Publishers Marketplace: Patricia Phillips

Patricia Phillips

Author Patricia Phillips has successfully written in a wide variety of fields in a varied, challenging career that has spanned more than 30 years. She has earned individual and shared in team awards for aerospace, general news, investigative reporting, and feature writing. Phillips, who began writing professionally at age 16, narrowly escaped a jail cell when she refused to give up a confidential source. She is not afraid to follow where the story leads, and her strong, evocative poetry and prose show a person who lives life with passion.

A pioneer in Internet usage, she was the Senior U.S. Correspondent for an international, web-based news syndicate for several years, gaining a fan base of millions. For two years, her audio/video show, "The Internet Backpack," was a popular part of an international web broadcasting company.

Phillips is listed in the Native American Authors Project of the Internet Public Library. A gifted storyteller, she has been featured at the Oklahoma Indian Summer Festival for many years.

A respected poet, her work has been showcased in literary anthologies and used in college courses. Some sample reviews for Phillips' first poetry book _Freddie Came Home & Other Coyote Tales_ are included below.

During her service as a NASA Public Information Officer, Phillips anchored NASA TV press conferences and appeared frequently ("all too often," she says) on television and radio. She edited and produced the bi-weekly Kennedy Space Center newspaper, including a special commemorative edition for the Apollo 11 moon walk. She also wrote news releases and articles featuring the Space Shuttle program, biomedical research, environmental research, and spaceage spinoffs that aid everyday life.

One of her greatest adventures was serving on a specially-selected team who ferried Space Shuttle Columbia and a live payload (the "seeds in space" experiment) across the country. As lead flight spokesperson, Phillips handled media,VIPs, and spoke to the the thousands who came out to see Columbia on its servicing stops.

Phillips, who has worked in various scientific and operational venues is a skilled editor with special expertise in physics, engineering, and aerospace. She is an inspiring platform and motivational speaker, and teaches creative writing upon request. She also has winning political campaign expertise, and thoroughly enjoys the political fray.

Following Ralph Waldo Emerson's advice "trust thyself," Phillips chooses projects that she feels are of lasting value (and fun, too!).

******Writer's Digest review of _Freddie Came Home & Other Coyote Tales_******

"...a noteworthy collection of impressive poems by an obviously talented and skilled writer.

The poet shows a deft touch - the accomplished use of language and the lyric flow of exprssion make for an excellent collection. The construction of the structured poems - the Haiku especially, shows a wonderful command of the art form and a poet's knowledge of the sound of words.

The third selection in 'Haiku Triptych' is as good as Haiku gets, and the middle section of 'Desert Triptych' is downright spooky in its sharp, insightful irony.

These poems sing with humor, compassion, intelligence, insight, beauty and intuition, but do not skirt the hard cultural edge of the subject matter. "Drunk in Oklahoma," with its wickedly wry observation - -"a state that's hard to be sober in anyway," offers a profound depth of understanding of the social ambushes that foment the attitudes and nature of the Native American culture and the underlying innate misunderstandings about it that litter the American ethnic landscape. That it is ultimately positive and optimistic is a credit to the poem and to the poet.

This is a collection of poetry of high order. . . and should be made available on an extensive basis."
--Writer's Digest

_Freddie Came Home & Other Coyote Tales_, originally published by a small literary press, had earlier been acclaimed for its command of style and evocative elements." Some previous review comments include:

"The collection of poetry presented by Patricia Phillips in her Freddie Came Home & Other Coyote Tales is an impressive tour-de-force at this point of her versatile writing career. From delightful 'Freddie' to the startling grim imagery of 'Crossroads,' Phillips' use of words is spellbinding. A surprise bonus is the inclusion of two previously-published favorites, 'Star Child' and 'Poppy Day,' in this volume. Joy, sadness, beguiling humor, bitterness, and strength, touch her words and give a unique musical quality that reaches out and sings for the reader."

~Iris Tracy Comfort, writer, selected for Who's Who in America/The World, author of numerous books in several fields including the popular children's books, Joey Tigertail and Ee-a Gopher based on the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Her popular mysteries were featured by Doubleday Book Club. Comfort's latest published volume is her third geological book, Florida's Geological Treasures.

"You, the reader, stand at a doorway into a true voice from Indian America. There are only two questions - are you brave enough to knock? and is your heart strong enough to take the beauty and the fire, within?"

~John D. Berry, Past President - American Indian Library Association, author

"Freddie Came Home & Other Coyote Tales is a wonderous book rhythmically penned by Patricia Phillips. Her prose evokes images of joy, of pain, of remembrance. Phillips' words are those of the heart - - ancestor words that cross time and space. These poems, by an accomplished wordsmith, are to be read and reread. Most of all, they are words to be cherished by wayfarers of the human experience."

~ Robert DesJarlait, noted journalist, author, artist, traditional dancer, and Anishinabeg activist.

"Patricia Phillips' writing is rich on imagery that will make you feel like you're on a winter drive to old Pawhuska or giggling with the coyotes. I love it!"

~Arigon Starr, internationally-acclaimed singer & songwriter, winner of 1999 & 2001 Native American Music Awards.

Freddie Came Home is a collection of story poems, accompanied by brief essays about the poems and how they were created. The reading level ranges from advanced middle/junior high school through university and adult. The book includes a unique touch: the addition of "Journal" pages for readers to pen their own thoughts and responses.

This writer is looking for an agent.