Patti Fields, author of Curtain Call, is a writer, speaker and HIV/AIDS educator as well as a wife, mother and grandmother. She is a charter member of Mother's Hope, an organization dedicated to increasing HIV/AIDS awareness in the Dallas/Plano communities. Patti has provided support to many people living with AIDS and was voted 1999 Volunteer of the Year by AIDS Arms of Dallas. Patti was elected for a three year term to the board of the Dallas chapter of DIFFA (Design Industry Foundation Fighting AIDS) in November 2002. She was specifically asked to bring her HIV/AIDS expertise to this national AIDS service organization.

In addition, Patti has co-founded the Jewish HIV Support Group of Dallas Jewish Family Services. She has produced a "Face of AIDS" documentary and appeared on Dallas PBS Cable TV. She is scheduled to appear (August and December 2002) on The Group Room, a national and European talk radio show.

Patti has been published in the Dallas Morning News, Richardson Daily News, Texas Jewish Post and Dallas Jewish Life. Her first book, Curtain Call, (Infinity Publishing November 2001) was inspired by her daughter' s life. An article, "Passing Her Message On," will be published in Personal Journaling magazine fall 2002.

Patti is a former elementary school teacher and also had careers in elementary education, personnel and sales. As a speaker, she has talked to youth in middle, high and senior high school, teenage-at-risk group homes and universities. She has spoken to adults from corporate singles groups, sisterhoods and brotherhoods to parent/teacher organizations and sororities, as well as women's non-profit organizations, religious groups and HIV organizations.

When not writing or speaking, Patti enjoys music, theater, exercise and bridge. She and her husband, Howard, reside in Dallas. Her most favorite travel destination is Boulder, Colorado where her son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons reside.

Why is Patti the right person to write Curtain Call? She has lived and is still living the story. Why did she write it? To keep her daughter's message alive.