A Visit With Jessica Patch

by Patricia Bradley

Today we're sitting down and talking to Jessica Patch. (You can read her bio at the end) She's giving away a print copy of Recovered Secrets to one commenter. (US Address) And you can read my review of Recovered Secrets at my website.


What do you do when you’re not writing? Any interesting hobbies? 

Like most writers, I’m reading in my genre and out. But I have a passion to teach the Word, so I spend my free time teaching bible studies. 

Last year, I took a God-led break from writing to teach the Bible chronologically, and then in December 2019, I launched a discipleship/mentorship program for women.  A.C.T. Abide, Connect, Train in godliness. 

Eighteen women from the chronological bible study were prayed over and invited to be a mentor in 2020 to 3-5 women, reading chronologically and slowly pulling out the story through major characters in the Bible and looking at the Word, Women in the Word, and Worldview. It’s enhanced so many lives that are sadly Bible illiterate! 

We can tell the story of Cinderella or Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, and the Three Bears, but when it comes to telling God’s story, we don’t really know much of it other than Jesus coming, dying, raising from the dead and giving us eternal life. It was a year spent well, and I wouldn’t trade it!

That sounds like an amazing year, Jessica! What was your favorite book as a teen or child? 

As a child, I adored The Little House on the Prairie series. I remember checking them out from the library and reading them on the bus during the ride home which was about thirty to forty minutes! As a teen, I devoured the Sweet Valley High series. It’s probably why I love a lot of drama in stories I read (and write)! :-)

What genre did you start out writing? Have you changed course? Why or why not? 

The first book I wrote was a contemporary romance but it did have an element of mystery since a cold case came to light. After that I wrote 6 contemporary romances and then switched back to romantic suspense. I still write in both genres but I’m traditionally published with the romantic suspense. My CR novels are indie published.

I love your romantic suspense books. Any other genres you’d like to try?

I have a cozy mystery series in my brain and actually have 5 covers with titles sitting in my hard drive awaiting the day I have time to write them! I enjoy cozies because you can add a good measure of humor and I enjoy adding laughs to my stories regardless of the genre. I also love reading Young Adult paranormal, but I doubt I’ll ever try my hand.

I've thought about writing cozies, but like you haven't had the time! What is the most important thing you’d like readers to take away from your books? 

Writing to a Christian audience, for me, is a form of discipleship—equipping the body. The struggles that my characters go through aren’t any different from the ones we face in reality, though we don’t usually have crazed killers coming after us to teach us the lesson (or maybe you do!). 

At the end of the day, yes, be entertained and escape awhile but mostly I want readers to come away feeling hopeful about their circumstances and situation. Fictional characters but real hope. And what God can do for those fictional characters, He can do for you, but you have to do your part too! 

So I say all that to say: Hope. I want readers to experience hope.

I've seen that in your books. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’d like to give to unpublished authors? 

I think it’s easy to become obsessed with getting published and being so focused on the dream God gives that we forget the Dream-Giver is our exceedingly great reward (Genesis 15). We must do the work. Write every day. But remember before the work, comes time with the One who assigns us the work. Don’t let your intimate relationship with Jesus suffer. 

Writing is ministry, and it’s an offering to Him for sure, but it doesn’t take the place of being IN the Word, worshipping, and prayer. We need that FIRST and FOREMOST before we can tell the story He places in our hearts. I think you’ll find the more time you spend with Him, the clearer the story He wants you to write will become!

I loved the book you've feature today, Jessica.



A blank memory. A new life.

But her borrowed time just ran out

Two years after Grace Thackery washed up on a small-town Mississippi riverbank, she has the first clue about the life she doesn’t remember: someone wants her dead. And while search-and-rescue director Hollis Montgomery’s determined to protect her, the secrets of her past are darker than they expected. Can the bond between Grace and Hollis survive her true identity…and an assassin?
 You can purchase Recovered Secrets at:
Amazon for only $3.99 for the Kindle version.


Bio and links

Jessica R. Patch is known for her dry wit and signature twists whether she's penned a contemporary romance or romantic suspense. When she's not hunched over her laptop (or in physical therapy because she's been hunched over her laptop), you can find her cozy on the couch in her mid-south home watching way too much Netflix with her family, going on "adventures" in the name of book research, and collecting recipes to amazing dishes she'll probably never cook. Sign up for her newsletter "Patched In" at www.jessicarpatch.com. Jessica is represented by Rachel Kent of Books & Such Literary Management.


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Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for Recovered Secrets. Jessica took a year off from writing to teach Bible studies. Do you think it hurts an author to take a year off from writing?