Get to Know Patti Lacy

About the Author

Patti Lacy graduated from Baylor University in 1977 with a B.S. in education. She taught at Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois, until she retired in 2006 to pursue writing full time. She has two grown children with her husband, Alan, and lives in Illinois.

About What the Bayou Saw

Segregation and a chain link fence separated twelve-year-old Sally Flowers from her best friend, Ella Ward. Yet a brutal assault bound them together. Forever. Thirty-eight years later, Sally, a middle-aged Midwestern instructor, dredges up childhood secrets long buried beneath the waters of a Louisiana bayou in order to help her student, who has also been raped. Fragments of spirituals, gospel songs, and images of a Katrina-ravaged New Orleans are woven into the story

The Interview

1. Tell us something you make sure you put into your writing as far as emotions and mission.

Romans 8:38, God working for good in all things, provides the framework for my exploration of the tough issues women have to face. God can work for good even if you have two dysfunctional mothers, like Mary did in An Irishwoman's Tale. God can work for good through racism, through a rape, through lies, as he did in What the Bayou Saw. God can work for good in ALL things. It's a hard teaching--for me, anyway!

2. What is one thing writing has done for you in your life?

Writing has forced me to explore parts of my life and my heart that I thought I'd locked up forever. Writing has introduced me to a zany community of artists that I never would've met otherwise.

3. What do you want readers to gain from your novels?

The certainty that every woman has a story to tell and a life to turn over to God, no matter how dysfunctional that life has been. I hope they have fun spanning seas and secrets with me as well!

4. Why this particular story line, what?

I've struggled with the human stain of racism upon the South and the horrible scars left on women because of sexual abuse. In What the Bayou Saw, God encouraged me to explore both sociocultural issues within the frame of a novel. It may not always be a comfortable book to read, but I hope it stimulates the gray matter and precipitates dialogue.