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Lee Patton

Goodreads Author

Born

Fort Bragg, California, The United States

Website

http://lee-patton.com/.

Genre

Fiction, Mystery, Nonfiction

Member Since

July 2012

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After growing up in an immigrant-lumbering-fishing town on California's Mendocino coast, and after college in Sacramento and San Francisco, I headed to Colorado to teach high school and work on my M.A. in Denver University's Writing Program. I still enjoy Denver's mellow city life, exploring the Rocky Mountains and the redrock canyons of western Colorado and southern Utah.

In the late 80's I joined a group of fellow poetry-writers assembled by Metropolitan State College professor Sandra Doe. We began to gather monthly, rotating hosting duties and proffering "affordable" bottles of Yugoslavian wine as we discussed each other's work. We continued the monthly sessions faithfully (even after Yugoslavia collapsed in the early 90's) and have done After growing up in an immigrant-lumbering-fishing town on California's Mendocino coast, and after college in Sacramento and San Francisco, I headed to Colorado to teach high school and work on my M.A. in Denver University's Writing Program. I still enjoy Denver's mellow city life, exploring the Rocky Mountains and the redrock canyons of western Colorado and southern Utah.

In the late 80's I joined a group of fellow poetry-writers assembled by Metropolitan State College professor Sandra Doe. We began to gather monthly, rotating hosting duties and proffering "affordable" bottles of Yugoslavian wine as we discussed each other's work. We continued the monthly sessions faithfully (even after Yugoslavia collapsed in the early 90's) and have done so to this day. To original groupies Sandy, Mell McDonnell, and Patty Holloway, we have added Denver poet Carson Reed.

At the same time, I found myself inspired to write plays for Denver's legendary Changing Scene, dedicated only to new work and artistic collaboration. That led me to develop plays around Denver as well as Arizona, New Hampshire, Oregon and Alaska, then Off-off Broadway in New York. Among my favorite experiences was working with renowned, adventurous director Jeremy Cole at the beginning of his career. He helped me develop NOT HEADHUNTERS and re-staged my first produced play, TORTURE: AN INTERROGATIVE COMEDY.

A scholarship sent me to London to study theatre, where a jealous-love murder threat in our dorm inspired the fictionalized events of my first novel, Nothing Gold Can Stay, (which I published as Casey Nelson to avoid embarrassing my fellow students and teachers in the U.K.). In the second novel, Love and Genetic Weaponry, I explored a completely fictitious Hitchcockian-paranoid-romance set among very real Western landscapes.

I'm also wrapping up a long-term creative nonfiction project in collaboration with journalist Kristen Hannum, an exploration of the American South and Southern identity. I have blogged about it at http://southwithinus.com ...more

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Average rating: 3.94 · 95 ratings · 46 reviews · 18 distinct works • Similar authors

	Nothing Gold Can Stay by Casey Nelson (pseudonym), Lee Patton (Goodreads Author) 3.53 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 2000	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	My Aim Is True really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2015 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Every Summer Day 3.50 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2020 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Coming to Life on South High 4.13 avg rating — 8 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Au Bon Pain: Six Stories, One Life 3.56 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2012 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fresh Grave in Grand Canyon liked it 3.00 avg rating — 10 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Valley of Shadow: A Tale of Izrak the Deathless by Lee Patton (Goodreads Author), James D. Mills (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Jackelyn A. Bickford (Editor) 4.75 avg rating — 4 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Love and Genetic Weaponry: The Beginner's Guide 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2009 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In Disturbed Soil: Poems across the West 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Last Californians 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Lee Patton's Blog: Coming to Life Launches Now (March 2021)

On Pivoting between Reality and Invention

I committed murder in my first published novel, Nothing Gold Can Stay, and killed off a beloved brother in my most recent, Every Summer Day from Bold Strokes Books.

The recent BSB panels on reality vs. invention in our fiction, BSB Bookathon’s “Gay Fiction/Gay Lives” and BSB/Curve Media’s “Reading in Today’s Reality: Realism and Escapism in Fiction,” inspired me to obsess about the role of realism Read more of this blog post »

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Published on June 09, 2020 20:51 • Tags: gay-novels, invention, mystery, realism

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Lee Patton rated a book it was ok The Mad Wife by Meagan Church (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jun 07, 2026 04:46PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Mad Wife by Meagan Church. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Mad Wife by Meagan Church <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Lee Patton made a comment on Yun’s review of The Mad Wife " I completely agree. Yun, you summarized my frustrations with this novel exactly. "
Jun 07, 2026 04:45PM · see review
Lee Patton and 1291 other people liked Yun's review of The Mad Wife: "I'm disappointed I didn't enjoy The Mad Wife more. The blurb and all the glowing reviews had me believing this was a certain type of story, but it turned out to be something else entirely. I originally picked this up thinking it was a careful explorat" Read more of this review »
Jun 07, 2026 04:44PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Mad Wife by Meagan Church. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Mad Wife by Meagan Church <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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2 postsLee Patton's Blog: Coming to Life Launches Now (March 2021)