Mrs Paterson, who will turn 90 in June, began writing when growing up in Invercargill and Queenstown as one of eight children.
"They were just little poems for Cousin Betty's page in the newspaper, and one was lucky if one got two- [shillings] and-six [pence] because that was pocket money. I didn't think too much of it, and didn't think mine were very good but I still managed to get a few two-and-sixes," she said.
After leaving school aged 12 due to the lack of a secondary school in Queenstown at the time, Mrs Paterson put writing on the back burner to eventually pursue marriage and a family.
"Honestly, one never had time to write," she said.
Mrs Paterson lived with her husband in Dunedin and Christchurch, but moved back to Queenstown after his death and came to live at Cromwell in 1985.
It was while in Central Otago that Mrs Paterson had the time and space to dedicate to writing. She has since penned three novels and a family history, and contributed to two books published by a Cromwell writers group.
"To write, one needs to be alone, although that is something of a lonely thing," she said.
Mrs Paterson's first novel, Waiting For Charlie, has yet to be published, although her second, Fall of Sparrows, was produced by Quoin Press at Christchurch in 1998.
Her third novel, Some Day I'll Tell You, was published by Uniprint at Dunedin and launched at a function in Cromwell last week.
Mrs Paterson said she was getting too old to write novels, and did not see a fourth book on the horizon.
"Writing has always been more of a hobby to me than anything else, and a hobby I have had to give up at times."
