Hello.
I’m a novelist and short story writer. My short stories regularly appear in UK magazines, and sometimes in publications in other countries too.
My debut novel Escape To The Country was first published after I won a writing competition. I’ve since published three more romances, A Year And A Day, Firestarter and Leave Nothing But Footprints. There’s also the slightly darker contemporary novel, Paint Me A Picture which is set in and around Portsmouth. For Acting Like A Killer, set in Lee-on-the-Solent and Falmouth, I turned to crime! I enjoyed it so much, I’ve written a whole cosy mystery series, also set in the south coast of England. The (short, snappy and easy to remember) titles are Disguised Murder and Community Spirit in Little Mallow, Dependable Friends and Deceitful Neighbours in Little Mallow and Deadly Words and Innocent Gossip in Little Mallow. There’s also a short associated ebook, The Inside Scoop and Stories From Little Mallow, which is available exclusively to those who sign up to my newsletter.
Over twenty-five themed collections of my short stories are available, including a small free one. The themes include romance, family stories, those involving plants and gardens, ghost stories, crime, and tales about food, work and time. For more details about, and other ways to obtain, any of my books, please use the website’s menu options.
I’ve had some success with writing competitions, resulting in prizes such as tea with the local mayor, a silver trophy, T-shirt, dinner in the House of Commons where my poem was performed, an e-reader, books, cheques, book tokens and pens and other appropriate goodies.
As well as fiction I sometimes write articles and books about writing. A Year Of Ideas: 365 sets of writing prompts and exercises is self descriptive. From Story Idea to Reader (co-written with Rosemary J. Kind) is an accessible guide to writing and publishing fiction.
I’m very lucky to be able to spend a lot of the spring, summer and autumn (and some of the winter) travelling with my husband in our campervan
If you don’t bump into me in a tearooms, at a castle, or on a beach you can catch up with me all over the web. My Amazon Author page is here. I’m on Bluesky, Facebook, and you can sign up for my occasional newsletters here, and get a free mini ebook, competitions, photos of my garden and adventures, as well as updates on my writing. You can also see me doing daft things on Youtube.
My womagwriter blog includes, writing prompts, lots of free to enter writing competitions and publishing opportunities in all genres and forms. You’ll also be able to find official guidelines for women’s magazines in the UK and abroad. Tips and advice, for submitting to these and interviews with successful womag writers.
You can contact me at patsy@patsycollins.co.uk or leave a question/comment on one of my posts on this site. If you have a question about writing in general, or your own work, please ask that via a comment on womagwriter.
All words and images on this site are subject to copyright. Please ask if you’d like to use them. Links to this site or my blog are welcome and no permission is needed.