Book Releases

Holding On (Colorado High Country #6) —
The Colorado High Country series returns with Conrad and Kenzie's story.

A hero barely holding on…

Harrison Conrad returned to Scarlet Springs from Nepal, the sole survivor of a freak accident on Mt. Everest. Shattered and grieving for his friends, he vows never to climb again and retreats into a bottle of whiskey—until Kenzie Morgan shows up at his door with a tiny puppy asking for his help. He’s the last person in the world she should ask to foster this little furball. He’s barely capable of managing his own life right now, let alone caring for a helpless, adorable, fluffy puppy. But Conrad has always had a thing for Kenzie with her bright smile and sweet curves. One look into her pleading blue eyes, and he can’t say no.

The woman who won’t let him fall…

Kenzie Morgan’s life went to the dogs years ago. A successful search dog trainer and kennel owner, she gets her fill of adventure volunteering for the Rocky Mountain Search & Rescue Team. The only thing missing from her busy life is love. It’s not easy finding Mr. Right in a small mountain town, especially when she’s unwilling to date climbers. She long ago swore never again to fall for a guy who might one day leave her for a rock. When Conrad returns from a climbing trip haunted by the catastrophe that killed his best friend, Kenzie can see he’s hurting and wants to help. She just might have the perfect way to bring him back to the world of the living. But friendship quickly turns into something more—and now she’s risking her heart to heal his.

In ebook and soon in print!


About Me

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I grew up in Colorado at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, then lived in Denmark and traveled throughout Europe before coming back to Colorado. I have two adult sons, whom I cherish. I started my writing career as a columnist and investigative reporter and eventually became the first woman editor of two different papers. Along the way, my team and I won numerous state and several national awards, including the National Journalism Award for Public Service. In 2011, I was awarded the Keeper of the Flame Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism. Now I write historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense.

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Seductive Musings

Saturday, February 04, 2012

So you asked to see some of my artwork...


 Thanks so much for your wonderful responses to my last blog entry. So many of you contacted me via Facebook or email to express your heartfelt support, many of you talking about ways in which you need to change your own lives. If we can support one another and make 2012 a year of unprecedented personal change, I’m all for it.

Yes, Project: Happiness is underway and has already brought change. Simply declaring my intention has helped to harness my energies in a positive way.

Since posting last Tuesday, I’ve chosen a gym that I’m going to join together with Benjamin, who is gearing up to apply for Officer Candidate School with the U.S. Coast Guard. We visited health clubs today and decided to join the city-owned rec center. They have several facilities and are dirt cheap, which fits my budget. I need to get back into shape. Benjamin needs to get into the best shape of his life. And unlike other times when I’ve joined a gym, the purpose isn’t going to be to work out as hard as I can, as if I were still the woman who could run 6.5- to 7-minute miles. I’m going to take care of myself and not injure myself.

Some of you asked to see some of my artwork from back in the day. It’s been a long time since I painted or drew with oils and charcoal and chalk. Most of my artwork was destroyed, so I have very little. But I have photographs of a few things, and I actually have what is perhaps my most priceless drawing.

Up at the top, you can see a photo of Pedersborg Kirke (Pedersborg Church) in Pedersborg, Denmark, a tiny town just on the edge of Sorø, where I lived. An enormous lake surrounds the town, and I used to run around that lake every morning six days a week at 6 a.m. The church stands up on the hillside above the lake, and one afternoon I headed over with a sketchpad and a set of oils and drew what I saw. The photo and sketch are from slightly different angles, and the drawing doesn’t have all the detail from the cemetery. But you get the gist...

I was 17 when I drew it.

This drawing still exists (I think). I gave it to my host parents, who still had it when I visited DK in 1999. It’s not Da Vinci, but it does show how I used to spend a couple of spare hours when I had them.



I dug through my old photo albums looking for anything I could find and was surprised to find this.  This painting was a joint effort and was put together for a Christmas choir concert when I was in 9th grade. I didn’t paint the outer corners or the star. As “Most Artistic” student, I was asked to paint the rose in the center. The rose was supposed to represent Jesus and was put in a spotlight during a Christmas choral piece titled “The Rose.” Other students painted the rest of it.

And now for what my sister and I might jokingly call The Piece of Resistance, poorly translating the French expression “la pièce de résistance.”

I drew this portrait of a crying Jesus when I was 14. I drew it with an ordinary pencil on a cheap sketch pad. I figured if Jesus knew everything that people did in his name, he’d cry. So here he is, hanging his head in grief.


I am not a religious person, but rather a spiritual one. I don’t go to church largely because organized religion leaves me unimpressed, and the last thing I want to do on Sunday morning is get out of freaking bed. I mean really! Whatever I feel with regard to God is between me and God, not me and everyone else on this planet. I don’t want the art here to create an erroneous impression.

This isn’t a great photograph of the piece. I had to take it off my bedroom wall to photograph it, and the light was reflecting off the glass. There’s a reflection of the wooden canopy from my bed on the glass, too.

I gave this to my maternal grandmother when we learned she had lymphoma, and she had it on the wall in her house. (She was religious.) After she passed, I took the drawing back because it meant so much to me.

Among the pieces of artwork that are missing include a charcoal and chalk drawing of a mother eagle with her chick that won first place in an adult art show when I was 15. I really wish I had that! There were some other drawings, as well as a couple of paintings and some prints.

I hope to ease my way back into this by getting some art supplies for my birthday and taking some classes through the recreation center, which offers them for $25. That’s just a way to get my feet wet after decades of not drawing or painting. It’s another reason we joined the rec center and not just an athletic club. They have lots of classes, including some that cover other interests of mine, such as organic veggie gardening. And they have a climbing wall. YES!


Fiction news:

I have an outline for a novella about Megan. It was going to be a Christmas novella way back when. Now it’s just a novella. I hope to start writing it next week and have it up and available for $2.99 through Amazon, B&N and Smashwords by the end of the month.

We’ll see what’s become of Megan since the end of Unlawful Contact. For those who have forgotten, she’s his little sister, and her life has involved serious trauma. She needs a lot of love and a lot of healing to have a real relationship with a man. We’ll see Emily, who is now 4. And, yes, we’ll see Marc and Julian, too. Marc will be in full-blown “protective big brother” mode, as you can imagine.

I haven’t heard from my editor about Defiant yet, but I’m certain I’ll hear soon. When I have any news, I’ll share it.

Have a great week, everyone! I plan to spend all of Sunday reading. We’ll be starting at the gym this week, and I hope to be writing again soon.

6 comments:

Kay said...

Love seeing your artwork and how it was created! Way back when in high school and college, I painted and drew. (oils and pencils, some pen and ink). I stopped for many many years. About 10 years ago I decided to get back to that, so I went out and bought a bunch of supplies (OMG yes they are expensive). I partially painted two oils. My brain hurt. Literally. I've always considered myself creative, but nope, I wasn't really using that side of my brain. I really felt the physical use of my right brain in that process. And now, with you as inspiration, I think I'll try to do that again. After all, it's been another 10 years. I wonder if my art supplies are still good or if I'll have to replace all those tubes of oil paint.

Eli Yanti said...

great pic pamela ;)

have a wonderful weekend, i start reading your surrender, i will let you know my opini, but i can sure you that i will love it ;)

landin said...

I love seeing your work Pamela! The picture of Jesus was beautiful, I Can't wait to see more as you get back in to the groove of painting/drawing!

By the way, I just wanted to say that your determination to make changes in your life for the better has really inspired me want to actually step up,stop procrastinating, and start moving my own life forward. I agree that 2012 will be a great year! Also,good luck to Benjamin as well!

I can't wait to read Megan's story, she seems like such a sweet character,I certainly can't wait to see who her hero will be. Will it be anyone we know/met before?

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed your art. It's especially nice to hear from someone who feels about religion like I do. I have never felt as close to God as at 3 am delivering a foal in a warm barn. I know there's something there up a guy in white with a staff in a chair on a cloud just never worked for me. Ah well, if I go down instead at least I'll be with friends.

Wow, Pamela! I loved seeing your art. Weeping Jesus is my favorite, of course. My daughter makes art daily, and it's all connected to music. Drawing lyrics is what she calls it. Very therapeutic, I think.

Kay, I think the trick is to ease back into it. The idea of taking classes, even if you're beyond the level of the class, is to have that support and some concrete projects that help you flex that creative muscle a bit before you attempt bigger things. I hope you DO get back into it. And, yes, art supplies are crazy expensive.

Hi, Eli — Thanks! You have a wonderful weekend, as well. I hope you enjoy the story!


Hi, Landin — I'm so glad you're feeling inspired, too. I hope we can all support one another.

I created a wish list on Amazon.com of art supplies I'm hoping to get for my birthday from my family. We'll see if they can get me going faster.

I've always had a soft spot for Megan. The whole drug scene and sexual assault — I can relate to her character. She's going to connect with someone we've never met, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, a Marine who was a member of a Marines Special Operations Team (MSOT). I think you'll like him.

As I said to my Facebook I-Team group, I may include an extra at the back titled, "Marc and Julian Make a Beer Run." ;-)

Hi, Anonymous — I know exactly what you mean! I don't find God in church; I find the Divine in life and living and the hearts and goodness of others — not to mention everyday "miracles," like the birth of a foal or a sunrise. I hear God in my heart, and that's what I have to follow. The Disapproving Old Man In the Sky image of God doesn't feel real to me. So we can party together if we're wrong. LOL!

Hi, Norah — So nice to see you here! Your daughter is a very creative woman in all aspects of her life, and she's lucky to have had YOU for a mother. You've done so much to nurture her creativity and her drive to experience what's unique in life. That's a priceless gift to give a child.

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Favorite Writing Quotes


"I am an artist. I am here to live out loud."
—Emile Zola

"I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day."
—James Joyce

"Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery."
—Jane Austen

"Writers are those for whom writing is more difficult that it is for others."
—Ernest Hemingway

"When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth."
—Kurt Vonnegut

"The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar is the test of their power."
—Toni Morrison

"No tears in the author, no tears in the reader."
—Robert Frost.

"I'm a writer. I give the truth scope."
—the character of Chaucer in
A Knight's Tale