 hummingbirds in my life before this. [...]
I just finished watching Seinfeld from start to finish, and it was quite the experience. I used to watch Seinfeld reruns growing up every single night so I was ecstatic when Netflix announced they were going to put my favorite series on their platform in October 2021. Rewatching all 180 episodes and 9 seasons as [...]
I've heard way too many people say the infamous phrase "I want to write a book." But there's only a select few who actually get to celebrate when that finished product arrives at their front door. I never wept so hard when I received the first hard copy of my first book Junkland, the first [...]
What a fricken rollercoaster ride of a writing experience. I feel like I just finished a marathon. For those of you who don’t know National Novel Writing Month is a challenge for writers to write 50,000 words in the month of November. I just moved back to Spain, got screwed over with my apartment situation, [...]
I had everything lined up as I approached my second book: the skills, the schedule, the mindset, the story. I thought after writing one book, a second book would be a walk in the park. However, as I came to the end of my three-year project of writing the sequel to Junkland, I began to [...]
9/17/2018 I have officially moved into my new home for the next eight months in San Roque, Spain; I am no longer homeless! Wow is it beautiful. There’s a little café across the street called La Ermita. I live right next to the pool and gym, and attached to it there's a soccer field [...]
Date: 9/16/2018 I told my new roommate I’d move in with him on Monday. I wanted to take one day to relax and do absolutely nothing. I also wanted to enjoy one more night with air conditioning. Spain is fricken HOT! And it is unusual to have air conditioning here so I wanted to [...]
In my previous post, I started talking about my goals. Goals are important because they are what get you up in the morning, ready to start the day and improve your life. When you were a kid, your goals were set for you: graduate and get a job. Well, now that those goals have [...]
After arriving to Spain and recovering on the beach, it was time to figure out my life. The first thing on my list was to get out of the stone age and get a phone plan. I was afraid to leave my Airbnb without data. So I searched for my destination on Google Maps [...]
After my nice sleep that didn’t end up being too sweaty, I woke up and said my goodbyes to my Airbnb hosts. I stepped outside into the bright sun and enjoyed my first day-views of Marbella, Spain. I had the giant La Concha mountain before me, shooting straight up into the air, almost touching [...]
Stephen Hillenberg, the creator of Spongebob Squarepants, was a big reason why I pursued writing. I always admired his journey from a marine biologist to becoming a famous cartoon writer. But not just a cartoon writer, the creator of one of the greatest shows of all time. And it’s the simplicity of the creative [...]
I only had three beta readers for Junkland. Now, for The Lost Soul, I had fourteen people willing to be a beta reader, and most of them reached out to me demanding I put them on the list. This is the support that keeps me going, when people show interest in what I am doing. These [...]
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a draft of the prologue of The Lost Soul, book two in The Hoarding series. This chapter will change in the final draft, but it will be similar. I hope you enjoy it! Prologue They were lost. They had discovered footprints in the snow—human footprints. To think that there were [...]
Dream. Believe. Pursue. This motto has gotten me through all the negativity and hardship that has come with following my passion. It was what kept me on track when family, friends, and my conscious told me to focus more on my stable engineering career. However, I knew deep down, I did not want that [...]
And the birthday celebrations continue! I'm not going to lie, the one year anniversary of Junkland came out of no where for me. Especially with it mixing into my big move to Spain. I just can't grasp the thought that it really has been one whole year. And what a year it has [...]
Every author has a spark of inspiration that gives birth to a story. Whether that spark comes from being delayed on a train traveling from Manchester to London King’s Cross or from working on another project which sparks a vivid scene of finding direwolf pups, every story has a beginning before the beginning. But [...]
Fascination, awe, and curiosity are all expressed when I tell people I wrote a bestselling fantasy novel. Especially when I mention my background was in systems engineering, and how my whole life revolved around math—the two fields are totally different! People always wonder how an engineer-type mind could possibly write a fantasy novel. Well, [...]
Happy Birthday Junkland! Today is the one-year anniversary of the day I released my first book, Junkland, the first book in The Hoarding series. It is also the day I became an official author, beginning a wild journey. November 7th, 2017 will forever be engraved in my head as one of the greatest accomplishments [...]
I made it to Spain! After a long, exhausting trip, I finally made it to the Malaga airport around 8:00 pm at night. But my journey wasn’t over yet. My destination was La Línea de la Concepción: the very southern tip of Spain. There wasn’t a direct bus to La Línea de la Concepción [...]
Last I left off, I said my goodbyes to Mamma Johns at the airport, ready to start my adventure. My new flight from Newark, New Jersey was delayed by an hour and a half, but so far, I would make my connecting flight in Paris. I arrived to the airport at 11:00 pm, two [...]
You’ve all probably been wondering, what the heck has Author Pat been up to these past few months? And where the heck is book 2 of The Hoarding Series? Well, let me update you. I sent book 2, The Lost Soul, to my Beta Readers back on August 9th. Some people are probably thinking, [...]
Wow. What just happened? I don’t even know what day it is…My trip to Spain was a disaster. Let me think back… I planned to leave for Spain on Monday, September 10th at 11:00 pm. I booked my trip through Kiwi.com, and I was flying from Newark, NJ to Paris, France with Iberia Air. [...]