One of my final posts as a Genre-ista is dated July 2018 and titled, “Contemporary Romance—The DemonsWithin”. In that post, I explained I started my career writing romantic suspense. As I later also shared with the Genre-istas, I believe romance and suspense is a powerful combination. It’s like peanut butter and chocolate, "Romantic Suspense—Finding the Hero Inside" .
However, after my first two books—You Belong to Me and On Fire—my publisher switched me to contemporary romance. I loved writing contemporary romance, but my first love was romantic suspense. I missed writing the murder mystery part.
Where was I?
Since 2007, I’ve wanted to write the Crime Sisters Trilogy, which would spotlight three sisters: a detective, a prosecutor and a journalist all working the same serial killer case. But as the calendar turned to 2015, I began to think that would never happen.
In an effort to get
back to my romantic suspense roots, I submitted the idea of a cozy mystery to
my then-publisher, Kensington Publishing, and the Sister Lou Mysteries were
born. Unfortunately, I had to take a pseudonym. I considered that “unfortunate”
because I already was writing as Patricia Sargeant and Regina Hart. I wasn’t
keen to take on a third identity. I was beginning to feel like I was in the
witness protection program.
“Don’t tell anyone who you really are!”
However, Kensington was concerned that mystery readers would be turned off if they learned the Sister Lou Mysteries were written by an author who also wrote romance. (Insert shrug emoji.) I agreed to Kensington’s terms and Olivia Matthews was born.
· Patricia
Sargeant writes contemporary romance, sports romance and romantic suspense.
·
Regina
Hart writes contemporary romance and small-town romance.
·
Olivia
Matthews writes cozy mysteries.
In addition to the Sister Lou Mysteries, I’ve also written as Olivia Matthews, the Peach Coast Library Mysteries and the Spice Isle Bakery Mysteries.
But then a funny thing happened. Harlequin Publishing offered me two contracts for romantic suspense novels. The first was for my TourĂ© Security Group Trilogy, which is available now. The second contract was for … Drum roll, please … my Crime Sisters Trilogy. The first book will release in February 2026.
In closing, I’d like to leave you with this encouragement: don’t ever give up on your goals. If it’s something you really want, don’t give up. I didn’t give up on my dream of becoming a published author. It took me 15 years to get here. I didn’t give up on my Crime Sisters Trilogy idea, either, although it took 18 years to make that happen.
Happy reading, my friends! Thank you for reading romance novels and for being part of the Romancing the Genres journey!
About the Author
Patricia Sargeant is
a best-selling, award-winning author of mysteries and romance. Her work has
been featured in national publications such as Publishers Weekly, USA
Today, Kirkus Reviews, Suspense Magazine, Mystery Scene
Magazine and Library Journal.
Website: www.PatriciaSargeant.com
Facebook:
@AuthorPatriciaSargeant
3 comments:
Patricia, we are so happy you were able to fit us into your busy life! And thank you for showing so clearly that our dreams can come true IF we are persistent and open to pursuing them in a different form (thinking of a 3rd pseudonym) than our original concept.
Thank you for your many contributions to RTG, Patricia! Love your inspiring post. It's been amazing to watch your career(s) grow.
Thank you for your many contributions to RTG, Patricia! Love your inspiring post. It's been amazing to watch your career(s) grow.
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