Pat Donovan

Pat Donovan and Jackie Stanley met at an on-line creativity session. They arrived at the workshop through a series of events that can only be described as providence, and both broke out of their characteristic reticence to begin a friendship that now seems as if it was always meant to be. Their transcontinental writing relationship began with enthusiastic e-mails and evolved into the suggestion of a co-authored book project. Through many twists and turns, what began as a short tale about a young girl who sees a mermaid developed into a complex and imaginative story, filled with rich, sensory descriptions of the wild coast of the Scottish isles and realistic details about Scottish history, archaeology and geology. Ms. Donovan lives in Miami, Florida with her son, husband, a retired racing greyhound and three cats. She dreams of being a mermaid but is afraid of deep water. Ms. Stanley lives with her partner in England and travels to Scotland for wild swimming adventures as often as possible. She has yet to top her swim of the Corryvreckan whirlpool. Ms. Donovan and Ms. Stanley bring out the best in one another and they intend to continue their writing relationship with more creative projects beyond The Secret Labyrinth. Should they ever meet, they plan to have a bluegrass fiddle and banjo jam, helped along by a few fine Scottish malt whiskies!