Author: Pat Mattaini Mestern
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Pat Mattaini Mestern spent her childhood years in an eccentric, chaotic environment which guaranteed a titillation of the senses. She absorbed information and history through the vibrant lifestyles and memories of her grandmother, mother, father and a plethora of interesting people that lived in the area. She was surrounded by books, music and stimulating conversation. She was allowed to read any book that piqued her attention, no questions asked.
Pat found that history, as taught in school, was boring but she revelled in the anecdotal/folkloric variety heard around the dining room table. She was, and still is, an avid, fast and retentive reader. She did have a great high school English teacher and mentor. Pat's learning included attendance at grade and high schools and a stint at a business college where she admits that she went more to learn how to type - fast - then for any other reason.
Pat has never lived more than a mile from her childhood home. Early on, she married Ted Mestern, and shortly thereafter moved into a heritage 1879 limestone house, aptly named Stonehome, which is still their home. Assuming the role of wife and mother in the heritage building, that is so powerfully evocative of the past, matured Pat's potential as a writer of historical fiction, and local history. Her creative bent was further stimulated by a stint at the local County Museum where a love of history really came to the fore and took flight. The bent was also fuelled by a full-time job that kept her attuned to local scenarios and happenings, of political and cultural natures for a number of years - all providing food for thought and grist for the pen.
Pat Mestern's fictional works include Clara, 1979; Anna, Child of the Poor House, 1981; Rachael’s Legacy, 1988, all published by Back Door Press, Guelph, Ontario. Magdalena’s Song, 2003 and No Choice But Freedom, 2006 are published by High Country Publishers, an imprint of Ingalls Publishing Group, Boone, North Carolina. Pat's sixth novel, tentatively titled Granite - A Place Forever Sweet is set in Dufferin and Wellington Counties in Ontario, c1960. It should be available late summer 2008. Non-fictional works include Looking Back, a two volume local history, 1983; Fergus, a Scottish Town by Birthright, 1995 and So You Want to Hold a Festival - the A-Z of Festival & Special Event Organization, 2002, and Stonehome Cookery, 2003.
Pat also contributes a local history column to a community paper and rounds out her time by penning travel and lifestyle articles for a variety of North American publications.
A book reviewer and good friend of Pat's wrote: In conversation with Pat, one senses that no reading of her works of fiction can take us into the deep, compulsive level of creativity that this novelist experiences and accepts as another strata of her life - a plateau as mysterious as some of the characters in her novels. And this deep level of creativity is what makes Pat’s novels so compelling. They come from the heart and soul of the writer.
(IPG biography for Pat Mestern adapted from www.PatMestern.com, Biography.)
Visit the Pat Mattaini Mestern Website.*
*Links to Websites leading away from www.IngallsPublishingGroup.com are to Websites that are not necessarily under the management of Ingalls Publishing Group and may not represent the interests or intentions of Ingalls Publishing Group.
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