A Few Things You Don't Know About.... Me

Hi, there!

Thank you for joining me on my website. I'm the author of the bestselling  Harlot's Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss and Greece, and The Diva Doctrine: 16 Universal Principles Every Woman Needs to Know. My first published fiction, "Chopin, Fiendishly" appears in Tales From the House Band: Volume I and my latest work Cooking for Ghosts: Book I, "The Secret Spice Cafe Trilogy," is the first in a trilogy of novels, set aboard the RMS Queen Mary.

Despite the diversity of my writing projects, they share the universal theme of what I like to call "female dynamism." It's a term which signifies women taking positive action to support each other and better the world around them. It's what I believe in, which is why I founded The Women’s PowerStrategy™ Conference.

I'm a former English teacher who holds a Master's Degree in Creative Writing and Education. I've always loved reading, but I knew I truly wanted to be a writer when my first work, a poem titled, "If This Woman I Being Operated Recklesssly" was published in New Press Quarterly magazine, the same year they published a poem by one of my literary role models, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. More than twenty years later, after my first book was published, I met Mr. Ferlinghetti when, at ninety years of age, he read at City Lights Books in San Francisco, and signed that very edition of the magazine for me, inspiring me all over again. 

On this website, you'll not only find photos, videos and more that have to do with my life as an author, but other things that are important to me, too.  I enjoy hearing from people who've read my work, attended one of my workshops or conferences, or whom I've met at one event or another.  I'm always interested in people who live somewhere I don't or think differently than I do. I spend some time every day if I can on social networking sites, because the world and the people in it are all interesting.  I have been told by more than one professional that this website is a bit of a "hodge podge", but I'm not going to let that concern me.   I don't think I'm unusual in that I have many interests and this website reflects that. None of us are only one thing.  I do love to write above all else, but here are some other random things about me:

• When I was twenty, I put a C-6 transmission together, all by myself, just to impress a boy was in love with, who was an auto mechanic. (Now I can't remember what a C-6 transmission looks like. In fact, I don't think they make them anymore. Talk about feeling ancient.)

Age 5 

• I sold my first engagement ring and went on a tour of the European continent with the proceeds ─ Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, England, Belgium, Amsterdam, and more, all for the price of one sparkler, when the man who gave it to me told me he didn't want back. Oh, well, the relationship didn't work, but I did get to see some beautiful places.

Photo taken of me by a local (unknown) photographer when I was 23 years old

• Once, I was on the northern border of Greece with my twelve-year-old son during a time when it was a war zone. We were there because I needed to attend a very important book convention in Salonika, and didn't want to leave my son behind. The next week, a hijacker from one of the warring factions killed a young Greek passenger on the same route we'd taken only the week before. I still think about this sometimes, wondering where you draw the line between bravery and stupidity.
  

 Me and my sweet little son when he was eight months old.

• I work out with heavy weights and can leg press 200 lbs. Many of my friends are the tattooed male body builders I work out with, who are not at all like what I imagined they'd be like. They really are pussycats, all of them. To see some really adorable ones who posed for me while reading one of my books, check out the FUN AND FREEBIES PAGE
  

 Dancing at my engagement party. (Well, one of my engagement parties, anyway.As I've said before, "the first two husbands were just for practice!")

• I make the best Italian food you’ve ever tasted. It's fine if you think your mom's is better, but still --- this is not a boast ---- my tiramisu and salsa puttanesca are legendary. (Here's a video of me in 2010 cooking it.) When I divorced my  Greek husband, he begged me to leave him my shrimp scampi recipe before I left. I gave it to him, and I didn't even leave out any of the ingredients. To try some of my own recipes, and the recipes of some of my readers  go to The Recipes Page.

Can't tell by the number of candles but I'm pretty sure this was my 28th birthday.
 

• Some of the things I like to do besides writing are painting, gardening, cooking, hiking, lifting weights, (as I said) watching great films or "Supergirl", reading romance novels (go ahead--- make fun of me), chatting on Facebook, and emailing the people I care about, in England, The United States, Greece, India, Italy, Lebanon, Canada, New Zealand, Cornwall, Germany, Australia, and my latest new friends in Indonesia and Germany. (I'm still open to new e-pals in other countries.)

Don't know how old I was when this was taken, but even then, books were important...

• I have an extensive collection of music from all over the world.  But my all time favourite tune to dance to, ever since I was two years old is "Tequila" by The Champs. It's a must to be played at my funeral. If my family forgets this, I will come back and haunt them!

Litquake's Black, White and Read Ball with my son in 2010, long years and miles away from the swimming pool in the photo above.

• My husband and I have a total of  five children, all sons, in our blended family. (We lost one son when he was nineteen, but he still counts as one of five.) Each of them is (and was) awesome, in his own way. I have  a daughter-in-law I really love and through her and my stepson, two little grandsons. 
  

A photo of what I value most: my family, taken at my stepson's wedding.

• My husband played professional baseball in his youth, and won a seat at the main event in The World Series of Poker. He is the coolest guy on the planet Earth, in my opinion. Seriously. Okay, sometimes when he doesn't know stuff, he pretends he does anyway. (Apparently all men do this, or so I've been told by many women) But apart from that, he's perfect.  

• I keep in touch with many of my former pupils, some from as far back as thirty years ago. You have no idea how good it feels for me to be able to say that. They were my 'first children' before my other children came along. (Except I didn't pay for their college educations). I love catching up with them, and finding out how their lives are going. If you're one of them, or if you're an old friend from the past who'd like to get back in touch, please email me  at: patricia@patriciaVdavis.com or  contact me on FACEBOOK.  I would love to hear from you!