INTERVIEW WITH JESSICA R. PATCH

 By Patricia Bradley

The Suspense Sisters welcome Jessica R. Patch to our blog. Oh, and she's giving away a copy of Her Darkest Secret! (print for US addresses and digital for all others) It's the first book in her latest series!

She is a Publishers Weekly bestselling author known for her dry wit, signature twists, and complex characters. She loves reading true crime books, discussing cold cases over chips and salsa with her girlfriends, and hunting down serial killers in her romantic suspense novels and psychological thrillers.

I have a confession to make. I've known Jessica R. Patch since 2013 when we drove to Indianapolis, to the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference. For some reason, I started calling her Robin on the trip. I have no idea why, but it stuck. So I almost introduced her as Robin. 

So Robin, er Jessica, what has being published taught you? Flexibility no doubt! The trends change. The industry changes. You’re not always sure when your edits are coming—you guess but never know the actual day—and you might be writing one thing and then have to work on something else that’s contracted. For someone who’s regimented like me, it’s a lesson in bending with very stretching legs!

Panster or Plotter? 

I started out as a pantser. I’d get a character in my head and a basic idea and go to town. Once I was contracted by Harlequin, they require a detailed synopsis for each book before you write it—even the contracted ones. I tried to pants a book that’s coming out in an indie collection and guess what? I couldn’t do it. I had to plot it out. Will things change and be a little different as I write? Yes. But overall, I know where I’m going.

What would you like readers to know about your story/characters? 

My stories and characters are unedited. By that I mean I don’t water down how they feel or what they do. My Trade books—Her Darkest Secret and my upcoming A Cry in the Dark cover character, including the villains, that do some pretty disturbing things. I don’t edit that. 

I guess I get that play from the Bible. Bad, disturbing things happened. Dark things. God didn’t approve of them, but He didn’t edit them out. If we can read about a man who let his concubine be abused all night and left for dead then cut her up into pieces and mail her out to the other tribes, I think readers can handle some gruesome murders in fiction as well. God uses broken people to accomplish his purposes. All of my characters are broken. And God gets the glory in every book.

Jessica loves to encourage and inspire people to forward living through her Forward Friday Blog posts and through her monthly email newsletter. You can join the Patched In community at her website: www.jessicarpatch.com. 

She resides in the Memphis area with her husband, two young adult children, and her spoiled tri-color Shetland Sheepdog. Jessica is represented by Rachel Kent of Books & Such Literary Management.

Jessica is giving away a copy of Her Darkest Secret, so be sure to leave a comment with your contact information.

And be sure to check out her Love Inspired Suspense books! Her latest book, a Trade Paperback, is A Cry in the Dark. I've read it and it will keep you flipping the pages to find out what happens next!

Deep in the Kentucky hills, three women have been found brutalized and murdered.

But the folks in Night Holler have their own ways and their own laws.

And they’re not talking…

Led to an isolated Appalachian Mountain town by a trail of disturbing murders, FBI special agent Violet Rainwater’s determined to catch a serial killer with a twisted agenda. With locals refusing to reveal their secrets, Violet’s only ally is Detective John Orlando. But even John has an ulterior motive—he’s convinced this case is connected to his wife’s murder. 

As they dig deeper, Violet uncovers a link to her own unresolved past. For years she’s worked the cold case of her mother’s abduction, which had led to her birth. The need to look into the eyes of the sinful man who fathered her consumes Violet. Until she can, she’ll never have peace. Because she’s terrified she might be exactly like him.

In this chilling novel, when the present collides with Violet’s mysterious past and John’s tragic loss, they must unravel the warped, sinuous connections before the killer strikes again. But solving the case might not be nearly as terrifying as the possibility that Violet’s finally found her roots…

Be sure to leave a comment with your contact information to be entered in a drawing for Her Darkest Secret!

The winner of a book from my library is...Nancy Darby! Nancy, contact me in the next two weeks at pat at ptbradley dot com and I'll get you a list of books from my library to choose from.