About Marshalee Patterson:
Marshalee Patterson was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She has always had a love for reading. It was while attending the Merl Grove High School that she discovered that she loved writing stories. Some of her favourite novels were written by Charles Dickens and Victor Hugo, as she found she liked the true to life stories that we all can relate to. However, after leaving high school, she went on to pursue a career in banking as a Bank Teller and didn’t follow up on her writing. It wasn’t until after she visited Italy in 2003, she started to relive the experiences and wanted to write about it. She gives credit to being a Christian as it is the Holy Spirit that she says guides her in writing her books. She writes Christian romance/adventure and family books, where all her characters are created from her own experiences, with the experiences of a few and this she said helps her to write with a lot of heart and love. She hopes that through her novels she can inspire people of all ages with the message of hope in Christ and showing them that through him comes deliverance. Her goal is that through this medium, she can give readers a better knowledge of how to be victorious against satan’s tactics and exposes some of the devices he uses by creating stories where readers can better understand situations and root causes of demonic doors opening in our lives and through spiritual warfare prayers that she herself have been using and saw results, they too can learn to stand strong against the devil themselves too. She is a lover of nature and the tranquility of it. She finds nature refreshing and peaceful. She loves different cultures especially the Spanish which she feels makes us learn to appreciate ours a little more in areas where we have been ungrateful or unappreciative. She loves salsa music very much and dances it well too. She is a proud Jamaican.
What inspires you to write?
I write knowing I can uplift and encourage someone going through a difficult situation and may not have someone to talk to about it. I use some of my own experiences to create characters with the help of the Holy Spirit to express what we need to feel and need to hear when we haven't someone around us.
Tell us about your writing process.
For me, I have never been able to plan out my entire stories as some authors do. Even back in high school, I usually create as I go. Now realizing my calling as a writer, I, first of all, have to acknowledge the Holy Spirit. Each time I have a new book to work on, He gives me an idea or an image, to begin with, I never really know what the story is going to be about. When I am ready to write, I sit in front of my laptop and pray first, and soon after the story starts to come one chapter at a time. It always amazes me how it comes without me knowing the ending as I work but the stories always end the way they should.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
No, I listen to the Holy Spirit who gives me everything I need to write. I have never had such an experience of talking to my character.
What advice would you give other writers?
I would tell them to be committed and not give in to negative criticisms—they will come. What I do with them is see how I can improve in areas that I am weakest. Some of those helped me grow as a writer and I tried to thank those critics in my first book's acknowledgement. Besides that, just believe in what you are writing and remember, even if you don't want to influence anyone with what you write—you will, so try to put out good content that will help others.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
For me, I was introduced into self-publishing by another author and from all the things I have heard authors who use or have used traditional publishers, say, I think self-publishing is the way to go. However, you have to be willing to do alot of work in terms of marketing and drawing readers to your website and books.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think to be able to have the upper hand is the best way to go. Although you have alot of work to do in terms of marketing and gaining readers, but, in the end, you also gain lots of knowledge and exposure, instead of having a publisher do all the work for you.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: Christian Romance
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Marshalee Patterson Home Page Link
Link To Marshalee Patterson Page On Amazon
Link to Author Page on Kobo
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
