Looking Out The Window: Selah Award Winning Author Pat Nichols Talks About Book Three in Her Willow Falls Series. Gives away an E-Book.
A Warm Welcome to Pat Nichols
Pat offers a winner's choice giveaway. To enter to win one of her Willow Falls e-Books leave a comment and an email address below.
Hi Pat, first, tell us a little about yourself.
During the past fifty-plus years my high-school-sweetheart husband and I have struggled and triumphed through life’s peaks and valleys. We raised a son and a daughter and welcomed four grandchildren into our family. One precious granddaughter lives with the angels. We adore spending time with our family.
Sixteen years ago, Tim and I retired the same day, me from a twenty-seven-year corporate career with an international beauty company. We bought a Corvette, finished decorating our home, and checked off every item on our travel bucket list. Now I’m pursuing career number two as an author and proving it’s never too late to follow your dreams.
Many writers were avid readers as children. How about you? If so, what did you read?
I remember visiting the mobile library which parked two blocks from our home during the summer months. Although I don’t remember the books I borrowed as a teenager, those visits cemented my love of reading. Years later, during my corporate career I frequently traveled by plane. The moment I settled into my seat I opened a novel and read during the entire flight. Unless a chatty passenger insisted on bending my ear. Also, when my husband and I travel I tend to bring home coffee table books featuring the sites. My latest is from the Inn at Little Washington where we celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary.
Tell us about your latest book, Starstruck in Willow Falls
Starstruck in Willow Falls, book three in the award-winning Willow Falls series continues to follow three women who were strangers until tragedy and a long-held secret brought them together in The Secret of Willow Inn. Emily is an aspiring novelist. Sadie spent thirty years in prison for killing the local hero. Rachel abandoned her acting dream to live the life her father desires for her until she meets Charlie and discovers the secret.
Buy Starstruck in Willow Falls on Amazon
Starstruck in Willow Falls (shoplpc.com)
Starstruck in Willow Falls: (willow Falls, Book #3) by Pat Nichols, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)
About Books One and Two
The first novel also introduces Willow Falls, a North Georgia town on the brink of failure populated by opinionated, quirky residents. Book two, The Trouble in Willow Falls, introduces newcomers with questionable backgrounds who join forces with locals to turn the town’s trouble into triumph. Oh, and one long-term Willow Inn guest with an over-the-top British accent also arrives on the scene. Is he who he claims to be?
In book three a Hollywood film crew and famous movie stars swoop onto the scene hurling Willow Falls’ new normal as a tourist destination into chaos. When Rachel and Emily agree to become the director’s liaisons, their patience is stretched to the limit by starstruck residents. A pending wedding, a debut book launch, a surprise visitor, and a medical emergency punctuate the story with humor and drama.
What themes do you write about?
Common themes in the Willow Falls series are the power and influence of family and friends.
What is your writing schedule and where do you write?
My day begins at five-thirty with a cup of coffee and devotions. By six I’m settled in a recliner in my living room with my laptop on my lap desk. My goal? Write 1000 words a day, then devote time and effort to marketing. A must for all writers. By the way, the recliner belonged to my precious mother-in-law before she passed on to eternity.
Does your faith affect your writing? If so, how?
In 2014 a young woman who had drifted in and out of our lives for two decades died tragically. As a cathartic exercise I began to write a novel loosely based on her life but with a happy ending. During the process something amazing happened. God planted the writing seed in my heart. Goodbye retirement. Hello career number two. Now I write from a Christian worldview.
Do you put yourself in your books?
In subtle ways. For example, in Startstruck in Willow Falls Charlie grills planked salmon for Rachel. He also grills filets using a recipe from Wine Lover’s Cookbook. Tim and I plank salmon at least once a week. The steak recipe is our favorite for special occasions. Another example? Emily continues her mother’s tradition to decorate every room for Christmas by doing the same for the Willow Inn in Trouble in Willow Falls. In our home eleven trees ranging from eighteen inches to eight feet remain in place from the end of October to early January.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Step out in faith and write. Also devote time to studying the craft. After writing my first novel I discovered how much I didn’t know. Fortunately, numerous books, courses, and articles are available. Writers Conferences are excellent investments in time and resources. In addition to workshops, conferences provide the opportunity to network with industry professional and other aspiring authors. As in any business, contacts are important. One last bit of advice. Become involved in author groups. I belong to and actively participate in ACFW and Word Weavers International. Both organizations continue to enhance my writing experience and strengthen my skills.
What is the coolest, wackiest, most risk-taking thing you’ve ever done?
In 1996 Atlanta hosted the summer 100th Modern Olympics. Although we live in the suburbs, we call Atlanta home. That same year my husband and I along with my parents booked a cruise to the Western Mediterranean. The trip included visits to Olympia Greece, the site of the original Olympics, and Athens, the site of the first modern Olympics. Experiencing all three locations in the same year was amazing.
Introduce us to the main character in your new book. (the one we’re featuring this time)
In The Secret of Willow Inn Rachel Streetman is promoted to Vice President in her father’s Atlanta based real-estate-development firm. Having abandoned her dream to act, she struggles to tolerate the life her father chose for her. Until she meets Charlie Bricker, visits Willow Falls, and discovers a thirty-year-old secret. In Trouble in Willow Falls Rachel faces obstacles as she pursues her dream and experiences life in a small town where everyone knows everyone’s business. With her new career stalled and the entire town expecting to attend her wedding, Starstruck in Willow Falls presents Rachel with challenging decisions about her future and her relationship with Charlie.
Excerpt from Chapter Two of Starstruck in Willow Falls
Rachel Streetman strolled to the gazebo railing and admired the year-old grapevines stretching across acres of rolling hills. She closed her eyes and let her imagination soar. Rows of fans cheered as she appeared on a Broadway stage—the lead in an award-winning play. She pressed her palms together and held her fingertips to her lips, delighting in the thunderous applause, living the dream she’d first envisioned as a preschooler, twenty-eight years earlier.
Her imagination continued to soar until a fluttering sensation akin to a butterfly invasion assailed her chest and plunged her back to reality. Her acting career consisted of a once-a-week performance in a small-town playhouse. Suspended in anonymity. Going nowhere.
In six weeks, she would marry the man she adored, the manager and vintner of his father’s retirement project. Charlie was content to live in this small town two hours north of Atlanta. While she’d grown to care about Willow Falls and the people who lived here, she feared her dream would drift into oblivion and leave behind bitter regret.
Brief Bio:
Pat draws on her corporate experience working with hundreds of amazing women from all walks of life, to create stories about women who face challenges in the pursuit of their dreams. Three years after first typing the words “Chapter One”, she signed a contract with Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, Guiding Light imprint, for book one in the Willow Falls series. The Secret of Willow Inn released January 10, 2019 and is a 2020 Selah Award winner. She received two NGCWC Georgia Peach Awards. One for her short story, The Vet and Valentine's Day, and the other for Starstruck in Willow Falls.
Pat and Tim continue to celebrate their fifty-plus-year marriage. They volunteer for church guest services, participate in two social organizations, and spend time with family and friends.
Pat was born in Illinois and grew up in Orlando before Disney arrived. She has called Georgia home since the eighties. She and Tim live in Duluth and are members of Gwinnett Church, a Northpoint Ministries campus. Pat has been featured on WATC Television Atlanta Alive, in Southern Writer’s Magazine and in Voyager Magazine.
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