Please help me welcome today’s guest, Patrick R. Field…
Please tell us a little about yourself, where are you from? Where do you live now? Family? Pets?
I’m a retired Neuroscience professor that has become an author of paranormal horror romantasy in his third act of life. I am originally from Annapolis, Md and currently live in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania with my husband and our pets.
Anything you’d like to tell us about your book?
The Bedfordshire Warlock is my only historical novel, and the story is inspired by the American tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials. The Bedfordshire Warlock follows my novel writing formula of having LGBTQ+ protagonists and LGBTQ+ themes built into the narrative.
My intention for this book is three-fold: 1) What if there were actual witches in colonial Massachusetts during the Salem Trials hysteria?; 2) What if one of the warlocks executed, Elias Doever, was reincarnated 300 years later as a gay man, Dorian Leeves, in the AIDS-era of the early 1990’s?; and 3) What if Dorian had to make a choice between having boundless supernatural powers or the love of his life, Toby Blessing?
This novel required a tremendous amount of historical research as I wanted to capture the era of the Salem witch trials accurately. The novel is also semi-autobiographical as I was a gay graduate student like Dorian during the AIDs-activism era of the 1990s that spurred the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
Are there any tricks, habits or superstitions you have when creating a story?
I often create the story for each chapter of a novel while I am walking my dogs and then type the outline into my computer as soon as I am able. My website designer refers to it as “walking meditation.”
What books have you read that you wish you had written?
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice and Horns by Joe Hill.
Do you collect anything?
I collect dolls of all types that have “speculative” origins: Native American Kachina dolls, voodoo poppets, horror-related Barbie and Ken dolls, puppets/marionettes…
What’s your favorite childhood book?
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
What do you want readers to come away with after they read your book?
Another source of the queer perspective in speculative literature that includes horror, paranormal romantasy, and thriller/suspense. A subgenre that’s increasing in visibility slowly but steadily in the marketplace.
What actors would you like in the main roles if your book were made into a movie?
For The Bedfordshire Warlock, I would like Jacob Elordi to play Dorian Leeves and Connor Storrie (of recent Heated Rivalry fame) to play Toby Blessing.
What is your favorite quote?
“Those who teach, must never cease to learn,” by Dano.
Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
My characters are physical and mental amalgams of parts of myself, traits of people in my life, qualities that I admire in celebrities of all types (actors, scientists, politicians etc.) and fantastical elements.
What do your friends and family think of your writing?
They are astonished that after teaching anatomy and neuroscience for 25 years in higher education that I’m writing paranormal romantasy horror novels from a queer perspective. Completely opposite of what I had to publish while in academia.
Thank you, Patrick…I enjoyed getting to know you!
Excerpt:
The source of light is fire, torches held by arms forming a circle around a stone well. Next to the well, a large, simply designed wooden chair with wide armrests, a wide seat, and a long plank of wood attached to the seat. The plank rests upon a raised beam of wood secured onto a wooden platform with four wooden wheels.
A man in his mid-thirties, wearing filthy breeches, is bound by thick rope on a chair. The rope burns into the naked flesh of his arms and chest as he struggles to break free. His bare feet lie flat on the muddy ground; his toes writhe on the viscous red earth. Dark hair hangs to the nape of his neck, wet and dirty, rogue strands plastered across his forehead and face. Beneath the tendrils of dark hair, there is an attractive face, albeit bruised and brandished with lacerations. Deep cuts scar his short forehead, angular cheekbones, long thin nose, thin lips, and powerful jawline. Dark, piercing eyes focus on the crowd holding the torches. His powerful, well-defined chest transitions into strong sinewy arms; the contours of muscles accentuated by his exertion to break free from the chair. Lacerations on his chest produce small rivulets of blood, coursing over the mounds of muscle and through the narrow valley between his pectoral muscles. Streams of blood flowing from the open wounds of his legs cascade over his feet and onto the ground. He is silent as he bears the pain…
“On this day of the 31st of October, in the year of our Lord 1692, the people of the village of Bedfordshire of the Massachusetts colony hereby accuse Elias Doever of consorting with the Devil. I, Sir William Putnam, constable for the village of Bedfordshire, read the following accusation.
“Let it be known that Elias Doever is accused by the gentle and Christian town folk of Bedfordshire of supernatural acts. Levitation: as witnessed by Goody Mary Parris when she saw Elias Doever raise a broom over his head in his fields without laying his hands on the broomstick and then flying through the air when sitting upon it. Enchantment: as witnessed by Sir William Putnam, when Elias Doever made a man commit acts against his Christian nature, when he seduced John Putnam to perform unspeakable physical acts with him that were against God. Clairvoyance: as witnessed by James Corey when Elias Doever predicted that Goody Elizabeth Corey would give birth to a stillborn child with a monstrous deformity of the spine.
“As has been witnessed, he will be tested by this Christian tribunal to determine if his soul remains within his body. If he has traded his soul to the Devil for the powers of the Devil, he will float to the surface when he is placed into holy water, as he will not be able to endure the grace of our Lord and Savior. If he remains below the water, then his soul is still chaste, untouched by the Devil.”
Buy links:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-bedfordshire-warlock-patrick-r-field/32a2d92270a9c77b?
About the Author:
After 25 years in higher education, Patrick R. Field traded in teaching and textbooks to pursue his passion of spine-chilling fiction writing. Holding a Ph.D. in Anatomical Sciences and Neuroscience, his experience informs his writing, a unique blend of scientific knowledge with supernatural storytelling.
Patrick’s novels are inspired by his favorite authors: Anne Rice, Edgar Allen Poe, and Joe Hill. Not surprisingly, Field enjoys bending and or blending the genres of paranormal fantasy, romantasy, mystery, and horror, with a dash of humor on the side. He also prides himself on the inclusion of LGBTQ+ protagonists in each of his novels to give each of these genres an underrepresented queer perspective.
Field’s first self-published novel, The Malevolent, released in 2021 under his pen name P.F. Roquelaure for academic reasons, was re-released in 2025 by The Wild Rose Press. His latter novels, Servant (2023) and The Bedfordshire Warlock (2024) also published by The Wild Rose Press, were written throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Both Servant and The Bedfordshire Warlock were semi-finalists in the Kindle Book Review Best of Indie in the Horror/Suspense category in 2024, 2025, respectively. Up next, Bloodstone, a M/M romantasy set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina involving pirate lore and blood magic, and a short story The Strange Case of Edgar Delaney, a tale for cat lovers and paranormal fantasy.
Field is represented by the Virginia Kidd Literary Agency.
Website: patrickfieldauthor.com; Instagram:@patrickfieldauthor
Author Alicia Dean 