Key to my Life is in my Name

Whose idea was it to name me Patricia Amble? Couldn't my author Nicole Young have come up with something better than basic, old-fashioned Patricia? But the key to my life is in my shortened name, Tish. When said together with my last name, Amble - which appropriately means to wander - you get 'TishAmble.' And that perfectly describes my life. It's a shamble. Only my grandmother could have come up with such a cleverly disguised cut-down of her seemingly jinxed granddaughter.

And only my mother could have turned that curse into a loving endearment. Now, Tish is a 'by permission only' nickname that I offer solely to those who've earned the right.

Luckily, that includes you, my faithful readers.

The countdown for Book Two in the Patricia Amble Mystery Series is on. Watch for it April 1, 2008.

I'm a Real Girl

Today I became real. I’m alive in the pages of Nicole Young’s debut novel, Love Me If You Must. It’s on shelves right now. Make sure you visit your local bookseller and ask them to order you a copy. And be sure they get a few extras for your friends.

Mine isn’t just any story. It’s my story. Maybe it’s even a little like your story.

My dad was never in my life. I can’t remember him at all. My mom killed herself when I was eight. Her parents raised me after that. Grandpa was a bit of a drunk. Grandma never let him forget it, either. He died when I was ten from complications of alcoholism. Or was it that he lost his will to live? Anyway, it was just me and Gram after that. Things went pretty good until college.

Then I got that phone call. And that’s when everything started to unravel...

Pick up a copy of Love Me If You Must to find out more. Hey, a girl's got to make a living!

My Life’s Like The Pages of Some Tragic Oprah Book Club Novel

At least, I hope I make it to the Oprah Book Club one day.

My name is Patricia Amble, but just call me Tish. You’ll never meet me in person because I exist only in my author’s imagination. Her name is Nicole Young and she’s way cool, except when she’s putting me through extreme emotional trauma and causing me to make choices that no human should have to suffer through.

You can encounter me in Love Me If You Must, Nicole Young’s debut novel from Revell (ISBN 0800731573 ), featuring moi as the awesome and (nearly) indestructible heroine. Okay, so I’m kind of whiny and not everyone likes me once they find out that really bad thing I did. Hey, I understand. I’d go back and do it over if I could. Wouldn’t we all?

Anyway, I fix up old houses for a living. If you can call that living. In Love Me If You Must, I’m working on this amazing Victorian in Rawlings, Michigan. No, you won’t find Rawlings on a map. Just picture it somewhere in the Holly/Davisburg/Clarkston triangle. Making repairs to the old home is definitely a labor of love, especially when I meet the hunky Brit that lives a few doors down.

But you know how old houses can be -- a surprise behind every wall. At my Victorian, however, the surprise is beneath the concrete in that dark, spooky corner of the basement. I’m pretty sure there’s a body under there. How did that get left off the Seller’s Disclosure?

The first thing I’m going to do is dig in that corner and see what’s really down there.

Come join me. I’m definitely going to need someone to hold my hand.