AMAZON.COM talks to PATRICIA ROWE

Rowe: Always an avid reader, I wrote poetry, essays and journals, but was too much in awe of novelists to ever think of becoming one. Until the night I had a compelling dream of a young woman living in a long-ago time. As the leader of her people, she faced all kinds of terrors, loved a man she was forbidden to have, and  ...  I was hooked!  I wrote a chapter,  and sat trembling as my husband read. He said, "Please keep writing. I want to know what happens."

While doing research, I came upon a petroglyph called She Who Watches, and a traditional story saying she was once chief of her tribe, and I realized I'd been writing about someone who was real, at least in legend. Ashan's story became KEEPERS OF THE MISTY TIME. The Moonkeeper and her people had more to tell, so I continued the story in CHILDREN OF THE DAWN.

Rowe: I read and love all kinds of books. Influential authors include John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, James Michener, Leon Uris, Jean M. Auel, Pat Conroy, Stephen King, Alice Hoffman and Barbara Bickmore.

Rowe: I spend about six early-morning hours writing at my computer, with a black cat in my lap and a golden collie at my feet. The door is closed, the windows open (Oregon weather permitting) to oak woods, country air, and the sound of a waterfall.

Rowe: I love to meet readers at booksignings, and talk with them via e-mail--one of the great innovations of modern times!

Rowe: I logged on in February, 1996, and now I can't imagine a life without it. I talk with family, fans and writers by e-mail, and subscribe to two mailing lists for writers. The Net is a great research tool--from unearthing an obscure historical fact hidden in a library a thousand miles away, to checking out the weather on an August day in SouthernWashington, where my next novel takes place.