Featured Author - Pat Ritter

Our next featured author, Pat Ritter, comes from the beautiful country of Australia. To be specific, he lives in the Mary Valley on Queensland, the setting for his adventure novel, The Drover.

The Drover Synopsis

Harry Williams from the age of ten years wanted to become a drover, like his father and grandfather before him. This is his life story of leaving school at ten years old, operating his first droving plant at thirteen years and fully operational at twenty-one years old. Droving is now a craft past its used by date. Harry Williams didn't think so.

Motivation for Writing

His inspiration for The Drover came from his late father-in-law, who was a drover. Pat would sit around the campfire with his father-in-law while he ‘spun the best yarns’ of his droving days. Thirty years later, Pat decided to put his history into print.

Pat Ritter has many motivations to keep him writing, and life events to reflect upon. He has been writing since 1986, and at present, has ten novels published. 'Closing The Gap' being his first novel selling 8000 copies. It was traditionally published by The Australian Lions Awareness Foundation to help parents improve communication with their teenage children.

Ten years ago, after writing and self-publishing his third novel, he made a decision to retire and write full time. Pat is passionate and wanted to be a writer no matter what the journey. At the time his wife made a statement, “How are we going to eat?” She wasn't kidding. They purchased their property at Brooloo - set in plans to build a house and retire in a bush setting. The dream of his writing world began to take shape, but then it was suddenly shattered.

Within twelve months he lost the love of his life to cancer. His angel was gone. To keep her alive, Pat wrote a tribute about his wife’s life and posted it on his website www.patritter.com.au - In Remembrance of Bub. Her story is free to download.

One morning, he thought, “What would Bub want me to do?” He could hear her say, “You wanted to retire and write - so write”. She always wanted Pat to write stories he told her about his life as a police officer, detective and his demon - alcoholism.

Finally he wrote and published, Confessions of an Alcoholic, where he introduces readers to a character Bundy Quicksilver, which in reality is Pat. The book is about Pat’s life as an alcoholic and how he overcame his demons to understand what caused him to become an alcoholic in the first place.

Pat Ritter’s reason to Self-Publish

In 2009, at the time he was self-publishing and selling the books via his website, Smashwords and Amazon decided to accept e-books from Indie Authors—Pat jumped on the bandwagon. He loves it. Not only does he have total control of what he does, he can promote his writing via social media and blogs.

Stop on by Pat’s website to check out his books.

Pat Ritter’s Website: www.patritter.com.au

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pat-Tex-Ritter-Author/107256392723750

Buy on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95766

Buy on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Drover-ebook/dp/B005YTGUOM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1343363977&sr=1-1

Thank you, Pat for introducing us to your works and taking part in the Pay It Forward. I wish you the best with your writing endeavors. 

Spread the word about Pat Ritter - http://bit.ly/T377mM

History and Adventure,

Bea