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

Thursday, December 31, 2015

The Year That Was


A year ago, I had no hair. I was three weeks out of radiation treatment for breast cancer, but I was still using morphine to help me cope with the pain of radiation burns. I wasn’t sure what lay ahead of me. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to write again. There was simply nothing left inside me.

A few weeks went by. I quit needing morphine. And then the words just exploded out of me.

What a year 2015 was!

In 2014, thanks to breast cancer, I wrote zero published words. In 2015, I wrote more than 230,000 published words. It felt and still feels like a major accomplishment.

First came Seduction Game, which was released in ebook and audiobook formats on Oct. 20. (The book hits bookstore shelves in paperback on Jan. 5!) The story is the lightest of the seven full-length I-Team books and was so much fun to write. Most readers really enjoyed the story — and getting to know Holly a lot better.



Then I started Soul Deep, part of the I-Team series and a follow-up to Skin Deep. I had a lot of fun telling the story of an older hero and heroin. Jack and Janet showed a lot less ego and made more mature choices. That was refreshing for me as an author. Love knows no age limit, after all.

But halfway through writing this book, I got slammed by the emotionl aftermath of cancer treatment. I spent most of a week crying, unable to write, uninterested in doing anything, mourning the life that had been mine, a life that ended when I heard the diagnosis.

“I wish I could tell you it gets better,” said a friend of mine who has faced his own battle with prostate cancer. “It doesn’t. I just gets different.”

I found myself in a new, uncertain life, the landscape of my world permanently altered, and just facing that every day felt like more than I could take for much of the summer.

Even so — I’m not sure how — I managed to finish Soul Deep. Most I-Team fans enjoyed seeing Jack get his own unexpected HEA, though for some the idea of an older hero was too much. That's okay. Not every book is for every reader.



A caring friend sent me to San Diego for an all-expenses paid week of recuperation with my younger son, Benjamin, and my friend, Jackie. I met my assistant Shell Ryan, who lives there, for the first time, and was reunited with my true love — the ocean.

I cannot say how much this trip helped to lift my spirits. We told the hotel staff that we were there to celebrate the end of cancer treatment, and they really got into the spirit of that, sending a congratulatory bowl of fruit and a card to my room and saying “Congratulations!” and offering me good wishes whenever we bumped into anyone.




Other highlights included having friends from France come to visit. Showing them around Rocky Mountain National Park was a lot of fun.

In August, I was blessed to be present at the birth of my first grandchild. Little Oliver Harrison Patarino was born at 11:10 AM on Aug. 10, and my heart has never been the same. I adore this little boy and have savored every moment I’ve spent with him and my other grandkids — Wesley (9) and Mallory (7). Angela, my daughter-in-law, had such a rough pregnancy, but it came with a very happy ending.




Over a very busy summer, we adopted another kitten so that Tazzy, our woodpile kitty, would have a friend. Willy, a rescue, came to live with us at 8 weeks old. A big, fluffy lover boy, he is now easily twice Tazzy’s size. He is very easy-going and has helped Tazzy, who was likely born feral, be less afraid of people.




We also had wonderful visit with Sebastian and, friends of ours from France. It is always a joy to share the natural beauty of Colorado with people we care about.

Then in September, Benjamin left for eight months in France — a great opportunity, but hard for me. I miss him, of course, and eight months feels like a very long time. He is doing well, however, and making the most of his time there, which is exactly what he should be doing. I enjoy his photos and stories about his experiences in Picardy, which is where he is living this time around — a very different world from Paris.

In October, my Danish niece Claudia came to stay and work as my intern for a few weeks. It was great to get to spend time with her and to show her around Boulder and the mountains. Her mother, Christina, my Danish sister from my days as an exchange student, arrived for that last week, and the three of us had a great time. It was truly hard to see them leave, too.

After that, I poured myself into writing Dead By Midnight: An I-Team Christmas, the finale of the I-Team series. A short novel, it brings most of the I-Team couples and characters together for one terrible night in Denver. Terrorists take over a historic Denver hotel, where a couple of Christmas parties are taking place, not knowing that they’ve just taken the wrong bunch hostage. What follows is as tense a story as I’ve ever written. I poured all my love for the I-Team heroes and heroines into every page. Perhaps as result, reader response to Dead By Midnight has been overwhelming. The last page brings the I-Team series to an end — at least for now.



Yes, what a year it has been!

Last January, I sat in my oncologist’s office, asking him about my recurrence risk. It felt so important for me to know whether that risk was 10 percent in five years or 8 percent in 10 years. He turned to me and said, “Quit reading about breat cancer, and start writing again.”

Something in his words made me realize that the recurrence risk doesn’t really matter. What mattered was living the life I have. In that moment, I was able to set aside most of my fear and to pour myself into my daily living. I thank God for that gift.

None of us knows how much time we have. No one knows what the new year will bring. The only thing we can do is to cherish the time we have with the people we love and do our very best to make each day count, putting to work the gifts that we’ve been given. That’s what I tried to do in 2015, and it’s what I'll continue to strive to do in 2016.

I do have hopes and plans. I’d love to make it to France in February to keep the promise I made to Benjamin in 2014 to join him there for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Verdun on Feb. 21.  I've got a real birthday in 2016, so that will be fun. I want to see my Danish friends and family again, not to mention Copenhagen, my favorite city on earth.

I’ve started a new contemporary romance series that I hope you’ll all enjoy, featuring members of an alpine search and rescue team. Set in a small mountain town modeled after Nederland, this is Colorado small mountain town romance with lots of authentic Colorado flavor.

I plan to start every day by reading a poem, to do more to help those who have nothing, to take better care of myself, tpaint and find new ways of creating, and to spend more time with my grandkids, niece and nephews.

Thank you to all of you who continue to support my work as an author and me as the human being behind the books. Your support day in and day out means so very much.

I wish you and your families a very happy, healthy and peace-filled New Year.









Wednesday, December 23, 2015

SEDUCTION GAME — First time in paperback!





My Christmas shopping is done. Last night’s snow is shoveled. The gifts are wrapped — or at least stuffed artfully into pretty gift bags. (Am I the only one who prefers bags to the misery of wrapping presents?) The Christmas cards are written and mailed. The groceries are packed into the fridge and the cupboards.


Christmas is almost here! My very favorite time of year.


Before I vanish to celebrate my first Christmas with my new baby grandson Oliver, I wanted to make sure you all knew that Seduction Game, which had been slated for a March 2016 release, has been bumped up to Jan. 5.



That’s right around the corner. You won’t even have time to work off the egg nog — to say nothing of the turkey, stuffing, chocolate, Christmas cookies, and fudge — before Seduction Game hits bookstore shelves. Jot it down on your calendar before you forget — January 5.

This is the first time the book is out in paperback. It was released in ebook and audiobook formats in October, a kind gesture from my publisher, who wanted to help me get back on my feet financially after last year’s health struggles.

If you missed the ebook release, you can grab it for Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play and in audiobook formats. It’s also available in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia in ebook and soon in print.

Seduction Game marks the last long novel in the series, with Dead By Midnight: An I-Team Christmas marking the series grand finale. Like the big burst of fireworks at the end of a Fourth of July celebration, Dead By Midnight, a short novel, pulls out all the stops, bringing the I-Team cast together in a fight for their lives.

The story features cameos by the men from the FBI Hostage Rescue Series by New York Times Bestselling author Kaylea Cross. And what fun that was! (Tip: Marked, the first book in that series is FREE right now for ebooks!)

One thing is for certain: The bad guys in this story have no idea what they’ve set in motion. You might say — and Tuck does — that they took the wrong damned group of people hostage. Too bad for them.

Reviewer Blithley Bookish called Dead By Midnight “hands down the best holiday read of the season,” which made my day, of course.

Dead By Midnight: An I-Team Christmas is available in paperback and around the world in ebook for Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and Kobo. It’s also available in all ebook formats at Smashwords.

The great thing about these two stories is how much fun I had writing them. I hope you’ll check them out!

Now, back to baking and wrapping and last-minute shopping!

Merry Christmas to all my friends readers around the world who celebrate! I wish you and your families every happiness this holiday season and in the new year ahead.















Friday, December 18, 2015

Win a PRINT copy of SEDUCTION GAME — Today only on Goodreads



Just a quick and dirty update to let you know TWO things.

1. Berkley is doing a giveaway of 15 **PRINT** copies of Seduction Game (I-Team #7) on Goodreads. If you’ve got a Goodreads account, click here to enter. I didn’t know about the drawing until I saw a tweet about it, or I would have let you know sooner. Deadline to enter is TODAY.

2. The print edition of Nick and Holly’s story will be out on January 5, not in March. It got bumped up, apparently. Those of you who’ve been waiting for the paperback got two whole months cut off your wait time. Surprise! It was a surprise to me, too.

The ebook edition and audiobook editions are available at these retailers:

Kindle
iBooks
Nook
Google
Kobo
Amazon UK
Amazon AU
Amazon CA
Audible (audiobook)


Okay, I have three things to share.




3. Anyone who wants to experience Dead By Midnight: An I-Team Christmas in real time should start reading the story at 16:10  — that’s 4:10 PM — on Dec. 19. That’s the day the story takes place, and, yes, that’s tomorrow. The story is written in real time, so you can follow along. Just make sure you finish BY MIDNIGHT!

So far enthusiasm for this story has been overwhelming. It’s been called “hands down the best holiday read of the season” and “the best romantic suspense of 2015,” which is huge for me, given that it’s the last I-Team story, at least for now.

Don’t miss out on the fun! Join me tomorrow for a live tweet real-time reading of the story.

Dead by Midnight is available in paperback and ebook.

Kindle
Paperback
Amazon UK
Amazon AU
Amazon CA
Nook
Kobo
iBooks
Smashwords
CreateSpace


I hope everyone’s holiday season has been bright so far. Christmas is just around the corner!





Tuesday, November 24, 2015

A Gift from a Friend


You’ve been emailing me and asking me about T-shirts and I-Team schwag for years. I finally had time to do something about it.

Today, I’m announcing the opening of the I-Team Shop at Cafe Press. There you’ll find everything from T-shirts and hoodies to canvas bags and keychains to shower curtains and iPhone cases—all featuring the official I-Team logo.

But first, the background and why these logos mean so much to me.

My friend Lynsey Marion designed the logos for me a couple of years ago with a Cafe Press shop in mind. I was diganosed with breast cancer before I got a chance to do anything with them, and the logos sat unused (apart from the banner on the Facebook I-Team group page). Then real tragedy struck, and Lysey died suddenly.

She and I had worked at the newspaper together in Boulder and had become good friends. I was heartbroken. She was only 41.



I had drafts of the logos, but not the final files. The images she’d sent had been for me to proof and weren’t large enough to use on T-shirts or anything else. I contacted Carrie Divine of Seductive Designs and asked her whether she thought she’d be able to rebuild the logos so that I could use them. She went to work on it—a very special project—and she was able to do it.

A HUGE thanks to Carrie for that.

Another huge thank you to Sara Jackson, who stepped in when I was pulling my hair out to design and set up the Cafe Press shop, giving it a nice store front and figuring out how to get the logos on various products.

Thanks to their help and kindness, Lynsey’s designs live on—a way of keeping my friend with me.

And although the I-Team series is over—for now—you can keep it with you, too, on a water bottle or coffee mug.  A portion of the proceeds goes to me, which will be a big help in getting me back on my financial feet again after the disaster that was 2014.

Click here to check it out!




Many thanks to those of you who’ve read Dead by Midnight: An I-Team Christmas. The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. One reader called the short novel “a love letter to your readers, those who have been loyal to the I-Team for so long. A Christmas gift. Emotionally satisfying.” Another called it the best end to a series she’d ever read.

If you haven’t gotten your copy yet, you can get it in ebook on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBooks and Smashwords, or in paperback.

I strongly recommend you read Seduction Game first because Dead By Midnight takes place after that story and contains spoilers.

Thanks to everyone who has read both books and posted reviews. I really appreciate your support!









Monday, November 16, 2015

DEAD BY MIDNIGHT: An I-Team Christmas is OUT!


Happy Holidays!

In a nutshell: After a crazy writing marathon that has left my house looking like a tornado went through it, I finished DEAD BY MIDNIGHT: AN I-TEAM CHRISTMAS, edited it, and, with my son Benjamin’s help, got it uploaded.

I love the cover, by the way. There’s been some debate about who this is on the cover. It’s Marc. But if you’re Team Gabe, you could think of him as Gabe. (It’s Marc!)

I had planned on Tuesday, Nov. 17, being release day, but Amazon got the book up within hours. So if you’re a Kindle reader, there’s no waiting. If you prefer Nook or iBooks, it should be out right on time. Kobo and paperback might take a while.

Click here for Amazon UK, Amazon AU, and Amazon CA.

What can I tell you about this book? It’s not even up on my website yet. I was too busy writing it to spend time writing about it.

One reader who just finished it wrote to me to say, “Pamela, this was an amazing, gut-wrenching, crying, scared spitless thriller.” And that about sums it up. It tells the story of one night that brings all of our favorite I-Team couples together in a fight for survival.

Here’s the blurb from the back of the book:

Marc and Sophie Hunter, Gabe and Kat Rossiter, Holly Andris and the rest of the I-Team gang find themselves in the same historic Denver hotel celebrating the approach of Christmas at different holiday parties. What starts out as a fun winter evening with friends soon becomes a brutal fight to survive when the hotel is taken over by a group of ruthless narcoterrorists who will stop at nothing to get what they want. 

On the outside, Julian Darcangelo, Zach McBride, Nick Andris, and others join together with the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team in a desperate bid to free their friends, knowing that if they fail, the people they love will be… 

Dead by Midnight. 

Featuring cameo appearances by the men of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, a series by New York Times bestselling author Kaylea Cross.

Yes, DeLuca, Tuck, Evers, Vance, Cruz, Bauer, Schroder, and Blackwell spend some time with my I-Team guys, trying to save lives. It was a fun cross-pollination, and I hope it encourages my readers to try Kaylea Cross's Hostage Rescue Team series.

How about an excerpt?

________________________

From DEAD BY MIDNIGHT: AN I-TEAM CHRISTMAS

Marc stopped, fought to catch his breath, pressing a hand against the painful graze on his ribs. His fingers came away bloody. There was nothing he could do about that now. He had bigger problems. He could just hear the bad guys talking to one another somewhere on the roof above. He wouldn’t be able to sneak up on them breathing like he’d just run up seven flights of stairs.

That’s why they call it FAT Tire, Hunter.

Yeah, too much beer—and too little time in the gym.

He’d ditched the idea of taking an elevator when the doors had opened with a loud ding that had made every asshole in the lobby look up. The fuckers had started shooting. He’d been lucky to get out of there alive.

He’d had to take off his fancy dress shoes because the soles made so much noise, every step he took echoing in the stairwell. Now he was running around with a pistol in his hand and wearing nothing but socks, tuxedo pants, a starched white shirt stained red with his own blood—and a fine black tie.

Just like James fucking Bond.

His heartbeat and respiration slowed, Sophie’s lingering scent reminding him with every breath exactly what was at stake tonight. He did his best to put her out of his mind. He wouldn’t be able to help her or anyone else if he didn’t focus.

Sheridan will keep her safe. She’ll be okay.

So now what?

He leaned back against the cold concrete wall, mulled over the possibilities.
 
There were four of them, and he had four bullets. Even if he snuck up on them, he doubted he’d be able to squeeze off four rounds with absolute accuracy using only a pistol before one of them lit him up. What he needed was a way to eliminate all four of them at once without giving himself away.

Dream on, buddy.

He slowly climbed the last flight of stairs, stopping to the left of the open door, frigid night air pouring in from the darkness. He glanced around the corner.

Nothing.

He stepped outside. It wasn’t as dark as he’d thought it would be, security lights on the parapets casting an eerie yellow glow. He glanced around, pistol raised, finger on the trigger. The hotel’s triangular roof was a maze of external ductwork, enormous ventilation and air conditioning units, what looked like a greenhouse and…

Beehives?

Keeping low, he made his way around the bulkhead and along a long line of ductwork. A movement in the darkness. Voices.

He froze.

All four of them were gathered at the south end of the building, near its prow where The Palace overlooked the star-shaped intersection of Broadway, Seventeenth, and Court Place, with its public park and bus stops. They were bent over something with flashlights. One of them moved, giving Marc a glance.

A Ma Deuce.

The bastards had a fucking Ma Deuce—a Browning M2 machine gun. If they managed to get that thing up and running, they would have enough firepower to take down targets up to two thousand yards away.

Marc’s SWAT team would be fish in a barrel.

He took a moment to think, trying to ignore the fact that he was fucking freezing, the frigid wind cutting right through him. He made his way back along the ductwork to a place he felt was secure, then pulled out his cell phone and sent Irving a quick text.

Four perps on roof setting up a Browning M2 .50 cal. May have RPGs, etc. I’m going to try to take them out.

If he failed, at least Irving and Marc’s teams would be warned.

Quickly and quietly, he retraced his path along the ductwork, moving in closer this time, trying to make up for the limited range of his pistol. He tried to line up a shot, felt himself shivering.

Get a grip, Hunter!

He willed his body to relax, surrendered to the cold, then set it out of his mind.

He lined up his shot and … squeezed the trigger.

Bam!

One down.

Shouting at one another, the others grabbed their weapons, one aiming into the darkness and spraying bullets in Marc’s general direction, rounds slamming into the ductwork around him with a dull thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack.

Bent low, he ran, taking cover behind some AC vents and peering out at the three men, ignoring the vibration of his cell phone. Two perps had gone back to work on the M2, while the third stood sentry, rifle in his hands, cell phone in his hand, thumb moving over the keys. He was probably calling for backup.

Well, Marc couldn’t let him get away with that. He took aim, fired again.

Bam!

Another one down.

The others had laid their weapons aside to work on the Ma Deuce.

Marc saw his chance.

He rushed them, stopping to fire at the first one to aim a rifle at him.

Bam!

A miss.

Shit!

Fueled by a surge of adrenaline, Marc dove for cover.

(c) 2015 Pamela Clare
Friday, November 06, 2015

NEWS — Kaylea Cross's HRT join the I-Team heroes in AN I-TEAM CHRISTMAS



Thanks to all of you who helped make the launch of Seduction Game such a great success. No author can please everyone all of the time, but the reviews from readers for this story have been overwhelmingly positive. The book has a 4.9 average on Amazon after 87 reviews and a 4.44 average at Goodreads with more than 300 reviews.

The audiobook should be out soon. There were unavoidable production delays, but things are on track now. For a quick fix of Kaleo Griffith voicing Nick Andris, click here. I expect it will be available before the end of the month. The audiobook cover is quite sexy. I’ll let you know as soon as it’s out.



In other news, Kaleo is busy recording Soul Deep right now for audiobook. It is slated for release on Dec. 29.

After Seduction Game launched, I got focused on AN I-TEAM CHRISTMAS, which brings most of the I-Team gang together to fight a madman intent on taking revenge against the US government and freeing his cousin—a convicted killer—from ADX, i.e., Supermax, in Colorado.

As I was working on an outline of the action for the story—that’s being generous, really, because I never outline—I realized the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) would be involved. I mentally tucked that away and focused on writing.

As scenes with the HRT drew closer, I started doing a research, watching documentaries, reading what I could find online. Then, the night before I was supposed to write my first HRT scene, an idea hit me out of the blue. Truly, it was like a lightning strike to the brain.

Kaylea Cross has an HRT series full of super-sexy alpha males. Wouldn’t it be fun if they got to play with my I-Team heroes?”

I was so freaking excited that I ran down the stairs to email Kaylea that very minute. She responded right away with a “Yes!”

I’m thrilled to be working with Kaylea, whom I consider a fabulous author, and I’m thrilled that her sexy HRT heroes are going to be a part of the action in this novella. Marked, the first book in her HRT series, is currently available for FREE from all ebook retailers, so this is a great chance to get introduced to her writing and her heroes if you’re not familiar with her.

I don’t have a cover for this novella yet, and I’m not even sure about the title. But I do know that AN I-TEAM CHRISTMAS will be longer than the average novella, and that it will be out on Nov. 17 in ebook and in print.

Mark your calendars, because this is one installment of the I-Team you won’t want to miss. It’s our farewell to the I-Team—for now at least. And you know they have to go out with a bang.

Seduction Game trivia: I thought I’d share an image of the Clock Tower in Denver (image at top). That’s where Holly and Nick got married at the end of the epilogue. This is how it looks at Christmas. In the story, they got married on the floor with the clock faces, which are huge and which shine both inside and out.

If you haven’t downloaded your copy of Seduction Game, it’s available on Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play, as well as Kindle UK, Kindle AU, and Kindle CA.  It will be available in mass market paperback in March 2016.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015

SEDUCTION GAME is out!



CIA officer Nick Andris wants revenge. His last mission failed after a Georgian arms smuggler killed his lover. He’s been tailing a woman for three weeks hoping she will lead him to his target. But there’s a problem with the intel. Holly Elise Bradshaw is nothing more than an entertainment writer with a love for sex and designer clothes. Clearly someone at Langley made a mistake . . .
When Holly finds herself in trouble, the only weapons at her disposal are her brains and her body. But they won’t be enough to handle the man who’s following her. He’s going to turn her world upside-down.
For an author, every book is a journey. It starts with an idea, takes shape in the writers mind, sends her off to do research, and ends in places she couldn’t imagine.
But Seduction Game
I started it in January 2014. While I was writing the first chapter, I got the news that my former mother-in-law and friend had been in a terrible car accident. She died a few days later.
I was a few chapters in when I got the devastating news that I had invasive ductal carcinoma, a form of breast cancer. I had no choice but to set the book aside while I underwent a bilateral mastectomy, three months of chemotherapy, and five weeks of daily radiation treatments. I was too sick even to imagine writing. It seemed to me that months of sickness, pain, and fear had destroyed my creativity. I told those closest to me that I was afraid I’d never write again.
And then another January came. I was able to stop using morphine. And to my surprise, a book exploded out of my soul.
I started at the beginning, rewrote what I’d written. I wrote faster than I’ve written since the early days of my fiction career, and I loved every moment of it. I laughed, got teary-eyed, and reveled in the feeling of writing again. Holly came to be my favorite heroine ever as her story unfolded on the page. And I felt alive again.
Seduction Game isn’t just a book to me. It’s my literary fist held high in the air. It’s my way of showing the world that I am still here, still on my feet, still creating despite the horrors of cancer.
Cancer is behind me. And now I have a new full-length novel out. That thought made me burst into tears when I woke up this morning. Yes, all books are journeys, but I feel like I traveled through hellfire to bring you this one.
Seduction Game is available at e-book retailers in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia and is coming soon to Kobo and audiobook. It will be available in mass market paperback in March 2016.
I hope with all my heart that you enjoy Nick and Holly’s story. And remember — KEEP THE SECRET! :-)
Also, watch for my novella An I-Team Christmas, coming on Nov. 17! Join your favorite I-Team characters for a suspenseful, action-packed December night.
Thanks for your continued support!
All my best,
Pamela
Saturday, October 17, 2015

SEDUCTION GAME Giveaway!




We are just THREE days away from the release of Seduction Game in ebook and audiobook, three days away from you getting Nick and Holly’s story. I can’t wait to share it with you!

For some of you, the wait will end soon. Yesterday, I got a little surprise when FedEx dropped off a box of bound galleys. Those are bound copies of the book without the sexy cover and without the last round of copy edits. Most often, they’re sent to reviewers.


This time, because the print release isn’t until March, my publisher sent them so that I could give away a few print copies in contests. Because snail mail is slow, winners won’t get their copies until after Tuesday’s release date.

Without further ado, let’s give away some autographed galleys!

CONTEST RULES—
1. Comment directly on my blog (pamelaclare.blogspot.com), not Facebook or Goodreads.
2. Tell me your favorite Holly Bradshaw moment in the I-Team series.
3. Leave an email address or twitter name or some way for me to contact you. If you don't, you are ineligible to win because I can’t notify winners via telepathy.
4. Post BEFORE 11:59 Sunday night.
5. Cross your fingers!
7. This contest is open to US readers only due to copyright issues. The edition of the story being given away here is the US edition.
8. Mothers and sisters of the author are ineligible to enter.
9. FIVE winners will be chosen through a contest randomizer.
10. Any blogger who shares the Seduction Game .gif at right by copying the code and posting it on their blog through release week next week, gets entered twice. Just share the link to your blog where the .gif is running.

This is a quick and dirty drawing — Holly would like that — so winners will be announced on MONDAY, and prizes will go out that same day to reach you as soon as the United States Postal Service can get them to you.

Also, take the time now to sign up for my newsletter. It’s the best way to stay on top of all the latest news from Casa Clare. Just follow the link, add your email address, then watch for a confirmation email in your Inbox or spam folder.

Good luck!







Monday, October 12, 2015

SEDUCTION GAME Q&A with Author Pamela Clare

We’re a week and a day away from the release of Seduction Game (I-Team #7), which tells Holly Bradshaw’s story. Here’s a short Q&A about the book and about my writing plans for the rest of the year.

Q. Is it true your editor once told you she didn’t want to Holly to get her own book?

A. Yes, that is true. Back when Extreme Exposure was release, she mentioned to me that she felt Holly just wasn't heroine material. I told her that was fine, but I felt pretty certain that Horny Holly would win her over. My editor eventually asked me to write Holly’s story. When I reminded her what she’d said about Holly initially, we both got a good laugh out of it.


Feel free to download or share!

Q. Holly is a different sort of heroine, not what we’re used to from your books or in romance generally speaking. What made you so certain you wanted to give her a story?

A: Well, it’s no secret that finding a romance hero who hasn’t had sex with lots of women is like finding a four-leaf clover. They’re rare. At the same time, we find a surprisingly high number of virgin heroines in contemporary romance. I guess our culture romanticizes the notion of experienced men leading less experienced women through the wild world of sexuality.

But reality is very different than that. The last study I read found that the average number of sexual partners a US woman has had by the time she turns 40 is 12. That’s the average. All of my other heroines have fallen far short of that average, except perhaps Laura Nilsson from Striking Distance. I actually never asked her for a tally.

My point is that our fantasies about sexuality and the reality we all know and live are very different. I suspect slut-shaming plays a role in pushing heroines to the less sexually active side in romance. And that comes from the bad old double standard that has done so much to hurt women.

I consciously chose for Holly to be a more sexually expressive character 11 years ago when I started writing this series. Through the years, I’ve gotten suggestions from fans that she really hasn't slept with those men, that she’s actually a virgin and just making it up and so forth. No, no, no. She is who she is without apology. As a writer, I found that fun.


Feel free to download or share!

Q: Tell us about Nick.

A: Nick is a good guy who is going to seem an awful lot like a bad guy. He lost the woman he loved in an operation that went south, and he’s been looking to even the score with the man who murdered her. He comes from a big family. His parents immigrated to the US from the Georgia when it was still part of the USSR. Nick was born into the US and served in Delta Force before being recruited into the Special Activities Division (SAD) of the CIA. He is tough, serious about serving his country, and in some ways very alone.

Q: He sounds yummy! What’s different about Holly and Nick’s story? You’ve said in some of your comments about it that it’s lighter than the other I-Team books.

A. It is lighter. After last year’s cancer battle and after Striking Distance, which dealt with some very heavy emotional issues, I needed something lighter. I think it’s the funniest I-Team story, because, well, Holly. It’s also pretty hot—again, Holly. What else could we expect? That isn’t to say it’s just humor and sex. There is some darkness in the story, starting with the way Nick and Holly come to know one another. But Holly has a way of seeing the world that brings lightness to dark moments, as Kat once observed about her.

We see most of the other I-Team members. We learn some new things about Laura and Javier’s story. We get to know Derek Tower better. Darcangelo and Hunter are still at it with the bromance and the banter. It’s getting harder and harder to fit all the couples in as the series progresses, but most of them are represented.


Feel free to download or share!


Q: Rumor has it that Seduction Game is the last I-Team novel and that the series is over.

A. That depends on how you define “last.” I am determined to give Joaquin his own story. I love him, and so do a lot of my readers. But after that, there will probably be a few more novellas to wrap up some plots for secondary characters and then the I-Team will head into the sunset. I don’t want to continue the series to the point where it grows stale. I’d rather end on a high note.

Right now, I’m working on An I-Team Christmas, which is proving to be a really interesting experience. That will be coming out on Nov. 17, in time for some fun holiday reading. But this isn’t your average heartwarming holiday tale. Think Die Hard meets the I-Team. There will be pretty Christmas trees and lights and lots of bullets.

Also in time for the holidays, I’ll have an I-Team shop set up at Café Press, featuring T-shirts and other things with the official I-Team logo. This is really important to me because the logo was originally designed by a close friend of mine, Lynsey Marion, who died suddenly and unexpectedly last March. She made them as a gift for me but hadn’t yet sent me the final files before she passed on. Carrie at Seductive Designs has been recreating them so that I’ll be able to use them. Keeping the logo alive and putting it to use is one way of keeping her with me.






Q. What’s after the I-Team?

A. Good question! Do you have a crystal ball? I have a handful of historical romances I’d love to write. There are a couple of spinoff series that I’d love to do, one featuring Javier and Derek’s black ops firm and the other set in Scarlet Springs, which is mentioned in Soul Deep for the first time. Scarlet Springs is a Colorado mountain town but unlike the idyllic mountain towns in so many romances, it’s a real Colorado mountain town with three marijuana shops and lots of eccentric residents. That series will include Gabe Rossiter from Naked Edge (and possibly other I-Team characters) as cross-over characters and will focus on the work of the county’s Alpine Rescue Team—the men and women who  save people’s lives day in and day out in the high country. There will be hard-core climbers, skiers, helo pilots, rescue dog trainers, wildland fire fighters, paramedics, avalanche rescue people and more. I’ll be publishing the Scarlet Springs series independently.

Also, I may have a secret project up my sleeves.


Q. How fast can you write?

A. Not fast enough, though to have written a full-length novel and two novellas in a single year after the year I had last year feels pretty incredible to me.

Q: Speaking of last year, how are you doing health-wise?

A. I’m doing pretty darned well. I haven’t yet had reconstruction, and I have short hair. Those are the two things that bother me most. But I am trying to focus on things I enjoy and moving forward with life. I’m taking a painting class and have gotten started with aqua fitness classes, which I really like.

All of the test so far show no sign of cancer. I was diagnosed as stage 1c, and I've got less than a 10 percent chance of recurrence. I’m actually surprised at how well I’m living with the fear of recurrence. I simply don’t think about it, except when it’s time for my next bunch of tests. Then I get a little nervous—butterflies in the tummy, that sort of thing.

I will never say that I’m grateful for the experience, because I wasn’t. If there are survivors who feel that way, that’s fine. But I could have lived my entire life without going through chemo or radiation or losing my breasts and hair and been just fine.

The truth is that we have very little control over how and when we die, as my friend Lynsey’s sudden death proves, but we do have control over how we live our lives. I’m trying to put 100 percent of my energy into living, into writing, into joyous things so that when the day comes I’ll be able to feel I lived the best life I could live.




Pre-order your copy of Holly and Nick’s story now! Available on Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Kindle UK, and in audiobook . (The print version will be out in March 2016.)
Thursday, October 01, 2015

Countdown to SEDUCTION GAME! EXCERPT


US cover
UK cover

 It’s been roughly a century since I last posted. Sorry about that!

This past summer was crazy busy. We took an unexpected vacation thanks to a friend, had friends visiting from France, enjoyed a few weeks with my sister here from Sweden.

And suddenly it’s October????

That’s okay with me because it means an end to 95-degree days (35 C) and it brings us closer to the ebook and audiobook release of Seduction Game. It’s my first full-length book since my cancer battle, and I’m super-excited to share it with you.

Waaaaay back when Extreme Exposure was first released, my editor at Penguin told me she hoped I wasn’t planning on having a book for Holly. She just didn’t see Holly as heroine material.

I kept my thoughts to myself, because of course I planned on Holly getting her own story. I understood where my editor was coming from. Holly isn’t your typical romance heroine, that’s for sure, and 10 years ago it wasn’t common to see a heroine with a lot of sexual experience outside of erotica.

Fast forward about eight years, and my editor asked me if I planned on having a story for Holly. I most certainly did have a story for her. I reminded my editor what she’d said back when the I-Team series was new, and we laughed about it.

Seduction Game is the lightest, funniest, and, some reviewers say, sexiest, I-Team story to date. It has to be, right? This is Holly we’re talking about.

Here are some spoiler-free quotes from early reviews off Goodreads:

Sunny wrote: “Perfect romantic suspense. I had no idea where Pamela Clare was going to go with Holly’s story, but she made it BRILLIANT.” 

Danielle wrote: “This is only the second book I have read from Clare and the I team and wow I seriously loved it! Clare delivers another fast paced story that kept me up until the early morning hours.”

Kame wrote: “You will LOVE Nick and Holly. Their love story is one of my ALL-TIME favorite books – and you know I read a lot of books. She is now my favorite heroine – not just ITeam heroine.”

I really love that because Holly is my favorite I-Team heroine, too.

The research for this story included interviewing a former CIA officer — Nick is a CIA paramilitary officer— as well as a forensic computer expert. I really enjoyed learning more about both fields. For example, did you know that federal agencies use Twitter and Facebook a lot? I didn’t. It enables them to communicate while hiding in plain sight. I had a lot of fun with that in the story.

The book will be out on Oct. 20 both in the US and in the UK, with the mass market paperback release slated for March. You can preorder now for Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and audiobook. It’s also available for Kindle in the UK.

Also, the audiobook is being narrated by the amazing Kaleo Griffith once again. He sent me a snippet just as a treat, and I loved it.

If you haven’t tried the I-Team or haven’t stayed current with the series, that gives you almost three weeks to get caught up.

I’ve been cautioning I-Team fans against reading reviews. Apart from a couple of reviews on Goodreads, most contain serious spoilers that will take away a lot of the fun of the story.

Let’s get this final countdown underway. How better to do that than with an excerpt? Here’s snippet that includes Marcangelo — that’s Julian and Marc — meeting Nick for the first time under rather ... awkward ... circumstances.


Nick and Holly the morning after....

Nick awoke the next morning to the sound of someone pounding on his door.

“Holly, are you there?”

What the hell?

A man’s voice. More pounding.

He came fully alert, found Holly still asleep in his arms, lashes dark on her cheeks. “Wake up, honey. I think we’ve got company.”

“Holly, it’s Julian!”

Her eyes flew open, and she sat bolt upright. “What time is it?” 

Nick glanced at his alarm clock. “A little after nine.”

“Nine? Oh, shit!” She tried to get out of bed, but they were tangled together with the sheet, and she would have pitched headlong onto the floor if he hadn’t caught her.

“Holly! Open up!” a second male voice demanded.

Nick kicked away the sheet, stood, and went in search of a means to cover his bare ass, finding his jeans at the foot of the bed where he’d dropped them. “Don’t they know it’s Sunday morning? People sleep on Sunday morning.”

Especially people who’d been fucking all night Saturday.

“They’re taking me to the police range to teach me how to shoot my new handgun, and I forgot,” she said, darting around his room as if searching for something—her clothes. “Well, I didn’t forget, exactly, I just didn’t think I’d still be here. I was supposed to be dressed and ready to go.” 

Nick ought to have remembered this himself. He knew about the 9mm Glock 19 Gen 4 she’d bought, knew her cop friends had agreed to take her to the police range this morning to teach her to shoot.

You’re slipping, Andris—in more ways than one.

He didn’t want to think about that just now.

He stepped into his jeans, found her panties, and tossed them to her.

“Where’s my bra?” she glanced around.

He tried to remember. “I think it’s back in the living room.”

“Oh. Right.” She darted out of the bedroom, putting on her panties as she went, a sight that was both amusing and arousing. 

He didn’t know a person could do that while running.

She found her bra, and quickly put it on, then retrieved her dress, which was now wrinkled from a night on his floor. She drew it over her head then went in search of her shoes and purse. 

He bit his lower lip. “Holly, honey, your dress is inside out.”

More pounding on the door.

“Holly, it’s Marc! Open up!”

Nick shouted back. “Shut the hell up! We’re coming!”

Poor choice of words.

They both laughed. 

“It’s not funny.” Holly struggled out her dress, turned it right side out and shimmied back into it. “They’re going to know.”

“I hate to break it to you, honey, but I bet they already know, given that they’re knocking on my door and not yours.”

A look of comprehension dawned on her face, followed by one of resignation. “That’s freaking fantastic. I’m going to get lectured. You don’t know these guys.”

Actually, he knew a lot about these guys—probably more than she did.

“Hey, you’re over eighteen. It’s your life.” He walked to the door, hoping to open it before the two men beat it down with their fists. “You ready?”

She grabbed her purse, slipped her feet into her sandals, and nodded.

Nick didn’t have the heart to tell her that her hair was a tousled mess—or that she smelled like sex. 

He opened the door to find Darcangelo and Hunter on his doorstep. They glared at him, their gazes softening when Holly stepped into view.

“Sorry! I—”

“I kept her up all night watching old movies,” Nick said.

He knew neither man would buy it, but if it saved Holly embarrassment and kept them from beating his face in…

“How fast can you get ready to go?” Darcangelo said. “We don’t want to lose our range time.”

“Just give me five minutes.” Holly dug in her purse for her keys then turned back to Nick, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Tonight?”

“Yeah.” He caught her and kissed her, nice and slow, just to piss off the two men.

Then Holly unlocked her door and disappeared inside her own home, and Nick found himself, alone and shirtless, facing two big guys who looked like they wanted to deck him. 

“Nick Andrews.” He held out a hand, and they shook.

“Marc Hunter.”

“Julian Darcangelo.”

“So… You guys part of Holly’s security team?”

Hunter nodded yes. 

Darcangelo shook his head no. 

Then the two of them looked at each other.


It was Hunter who finally spoke. “We’re the guys you’ll get to know really well if you do anything to hurt her.”

Stay tuned for release-day celebrations and giveaways!

(c) 2015 Pamela Clare

Saturday, August 08, 2015

Win a bound copy of SEDUCTION GAME! I-Team 10th Anniversary celebration continues


The Goodreads contest has closed, and ten lucky people are about to find out they won the entire I-Team series. The contest on this blog ends tonight at midnight, with winners being announced tomorrow. But there is still one more chance to win I-Team prizes.

Berkley/NAL is hosting a US-only giveaway of an I-Team prize package that includes a bound advance review copy of Seduction Game. Be the first of your friends to have Holly’s story, and replace those dog-eared copies of the first six books with fresh, new copies. Or, if you haven’t read the series, get ready for some sleepless nights.

To enter, follow the links below. Good luck!

In the meantime, Seduction Game is available for preorder in ebook for Kindle, Amazon UK, Nook, and iBooks and audiobook via Amazon. You can read an excerpt on my website. The mass market paperback will be released in March. 

Also, click here to sign up for my newsletter to stay on top of all my book-related news. Be sure to watch for the confirmation email and click the link in the email to complete signup.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Sunday, August 02, 2015

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, I-TEAM SERIES! 10th Anniversary Celebration Giveaway



It started with a conversation with my agent.

“A state health official called to say he thinks my whistle-blower and I might be in danger. He saw the supervisor at the cement plant whipping up his employees and telling them that if this ‘lady journalist’ doesn’t back off, they might all lose their jobs. “They’re not going to write you letters to the editor,’ he told me. 'They’re going to beat the shit out of you with baseball bats.”

I wasn’t afraid. I’d gotten more serious threats in the past, including one lunatic who told me he was going to shoot me with his AK-47.

My agent was quiet for a moment. “You ought to write romantic suspense because you live it.”

“Yeah,” said I, “except for the ‘romantic’ part.”

Out of that conversation, the I-Team series was born.



Ten years ago today, Extreme Exposure, the first I-Team novel, was published. I had no idea on Aug. 2, 2005, where the I-Team series would take me or how much my readers would embrace the series and love the characters. I only knew I'd had a great time writing that story, putting the world of investigative journalism and elements of my own life on the page.

Extreme Exposure was followed by Hard Evidence and then Unlawful Contact. Somewhere in there, I realized I had created something special with characters that my readers and I adored. Now, the series includes seven full-length novels with Seduction Game coming out on Oct. 20, and four novellas, including Soul Deep, which was just released on June 28.



To celebrate, I’m giving away signed books in all languages in which the I-Team series is published.

Also, Berkley/NAL is giving away 10 sets of I-Team books on Goodreads. Click here to enter. (US only).

Later this week, I’ll be launching a Rafflecopter giveaway that will include a bound manuscript of Seduction Game. So there are lots of ways to win, lots of fun to be had. Stay tuned to make sure you’re part of all of it.

On this blog post, you can enter to win a signed copy of an I-Team book. Winners will receive a signed I-Team book in their language (UK winners will get the UK edition published by Eternal Romance). All you have to do to is post your favorite I-Team moment in the comments below. If you’ve never read one of the books, tell me you’re an I-Team virgin. The I-Team heroes will take care of that for you.

If you’re already an I-Team fan, you might be able to replace a dog-eared copy of one of your books with a shiny, new signed copy. If you’re new to the series, you’ll have a chance to catch up before Seduction Game is released.

Happy Birthday, I-Team!

And many thanks to the thousands of wonderful readers who have been so passionate about these stories and made this past decade such a joy!

Now, where’s the birthday cake?

Rules
Anyone on Planet Earth may enter. (My apologies to those who live elsewhere.)
This contest takes place on my regular blog, not on the Goodreads reprint of my blog, so Goodreads readers will need to make their way to my actual blog.
The deadline to enter is 11:59 on Aug. 8.
To enter, you must include contact info and your country in your post. You can breakup email addresses to avoid your email being lifted by spambots. Posters who leave no way for me to reach them will not be entered.
Only one prize per winner.
Winners will be chosen on Aug. 9 at random and notified by me.
Winners who fail to respond with their mailing info within 48 hours forfeit their prize, which will then go to another winner.
Winners in any given language are limited to the available number of prizes I have on hand.
These rules apply to this contest only and not the Goodreads or Rafflecopter giveaways.

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"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