PAT AMSDEN Writer of Romance and Mystery Pat Amsden is a writer of romance and mystery who lives on the West Coast of Canada. She lives with her son in Victoria, BC and works at the local hospital. She is, once again, single. For as long as she can remember she has loved stories. First reading them and then making them up. Sometimes that got her into trouble when she was younger but that's another story! She studied journalism in college but got side-tracked raising a family and working a variety of other jobs to pay the bills. Writing fell by the way-side. The years went by and one day she decided to check out a local writer's group. There was a workshop with an exercise. Write something that had the hero and heroine meeting within the first page. Maybe there could even be a kiss! And don't let the heroine get too comfortable. If she's shy don't have her go to the library and meet the librarian, get her out of her comfort zone. Maybe that could be in a bar. She decided, why stop there, let's put the heroine on top of the bar! Many revisions later, the result is Lost In Vegas! But none of this would have been possible without the support and encouragement of fellow writers. She benefitted from workshops such as Write On Vancouver with Michael Hauge and another with Jane Porter. Shirley Jump's workshop was so good she immediately took another with her. Then she got the Deep Editing Lectures from Margie Lawson's School of Writing and took Lisa Wells course on How To Create a Series. She pitched to editors and submitted manuscripts. As she was doing this, however, several of her fellow writers decided to self-publish through Amazon. They are all doing well. More than one suggested she should try this route as did her son. So, here she is, feeling a lot like Sally Fields and hoping that 'they like me, they really do!'