Good morning and Happy 2024! Please help me welcome Patricia McAlexander…
Hi, Patricia. Please tell us a little about yourself, where are you from? Where do you live now? Family? Pets?
I am from Johnstown, New York, a small town in the foothills of the Adirondacks. I earned a BA from the University of New York at Albany, an MA from Columbia University, and a PhD from The University of Wisconsin, Madison, all in English. Athens, Georgia, became my home when my husband took a position in the English department at The University of Georgia, and I soon found a teaching position at the University also. Our son was born here and now lives in nearby Sandy Springs. I have retired, but continue to teach classes for The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). I also enjoy hiking, photography, and, of course, writing fiction.
Where did you get the idea(s) for The Last Golden Isle?
The basic idea for the plot came from a little novel I’d written as a high school student about a Northern girl who goes to spend the summer with her pen pal in Virginia and discovers her family has dangerous secrets. The idea for the setting came from a visit to Tybee Island, one of Georgia’s “golden isles” off the coast. I loved its sandy beaches, sea shells, dolphins, and gorgeous sunrises. The idea for the “spiritual guide” character came from a friend whose Brazilian son-in law and his family had such a “guide.” Being fascinated by the description, I incorporated a similar character in the novel.
Why did you choose this genre (is it something you’ve written in before)?
All of my novels so far can be described as are romantic suspense. I like romance, but also like to spice it up with drama—an escaped convict, drug dealers, psychological trauma. I think such elements add to the intensity of the relationships described.
Was there anything unusual, any anecdote about this book, the characters, title, process, etc, you’d like to share?
I remember thinking when I was maybe two thirds through writing The Last Golden Isle that I had “written myself into a corner” (like the proverbial “painting yourself into as corner”). I didn’t know how to get my characters out of their dilemma, and lay awake at night thinking about it—sometimes turning on the light and jotting down ideas as to what I could do. Finally, with the help of Google research, the Facebook site “Cops and Writers,” and those night sessions, I came up with the last third of the novel.
How much of The Last Golden Isle is realistic?
I know fantasy and “romantasy” (I’ve just heard that last term) have become very popular now as readers seek escape, but when I write “romantic suspense” I try to keep the story in the real world. I think realistic stories can be as much of an escape as fantasy, perhaps more so. The Last Golden Isle is based on actual experiences (first and second-hand), observation, and non-fiction sources such as newspaper articles. It might be argued that “happily ever after” endings like those in my novels are not realistic, but as an author, I try to make them so.
Are your characters based on real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
My characters are often inspired by real people—or a mix of real people—that I’ve known or heard about at various times in my life, including public figures. But imagination plays a major role as I put them into action in the novels.
What book have you read that you wish you had written?
I wish I had written Circe by Madelaine Miller. I loved the way she retold so many classical Greek myths, making the gods, demi-gods, and goddesses come to life in a believably human way. My mother was a Latin teacher, and my sister and I grew up hearing many of those myths. Miller’s novel gave them new details and life. I would love to have done what Miller did—tell the stories from the point of view of one of the mythical female characters, relating realistic psychology to the tales. And of course, I’d want to write as beautifully as Miller did.
What was your first job?
In the nineteenth and much of the twentieth century, my hometown, Johnstown, New York, was a center of the glove-making industry. My first full-time job was working in a glove factory for two summers in the 1960s. I met some fascinating, admirable, strong women there as we worked around the “blackedging table”—painting the white seams on black leather gloves with a black dye. I wrote up a memoir of those two summers and sent it to the Johnstown Historical Society, which had put out a call for such material. The glove factories have all closed now.
Do you have another occupation, other than writer? If so, what is it and do you like it?
I’m retired, but I taught composition and grammar at The University of Georgia in a program preparing students for their college writing courses. I loved it. We read short stories and memoirs as inspiration for some of their assigned essays—pieces by Alice Walker, Dick Gregory, Flannery O’Connor, and Mary Hood, for example. They say reading good writing helps with one’s own writing, and I think this proved true for the students in my courses.
How did your interest in writing originate?
Being a writer must have been in my genes, and my family supported my interest. My father let me type stories on his typewriter beginning when I was five years old, and my mother patiently (most of the time) spelled words for me when I asked her to—which was often. I illustrated my “books” with crude crayon drawings—I was never very good at art—and fastened the pages together with safety pins. My younger sister eagerly read these books when they were finished. And for the record, today she is a chief reader and editor of my fiction.
What do your friends think of your writing?
My friends are some of my biggest fans, and I appreciate them greatly. They write reviews of my books, invite me to speak at their book clubs, tell me they can’t wait for my next book. I know they helped make The Last Golden Isle an Amazon Best Seller for those wonderful hours last December.
She came to escape her past—and found her future.
Excerpt:
Reaching the island, she turned on her GPS and keyed in her uncle’s address. The system’s confident female voice guided her over circuitous roads until she reached a wide concrete drive blocked with closed wrought iron gates. The GPS told her, “You have reached your destination.” She didn’t remember those gates. They were like those at the entrances to exclusive communities. Then, seeing the sign Sanderson Estates, she realized that this was such a community—the one her uncle had established since her last visit.
She pulled up to the gates and stopped. A tall, well-built, very tan young man in a white Oxford shirt and jeans—a security guard—came out of a small brick building beside the drive. Clean shaven, with dark curls cropped short and strong, even features, he reminded her of the statue pictured on the cover of her high school Latin textbook. She lowered her window, and he looked in at her, examining her with direct gray eyes. He held a clipboard and had a gun tucked into his belt.
Her hands grew cold. “I’m Clare Matthews, Sally Sanderson’s cousin. They know I’m coming.”
He looked at the clipboard, unsmiling. “You have some identification, Miss?”
Buy link(s):
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Golden-Isle-Patricia-McAlexander/dp/1509251995/
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-last-golden-isle/id6468095788
About the Author:
As mentioned earlier, I grew up in Johnstown, New York and earned degrees in English from the University of New York at Albany, Columbia University, and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Now retired from the faculty of the University of Georgia, I’ve published four contemporary romantic suspense novels—Stranger in the Storm, Shadows of Doubt, and The Student in Classroom 6,and the latest, The Last Golden Isle, released December 11, 2023.My short story “Falling,” which came in second in the Atlanta, Georgia, Writers Club’s 2021 Terry Kay Prize for Fiction, was published in the Fall 2022 issue of the online journal Knot (https://www.knotliteraturemagazine.com/patricia-mcalexander ). I live in Athens, Georgia with my husband, also a retired UGA professor.
Email: mcalexanderpatricia@gmail.com
Website: https://patriciamcalexander.weebly.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/patriciamcalexander/
Facebook: facebook.com/patriciamcalexanderwriter/
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/PatMcAlexWriter
Author Alicia Dean 