Please welcome PAMELA CLARE to the Month of Romantic Suspense!
I've been a romance reader since I was a teenager. Romance novels have brought me countless hours of suspense and excitement as I traveled to times and places I otherwise might never have seen. But romance novels offer far more than a few hours of escape. They deal with the issues that strike most people closest to home — hopes for the future, the desire for relationships that last, and, of course, the need to be loved deeply and completely.
I've known since I was very young that I wanted to be a novelist. It was only natural that I write romance novels. It is my deepest hope that my stories will carry you away and touch you the way so many wonderful author's books have touched me.
All my best,
I have been in love with fiction since I discovered Misty of Chincoteague at the age of 9. By the time I was 12, I’d read all of Marguerite Henry’s books, along with the entire Nancy Drew series, the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Ayn Rand. Already at that age, I knew I wanted to be a novelist when I grew up.
Then, when I was 15, something extraordinary happened. I discovered romance novels. The first romance I ever read was The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss, followed soon after by Shanna and Rosemary Rogers’Sweet, Savage Love. I gave up depressing intellectual classics for stories that made my heart beat faster — tales of bravery, passion, and love. I found that I preferred happy endings to sad ones, no matter how artsy or intellectual they were.
I had the good fortune of becoming an exchange student during my senior year of high school and went to Denmark. I lived in 200-year-old thatch-roofed farm house with a host family that became a true family for me. I fell in love with the small Scandinavian country and stayed for almost three years, traveling throughout Europe and learning to speak Danish fluently. My time visiting European castles and cathedrals awakened in me a love of history. Those memories are among my most precious.
When I returned to the United States, I got a degree in Classics — Latin, Greek, ancient history, and archaeology. This background has translated into a love of historical detail, which I hope readers can see in my historicals. For me, there’s nothing better than feeling a time period come alive when I’m writing, as if I were really there in the middle of it.
Although I did work on a master’s degree in archaeology and later art history, I realized that I was using the university to avoid the challenge of building the career I truly wanted — that of a fiction author. I dropped out of graduate school and went to work for a newspaper and held almost every position in the newsroom before becoming the paper’s first woman editor. Over the years, I’ve won numerous awards for my work as a columnist and investigative journalist, including the National Journalism Award for Public Service and the Society for Professional Journalists’ First Amendment Award.
Though my ultimate goal was always to write fiction, journalism taught me discipline and helped me improve my writing skills. Little did I know that it was also giving me close-up experience with issues that would later find their way into my I-Team series. The I-Team itself is loosely based on what I call my Dream Team — the best bunch of investigative reporters I’ve ever known.
I now write historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense, while still holding down the job of editor-in-chief at a weekly paper. I love nothing more than the moment my characters become so real that they start telling me what to do. Though historicals are my favorite romance sub-genre to read, I thoroughly enjoy writing romantic suspense, drawing on my own experiences as a journalist.
I live in Boulder, Colorado, next to the Rocky Mountains. I grew up hiking in the foothills and love it when I have the time to spend an afternoon hiking, watching hawks and eagles fly or enjoying the beautify of wildflowers. There’s nothing quite as majestic or breathtaking as the American West, and I’m very lucky to have spent most of my life here. I have two young adult sons — Alec and Benjamin — as well as a very old pet bunny named Wubbit. Most of my days are spent writing or doing research.
I love to hear from readers. You can reach me by signing my guestbook [HERE], or by writing to me via snail mail at:
PO Box 1582
Longmont , CO 80502
The truth is that I never intended to write romantic suspense. My interest as a romance reader has always been historical romance, so that's what I wanted to write. But, as the saying goes, life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.
One evening while I was deep into writing Carnal Gift, my second historical and the second book in the Kenleigh/Blakewell Family Trilogy, my agent called to talk about my progress. We ended up getting sidetracked talking about an investigation I was in the midst of at the newspaper. In the course of sharing the events of my day, I told her that I'd gotten a phone call from a government official who was concerned that my safety was in jeopardy as a result of the investigation and that I needed to be careful.
His exact words were, "These guys aren't going to write you a letter to the editor. They're going to beat the **bleep** out of you with baseball bats."
I wasn't too shaken by this news, given that I'd had many death threats and two stalkers over the years. My agent knew this, too, and in the middle of the conversation she stopped and said, "Why don't you write romantic suspense because you live it."
And I said, "Yeah, except for the 'romantic' part."
With the wheels of my brain now churning, I came up with the concept of a close-knit investigative team made up primarily of women, whose reporting takes them into the shadows of our society where they meet the alpha males of their dreams. I wanted to draw on my own reporting for the stories, certain that my hands-on experience would give the books a strong feeling of authenticity.
When I sat down to write Extreme Exposure, the first book in the series, I remember feeling so incredibly free. The restrictions on language and word choice that apply in the historical sub-genre magically vanished, and I could write anything I wanted to write. It was amazing! That was particularly true with the love scenes, which became a completely new experience. I also enjoyed the darker edge I was able to give the story.
At the same time, however, I was fairly certain that journalism was pretty dull (apart from the occasional death threat) and that readers were going to lapse into a coma. My agent assured me that I only felt that way because journalism was my daily life. "Keep writing!" she said.
So I kept writing. Now, several years later, the I-Team series has its own reader following, and I'm still enjoying every word. How many of these books will I write? As many as you want to read.
The MacKinnon's Rangers Trilogy is set during the conflict known in the United States as the French and Indian War — the war made famous by the film Last of the Mohicans, which starred Daniel Day Lewis. The rest of the world knows this conflict as the Seven Year's War. As a writer, I've always been drawn to pre-Revolutionary American history because of the conflict inherent during this time — human beings against a vast, untamed wilderness, European cultures in conflict with each other and with Native inhabitants. Conflict is, after all, what gives rise to good stories.
The trilogy tells the stories of three brothers — Iain, Morgan and Connor MacKinnon — transplanted Highlanders who came to North America as boys when their father was exiled from Scotland. Raised on the frontier, they know several Indian tongues and count themselves kin to the Mahican Indians of Stockbridge. Having learned how to track, fight, and hunt from their Mahican friends, they're at home in the wilderness. And this is where their troubles began...
When war breaks out, Lord William Wentworth, grandson of His Majesty King George II, coerces the brothers into fighting for the Crown not as Redcoats, but as Rangers - men whose style of fighting is modeled more after Indian than European warfare.
My research for this series of novels centered around Major Robert Rogers, who is credited with turning the Ranger Corps into one of the most successful military organizations in American history. These men, hardened by frontier life and capable of feats that would be difficult for modern soldiers to duplicate, were the Special Forces of their day. Rogers created the Rules of Ranging that are still, in updated form, utilized by U.S. Army Rangers, a testament to Major Rogers' genius.
Rogers and his Rangers were stationed at Fort Edward on an island in the middle of the Hudson River south of the doomed Fort William Henry. In my books, Fort Edward and Rogers have been brushed aside and replaced with Fort Elizabeth and MacKinnon's Rangers. Apart from that, I've done my best to be historically accurate to the smallest detail, from the items a Ranger carried in his tumpline pack to the rules that guided him in battle.
I've had the good fortune to visit Fort Edward and Rogers Island and to stand where the real Rangers stood. I've also visited Fort Ticonderoga, called Fort Carillon by the French, where Major Rogers' powder horn, and many other Ranger artifacts, are on exhibit. Walking in their footsteps, and visiting the sites of real battles, has only further fueled my imagination.
Each book in the trilogy tells the story of one MacKinnon brother, with the characters repeating from book to book, including the Rangers themselves, a bunch of hearty Scots and stubborn Irish who've won my heart. As each brother struggles to win and protect the woman he loves, I explore the history of what is arguably the most significant war in American history, a war that has been called "The War the Made America."
I hope you enjoy the stories!
The Blakewell/Kenleigh Family Trilogy represents my first three books, and perhaps for that reason is very dear to my heart. Not as closely tied together as the MacKinnon's Rangers Trilogy, the books nevertheless feature generations of a single family. Set in the 1730s to 1760s, the stories span a period of great change in the American Colonies and the American South, from a time when small to middle-sized farms dominated the landscape to the era of land barons and growing plantations. It's also a period when colonists gradually came to see themselves as Americans, distinct from their English cousins, though English all the same.
The English side of my family arrived in Jamestown in 1610 — the second wave of ships to come from England - so writing about this region was a lot of fun for me personally. But it was also fascinating when I was able to stretch northward to Fort Pitt for Ride the Fire, which is set during the siege of Fort Pitt during a summer of deadly violence known as Pontiac's Rebellion. Working with actual soldiers' diaries from that siege, I was able to reconstruct much of the day-to-day struggles of life at Fort Pitt for my hero, Nicholas, and heroine, Bethie, to experience.
And although there are only three books about this family at this point, I do very much want to expand the trilogy by two to a quintogy. Stay tuned...
What do you do when desire drives you to the very brink?
The day Navajo journalist Katherine James met Gabriel Rossiter, the earth literally moved beneath her feet. Nearly killed in a rockslide while hiking, she found her life in the tall park ranger's hands. Although she can't forget him she thinks she'll never see him again. She is crushed when she recognizes her rescuer among the law enforcement officers raiding a sweat lodge ceremony one night, throwing her and her friends off Mesa Butte, land they consider sacred.
Gabe long ago swore he would never again lose himself to a woman not even one with long dark hair and big eyes that seem to see right through him. But from the moment he first sees Kat, the attraction he feels is undeniable. Appalled by what he has been ordered to do, he's determined to get to the bottom of recent events at Mesa Butte and to keep Kat safe.
But asking questions can be dangerous almost as dangerous as risking one's heart. And soon Kat and Gabe's passion for the truth and each other makes them targets for those who would do anything, even kill, to keep Native Americans off their sacred land.
"A steamy romantic suspense that will keep you glued to the pages … Kat is a beautiful, strong woman full of integrity with a strong belief in her Navajo heritage. Hunky Gabe isn't as strong as he thinks when confronted with a woman who's perfectly attuned to him. Incredibly raw and erotic sex binds them as nothing else can. This highly sensual novel will curl your hair from the sexual activity, while keeping you totally in suspense throughout. A very good read."
—Fresh Fiction
Naked Edge out on March 2, 2010
It took me more than a year, but I finally finished Naked Edge, the next book in the I-Team series. The book tells Kat James’s story and that of Gabe Rossiter, who saves her life when she’s almost killed in a rockslide. It’s the longest book I’ve ever written. I didn’t try to take forever or to write more. It just happened that way. I would rather take longer and put out the best book I can than to rush through it just to meet a deadline and give you all something that isn’t worth reading. Having said that, I hope you all find it worth the wait. For an excerpt, click here.
Join me at RomCon
There’s a new romance novel convention happening this year, and it’s in my neck of the woods. RomCon takes place July 9-11, 2010, in Denver — home turf of the I-Team. I will join Christine Feehan, Anna Campbell, Carly Phillips, Cindy Gerard, Elizabeth Hoyt, Hannah Howell, Jo Beverly, Julia Quinn, Jeaniene Frost, Lori Foster, Melissa Mayhue, Nalini Singh, Susan Mallery, Brenda Novak and fellow Denver-area romantic suspense author Tara Janzen to meet with readers and talk about what we both love—romantic fiction.
The entire purpose of the conference is to bring readers together with their favorite authors and to celebrate romantic fiction. There will be discussions with authors, a big book signing, workshops for readers and lots of chances to mingle. I hope to take some of you on a tour of the area to share with you the real locations that are part of my I-Team stories.
For more information on RomCon or to register, go to www.romconinc.com.
Hi, Becke!
Thanks so much for inviting me here! This is quite the event you've had going on — a month of romantic suspense. 
I'm a single mother of two boys who are both in college now. I'm also the editor-in-chief of a newspaper in Boulder, Colo., where I grew up. I live at the foot of the Rockies and spent my childhood hiking. Honestly, I don't have memories of doing much else. Every weekend, hiking. My father taught alpine and rock climbing, and so we were exposed to that as kids. My brothers both climb. I used to climb and wanted to start getting more serious about both rock and alpine climbing, but a bad experience with gravity pretty much made that impossible. More on that later, perhaps...
I was a voracious reader as a kid, and by the time I was about 10 I new I wanted to write books. After I read my first romance — Kathleen Woodiwiss' The Flame and the Flower — I knew that I specifically wanted to write romance.
My first love is historical romance, perhaps because that's the first subgenre I read. I started writing my first romance when my boys were 7 and 4 years old. I finished that first book, which was published under the title Sweet Release, when they were 14 and 11. It took a long time because doing anything as a single mom takes a long time. My job and my kids had to come first. But I didn't give up, even if it meant writing only a single paragraph in the course of a weekend.
I was at work at the newspaper in June 2002 when I got a voice mail from my agent saying that the book had sold. Actually what she said was, "So I have an offer for your novel. Call me back if you'd like to hear about it." If? IF? I was so excited that I could barely figure out how to work my own phone.
It was my agent's idea that I use my real experiences as an investigative reporter as fuel for a romantic suspense series. She and I were talking one night about my progress on my second novel, and I was telling her how I'd gotten word that I might be in danger as a result of an investigation I was doing. And she said, "Why don't you write romantic suspense, because you live it?" And I said, "Yes, except for the 'romantic' part."
After my third historical, Ride the Fire, came out in 2005, I went to work on what became Extreme Exposure, the first book in my I-Team series. "I-Team" stands for "Investigative Team." It's a group of investigative reporters known for taking on the big stories and not backing down, even when their lives are in danger. Naked Edge, the fourth book in that series, will be out on March 2 — just a few days from now — and I'm very excited about it.
So now I'm about to start my 10th book, the fifth book in the I-Team series. I still write historicals, though I'm not sure when the next one will be out. Both of my boys are in college (I miss them so much!). One graduates in May and the other is graduating early in December 2011. I still work in journalism, though I will be leaving that career to write full time in the next couple of years.
I guess that's my life in a nutshell.
