Tallahassee, 2nd Level- photo by Janet Gillespie, USDF Regionals 2012
A Little Info From Elle Andrews Patt:
Like many lifelong writers, I've been writing fiction for the consumption of others since childhood. After college, I stopped writing for about ten years. Coming back to it as a young stay-at-home mother desperate for intellectual stimulation, I found fan-fiction. Many generous and gracious online writers and betas gifted me with an actual education in the craft of writing. I doubt I could ever express my full gratitude to them for handing me back my soul.
Since then, I have also found new perspectives and enlightenment through my real-life and online writing groups. My short stories have appeared in publications such as Saw Palm, The Rag, and DarkFuse. I received an Honorable Mention from Writers of The Future for 'Prelude To A Murder Conviction', have won several Royal Palm Literary Awards for Published Short Fiction and Book-length Fiction from the Florida Writers Association, of which I am a member, have been recognized as a Finalist for New Fiction (GHOST) and Mystery (SPIRIT) by the National Indie Excellence Awards, and as a Finalist for Best Mystery (SPIRIT) by the Silver Falchion Awards.
My family, my husband, and my kids have been in turns exasperated and delighted by my self-torture and small successes. In between the hours of keyboard-pounding, computer-screen staring, and quiet despair, I've team-mom'ed for softball, volleyball, and golf, rejoiced at finding wi-fi far afield, and ridden my horses both cross country and all gussied up into the dressage arena. My day jobs have ranged from slinging pizza to mucking stalls to packing telephones to running spay/neuter as a certified veterinary technician to freelance marketing.
Having cancer (cured by double mastectomy) followed by becoming the primary care-taker for my oldest when she was desperately ill and then witnessing what even her doctors say is a miraculous recovery, has given me a long-term view on life and what's important to me, personally. That my agent came along during that time to offer me encouragement certainly helped me keep writing through the tough times. I'm looking forward to sharing more work with readers for years to come.