Patricia Luce Chapman has been a member of the Writers’ League for eleven years. She lives in Rockport, Texas.
Scribe: In what genre(s) do you write?
Patricia Luce Chapman: I write lyrics, memoir, for Associated Press, Christian Science Monitor, among others, and for theatre (three plays performed on stage in Cleveland, Ohio and Washington, DC).
Scribe: What authors would you like to have coffee or a beer with and which beverage?
PC: Christopher Marlowe, Jean-Paul Sartre, Tennessee Williams, John Keats, Dick Francis, and Tony Hillerman.
Scribe: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what book would you want to have with you to keep you sane?
PC: Please give me these three: Encyclopedia Britannica, The Bible, and a collection of the world’s best limericks.
Scribe: What have you learned from your association with the Writers’ League?
PC: Everything from platform to log line. One of the great advantages of attending the WLT conferences is that the information given is hard and not fluffy. It is practical, given by professionals who themselves have had to work their way up. The emphasis on hard information is more important than the introductions to editors and agents because without the polish and basic professionalism of learning how to write and pitch a log line, there’s no way—barring a miracle—that your work will be accepted. I owe the WLT my deep gratitude for helping me to create my four lovely books.
Scribe: Where do you see your writing taking you (or you taking it) in the future?
PC: Two of my books are being discussed as having serious movie potential. I have a fifth book underway: Islands in a Blue Transparency of Light, relating to the Micronesian islands in the Central Pacific. But that may be wishful thinking because I don’t travel too well.
Scribe: Is there anything else about you that you would like to share with the world? An opportunity for blatant self-promotion!
PC: My brand new book Tea on the Great Wall: An American in War-Torn China, published by Earnshaw Books in Shanghai, (short description: Shirley Temple in Wonderland meets Japanese Bayonets, Nazis, and Chinese Opium Addicts) is getting rave reviews. Some of those reviews are on Amazon; others are in letters by writers who don’t want to bother filling in the Amazon review section. The back cover includes reviews from Lance Morrow, Prof. Jonathan Spence, Lark Mason, among others. Most recently, Austin Kiplinger of the Kiplinger Report wrote: “”a fascinating story…You did a masterful job of weaving the past and the present together, and I’m continuing to enjoy the story. Here’s the link.
