This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
04/19/2017 08:30 AMAuthor Patti Cavaliere wants readers to take a positive message from her new book, and hopes it can show readers that anyone can reinvent themselves after going through low points in their life.
Patti says she lives simply and by the golden rule, which is to treat others as you would like to be treated.
“You can’t go too wrong if you’re true to yourself and you live by that philosophy,” says Patti.
Her novel, Looking for Leo, was released in February. The story follows a female veterinarian looking to find love again by dating one man from every single zodiac sign.
The themes of the book tie in very closely to Patti’s life, as she is an animal lover and cites astrology as one of her hobbies. She also has a message about the romance and relationship aspects of her book.
“There are a lot of paths to happiness,” Patti says, “I think you have to find yourself and find your own happiness first to be happy in a relationship.”
There were a couple of experiences that gave Patti ideas to write the book. The first was her experiences with online dating, and the second was her desire to learn about astrology.
Around the year 2000, she all of sudden had a desire to learn about astrology. She wanted to learn not only about how horoscope readings are made, but also how they could help her understand herself.
“Any time I have an interest in something, I take it to the limit,” says Patti.
An interesting fact about Patti is that writing is not her first profession. She was veterinary nurse for about 25 years, has worked as a medical research assistant and coordinator, and is now an administrator for a group of doctors at Yale New Haven Hospital.
“I like to be busy and I like to do a lot of different things during the course of the day,” Patti says, “And it gives me the ability to go home at night and not have to worry about some of things I did when I was a research study coordinator, so I’m able to concentrate on my writing.”
Patti has always had a love of animals, saying that she would always play with stuffed animals as a kid. After graduating with her bachelor’s degree from Quinnipiac University, she began working in the veterinary field, and her profession is what helped her get into writing.
“I had a cat that used to come to the veterinary clinic with me,” says Patti, “When he passed away, I was so heartbroken that I started writing just out of grief.”
Patti brought up a time where she watched a veterinarian perform an autopsy on a poodle, and the dog had spots on its lungs because it lived with someone who smoked. Her first story, published in a teen magazine in 2003, used that example to dissuade teens from smoking and substance abuse.
The next time she was published was in 2008 in Yankee Magazine. The story, called “A Summer Place,” was inspired by her experiences with her friends growing up.
She says that she and her friends would make their own adventures in the woods, such as finding an old cement mixer and trying to use it as a boat, and exploring a burnt-down house that was in the woods.
“I think those adventures that we had, the exploration, and learning about nature the way we did fed into who we became,” Patti says.
She says that she and the rest of her “Jewett Avenue Gang,” the nickname for her group of friends, still get together every year.
Patti lives in East Haven, where she has been since 1990, with her two cats. She even owns a horse called Romeo, who she says has a personality unlike any other horse she has ever seen.
“I could have the worst day and go see him,” says Patti, “He’s comical, and he makes me laugh.”
Also, if someone sees a woman in a 1999 Honda scribbling down notes at a stop light, that may be Patti.
“I get a lot of inspiration while I’m driving,” she says.