I talked to Patti Flinn at the Ohioana Book Festival.

Tell me about your book and why you wrote it.

I have been writing for most of my adult life. My previous books were romance novels. I published those through small independent presses. Around the pandemic, I found a photo of a portrait that was taken in 18^th century France of a man who lived in France. I started doing some research and started writing a book series about him. One of the characters in that book series, I decided to do a prequel novella. This is this book, “Veronique’s Journey.” It is set in 18^th century France. It is about her limited choices as a black woman in France at the time. Historical is something that I fell into. I am starting to enjoy it. It is teaching me a lot about not only French history; but, American history through the knowledge of what happened in France. That is something that I had no concept of, prior to this.

Did you always know you were going to write a book?

When I was young, I wrote for comfort. It is my stress reliever. I never imagined I would be doing it for business or a career. I just always did it for myself. It wasn’t until about twenty years ago that I thought to myself, maybe I should start writing books. My first book was a suspense. I followed up with two romance novels. I have taken a break here and there. I have been doing it because I love to do it. It has not been a hardship. During the pandemic, I got back to writing again because I needed a stress reliever.

Is there anything that I didn’t ask you that you think I should have asked you? If so, go ahead and answer that question.

Why did I decide to write a book that was set in France?

There are very few people that know anything about black people in France during the 18^th century. I thought that if I didn’t know anything about it, there could be other people out there that didn’t know either.