Maria Patrick's Blog

Seventeen days ago I buried my mother. Her death was a shock, but expected. It came suddenly, but gradually. She died on a Wednesday night after laboring to breathe all day—May 8th truly felt like the longest day of my life. I watched in horror as her pain came flooding back between doses of Morphine.

Experiencing someone actively dying (what a stupid term) for six weeks felt like the highest form of cruelty, but especially in those last three days when she couldn’t eat, drink, talk, or e...

Today marks seven weeks until “Nothing Left To Lose But You”‘s publication date. The days are really flying by now. To celebrate, here’s a snippet from Chapter 1.

Just before 6 a.m., I pull into my garage. Rainey fell asleep on the short drive home, and I don’t want to wake her. Gingerly, I open my car door and tiptoe to my niece’s door. I reach across Rainey’s lap to unfasten the seat belt, and she stirs.

She yawns, her bright blue eyes popping wide open. “Where am I?”

No longer i...

Pre-orders update! Amazon has a glitch in their system that cancelled any paperback pre-orders made through them when I ordered my author copies. () Unfortunately, I can’t fix it. The learning experiences that come from independent publishing never cease. This is to clarify how you can pre-order if you originally ordered thru Amazon.

There are 5 ways to Pre-Order “Nothing Left to Lose But You”

– Barnes and Noble: https://bit.ly/nltlbyBN
– Walmart: https://bit.ly/nltlbyWM
– Amazon (e-boo...

This month is all about holiday reads, so get cozy and curl up next to a fire with one of these three books. If you read any of these, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

December Book Club Picks are here!

“Lovelight Farms” by @authorbkborison for @thebookishthrifter‘s community read

“A Merry Little Meet Cute” by @andimjulie and @thesierrasimone for my in-person Book Club

“The Holiday Swap” by @maggieknoxauthor for @b3bookclub

What I’m doing different with my next book

Writing my debut novel (“Nothing Left To Lose But You,” out April 25, 2023) was a learning experience. I knew going in I planned to self-publish, but I didn’t know how much work was involved for an indie author.

There’s more to do than just write the book. In fact, that may be the easiest part (I’m still thinking about if this is true). You’ve got to be your own: copy editor (at least for the first round of edits), cheerleader and hype person, p...