My home is on the South Coast of England, with my lovely husband the freelance photographer, Gary Davies. In addition to enjoying writing and photography I'm a keen gardener, maker (and eater) of cakes, and am interested in history.
I started writing fiction by attending evening classes taught by June Hampson. Encouraged by June, I began entering competitions and submitting stories to women's magazines. My first ever submission was a 40 word story which won me cake and book tokens. Later 'Uncle Mick' was published by The Lady, in the summer of 2005. The Weekly News accepted 'Santa's Secret' in the same week, giving my confidence an enormous boost.
Since then, I've written loads of short fiction. Over 700 of my stories have been accepted for publication. They've appeared in the following UK magazines; My Weekly, Bella, The People's Friend, Woman's Weekly, Woman's Weekly Fiction Special, Candis, Best, Yours, Take a Break's Fiction Feast, Prima, Love Sunday and Aquila. They've also appeared in Australian magazines That's Life! Fast Fiction, Yours, Take 5 and Woman's Day, South Africa's You, Allas in Sweden, Allers in Norway and Irish magazine Ireland's Own.
If you have an interest in writing for women's magazines, do take a look at my womagwriter blog. It has submission guidelines, tips, news and advice to help you see your work in print.I've published five novels. Escape To The Country (romance) was first published early 2012 and has since been rereleased. Paint Me A Picture (personal development) was released in September 2012. A Year And A Day (romance) was released early 2013 Firestarter (romantic comedy) in 2015 and Leave Nothing But Footprints (campervan romance) in 2017.
From Story Idea to Reader is an accessible guide to writing fiction, which I've co-authored with Rosemary J Kind.
I've also written a few (OK 14!) themed short story collections. Through The Garden Gate Up The Garden Path and Over The Garden Fence each contain 24 garden or plant related stories. Not A Drop To Drink has a liquid theme and is free to download. All That Love Stuff and With Love And Kisses contain romantic stories, both No Family Secrets and Can't Choose Your Family are family related tales. Just A Job is all about the world of work. Perfect Timing contains time related stories and Slightly Spooky Stories 1 and Slightly Spooky Stories II are made up of ... well, slightly spooky stories.
I can be contacted on twitter, Facebook or email patsycollins53 (at) yahoo.com My website is here.Gary and I travel a great deal in our campervan, which I use as a mobile office. Because of this, I'm able to write many of my stories on location and also give ocassional talks and workshops to writing groups. That's earned me the nickname 'travelling writer'.
