Patrice Michelle – Turning Readers On!

I’ve been an avid reader since I was ten years old. Blame it on the elementary school’s reading program (re: read twenty books in a month and win a prize!). I wanted that prize, so I read the twenty books. Along the way, I discovered…I LOVED reading. Since then, I’ve always had my nose stuck in a book, much to my childhood best friend’s annoyance.

When I was in tenth grade and my older sister was in twelfth, she brought home an assigned reading book. The fiction book sat in the exact same spot she’d dumped it—on the chair next to the stairs—for days. After a week of passing by this book, I picked it up and read the blurb on the back. A mystery to solve and a love story…hmmm, it didn’t sound too bad. I sat down that night and read the entire book and I loved it! I was so excited about the story that I told my sister all about it, hoping I could get her excited enough to read it herself. While I blabbed on and on, my sister nodded and uh huh’d and smiled. The next day she wrote the book report and turned it in. Got a B, too. *rolling eyes* 🙂 So much for trying to get my sister interested in reading.

But that author had hooked me and I went on to read her entire backlist. I told other friends about her books, turning them onto this author’s work. To this day, I believe the best advertising an author can do is write the best story she can. Give her readers a great plot with interesting twists, main characters to empathize and fall in love with, and deeply emotional, heart-wrenching moments that will pull the reader into the story, making them feel like a participant as the tale unfolds.

When I sit down to write my own books, I keep in mind all the things about the books that I adored. From suspenseful plots to stories that make your heart twist, I try my best to create heroes and heroines who readers consider their friends. My goal is always to create a compelling story with engaging characters. If the readers close the book with a smile and wonder what’ll happen next in the main characters’ lives, then that’s the highest compliment in my mind, because that’s the standard I use as a reader that “hooks” me on books.

Do you remember what books/authors have hooked you such that you had to go out and tell everyone, from family to friends to YES, even strangers you meet in line at the bookstore, “You HAVE to read these books? They’re fantastic!” What was it about those books that really drew you in?

Patrice Michelle currently has three series available in print:

1) Scions (vampire, werewolf, paranormal)– Coming January 2008

2) Kendrian (vampire) – Available now

3) Bad in Boots (contemporary western)

– Available now For excerpts, blurbs and reviews of all Patrice’s books, visit her website at http://www.patricemichelle.net/.