OT: BIO: Patricia Brooks

I've been even slower than Francelle to realize I am expected to 
submit a bio.

After a lifetime of iris addiction, I am now living on Whidbey 
Island, off Washington State, which has the best climate I've ever 
found for gardening.

I discovered the island when I came to the Cottages at Hedgebrook 
Writers Residence here in '90.  At that time I was working on my 
second novel.  And though the first had been well received at writers 
conferences, etc., agents and editors kept telling me that if you 
wanted to break into commercial publishing these days, you had to 
write in a successful genre.  Having less than no money then, and not 
even a permanent home, I decided to write a series of mystery novels 
and set them on a fictionalized version of Whidbey, so if a pub house 
wanted the series, they'd have to give me enough of an advance to 
move here to continue the series.

And it actually worked.  Go figure.  I used the central character of 
my first novel, which was about the aftermath of rape and considered 
too 'dark' to be popular, made her a P.I. -- not a stretch -- and 
voila, a mystery series.  And I mention her rape and its effects on 
her periodically, in the hope that people will fall in love with her 
and want to read the prequel.  The first two books in the series -- 
FALLING FROM GRACE and BUT FOR THE GRACE -- were published by Dell.  
The third is set on the Makah Indian reservation and focuses on that 
culture clash.  My agent has it out to several other NY publishers.  
I tend to favor the more local independent publishers, especially the 
Northwestern ones, but will wait to see how it fares there.

My agent is, reasonably enough, hoping for the big advance, and 
goodness knows I could use it, having been virtually penniless since 
we lost everything in '79, in what was called a recession elsewhere 
but was a depression in Oregon and shut off the income sources for my 
husband's woodworking business and the shop I created to sell his and 
other craftspeople's furniture and furnishings.  Called Made In 
Oregon.  We tried to hang on, and lost both businesses, the house, 
and the marriage.  I've been pretty nomadic since, trying to get 
myself back on anything like a solid financial footing.  Never my 
prime target, and I guess I'm paying for it, but am not tempted to 
change my values.

In the fall of '96, I was hit by a car (my body was hit, my having no 
car at the time) and there is no earthly reason for my still being 
alive.  So I try to pay attention to what I'm supposed to be doing 
here.  I am living now in HUD-subsidized senior housing, which I was 
accepted for early because of the injuries that resulted from my 
being hit.  I've been living on $339/month, so am looking forward to 
my 62nd birthday next month to make me eligible for Social Security 
and a boost in income to $506/month.  Which will make me feel 
positively rich!

My first massive iris planting was in Eugene, Oregon, where I got my 
MFA in Fiction and raised a family for 14 years.  I worked in the law 
library, which was in massive conflict when I got there.  So I made 
it my job to solve the conflicts, and during iris season, would take 
a gorgeous bloom around the law school, calling for a "beauty 
break."  Corny as it sounds, it worked for others as it has for me.  
If that's what an ugly dry rhizome can produce, surely I can manage 
my life to produce something of worth.

All the plantings on the grounds around this apartment complex had 
been allowed to die of neglect.  So even though bending over is a 
painful no-no for me, I took them on and slowly but surely have 
restored them to health and beauty, strengthening my back in the 
process.  So having built up a bit of goodwill from the management, 
I've been allowed to create new all-iris beds along the back to 
launch my hybridizing project to breed pinks without the (to me) 
clashing orange/tangerine beards.  Don't ask me how I was able to 
purchase 100+ irises on $339/month, but I have -- a good assortment 
of pinks and other blues, lanvenders and blends to mate them with in 
the hope of overriding the 'tangerine factor'.

That's why I've been so delighted to find this e-group.  There's so 
much expertise here that I need to avoid spending the next three 
years making stupid mistakes.  And my background in researching, 
writing and editing led me to feel that all this experience should be 
captured in an accessible reference work for those like me new to the 
hybridizing process, or simply a new iris fan needing to combat the 
bugs, rhizome rot, and climatic conditions a new grower might come up 
against.  Because we know, right, that iris growing leads to iris 
addiction?  Long may it thrive!




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