Who is this person who asks you to support her dream of becoming a known writer? Truthfully, this is a serious question I dealt with for many months since I retired. For most of my adult life, the answer rolled off my tongue with little thought. I was a teacher. Since the age of twenty-two, I have been an educator, teaching students from grade seven through masters-level students in Arkansas’s public schools and universities. I loved my role. I believe I was a good teacher and used the gifts God had given me.
In 2012, I laid it down. For some time, I struggled with an identity crisis. If I wasn’t a teacher anymore, who was I? I found in a short time that having twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week can become an overwhelming amount of time when you don’t have a role to fill and a purpose to work toward.
After traveling some (I loved the trip to Israel, England, Ireland, and the Yucatan), and getting my worn-out knees replaced(Yes, both of them…the doctor said forty years on a concrete floor can do that to the best of us), I knew I had to find a new “career” in which I could invest my time. Our good Lord opened a new door. I had to write the story, which has become the Shiloh Saga.
I had started “scribbling” a story in a steno pad about a year before I made up my mind that I was going to retire. I knew the steno pad would be plenty of paper because my personal history told me that I’d get tired of this project like I had so many others in my adult life. When I started writing my Shiloh story in that steno pad, I never dreamed the final manuscript would end at 685,000 plus words. If someone had told me I’d publish three novels, with two to go, from those pages, I’d have laughed. I could fill a large closet with other “projects” I’d started and never finished…piano lessons, learning to play the dulcimer, needlepoint, quilting, major embroidery projects, community choir, watercolor…well, you see my point. None ever stuck!
Shiloh was different. I believe God meant for me to write this story of Arkansas. At times, the Holy Spirit seems to be spilling the words on the page. The story came so fast I could hardly get the words on the paper. Of course, there were times I couldn’t write a single sentence for days at a time. But the finished project has been such a blessing. I can’t count the number of people who have told me they love the story.
Over the next couple of years, I learned again who I am. I am Patricia Clark Blake—Christian, Arkansan, Writer. I am a self-published author who loves her new job. Writing has led me to make wonderful new friends who also write. My new career has allowed me to reconnect with students from my days as a teacher and past colleagues, who have become my readers. Former classmates from the Bono Class of ’67, distant family members whom I never get to see in person, and precious brothers and sisters from First United Methodist Church, Jonesboro, have become supporters of my Shiloh stories.
In addition, I’ve met many fine people who have become new friends. These readers of the Shiloh Saga are blessings in my life. Isn’t the Lord good to us?
I hope you will come to be a new friend, too. I want you to contact me. Please send me a question or a comment. I’ll answer. I love to meet my readers. If you decide to follow my newsletter, I’ll post new articles about my books or about Arkansas history or maybe just a note about myself when the mood strikes.
Pat
Getting to Know me by Fives
What are my favorite books?
- The Holy Bible
- Gone With the Wind—Mitchell
- Redeeming Love—Rivers
- America’s First Daughter—Kamoie & Dray
- The Kent Family Chronicles—John Jakes
What are my favorite foods?
- Fried Rabbit (Back Legs, preferred)
- Banana Pudding (Homemade)
- Chocolate/Peanut Butter
- Ribeye Steak (Medium)
- Bread
Places I love
- Arkansas Ozarks
- Valley of the Wind and Doves in Israel
- Irish Country Side
- Chapel at FUMC Jonesboro
- Porch on Scotchwood Drive
Songs that Move Me
- Amazing Grace
- Unchained Melody
- The National Anthem
- Sinner Saved by Grace
- Then Came the Morning
Unfulfilled Bucket List Items
- Float the Grand Canyon
- Spend a week in Sedona, Arizona X Check this one off in March of 2023.
- Travel to Scotland
- Finish my Genealogy to beyond the USA
- Write a Best Seller
- Write a Devotional