“I always felt I was born into the wrong century,” Patty Pfitsch says. Inspired by her favorite childhood books, Caddie Woodlawn and Little House in the Big Woods, she persuaded her husband to move to a 100 year-old farmhouse in the forgotten hills of southwestern Wisconsin, an hour away from the nearest clothing store or movie theater and surrounded by wildlife and farm life. “Out here I can sometimes pretend I’m living in the olden days,” she says. “Our house is heated with wood, and in the winter I cook on a wood-burning stove that’s even older than the house.”
Since she can’t change the year of her birth, she writes historical fiction instead. She is the author of three juvenile novels from Simon & Schuster: Keeper of the Light, The Deeper Song, and Riding the Flume, as well as five picture books. She has received awards from Friends of American Writers, Council for Wisconsin Writers, Writer’s Digest and Highlights. Riding The Flume was nominated for an Edgar in 2002. She uses historical fiction to address issues that continue to be important in contemporary times. “I’m concerned about the violence done to women and children in our society, not only physical violence, but discrimination and emotional violence. I’m passionate about conserving our natural resources. Those themes usually find their way into my writing in one way or another.”