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, April 08, 2010

A bit of catching up...

The walls inside the capitol are made of rose-colored marble. The elevator doors are brass with scenes from Colorado history depicted in the panels.

Didn’t Reece and Kara get hot and heavy in an elevator at the State Capitol? Or did they just talk about it? I can’t remember.

So sorry to be MIA. It’s been a crazy week.

It started Monday with word that a friend of mine had been found dead in his home. I turns out he killed himself. So that’s been hard to deal with.

I got the lawyerized version of the anti-shackling bill I’m spearheaded back to review, and one page of words had been turned into five. I kid you not. So I had to read through that and make sure that nothing substantive had changed. And it hasn’t.

Then, of course, there was a paper to put out. I wrote a tribute to my friend, who was a public figure in our town.

Today, I’m the guest speaker at a journalism class on the Metro State College campus, then I’m heading a few blocks up Colfax to the State Capitol for one last go-through on the bill language before it is officially introduced into the State Senate. It will have to clear at least one Senate committee before going to the Senate floor for debate. A lot of people have signed on to support it — everyone from Planned Parenthood to a statewide lobby organization of county sheriffs. The sheriffs are key because they run the county jails, and they will not be opposing the bill. In fact, their past president is going to testify in favor of it. So that’s going well.

Tomorrow is the Rockies home opener vs. the Padres. Go Rox! I’ll be going to that tomorrow with my older son, Alec, so that will give me some desperately needed time to relax.

On the writing front, I finished my proposal for Natalie’s book, which is called Breaking Point at the moment. Survival Instinct and Body Heat are still in the running. What I don’t like about the first two is their lack of sexual innuendo... Maybe something brilliant will come to me.

I hope you all have a great day. And I’m sure no one minded MTM lasting a few extra days, though that wasn’t my intent. I got thrown for a loop Monday when I heard about my friend and have just been crazy-busy since then.

12 comments:

Sue Z said...

Hi PC, it sounds like your week has been a crazy roller coaster ride. I am sorry about your friend.
At least you get to have some fun at the end of week at the Rockie's game. My Cleveland Indians Home opener isn't til Monday (but I am not going). We are probably going to have a another season in the crapper!!
Love ya,
SueZ

oklanannie said...

Hi! I finally got my hands on a copy of CATCH OF THE DAY and read Will and Lissy's story. I LOVED it. Two great characters and a steamy romance! My collection is complete!!!

Book titles - do you have total control or will someone else's voice be heard in the matter? Been playing the title game this morning myself - Meltdown, Danger Zone, Hot Spot???

Have fun at the Rockies's season opener. I hope I can get it on tv!!

Good luck with the bill, Pamela, and enjoy the ball game! you deserves some R&R after the week you've had.

Our Toronto Blue Jays are looking all right so far. Too far away to get to a game of course, but we follow them on TV. If they can avoid their annual injury epidemic, they might be fun to watch.

Titles...I like Primal Instinct.

Debbie H said...

PC, I was so sorry to hear about your friend. It's hard when they pass, especially so when they take their own life.

Let us know how it goes at the capital.

Have fun at the game. DH and I will probably go to a Red Hawks game (OKC minor league) sometime this summer.

LOL, the word verification for me is "indidedu" sometimes they crack me up.

RitaSV said...

Pamela, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend's passing. I can't help but feel compassion for anybody that feels so utterly hopeless as to take their own life. I hope he is finally at peace.

Diane W. said...

I'm so sorry for your loss, Pamela. It's that much harder when someone takes their own life...especially if it seems to come out of the blue. Hoping his family and friends can find comfort now and peace eventually with what's happened.

On a lighter note, Go Rockies!!! I cannot tell you how happy my husband was when Denver finally got a ball club. We used to love going to the games. I'll always be a die-hard Phillies fan (used to be a ballgirl for them "back in the day"), but I adored having a MLB team in my own backyard again. We always try to time our visits to Denver with their home games. Hoping they'll have a great season!

Kudos to you for your work on the shackling bill!! That's amazing that it is moving along so smoothly and that law enforcement is supporting your efforts. Full steam ahead!

I like the title "Breaking Point". Although it is making me worried for Zach (whom I already love deeply, simply based on his photos. LOL). Have you untied him yet???

Hi, everyone,

Yesterday was an absolute marathon. I was so exhausted last night that I didn't even check email.

The class went well. They were some great journalism students. When I walked in, they were listening to my radio interview about the shackling bill. I spoke for about an hour.

Then I got lunch with the teacher, who is a fantastic journalist herself. And after that it was off to the capitol to work on the shackling bill.

And that was the exhausting part. Apparently every jurisdiction -- state, county, city -- needs to have its own section with language that applies to that jurisdiction. And there were questions like "what do you mean by this or that."

But the hard part was dealing with someone who attended the meeting and pretty much tried to drive her own agenda in this bill. She's a lobbyist with a national organization. Apparently, that organization was concerned about language in the bill.

I won't get too specific because it's a political mine field, but I did manage to deflect her more ridiculous additions to the bill, which I think would have put it at risk of being voted down.

Afterward, she told the senator's aide that she has been involved with the issue of shackling inmates in labor since the beginning. To which I replied, "Not with me you haven't." I wanted to make it clear to the aide (and to this woman) that she wasn't part of my effort here and has her own agenda.

A very specific agenda, actually.

Anyway, that was frustrating and aggravating. This lobbyist told us that she wanted to discuss our "messaging" about the bill.

Talk about invasive! I guess that's what some lobbyists are, right?

But it was very important to me to let everyone know that the purpose of this bill and the focus of our efforts is to make sure that women don't give birth in chains. Period. Drop the other political crap. And I think I more or less succeeded at that.

The bill has been introduced and will be going before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday already! Gulp. I'm not sure whether I'll be testifying or not.

Hi, Ronlyn — That's got some serious innuendo. That title is well endowed with innuendo, you could say. LOL!

Hey, SueZay — The Rox won! Hurray! It was a shut out -- 7 to zip. :-)

Sorry about the Indians. I bet if they changed their name, their bad karma would melt away and they'd win. My biased opinion, of course.

Love you, too!

Hi, OlkaNannie — I'm so glad you enjoyed Lissy and Will's story. I read that over lunch at a restaurant last week and giggled out loud to myself. It had been so long since I'd written it that it didn't feel like I'd written it. LOL!

So glad your collection is complete. Now I need to write something else. :-)

I guess my editor and I both have veto power over a title. Usually I have one. If not, my agent has come up with a few of them.

Here are the ones that were mine: Carnal Gift, Ride the Fire, Surrender, Untamed (both of those last two are lame); and for the I-Team Hard Evidence, Unlawful Contact and Naked Edge. The other two were my agent's. Heaven Can't Wait was also mine.

But this has been tough. I'm running out of suspense-y double entendres. :-)

Oh, OklaNannie — Did you see the game on TV? It was a good game. I really enjoyed it. Great weather, too!

Hi, Jennie — Thanks! Yes, it wasn't the greatest week ever.

I hope the Blue Jays stay uninjured and that they have a great season.

Primal Instinct is good. I like that, too.

Mary G said...

Hi Pamela
So sorry about your friend. The circumstances add to the heartache I'm sure.
Congrats on being so close with the bill. I hope you have an awesome time at the game.

Jennie Marsland, Blue Jay fan -
where are you? I just east of Toronto.

Hi, Debbie — Thanks so much. Yes, it is hard. I was thinking of him at the game today, thinking that he'd missed the entire day by choice. Weird thought.

I hope you have a chance to get to some games. It sure is a fun scene.

Those verification words are pretty funny sometimes. Sorry to have to make all of you do that! Spam is out of control these days.


Hi, Rita — I hope he is at peace, too. I'm not angry at him, certainly. If someone hurts that much... Of course, one wonders what one might have done. Hopefully, he's at rest and relieved.

And thank you!

Hi, Diane — Thank you.

Yes, Go Rox! They were awesome today. Traffic in LoDo was nightmarish because the game got out at -- wait for it -- 5:05. The Mousetrap, I-25, were parking lots. And thanks for the good wishes about the season. The Phillies ended our dreams last year. Fun to think you were a bat girl.

The shackling bill is moving along. There are only four weeks in the session, so the bill has a long way to go in a short period of time. I get dizzy thinking about it. One week at a time.

Hopefully, it will pass and become law and then I will rest easier at night. Truly the thought of someone chaining up a woman in labor is so upsetting to me that I worried about it.

Have a good weekend, everyone! I'll try to get the blog updated quickly. Right now I want to clean the house a bit, have some supper and chill.

Hi Mary, I'm in Nova Scotia. Years ago when I lived in Montreal I used to cheer for the Expos - loved Andre Dawson! - but now that they are no more, I follow the Jays. The whole pitching rotation getting hurt last year was ridiculous. Hopefully this season will be better - Vernon Wells is sure starting out smokin' hot! And I agree with Pamela on watching baseball players' butts.

Mary G said...

Hi Jennie
You're so lucky. I LOVE Nova Scotia. Hubby's brother & family moved there about 25 years ago. We went to visit them in the summer of 2004. We had so much fun. We stayed about 10 days. The people are so nice. Everywhere you go people say hi & good morning, etc.

Love baseball players and their butts too. I'll never understand the decision making at some clubs.
I guess we have to remember when the Jays won the World Series their payroll was huge. I hope this team building stage brings them some success.

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