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Contemporary Women's Fiction

                   With A Heart

Patti Cavaliere

Author of

LOOKING FOR LEO

BOOKS

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ISBN-13: 978-1493671373
ISBN-13: 978-1542894524
Books
PUBLISHING BACKSTORY

PUBLISHING BACKSTORY

My first publishing success came in November 2003 with a teen story called "Breaking The Chain." It was published in a teaching magazine by the name of Listen, and it brought to light the devastating effects of second-hand cigarette smoke on pets that I'd witnessed as a veterinary nurse.

In 2008, moved by a theme that often reoccurs in one way or another in many of my stories, I wrote a creative non-fiction piece called "A Summer Place," and in December Yankee Magazine published it online. It was about my childhood growing up in the suburbs of a Connecticut town where a burnt house in the woods became our summer playground. Ironically, not far away and in that same era (1960's), a man named Stephen King played with his brother in similar woods. In my mind, the woods were magical. Maybe that's because my friends and I made it so with our imaginations. Maybe it's because those friendships outlasted the woods, and we are still friends today.

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After many unsuccessful attempts to publish again in the children's market, I began to refocus on what came naturally. Women's issues. In particular, single women's issues.

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I began to take writing more seriously as my romantic relationships failed. I joined three writing groups that helped along the long path of publishing. Then, in the summer of 2011, I attended a workshop on Star Island with author Joyce Maynard. Her storytelling and suggestions changed my writing. 

 

        In August 2011, "Three Horses" won First Place Creative Non-Fiction in the Trumbull Literary Arts Festival and was published in Pen Works.

   

        My short story "Anonymous" won out over 600 entries in the Your Story contest, and appeared in the March 2012 issue of Writer’s Digest Magazine. It was subsequently noticed by a filmmaker who produced the short film about a woman who loses her sobriety, and has seen success in the Art of Recovery Film Festival in 2020. 

       

        The following May, "The Echo and The Lake" was accepted by the Tall Grass Writer’s Guild for their Black and White anthology.

  

        That same year “Dirty Laundry” was chosen as Runner Up in the Women On Writing (WOW) Spring 2012 Flash Fiction Contest. You can read some of these stories online. I also received Honorable Mention in the Women On Writing Flash Fiction Contests in the Fall 2010 ("A Woman's Best Friend"), Fall 2011 ("The Clay Lady") and Winter 2015 ("Thicker Than Water").

 

        Since 2010, my short stories have appeared in The Tall Grass Writers Annual Black and White Anthology in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 ("The Echo and The Lake," "Music In The Air," "Waiting For A California Wildfire," "Melody of the Moon," "Redemption of Starfish," "Beautiful Noise"). In May 2018, my non-fiction, "A Peace-Keeping Mission," was chosen as one of few finalists in The Iowa Review.

        

         Mostly true, "The Last Good Bad Guy," is about the day an old boyfriend comes to say good-bye. His visit is announced by the startling thunder of his Harley in her driveway, yet bittersweet as the possessive love that drove them apart. Adelaide Magazine published this story in March 2021. It is posted on their website.

BEHIND THE SCENES of LEO

BEHIND THE SCENES

My fascination with astrology provided the framework for the main character in LOOKING FOR LEO who begins a journey to find love by dating one man of every sign of the zodiac. The thirty-two-year-old veterinarian doesn't expect to come full circle and find the passion she's lost in her life. Yet, it’s her sentimental ties to a childhood home that bring closure to the tragic accident that happened there, and brings her in touch with the secret to find love. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit parts of the novel are true, but I wrote the ending I wish I’d had.

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LEO began as a chronicle of my online dating, however, over the years it evolved into a deeper story. I used my days as veterinary nurse to create the backdrop for the novel, as well as my attachment to a home I never lived in, but wanted to. That began when my husband struck up a friendship with our neighbor, a veterinarian named Dr. Brian Silverlieb.

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Amberfield, as Brian named it, wasn't like any house I'd ever seen before. Although run-down when he bought the low, sprawling, cottage-like farmhouse in 1980 from two artists, it was enchanting. And it was supposedly haunted by the previous owner whose ashes were scattered in one of the beautiful perennial gardens. But it was my friendship with Brian that would outlast my marriage and span thirty years until Brian died of cancer in 2011. An essay I wrote about his three horses won First Place for Creative Non-Fiction in the Trumbull Literary Arts Contest. The young untrained thoroughbred Brian left behind was later given to me as a gift. He'd named him Epic Romance, and called him Romeo. He's become my greatest passion because I could not ride him for three years, and we developed a deep bond that transcends words. Sometimes he seems to read my mind.

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The real Amberfield is pictured above on my HOME page, with thanks to the lovely young family who now lives there.

BIO

BIO

An astrologer once looked at my birth chart and told me I could publish a book. Years later when I lost my beloved cat, I began to write out of grief. I wrote Rudy's story, but never published it. Like many of my stories, it turned out to be a way of letting go.

 

But children's stories didn’t come naturally for someone like me who didn’t have children. What I really wanted to share were stories that were close to my heart—my search to find love. And so, I began to write women’s fiction.

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I never imagined how long the astrologer's prediction would take, but I have learned that sometimes we need to make our own Dreams Come True.

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CONTACT

Feel free to follow Romeo and me on Facebook, Patti Cavaliere, or email me at patti.cavaliere@att.net. Please be sure to put the word NOVEL in the subject line so I don't mistake your message as Spam. I will personally answer each message, please just give me a little time. I look forward to hearing from you.

Photo of Amberfield Garden
​        September 1989
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