A NOVEL about a shipwrecked sailor has earned a Fishguard author rave reviews.

The online review website The Bookbag recently named Voyage into Limbo by Patricia Watkins in its list of top 10 self published books for 2014.

The psychological thriller is Patricia’s first attempt of writing a modern novel. Her previous four have all been historic.

It is a story of Colwyn Yeats, an expert sailor and veteran of war, who being at a loose end agrees to skipper an old college pal and his friends on a transAtlantic voyage. But Yeats soon finds himself alone on a rocky shore amidst the wreckage of a boat suffering from amnesia. The reader must then follow him on his journey as he attempts to find his identity.

Patricia was brought up in Tenby before emigrating to the United States, where she had many adventures, including having a 22 rifle pointed at her stomach in the middle of the Utah desert and getting lost while hiking in the mountains of New Hampshire - all “fodder for her novels” she said.

Following the death of her husband, Patricia returned to Wales in 2003 and has for the past four years attended a creative writing class in Fishguard.

“For me, one of the most enjoyable parts of creating stories is doing the necessary research, she said. “Growing up my pocket money always went on reference books, the result of which is that I ended up knowing a little about a lot of things.

“Writing also gives me a specific reason to visit new places,” she added, “or see old haunts in a new light.”

Patricia does all of her own editing, proof-reading and formatting and her uses her own landscape photography to create the covers for her novels.

Voyage into Limbo and Patricia’s other novels are available at selected local book stores as well as on Amazon. Patricia also has a website at www.downdesignpublications.com