1.      I temped as a receptionist for a professional football team. On day one, I answered the phone with the wrong team name. The caller, the general manager, said, “You’re lucky it’s me.”  Excellent point!

2.      I’m obsessed with tea. Hot or cold, it doesn’t matter.

3.      The sweetest rejection notice I ever received was from Frances Foster, the editor for a Newberry Medal award-winning book. Her letter still hangs on my bulletin board and still makes me smile.

4.      I love karaoke. My go-to song: Build Me Up Buttercup.

5.      Eli Whitney, the person who invented the cotton gin, is my relative. I still remember my great-grandma, who was a Whitney. Weirdly, my daughter married a man with the last name – wait for it, Whitney.

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This karaoke gal’s first historical novel is the delightful Three Little Things.

Debbie Macomber’s endorsement: “I fell in love with Aron and Hattie.”

One forbidden love. Two broken hearts. Three little things.

“A well-drawn cast of supporting characters creates a strong sense of community, and colorful colloquialisms (“whip-thin and homely as a cow pie”) add flavor. Lovers of G-rated historical romance will be charmed by this earnest, emotionally vulnerable connection between these young lovers.” – Publisher’s Weekly

Hattie Waltz should forget the troubled neighbor leaving for boot camp in 1917. He forgot about her ages ago. It had always been the Waltzs verses the Kregers, his family pitted against hers. When she hands him a farewell gift, a chemistry lesson unfolds. The good kind.

Arno Kreger can’t leave Iowa or his old man fast enough. He’s eager to prove his worth on the battlefield and stop blaming himself for his brother’s death. Before entering the train, he bumps into Hattie. He’s loved her forever, always from the sidelines, because nobody crosses Hattie’s pa.

One innocent letter soon morphs into many. Arno and Hattie share three little secrets in each letter and grow closer together. But he’s on his way to a war across the ocean, and she’s still in her father’s house. Their newfound love will need to survive dangers on both fronts.

Three Little Things is a delightful story set during World War I. Filled with a fetching cast of characters and borne along by Patti’s entertaining sense of humor, this is an engaging historical novel on many levels.

I look forward to more of Patti Stockdale’s terrific stories, which are in the publishing process.

Check out her winsome website called “Hope, History, and Happily Ever After.”