Sylvia Patience, Author

I’m Sylvia Bortin Patience, former midwife, nurse practitioner, and school nurse now sometimes wanderer and author.

I’ve published journal articles and poems. My short fairy tales have won prizes. I belong to two critique groups and attend writing conferences. I’m a member of SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators).

I also backpack, garden, sing with the Santa Cruz Peace Chorale and am a Master Composter.

Is time travel possible? In Wandering Time, twelve year old Zoe Woods loves to read fantasy and believes in magic, but she’s never heard of parallel universes or alternate realities, not until Granny Rae is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and begins to “wander”, taking Zoe with her.

Alison Batterson, Zoe’s best friend, is fourteen in Runaway in Time, but when she runs away and follows the crazy cockney boy, Wendell, to 1953 Hong Kong, she becomes twelve again. And she can’t get home.

In Toto’s Tale and True Chronicle of Oz, Toto tells the story of how he found Dorothy and how they both went to live with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, what really happened in Oz, and what became of the Silver Shoes. Toto’s story is based on L. Frank Baum’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz, first published in 1900, rather than the 1939 movie. My Toto gave me the idea. Available on Amazon.

Inspired by these two girls I met in the Yucatan, The Weaver’s Daughter is the story of a Maya girl’s immigration journey. Ixchel (Chel) must cross the U.S. border to find her missing father in Los Angeles. Her best friend Rosa travels with her and together they face border agents, a dark tunnel, and a drug smuggler. Published by Paper Angel Press.

Bony Legs is a modern fairy tale based on stories of Baba Yaga, the Russian witch who lives in a hut on chicken legs and flies in a mortar steered with a pestle. Lisa Vass encounters Bony Legs in northern California, after her stepmother sends her away.

The Double Crossing is historical fiction based on the 1939 voyage of the MS St. Louis when the ship leaves Germany with 937 Jewish refugees. Turned away in Cuba and the U.S., they return to Europe where many later die in the concentration camps. Hannah and David meet on the ship, uncover a spy plot, and risk stealing smuggled documents from the Nazi spy. Published by Paper Angel Press.