Pat (Patricia) Stroda was born on the edge of the Old West between Abilene, Kansas and the Santa Fe Trail in the Kansas Flint Hills. As a child, she found a cavalry spur in the pasture of her family's farm and became hooked on tales of the Wild West that happened near where she grew up. Having inherited the story-telling gene that runs in her family, she turned that gift into a second career after she left nursing and became a USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author. She writes under the pen names of Patricia Davids and Hope Navarre.