Patricia was born in Seattle, Washington. She has been in the U.S. Army, was trained as a Medical Technologist, worked as a horse back riding instructor and conducted shark research as a SCUBA diver and been a high school teacher of high risk students.While working on her PhD at the University of Hawaii, she was awarded a certificate in disability studies. She currently writes book-length fiction. Her debut novel LOTTERY was released in the US August 2007 and was short-listed for the 2008 Orange Broadband Prize for fiction. It has been translated into over 24 languages.