Hi! I’m Patsy Collins, aka ‘The Travelling Writer’ as I often work from a campervan wherever my stories are set. I’m a romantic novelist and short story writer. My short stories regularly appear in UK magazines such as My Weekly, The Weekly News, Fiction Feast and The People’s Friend. I’m also quite often published in Irish, Australian, Swedish and South African magazines.
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.
Seventeen themed collections of my short stories are available, including a free one.
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.
In addition I present creative writing workshops, talk to writing groups and give readings of my work. If you’d like to attend one of these, or book me for your group, please see the events page.