UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · LARGE TYPE
Patricia Matthews
Also known as: Patricia Anne Klein Ernst Brisco Matthews, Patricia Ernst
Patricia Anne Klein Ernst was born on July 1, 1927 in San Fernando, California, USA, the daughter of Gladys Gable and Roy Oliver Ernst. Her mother enrolled her in the famous Meglin Kiddies school, but she recorded only two of her songs professionally for one demo tape. She studied at California State University, Los Angeles, were she worked as secretary to the General Manager of Associated Students by the California State College. In 21 December 1946, she married Marvin Owen Brisco and moved to Arizona, they had two sons: Michael Arvie and David Roy. By 1961, the marriage had ended in divorce. Focused on her writing career, she returned to California, where she met the writer Clayton Matthews in a local writers' group. After Clayton divorced his first wife, he and Patricia married in 3 November 1972 and lived near San Diego. She started to write poetry, juvenile books, a play, fantasy and mystery short stories, which she signed under different names: Patricia Ernst, P.A. Brisco and Pat A. Brisco. Using the names Patty Brisco and Pat Brisco, she wrote gothic novels. When the market for gothic novels softened, at the suggestion of her husbland agent, Jay Garon, she began to write romance novels under her second married name, Patricia Matthews. In the 1970's, she become a popular writer, called "American's First Lady of Historical Romance". She and her husband also collaborated on several romance and suspense novels using the pseudonyms Laura Wylie and Laurie Wylie. She and her husband wrote five Casey Farrell mystery novels together, and she wrote three on her own, the Thumbprint Mysteries, set in the American Southwest, at the fourth-sixth- and eighth-grade reading levels, yet offer characters, situations, and concerns appropriate for adult readers. With Denise Hrivnak, she also wrote under the pseudonym Denise Matthews. Her husband Clayton died on March 25, 2004. Patricia died on December 7, 2006 in the Brisco family home in Prescott, Arizona.
THE THICK LAYERS OF CLOUDS THAT HAD BLOW IN FROM the ocean overnight still hung in the sky when I woke early in the morning.
— from Midnight whispers
Most acclaimed
Midnight whispers
HAPPY AND INNOCENT, DAWN'S DAUGHTER CHRISTIE HAS GROWN UP IN THE SAFEST, MOST LOVING OF HOMES ... Yet Christie can't help feeling as if a dark cloud hovers over Cutler's Cove ... a cloud whose origins lie in her family's troubled history, and the many questions no one, not even Dawn, will answer. Only one person can always chase away her blues: Gavin, Daddy Jimmy's young and handsome stepbrother. Then, in one harsh night, Christie's world is changed forever. She is shocked to discover her Uncle Philip's unbrotherly love for her mother, but even worse is the way he now looks at Christie, his eyes bright with tortured passion. Fleeing to New York City, she finds her real father, a pathetic, helpless has-been. Desperate and heartbroken, she turns to Gavin, who travels with her to The Meadows, the plantation where Christie was born. In Gavin's arms, in the first, tender moments of true love, Christie finds a refuge from her painful memories. But The Meadows is blighted by its own dark secrets --- and all too soon Christie is torn from Gavin's embrace. Now as black storms of evil gather around her, Christie must struggle to break the cruel bonds of the past ... to defy the curse that has haunted Cutler's Cove for generations ... (back cover)
Microcosmic Tales
The Last Answer - short story by Isaac Asimov Package Deal - short story by Donald Franson Lycanthrope - short story by Norm Hartman [as by Norman E. Hartman] Gemini 74 - short story by Jack Ritchie Geever's Flight - short story by Charles E. Fritch Lost and Found - short story by Phyllis Eisenstein Pattern - short story by Fredric Brown Discovering a New Earth - short story by Robert Mattingly Varieties of Technological Experience - short story by Barry N. Malzberg Listen, Love - short story by Jack Dann and George Zebrowski That Strain Again - short story by Charles Sheffield Take Me to Your Leader - short story by George H. Smith [as by George Henry Smith] Put Your Head Upon My Knee - short story by Jack Ritchie The Big Fix - short story by Robert F. Decker Speed of the Cheetah, Roar of the Lion - short story by Harry Harrison Just Call Me Irish - short story by Richard Wilson Renaissance Man - short story by T. E. D. Klein Pulpworld - short story by Richard K. Lyon [as by R. K. Lyon] The Other Tiger - short story by Arthur C. Clarke Little William - short story by Patricia Matthews Steel - short story by Alan Brennert Appointment on the Barge - short story by Jack Ritchie And So On, and So On - short story by James Tiptree, Jr. Nellthu - short story by Anthony Boucher Taste of Battle - short story by Donald Franson Deflation 2001 - short story by Bob Shaw Do Androids Dream of Electric Love? - short story by Walt Liebscher Dog Star - short story by Mack Reynolds The Great Judge - short story by A. E. van Vogt 2001: A Love Story - short story by Paul Dellinger Answer - short story by Fredric Brown Hadj - short story by Harlan Ellison Good Morning! This Is the Future - short story by Henry Slesar A Shape in Time - short story by Anthony Boucher Linkage - short story by Barry N. Malzberg Murder in the Nth Degree - short story by Ron Montana [as by R. A. Montana] Useful Phrases for the Tourist - short story by Joanna Russ The Burning - short story by Theodore R. Cogswell One Small Step - short story by Marcia Martin and Eric Vinicoff Dead End - short story by Mack Reynolds Paths - short story by Edward Bryant Woman's Work - short story by Garen Drussaï? Death Double - short story by William F. Nolan Tag - short story by Helen M. Urban [as by Helen Urban] Nightmare in Time - short story by Fredric Brown (variant of The End 1961) The Nature of the Place - short story by Robert Silverberg True Love - short story by Isaac Asimov The Game of the Name - short story by Alice Laurance Down the Digestive Tract - short story by Robert Sheckley (variant of Down the Digestive Tract and Into the Cosmos with Mantra, Tantra, and Specklebang) Upon My Soul - short story by Jack Ritchie Drawing Board - short story by Charles A. Spano, Jr. Shell Shock - short story by Donald Franson Speak - short story by Henry Slesar Your Cruel Face - short story by Craig Strete The Best-Laid Plans... - short story by Rick Conley Devil to Pay - short story by Mack Reynolds Who Else Could I Count On? - short story by Manly Wade Wellman (variant of Who Else Could I Count On 1962) The Rat and the Snake - short story by A. E. van Vogt The Finest Hunter in the World - short story by Harry Harrison Life - short story by Dennis R. Caro Love Story - short story by Eric Frank Russell Exile in Lakehurst - short story by Robert Payes The Bait - short story by Fritz Leiber The Humanic Complex - short story by Ray Russell Friends? - short story by Roberta Ghidalia Take a Deep Breath - short story by Arthur C. Clarke The Quest of the Infidel - short story by Sherwood Springer Legal Rights for Germs? - short story by Joseph F. Patrouch, Jr. [as by Joe Patrouch] Blood - short story by Fredric Brown The Diana Syndrome - short story by Ron Montana [as by R. A. Montana] Emergency Rations - short story by Theodore R. Cogswell Buy Jupiter! - short story by Isaac Asimov The Old Man - short story by Henry Slesar Exile's Greeting - short story by Roland J. Green The Biography Project - short story by H. L. Gold [as by Dudley Dell] The Grapes of the Rath - short story by Jan Howard Finder Mr. Lupescu - short story by Anthony Boucher What I Did During My Park Vacation - short story by Ruth Berman A Fragment of Manuscript - short story by Harry Harrison The Boy with Five Fingers - short story by James E. Gunn [as by James Gunn] The King of Beasts - short story by Philip José Farmer (variant of The King of the Beasts) Displaced Person - short story by Eric Frank Russell A Clone at Last - short story by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini X Marks the Pedwalk - short story by Fritz Leiber The Mission - short story by Arthur Tofte Proof - short story by F. M. Busby Dreamworld - short story by Isaac Asimov The Reunion - short story by Paul J. Nahin The Futile Flight of John Arthur Benn - short story by Richard Wilson [as by Edward Halibut] Servants of the Lord - short story by James A. Stevens [as by James Stevens] Mattie Harris, Galactic Spy - short story by Rachel Cosgrove Payes Changeover - short story by Juleen Brantingham Hometown - short story by Richard Wilson The Penalty - short story by Henry Slesar The Pill - short story by Maggie Nadler The Final Battle - short story by Harry Harrison Earthbound - short story by Lester del Rey Rotating Cylinders and the Possibility of Global Causality Violation - short story by Larry Niven The Voice in the Garden - short story by Harlan Ellison If Eve Had Failed to Conceive - short story by Edward Wellen
Love's Avenging Heart
Hannah #1 Love's dream... Hannah wondered if her daydreams and nightly fantasies would ever come true. A captive, near-slave to Silas Quint, her brutal stepfather, she lived in squalor, suffering the indignities of poverty and shame. She knew only that she must escape, that must come first. Then to find the man and the lover who'd fulfill her dreams. Hannah's sordid life with Quint was soon replaced by long hours toiling as an innkeeper's barmaiden -- literally sold into servitude by her stepfather! It was but the beginning of a wild and tumultuous new phase of life that would test Hannah's very soul. Her fiery red hair, voluptuous body, and impudently beautiful face would attract men -- men of wealth, men of nothing but strength and lust -- and she would have to learn to survive amidst their passions and furies. After all, she was only a wench, a body to be owned, used or bartered. But Hannah would do more than survive, she would win. She would overcome the sadistic beatings, the rapes, the treachery, the crushing humiliation of her circumstances. She would discover the all-consuming raptures of passion when love came to free her questing heart... Hannah Series: Love's Avenging Heart (Hannah, #1) Dancer of Dreams (Hannah, #2)