Greetings and welcome to my webpage!

My mysteries are written in a Southern voice, from a small town perspective, with a bit of romance and humor mixed in for fun and interest. The series is set in Madison, Georgia where I live, a place voted "the best small town in America" by Travel Holiday magazine.

In addition to my involvement with the Ninth Muse Writing Group, I'm a member of Sisters in Crime, the national organization which supports gender equality in crime writing and publication. I am involved with their Atlanta chapter and its monthly meetings. I regularly attend writing conferences to further hone my craft.

My other calling is providing healing through counseling and hypnosis. I am a licensed mental health professional in Georgia and certified by the National Board. To find out more about my private practice go to the Center for Therapeutic Arts website or to the Psychotherapy Guild website and find me in their member directory. You can also learn about training opportunities I offer through Windhorse Rising Workshops.

I find the process of therapy and that of solving a mystery to be much alike and similarly fulfilling. They each involve looking past the obvious, delving deeper, discerning the truth, connecting clues, resolving problems, and setting things right. Both therapy and mysteries feel satisfying to me and help me become more alive. They somehow capture a primary motivation for me. When I was a child I asked "Why?" all the time - often to the annoyance of others. I was described as precocious (for the good and the bad of that term). It seems I'm still at it!

Below please find a synopsis for Making a Killing:

     It's really murder in Madison, Georgia! And Marti Daley, a newspaper reporter, is the only one who seems to suspect that. She's got good instincts about when there's really more to a story and determines to look into the matter herself. How is she to know that snooping around will find the killer close to home and put her own life in peril?
     Marti recently moved to this beautifully historic town to write for the weekly paper.  For her column, Daley for the Weekly, she interviews local residents. What a perfect way to discreetly sleuth about the place Travel Holiday magazine named "the best small town in America". Here she and her yellow lab, Sunshine, can walk to the square from her place on Main Street. She rents a room in a lovely restored Victorian from Mrs. Cecelia Abrams (otherwise known as "Miz Cissy"), a sweet widow with a green thumb who took up real estate after her husband died. Marti's also conveniently located to the Dixie Biscuit, a down home diner that is her editor's favorite meeting place. Buddy doesn't focus as much on the paper as on Begonia's cheese grits and Georgia football.
     Kurt Bailey, a sheriff's detective from a neighboring county, befriends Marti and becomes a potential love interest. He thinks she's overreacting to the "murders" but indulges her. Ultimately he comes to see the merit of her suspicions and their mystery trail stumbles upon facts that help him solve an on-going investigation of drug smuggling across county lines.
     Along the way, Marti meets a zany cast of characters. An unlikely suspect becomes her best friend. P.J. is the true crime loving town paranoid who works overnight at The Come Back Inn. Wendall is the undertaker's son who shows (an undesired) romantic interest in Marti. Other characters include an adolescent tomboy named Bobbi, her adopted stray hound dog Taz, and their sidekick, Jamal, an intelligent introverted African-American teenager. Jamal's Dad heads up ERACE (End Racism and Culturalism Evermore) and his Mom is an educator and minister. Harlan Hayville is the beloved town fool, failed farmer, and fixer of odd jobs. The psychic, Divine Sister Madame Wilhelmina, adds controversy, while Ferne Anne Green (quite possibly over-compensating for what she refers to as "unfortunate initials") attempts to keep the peace with her motto, "It's not nice to be ugly. We're all children of God."
     Meanwhile, Marti is beginning to suspect that her boss is behind the deaths to promote his financially troubled paper via her exclusive interviews with the deceased. Other suspects present themselves in surprising ways. In a dramatic conclusion, Marti finds her killer at the other end of the revolver pointed her way. In a surprise twist, she lives to tell her discovery and see that justice is done.
      The town may never be the same. Marti certainly won't be. She and the reader are left waiting eagerly for the next Madison mystery.

Greetings and welcome to my webpage!
	I'm PAT WELLS and I've just completed my first novel, Making a Killing, under the name WREN WELLS. This book is the first in my MADISON MYSTERY SERIES. I'm at work now on the second novel, Kiss of Death, and have plans for the third and fourth books in the series, Green with Envy and Cross Purposes.
My mysteries are written in a Southern voice, from a small town perspective, with a bit of romance and humor mixed in for fun and interest. The series is set in Madison, Georgia where I live, a place voted "the best small town in America" by Travel Holiday magazine. In addition to my involvement with the Ninth Muse Writing Group, I'm a member of Sisters in Crime, the national organization which supports gender equality in crime writing and publication. I am involved with their Atlanta chapter and its monthly meetings. I regularly attend writing conferences to further hone my craft. My other calling is providing healing through counseling and hypnosis. I am a licensed mental health professional in Georgia and certified by the National Board. To find out more about my private practice go to the Center for Therapeutic Arts website or to the Psychotherapy Guild website and find me in their member directory. You can also learn about training opportunities I offer through Windhorse Rising Workshops. I find the process of therapy and that of solving a mystery to be much alike and similarly fulfilling. They each involve looking past the obvious, delving deeper, discerning the truth, connecting clues, resolving problems, and setting things right. Both therapy and mysteries feel satisfying to me and help me become more alive. They somehow capture a primary motivation for me. When I was a child I asked "Why?" all the time - often to the annoyance of others. I was described as precocious (for the good and the bad of that term). It seems I'm still at it! Below please find a synopsis for *Making a Killing: It's really murder in Madison, Georgia! And Marti Daley, a newspaper reporter, is the only one who seems to suspect that. She's got good instincts about when there's really more to a story and determines to look into the matter herself. How is she to know that snooping around will find the killer close to home and put her own life in peril? Marti recently moved to this beautifully historic town to write for the weekly paper. For her column, Daley for the Weekly, she interviews local residents. What a perfect way to discreetly sleuth about the place Travel Holiday* magazine named "the best small town in America". Here she and her yellow lab, Sunshine, can walk to the square from her place on Main Street. She rents a room in a lovely restored Victorian from Mrs. Cecelia Abrams (otherwise known as "Miz Cissy"), a sweet widow with a green thumb who took up real estate after her husband died. Marti's also conveniently located to the Dixie Biscuit, a down home diner that is her editor's favorite meeting place. Buddy doesn't focus as much on the paper as on Begonia's cheese grits and Georgia football. Kurt Bailey, a sheriff's detective from a neighboring county, befriends Marti and becomes a potential love interest. He thinks she's overreacting to the "murders" but indulges her. Ultimately he comes to see the merit of her suspicions and their mystery trail stumbles upon facts that help him solve an on-going investigation of drug smuggling across county lines. Along the way, Marti meets a zany cast of characters. An unlikely suspect becomes her best friend. P.J. is the true crime loving town paranoid who works overnight at The Come Back Inn. Wendall is the undertaker's son who shows (an undesired) romantic interest in Marti. Other characters include an adolescent tomboy named Bobbi, her adopted stray hound dog Taz, and their sidekick, Jamal, an intelligent introverted African-American teenager. Jamal's Dad heads up ERACE (End Racism and Culturalism Evermore) and his Mom is an educator and minister. Harlan Hayville is the beloved town fool, failed farmer, and fixer of odd jobs. The psychic, Divine Sister Madame Wilhelmina, adds controversy, while Ferne Anne Green (quite possibly over-compensating for what she refers to as "unfortunate initials") attempts to keep the peace with her motto, "It's not nice to be ugly. We're all children of God." Meanwhile, Marti is beginning to suspect that her boss is behind the deaths to promote his financially troubled paper via her exclusive interviews with the deceased. Other suspects present themselves in surprising ways. In a dramatic conclusion, Marti finds her killer at the other end of the revolver pointed her way. In a surprise twist, she lives to tell her discovery and see that justice is done. The town may never be the same. Marti certainly won't be. She and the reader are left waiting eagerly for the next Madison mystery.