"I am writing to you about your self-published book, Walking Tractor. We passed it around to various departments around here, and everyone loved it: it's tough, thoughtful, imaginative, and eloquent ... We have a new series of memoirs that we think it will fit nicely under, mainly about the under explored parts of California history and life ..."
... Gayle Wattawa, Acquisitions Editor, Heyday Books.

“Patterson is a writer with raw power and authenticity that can take a reader's breath away.”
... Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

“What a treat it is to discover a writer with a voice as truthful and distinct as Bruce Patterson. His engaging and illuminating tales of rural California remind me stories of Breese D’J Pancake. A memorable debut.”
... Tom Barbash, winner of the California Book Award for his novel The Last Good Chance and author of the New York Times bestselling On top of the World

“It’s rare to read in serious literature accounts of people doing this kind of labor that don’t patronize or demean them. Steinbeck did it, of course—wrote of ordinary workingmen as if they were to be honored and respected as much as knights and princes. And Bukowski wrote of workingmen as if they are the essential cogs that keep the world turning. Patterson does both.” Read more ...
... Gerald Nicosia, from the introduction to Walking Tractor