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

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

SLOW BURN is out! EXCERPT



SLOW BURN is out!

iBooks
Nook
Kindle US
Kindle UK
Kindle AU
Kindle CA
Smashwords (all formats, international) 
All Romance eBooks
Kobo
Paperback: In about 10 days—we’re working hard!

We were up till 3 a.m. working to keep my promise to you that the book would be out on Sept. 20, and we did it. We’re still waiting for the book to go live on Barnes & Noble and Kobo, and I will update those links as soon as they’re available.

Thanks to all of you who were waiting early this morning and snapped the book up before I was even out of bed. Your support means so much! I hope you enjoy Lexi and Austin’s somewhat unconventional wedding and the week of craziness that leads up to it — followed by another HEA.

So what do I think you’ll love about this book? That’s easy: 1. Firefighter hero 2. Sexy, hot, funny 3. Lexi and Austin's wedding 4. The HEA.

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

Victoria Woodley is done with men. Fresh off a dating nightmare, she flies from her home in Chicago to Scarlet Springs to take part in her best friend’s wedding. Who picks her up at the airport? Eric Hawke. Of course. She made a fool of herself over him last time she was here. He’s cocky, charming, and sexy as sin. But the fact that she’s attracted to him is all the proof she needs that he’s bad news. She would ignore him if she could. But he’s the best man, and she’s the maid of honor. She can’t just tell him to jump in a lake—especially not when her lips are locked with his.

Eric isn’t looking for a relationship. Between running the firehouse and volunteering for the county’s search and rescue team, he has enough on his plate. He doesn’t need to get tangled up with a woman from the big city, especially one whose idea of roughing it is going without designer coffee. Yet from the moment he looks into Victoria’s big brown eyes, the attraction he feels is too strong to deny. Faster than he can imagine, the spark of desire that has smoldered between them since the first day they met will flare into full-blown passion. 

But can Eric convince Victoria to set aside her doubts and trust him with her heart before their time together runs out?

How about one last excerpt? Hey, it’s my party, and I can share if I want to.




From SLOW BURN

Eric drove from his cabin to the inn fidgeting with his damned bow tie. He knew he hadn’t gotten it right, but then he’d never worn a bow tie before. He was into jeans and T-shirts, not Ralph Lauren. But if Lexi and Austin wanted to play Casino Royale and blow a bunch of money on food, booze, and gaming, he would dress up and go with them—and he wouldn’t complain.

He pulled into the inn’s long driveway, parking in the area reserved for family and friends, double checking to make sure the condom case was in his trouser pocket. Rose and Kendra sat together at a table on the back porch, the two of them bent over Rose’s tarot cards, a bottle of wine and two glasses sitting between them. They stopped talking when they saw him, smiles on their faces.

Rose wolf-whistled at him. “Victoria won’t be able to resist you.”

“Don’t you look pretty?” Kendra teased.

Bob opened the back door, rubbing a hand over his bare, hairy chest, a beer mug in his hand. “I thought the wedding was Saturday. Should I get dressed?”

“Hey, Bob.”

Bob pointed with his thumb. “They’re all waiting by the guest elevator.”

Eric walked through the house and out the door that led to the main entrance hall, and stared. “Damn. You lot clean up nice. Moretti, I almost don’t recognize you. Lexi, Britta, Win—you look gorgeous.”

Lexi was living up to her nickname—Sexy Lexi—her red hair in a fancy updo, her body sheathed in a short, silky dress of white with silver beading. Britta wore a dress of shimmering purple, her hair swept up in a twist, while Winona looked amazing in a long spaghetti strap dress of dark green satin, her shoulder-length dark hair pulled into a stylishly messy bun. But something was wrong.

Eric looked down at himself, then at Taylor, Moretti, and Belcourt. “Why is my tuxedo jacket white and yours are black? I’m not the bride.”

“Thank God.” Taylor shrugged. “Some kind of mix-up, I guess.”

“Where’s Victoria?”

“She texted to say she’ll be down in a minute,” Lexi said.

Eric made his way over to Taylor and gave him an update, keeping his voice low. “I called the head of security at the casino and explained our concerns. He told me that any man who accosted her would be escorted out. We’re supposed to check in when we get there. I’d like to do it without Vicki knowing.”

Taylor arched a brow. “So it’s Vicki now?”

Belcourt walked over. “Is Victoria in some kind of trouble? Does she have a stalker or something?”

Shit. He’d overheard.

“Or something,” Eric answered.

 But Moretti had heard Belcourt. “Vic has a stalker?”

“What about Vic?” Britta asked.

Lexi glared at Eric and Taylor. “Don’t say anything, okay? Just watch out for her. After what happened in Buena Vista, she wasn’t going to come tonight, but Eric and Austin changed her mind.”

Moretti’s gaze went hard. “Any man who tries to fuck with her is going to have to go through us.”

Winona looked out the window. “The limo’s here. Wow. It’s huge.”

Then the elevator car began to move, heading up.

For some reason, Lexi looked over at Eric, a little smile on her lips.

“Do you know something I don’t?” he asked.

She got a wide-eyed innocent look. “Me?”

The elevator was moving again, coming down this time. It reached the ground floor, the doors sliding open with a ding.

Victoria stepped out.

Eric’s heart knocked against his breastbone, and he stared. “Jesus.”

She was wearing it, that dress—the tiny black one he’d seen in her closet—and damned if she didn’t look good enough to eat.

“Wow.” That was Moretti.

From behind him, he heard Belcourt. “Hoka hey.”

The dress wasn’t low cut, and it wasn’t any shorter than Lexi’s or Britta’s. It even had long sleeves. It just wasn’t really there.

Made of whisper-light translucent fabric scattered with black beading, it looked as if it were painted on, a sheer, shimmering second skin. He could see her belly button, the curve of her hips, the dark line of her cleavage. The beading was dense enough over her breasts and those lovely female parts between her legs to conceal them from view, but his mind was happy to fill in the blanks.

“You are beautiful.” He held out a hand to her.

“Thanks. You look pretty amazing yourself.”

It was only then he noticed the loose curls in her hair, the strappy three-inch heels on her feet, and the vulnerability in her eyes.

“That looks so good on you. I love it!” Lexi motioned with her finger for Victoria to turn around. “I want to see the back.”

Victoria did a slow turn, and Eric felt the ground shift beneath his feet. The back was very low cut, exposing silky skin, thick beading hiding her amazing ass.

God in heaven.

She frowned at him. “What’s wrong with your tie?”

Eric had forgotten he was even wearing a tie. “I’m not very good with these.”

“I emailed instructions,” Lexi said.

“Obviously, I didn’t read them.”

While Victoria re-tied Eric’s tie, the others walked out to the limo. “I thought firemen were supposed to be good with knots.”

“I’m better with hoses.”

“Is that supposed to be sexy?” She pretended his lame joke hadn’t almost made her laugh, a smile tugging at her glossy lips.

He shrugged. “Those hoses are big and hard and tough to handle.”

“Speaking of tough to handle, I want to show you something.” She stepped out of the view of the open door, Eric helpless to do anything but follow.

Then she lifted the gown to reveal …

No panties.

“Holy shit.” The breath left his lungs, blood rushing straight to his groin.

How in God’s name was he supposed to survive the next few hours?

~ ~ ~

So there you are. I hope you enjoy the story. There is so much family history in the outdoors portions of this book that my younger son Benjamin was laughing his butt off while he was reading it.

Sign up for my newsletter for a chance to win a signed print copy of Barely Breathing, an iBooks or Amazon gift card, and a box of the original Taffy Shop salt water taffy from Estes Park.  (Be sure to watch for a confirmation email in your spam folder or Inbox!)



I’m thinking Jesse Moretti’s book is next. Some things happened to him in this story that make him good hero fodder for the next book. I hope you’ll be as excited about his books as I am.

Thanks for reading and following along!

Copyright (c) 2016 Pamela Clare


SLOW BURN is out! EXCERPT



SLOW BURN is out!

iBooks
Nook
Kindle US
Kindle UK
Kindle AU
Kindle CA
Smashwords (all formats, international) 
All Romance eBooks
Kobo: Coming soon!
Paperback: In about 10 days—we’re working hard!

We were up till 3 a.m. working to keep my promise to you that the book would be out on Sept. 20, and we did it. We’re still waiting for the book to go live on Barnes & Noble and Kobo, and I will update those links as soon as they’re available.

Thanks to all of you who were waiting early this morning and snapped the book up before I was even out of bed. Your support means so much! I hope you enjoy Lexi and Austin’s somewhat unconventional wedding and the week of craziness that leads up to it — followed by another HEA.

So what do I think you’ll love about this book? That’s easy: 1. Firefighter hero 2. Sexy, hot, funny 3. Lexi and Austin's wedding 4. The HEA.

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

Victoria Woodley is done with men. Fresh off a dating nightmare, she flies from her home in Chicago to Scarlet Springs to take part in her best friend’s wedding. Who picks her up at the airport? Eric Hawke. Of course. She made a fool of herself over him last time she was here. He’s cocky, charming, and sexy as sin. But the fact that she’s attracted to him is all the proof she needs that he’s bad news. She would ignore him if she could. But he’s the best man, and she’s the maid of honor. She can’t just tell him to jump in a lake—especially not when her lips are locked with his.

Eric isn’t looking for a relationship. Between running the firehouse and volunteering for the county’s search and rescue team, he has enough on his plate. He doesn’t need to get tangled up with a woman from the big city, especially one whose idea of roughing it is going without designer coffee. Yet from the moment he looks into Victoria’s big brown eyes, the attraction he feels is too strong to deny. Faster than he can imagine, the spark of desire that has smoldered between them since the first day they met will flare into full-blown passion. 

But can Eric convince Victoria to set aside her doubts and trust him with her heart before their time together runs out?

How about one last excerpt? Hey, it’s my party, and I can share if I want to.




From SLOW BURN

Eric drove from his cabin to the inn fidgeting with his damned bow tie. He knew he hadn’t gotten it right, but then he’d never worn a bow tie before. He was into jeans and T-shirts, not Ralph Lauren. But if Lexi and Austin wanted to play Casino Royale and blow a bunch of money on food, booze, and gaming, he would dress up and go with them—and he wouldn’t complain.

He pulled into the inn’s long driveway, parking in the area reserved for family and friends, double checking to make sure the condom case was in his trouser pocket. Rose and Kendra sat together at a table on the back porch, the two of them bent over Rose’s tarot cards, a bottle of wine and two glasses sitting between them. They stopped talking when they saw him, smiles on their faces.

Rose wolf-whistled at him. “Victoria won’t be able to resist you.”

“Don’t you look pretty?” Kendra teased.

Bob opened the back door, rubbing a hand over his bare, hairy chest, a beer mug in his hand. “I thought the wedding was Saturday. Should I get dressed?”

“Hey, Bob.”

Bob pointed with his thumb. “They’re all waiting by the guest elevator.”

Eric walked through the house and out the door that led to the main entrance hall, and stared. “Damn. You lot clean up nice. Moretti, I almost don’t recognize you. Lexi, Britta, Win—you look gorgeous.”

Lexi was living up to her nickname—Sexy Lexi—her red hair in a fancy updo, her body sheathed in a short, silky dress of white with silver beading. Britta wore a dress of shimmering purple, her hair swept up in a twist, while Winona looked amazing in a long spaghetti strap dress of dark green satin, her shoulder-length dark hair pulled into a stylishly messy bun. But something was wrong.

Eric looked down at himself, then at Taylor, Moretti, and Belcourt. “Why is my tuxedo jacket white and yours are black? I’m not the bride.”

“Thank God.” Taylor shrugged. “Some kind of mix-up, I guess.”

“Where’s Victoria?”

“She texted to say she’ll be down in a minute,” Lexi said.

Eric made his way over to Taylor and gave him an update, keeping his voice low. “I called the head of security at the casino and explained our concerns. He told me that any man who accosted her would be escorted out. We’re supposed to check in when we get there. I’d like to do it without Vicki knowing.”

Taylor arched a brow. “So it’s Vicki now?”

Belcourt walked over. “Is Victoria in some kind of trouble? Does she have a stalker or something?”

Shit. He’d overheard.

“Or something,” Eric answered.

 But Moretti had heard Belcourt. “Vic has a stalker?”

“What about Vic?” Britta asked.

Lexi glared at Eric and Taylor. “Don’t say anything, okay? Just watch out for her. After what happened in Buena Vista, she wasn’t going to come tonight, but Eric and Austin changed her mind.”

Moretti’s gaze went hard. “Any man who tries to fuck with her is going to have to go through us.”

Winona looked out the window. “The limo’s here. Wow. It’s huge.”

Then the elevator car began to move, heading up.

For some reason, Lexi looked over at Eric, a little smile on her lips.

“Do you know something I don’t?” he asked.

She got a wide-eyed innocent look. “Me?”

The elevator was moving again, coming down this time. It reached the ground floor, the doors sliding open with a ding.

Victoria stepped out.

Eric’s heart knocked against his breastbone, and he stared. “Jesus.”

She was wearing it, that dress—the tiny black one he’d seen in her closet—and damned if she didn’t look good enough to eat.

“Wow.” That was Moretti.

From behind him, he heard Belcourt. “Hoka hey.”

The dress wasn’t low cut, and it wasn’t any shorter than Lexi’s or Britta’s. It even had long sleeves. It just wasn’t really there.

Made of whisper-light translucent fabric scattered with black beading, it looked as if it were painted on, a sheer, shimmering second skin. He could see her belly button, the curve of her hips, the dark line of her cleavage. The beading was dense enough over her breasts and those lovely female parts between her legs to conceal them from view, but his mind was happy to fill in the blanks.

“You are beautiful.” He held out a hand to her.

“Thanks. You look pretty amazing yourself.”

It was only then he noticed the loose curls in her hair, the strappy three-inch heels on her feet, and the vulnerability in her eyes.

“That looks so good on you. I love it!” Lexi motioned with her finger for Victoria to turn around. “I want to see the back.”

Victoria did a slow turn, and Eric felt the ground shift beneath his feet. The back was very low cut, exposing silky skin, thick beading hiding her amazing ass.

God in heaven.

She frowned at him. “What’s wrong with your tie?”

Eric had forgotten he was even wearing a tie. “I’m not very good with these.”

“I emailed instructions,” Lexi said.

“Obviously, I didn’t read them.”

While Victoria re-tied Eric’s tie, the others walked out to the limo. “I thought firemen were supposed to be good with knots.”

“I’m better with hoses.”

“Is that supposed to be sexy?” She pretended his lame joke hadn’t almost made her laugh, a smile tugging at her glossy lips.

He shrugged. “Those hoses are big and hard and tough to handle.”

“Speaking of tough to handle, I want to show you something.” She stepped out of the view of the open door, Eric helpless to do anything but follow.

Then she lifted the gown to reveal …

No panties.

“Holy shit.” The breath left his lungs, blood rushing straight to his groin.

How in God’s name was he supposed to survive the next few hours?

~ ~ ~

So there you are. I hope you enjoy the story. There is so much family history in the outdoors portions of this book that my younger son Benjamin was laughing his butt off while he was reading it.

Sign up for my newsletter for a chance to win a signed print copy of Barely Breathing, an iBooks or Amazon gift card, and a box of the original Taffy Shop salt water taffy from Estes Park.  (Be sure to watch for a confirmation email in your spam folder or Inbox!)



I’m thinking Jesse Moretti’s book is next. Some things happened to him in this story that make him good hero fodder for the next book. I hope you’ll be as excited about his books as I am.

Thanks for reading and following along!

Copyright (c) 2016 Pamela Clare


Sunday, September 18, 2016

ONE DAY till SLOW BURN is out!



Only one day till Hawke and Victoria’s story is out! Here’s the blurb from the back of the Slow Burn:


Victoria Woodley is done with men. Fresh off a dating nightmare, she flies from her home in Chicago to Scarlet Springs to take part in her best friend’s wedding. Who picks her up at the airport? Eric Hawke. Of course. She made a fool of herself over him last time she was here. He’s cocky, charming, and sexy as sin. But the fact that she’s attracted to him is all the proof she needs that he’s bad news. She would ignore him if she could. But he’s the best man, and she’s the maid of honor. She can’t just tell him to jump in a lake—especially not when her lips are locked with his.

Eric isn’t looking for a relationship. Between running the firehouse and volunteering for the county’s search and rescue team, he has enough on his plate. He doesn’t need to get tangled up with a woman from the big city, especially one whose idea of roughing it is going without designer coffee. Yet from the moment he looks into Victoria’s big brown eyes, the attraction he feels is too strong to deny. Faster than he can imagine, the spark of desire that has smoldered between them since the first day they met will flare into full-blown passion.

But can Eric convince Victoria to set aside her doubts and trust him with her heart before their time together runs out?

You can read the first two chapters on my website. Just click here.

Why did I choose to write about Hawke when I had a rescue team full of hunks to pick from? Easy. Because the moment readers finished Barely Breathing, they wrote to me to ask, “When are you writing Hawke’s story?” Also, I kind of had a crush on him.

I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a day with the fire chief of a local rural firehouse, who filled my head with so much information and so many amazing (and nutty) stories that I’m considering doing a spinoff series featuring firefighters.

The ebook for Slow Burn will be available Tuesday (9/20), while the print edition will take another week or so. It takes longer to create an actual physical product than it does to transform a Word document into an ebook. I’m not trying to make print readers wait.

I’ll be doing giveaways from my Facebook page and via my newsletter on Tuesday — signed print copies of Barely Breathing, salt water taffy from the original Taffy Shop in Estes Park, and Amazon gift cards.

If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter, you can join here. Enter your email address, then be sure to check your spam folder or Inbox for a confirmation email. I never share emails, and I don’t send out newsletters unless there’s news. You won’t get spammed.

But now to answer a question some of you have had: Why would an author of angsty, high-octane romantic suspense (the I-Team series) write straight contemporary romance?

The idea for the Colorado High Country series came to be back in 2013 when I was trying to decide what direction I wanted to go with self-publishing. I had self-published a few older historical romances that had gone out of print after my first New York Publisher went out of business. I had also published a couple of novellas related to my popular I-Team series. But I wanted to try something new.

Where to start? Well, there’s no place like home—especially when your home is Colorado.

I grew up in Boulder, Colorado, right up against the mountains and went on my first hike in the foothills before the age of 3. Weekends at our house were spent hiking, bouldering, skiing, rock climbing or trekking up one of the state’s many fourteeners—peaks that reach heights of at least 14,000 feet. Colorado has more fourteeners than any other state in the contiguous 48, something we take pride in and which keeps us busy on weekends.

My father taught rock climbing and mountaineering, even doing the first ascent of a few crags in Boulder Canyon. I have memories of my dad doing fingertip pull-ups and organizing his climbing gear—ropes, carabiners, pitons—on the floor of our living room. My brother followed in his footsteps. He learned to climb rock and ice and went on to summit Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere.

My contribution to climbing history was less admirable. I fell 40 feet down the side of Mt. Ida in Rocky Mountain National Park while on a five-day backpacking trip and had to be taken by helicopter to a trauma center. A ranger hiking in the backcountry came across my father and me, assessed my injuries, and called for a helicopter rescue.

That’s not exactly climbing glory. But it’s where the Colorado High Country series gets its inspiration—with an all-volunteer mountain rescue team.

We have several teams like this scattered across our state. Their members are highly trained men and women who do everything from rescuing injured climbers to finding lost children to helping people who’ve gotten stuck on a rock get safely down. They don’t charge for their services. They simply save lives.

My fictional Rocky Mountain Search & Rescue Team is headquartered in Scarlet Springs, a small, quirky mountain town with a colorful history and an even more colorful population. Scarlet is based loosely on Nederland, home of brewpubs and Frozen Dead Guy Days. It’s the perfect setting for these bigger-than-life heroes and heroines to meet, have adventures together, and fall passionately in love.

Have I mentioned that the series is hot? These are men and women who love adrenaline and who live big. In the bedroom, they’re just as adventurous. After all, if your idea of a good time is climbing 700-foot rock walls, you’re not going to be satisfied with a few sweet kisses and a little polite sex in the bedroom.

The Colorado High Country series gives me a chance to share the place where I grew up with all of you. No, these stories aren't angsty like the I-Team books, but they are sexy and emotionally “real.”
Do I plan to write more romantic suspense? Yes, absolutely, I do. But I want to get this series out of my brain and launched first. I hope you enjoy the stories.

If you haven’t read the first book in the series, there’s still time to get caught up.

Okay, Tuesday, come on! I can’t wait to share Hawke and Victoria’s story with you all.











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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