Many years ago, I walked into a bar in New Orleans and discovered a woman whose music made me want to dance and sing. I loved her performance so much I brought my parents to her next gig, where I bought 3 of her CDs and grinned my way home with a signed copy.
Here’s some tavern music for your reading enjoyment, courtesy of the legendary Beth Patterson.
It’s not just that Beth is an amazing musician—she is—but she’s also a gem of a person, with a wicked smile and a taste for fun.
To top it off, she’s a hell of a writer. Her twisted mind is a wondrous gift to humanity.
photo by Marc Pagani
Beth W. Patterson’s latest novella is a riot, and well worth the read, written with balls as big as a bull’s.
The Spirit of Rodeo is outrageously creative. The best kind of ridiculous, every page had me laughing. The prose is surprising. Witty. Obnoxiously likable. The plot hooks you like a melody you can’t resist and pulls you along by an oversized bullring.
If you like snarky writing, read this book.
Patterson’s stories have been featured in numerous anthologies, including the Villains anthology complied by Iron Faerie Publishing, based out of Australia.
An Old Familiar Warning by Beth W. Patterson is a vivid retelling with a feminist twist that could be subtitled as “Red Riding Hood Smashes the Patriarchy.”
I loved how the author subverted this trope with a unique perspective that reminded me a bit of the way ABC’s Once Upon a Time took familiar fairy tales and made them into something new and intriguing. Patterson’s retelling surprised me in the best ways.
Beth’s novel, The Wild Harmonic, is on my Kindle waiting to be read. So are an embarrassing number of other books, but it’s there, waiting, with music and shifters and rich New Orleans flavor simmering on a back burner until I get to it.
Birch is on a mission to forge her way into the world of shapeshifters by day while playing her bass guitar on stage at night. Her world is filled with hecklers, drunks, stalkers, incompetent bandmates and fang-toothed double agents. But when she finds herself face-to-face with a powerful enemy, she must summon up all of her newfound werewolf skills in order to save her pack… or die trying.
Check out Beth Patterson’s author page on Amazon and Goodreads.
Thanks for reading!
Whatever happens, keep singing your song!
@LeiaTalon / 
Author bio: Leia Talon is an old-soul rebel, musician, mama bear to twins, and author of Shelta's Songbook: and Falling Through the Weaving. She’s also written two books as Katrina Ariel: Yoga for Dragon Riders (non-fiction) and Wild Horse Heart (romance). Visit her website at www.LeiaTalon.com
