Monday, May 25, 2009

Dancaster Creative's Website has been Redesigned

I am happy to announce that Dancaster Creative has revised its website to better accomodate the visiting experience. The site now contains full details for Edward C. Patterson's 12 published novels, plus links to excerpts and free articles on writing.

Come visit and explore, then come back to Amazon and explore some more.

Edward C. Patterson
Dancaster Creative

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Striving to Engage the Reader

My approach to authoring books is not unique, but I believe it is lost in many quarters. Many times books are conceived as the author’s self expression, disregarding the reader. Readers become outsiders looking in, fishing around for ephemeral meanings and significant themes. At other times, authors attempt to pander to reader’s likes and dislikes, setting quotas on sex or violence, creating plot-driven sequences meant to fill in rainy Tuesdays. There’s nothing wrong with this approach. It’s just not my approach.

I strive to engage the reader, challenging them to think. Not only should they put one word in front of the other to achieve an end, they should collaborate with me and complete my thoughts; escape to a world that we both share. I do not aim at a mass audience, or even a gay audience. Although all my books have gay characters and many have gay themes, I write for just one reader and don’t care about their sexual orientation. I present that reader with living, breathing characters, who stick in their mind and lodge in their cares. Story is almost immaterial. The journey is the thing; a path that glues the reader to the page as they turn and turn and turn . . . An escape — a refuge.

Into this stew pot of authoring, I inject my experiences. I have degrees in Chinese History and have traveled extensively. As such, my longest works, The Jade Owl Legacy series is China-themed; and The Academician is a tale of 12th Century China. I have an affinity for fantasy, so alternate realities play a role in my books. As a gay activist with many years in service to the cause, books like Turning Idolater, No Irish Need Apply and Cutting the Cheese are gay-dominant, although you might be surprised that these have been embraced by the non-gay community. I feel ambassadorial. Bobby’s Trace spans both the gay-themed and the fantasy worlds; and as a gay-veteran (1966-68), I have a military tale based on my experiences in the U.S. Army in 1967 (Surviving an American Gulag).

My latest work is the third installment of The Jade Owl Legacy series, called The Dragon’s Pool. Like its two predecessors, it revels in the nexus of the modern and ancient world; and continues the epic of a band of characters that have been well received by readers of the series. I am currently working on two new works — the second installment of the Southern Swallow series, entitled The Nan Tu (The Southern Migration), an historical fantasy recounting the bifurcation of the Sung Dynasty during the early 12th Century. It will continue to explore the contours of human sexuality in medieval China. The other work is a romance in the time of AIDS, entitled Look Away Silence, a work that channels many of my own experiences as an AIDS service volunteer and takes a side-glance at the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA).

My motto will continue to be — Write with your heart, edit with your mind, instill the work with poetry and humor, and the book will author itself. From my mind to your imagination . . .

An excerpt from The Dragon’s Pool can be read at author’s den http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewwork.asp?id=33323.
A complete list of my novels can be viewed at my website, Dancaster Creative http://www.dancaste/com

Monday, May 18, 2009

Rainbow Reviews Gives The Dragon's Pool 5-Stars


The following 5-star review was received from Rainbow Reviews for the latest installment of the Jade Owl Legacy Series, The Dragon's Pool.


"The Dragon's Pool continues the riveting tales begun in the first two volumes of this exciting paranormal/intersexual series. With Rowden Gray settled into the coveted position of Curator-General of the San Francisco Museum of East Asian Arts and Culture, married to his beloved Audrey and father of a toddler daughter and a new child due soon, life is sweet and often serene. The Jade Owl has been hidden away ~ far, far, away from Nick Battle, son and cultural heir of the famous "Old China Hand" John Battle, whose artifact collection the Museum houses-but the Jade Owl is not the only supernatural entity about to disturb the peace of the Museum and of Rowden, his family, and friends.


Each preceding volume of Edward C. Patterson's extensive series The Jade Owl Legacy has been a marvel of convoluted plotting, supernatural venue, finely delineated characterization, and heartwarming romance, love, and attachment, set in the subcultures of archaeology and the gay community of San Francisco. The series records a paranormal legacy stretching from ancient China to contemporary San Francisco and back across the oceans to China today, with characters who each elicit the reader's empathy as their lives unfold, and unusual and unexpected events run the gamut of the supernatural continuum of probabilities. This reviewer enjoyed particularly both the paranormal excursions and Mr. Patterson's cleverly delineated revelations of San Francisco's multi-layered gay subculture. In any event, as with the two preceding entries in The Jade Owl Legacy series, The Dragon's Pool is another not-to-be-missed novel from accomplished and prolific author Edward C. Patterson."


- review by PermaFrost

Friday, May 1, 2009

Press Release: The Dragon's Pool to be Released on May 11


Press Release: May 1, 2009.


Edward C. Patterson's, The Dragon's Pool, Book III in The Jade Owl Legacy series will be published and available on May 11, 2009. This third installment of the five book series brings this epic tale mid-crest. The first two books are The Jade Owl and The Third Peregrination, both available at Amazon.com and eBook (Kindle, Sony Reader and Mobipocket).


The Dragon’s Pool


The Third Book in the Jade Owl Legacy Series.
A shadow stalks the lanes and streets, from Gui-lin to San Francisco; from Florence to the Dragon’s Pool. In its wake, Rowden Gray and his China Hands follow a course to right the wrongs of time. The relic is hidden, but stirs in the soul and archaic rituals long since forgotten, but never lost. Some books are closed. Others are open, giving up their secrets. And in the darkness, ancient terror awaits. A barrren field yields up its magic and . . . the comets return to earth.
The Dragon’s Pool, the next installment of an adventure like none other, looms across the landscape giving even the stouthearted pause to reflect. The stalwart characters of The Jade Owl and The Third Peregrination are back, and joined by new players and helper bees and . . . yes, villains. It is time for the Tien-xin Rite. It is time to close history’s fissure. It is time to complete the prophesy that dwells beneath Her Majesty’s hem. It is time to count the teeth that emerge from the Dragon’s Pool.


Edward C. Patterson has been writing novels, short fiction, poetry and drama his entire life, always seeking the emotional core of any story he tells. With his eighth novel, The Jade Owl, he combines an imaginative touch with his life long devotion to China and its history. He has earned an MA in Chinese History from Brooklyn College with further postgraduate work at Columbia University. A native of Brooklyn, NY, he has spent four decades as a soldier in the corporate world gaining insight into the human condition. He won the 2000 New Jersey Minority Achievement Award for his work in corporate diversity. Blending world travel experiences with a passion for story telling, his adventures continue as he works to permeate his reader's souls from an indelible wellspring.


Published Novels by Edward C. Patterson include No Irish Need Apply, Bobby's Trace, Cutting the Cheese, Surviving an American Gulag, Turning Idolater, The Jade Owl (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book I), The Third Peregrination (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book II and Southern Swallow Series (Book I – The Academician). Coming soon: The Dragon’s Pool (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book III), Southern Swallow Series (Book II – The Nan Tu; Book III – Swan Cloud; Book IV – The House of Green Waters), Look Away, Silence, Belmundus, The Road to Grafenwöhr, and Green Folly. Look also for The People’s Treasure (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book IV) and In the Shadow of Her Hem (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book V). Poetry books available are The Closet Clandestine: a queer steps out and Come, Wewoka - and - Diary of Medicine Flower. Also Are You Still Submitting Your Work to a Traditional Publisher?