Category:Patricia Watkins

I was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, growing up in the beautiful old town of Tenby, but right after my marriage at St. Mary's Church there, emigrated to the United States, where I lived for over forty years before returning to Wales in 2003.

An information scientist by profession, I was, at one time, a researcher at Stanford University, California, before working for an international aid organization, providing the technical information for them to carry out their field projects in developing countries around the world. I also owned my own company designing in-house text-management databases for organizations. In between times, I wrote. Most of my publications during this time were either academic or satirical articles for newspapers, but I also wrote a novel. However, because of life's vagaries -- a long story -- I never got around to doing anything with it.

For many years I have also been researching my ancestors, most of whom have come from Pembrokeshire for at least the last four hundred years, so after returning here I began to take a specific interest in those who lived in the 18th century. This led to a desire to bring the period to life, so I began writing historical novels set in Dyfed during this era, the first being a biographical historical saga based on the life of my gt x 3 grandfather, a very lively and charismatic Irish actor who came to Haverfordwest in 1778, stayed and became a notable figure in the area. This was followed by a prequel about his early life as an actor at the famous Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin, Ireland.

After that I wrote two adventure novels about an entirely fictitious character, Connell O'Keeffe..I have become very fond of Connell, and if you read his story, hope you will too.

Like many other new novelists now, I spent several years trying, without luck, to find an agent, so when I was finally told bluntly that unless I already had a track record of successful novels under my belt, or was a celebrity, I stood no chance of ever finding either agent or publisher, I looked into publishing my own books. I am hoping to describe in the very near future my journey from there to here, this on a blog under my name on Amazon. It is a story whose trials and tribulations are worthy of a story of their own!

I am also a landscape photographer, and was delighted when a slideshow of my Pembrokeshire photos (some of which have appeared on the cover of Pembrokeshire Life magazine) accompanied a lecture held at the New York Public Library during Wales Week in 2009.

My photos are sold through: Celtic Images in Roch, Pembrokeshire, as well as through my other website.