About Me
- Pamela Clare
- 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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Showing posts with label Alpine Rescue Team. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alpine Rescue Team. Show all posts
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Catching up: Roses, kitties, and what’s next from Scarlet Springs
Let’s see. What has happened since my last blog post?
Barely Breathing received a lot of accolades from people who made the transition with me from romantic suspense to contemporary. That was exciting and a lot of fun. So many of you shared messages and posts about Lexi and Austin’s story and the people of Scarlet.
In fact, we have a Scarlet Springs Readers Group on Facebook because so many people wanted to talk about the story and the series when they’d finished reading it. They’ve gotten the inside scoop on the series, along with photos of the area.
My revamped website debuted. I love it. Check it out!
In the meantime, Willy, our male American long hair, turned one and got his first lion shave. Happy Birthday, Willy Kitty!
The 22 rosebushes in my garden exploded in an unbelievable profusion of blooms—or best high bloom yet. If you follow me on Facebook, you’ve gotten to see the photos. None of them really do the amazing beauty of it justice. Cars slow down when they drive by. People stop and tell us how beautiful the flowers are.
After 18 years of cramming stuff, I cleaned out my closet, a heroic effort taking many days. I filled our recycling bin and the trash. And I donated a ton of clothes. I also cleaned my office, a no less heroic undertaking though it took only one day.
My older grandkids finished school and started summer vacation. They’ve been swimming, gone horseback riding, been to the zoo, and had an art day here at my house. Oliver, the baby, turned 10 months old.
Benjamin went back to work as a park ranger after his time away in France. He saw a rattlesnake on a trail for the first time, while my brother saw pronghorn antalope, bison, and coyotes. My other brother went with his younger son to Europe for a quick tour of places in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.
We started getting fresh organic produce from the CSA farm up the road where we have a share this year. The strawberries are unbelievably delicious!
And for almost all of that time, I had bronchitis. Go me!
I got sick the day Barely Breathing came out, and that’s how I spent the next month—barely breathing. I will not be using any titles about hearts stopping any time soon, I promise you that.
BUT I am finally well again. Hurray!
I am now at work on the research for the next book in the Colorado High Country series, which I’ll be starting very soon. It will tell Eric Hawke and Vic’s story. Hawke jumped off the page in Barely Breathing both for me as the author and for many readers. His adventures with Vic should be fun — and very hot. (Good thing he’s a firefighter.)
What you see in the photo below is the real Scarlet Springs, a small mountain town above my hometown of Boulder called Nederland. I basically took over the town, renamed it, and put it in my book. You can see the snow-covered Indian Peaks in the background, though their summits are hidden by clouds. The lake is actually Barker Reservoir, not a lake.
For Barely Breathing, I had to research search and rescue operations. I knew a lot about climbing already, of course, because I grew up with a dad who taught both rock climbing and mountaineering (alpine climbing). Weekends involved hiking in the mountains, watching my father practice rappelling or bouldering, and climbing over piles of gear in the living room. I grew up knowing a piton from a carabiner from a cam. But as familiar with climbing as I am, I had no idea how you’d go about rescuing a fallen climber who was still on belay, for example.
For Hawke’s book, I need to research how small, rural fire stations work. He is, after all, the chief of Scarlet’s fire department. Fortunately, the chief of Nederland’s fire department has been extremely open to talking with me and spent the better part of a day discussing the unique position his station occupies in the spectrum of firefighting.
Yes, I spent a day with firemen. Oh, the sacrifices I make!
I think I left the station with 20 pages of single-spaced hand-written notes on college ruled paper. The chief also gave me a couple of big textbooks to read that are all about fighting fire in wildlands and in structures. As to how I accidentally walked through the locker room area when the firefighters were changing into their turnout gear, or bunker gear as they call it — well, that’s another story. Let’s just say I got lost and leave it at that.
I hope to have Eric and VicTORIA’s book out to you by the end of August or early September at the latest. I don’t have a title yet. But it will not involve metaphors involving major biofunctions. I can assure you of that.
If you haven’t yet read Barely Breathing, you can find it in ebook for Kindle, iBooks, Nook, Kobo, All Romance eBooks, and Smashwords as well as in print through Amazon or by order from your local bookstore. We’re hoping to get it out in audiobook by the fall. (Fingers crossed that Dead By Midnight, the I-Team grand finale, will be out in audiobook by Christmas!)
I hope everyone is keeping cool and having a safe and fun summer. I know there’s dangerous heat in the West, along with wildfires. We’ve got a lot of smoke in the air here, and temps today are supposed to hit 97. (This is why I prefer snow.)
Watch here or on Facebook for details on Eric and Vic’s story and audiobook news. Also, stay tuned for a makeover of this blog.
Tuesday, May 03, 2016
BARELY BREATHING — Back Blurb and Cover Reveal!!!!
I am so excited to share this story with you!
Barely Breathing is the first book in my new contemporary Colorado High Country series (originally called Alpine Rescue Team series). I love the cover with the sexy couple and the mountains in the background.
Barely Breathing is a sexy contemporary romance with lots of adventure and elements of suspense. And it’s headed your way in ebook and print on May 10.
That’s right — May 10 — one week from today!
In the coming week, I’ll also be unveiling a completely redesigned website and blog. (Yes, this blog is getting a major makover!)
In the meantime, here’s the blurb from the back of the book:
Lexi Jewell left Scarlet Springs twelve years ago, vowing never to return to the small Colorado mountain town where she grew up. Now, here she is—over thirty, out of a job and with little choice but to move back in with her father. Lexi knows it’s just a matter of time before she runs into Austin Taylor, her first boyfriend and her first heartbreak. She’s determined to show him she’s over him—until he steps out of a pickup truck and back into her life, looking sexy as hell in his mountain ranger uniform.
As far as Austin is concerned, Lexi can turn her snazzy little convertible around and drive back to Chicago. After all, she ripped his teenage heart to pieces and turned her back on the town he loves. But from the moment he sees her again, he can’t get her out of his mind. Even her smile messes with his head.
When an evening of conversation turns into something else, Lexi and Austin agree to be friends again—with benefits. But as Lexi starts making plans to return to the big city, Austin realizes he’ll lose her a second time unless he can show her that what she’s searching for has been right here all along.
I had a lot of fun with the story, laughing out loud while I wrote some of the scenes, including one sex scene in particular. I hope you’ll love Lexi and Austin and the rest of the people of Scarlet Springs as much as I do.
Watch for an excerpt of the first two chapters in the next few days!
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Friday, March 25, 2016
Barely Breathing — the Alpine Rescue Team series
Sorry it’s been so long since I updated this blog. I got back from France with grand plans about sharing my journals of that trip with you. Real life, however, got busy very quickly.
I had my 18-month post-chemo checkup, which I passed with flying colors. That was good news. I also spent some time with my grandkids.
And then there’s Barely Breathing, my work-in-progress. I’m not sure how it is for other writers, but getting words on the page demands a lot of unbroken time, especially when I’m starting a new book. This book is also the first book in a new series. I spent ten years on the I-Team series, so it’s a big change, but also very exciting.
I’m happy to say that things are progressing well. I’ve passed the halfway mark with the story and plan to have it out to you in print and ebook by early May.
I thought I’d tell you a little bit about the story. It’s straight contemporary romance, which is new for me. The story is set in the quirky little Colorado mountain town of Scarlet Springs and centers on the lives of members of an alpine rescue team—the men and women who dig out avalanche victims, find lost hikers, help trapped climbers get down off mountains and cliffs.
The characters include expert climbers, skiers, helicopter pilotes, rescue-dog trainers, paramedics, wildland firefighters, park rangers and others.
Barely Breathing tells the story of Lexi Jewell, who grew up in Scarlet but left with plans never to return, and Austin Taylor, now a park ranger and Alpine Rescue Team member. The two were lovers in high school, barely able to keep their hands off each other and deeply in love. A rough breakup the summer after high school graduation left them both heartbroken.
Now, twelve years later, Lexi has come back to Scarlet following a nasty sexual-harassment case in Chicago to stage an intervention in her father's life. This brings her face-to-face with Austin again. Though he’s cold to her at first, the two of them soon discover that the attraction they felt for each other hasn’t faded.
It’s a second-chance love story, not just for Lexi, but for her father, who has alienated Lexi’s stepmom and tried to win her back by doing things like shoplifting, watering the flowers in his underwear in broad daylight, and getting raging drunk. He certainly knows how to charm a woman—not!
Behind the love story, we’ll get a glimpse at how an alpine rescue team works. As many of you know, I come from a climbing family. I was rescued by a park ranger many years ago after falling a total of forty feet down the side of Colorado’s Mt. Ida. Badly injured, I was flown by helicopter to a trauma center in Estes Park. I have some firsthand experience with the subject matter.
The park ranger who rescued me, incidentally, now works as a sheriff's deputy and sometimes crosses paths with my younger son, who is a seasonal park ranger. Small world!
I hope you’ve enjoyed the inside look at the story and the series. These books are a little lighter than my I-Team books with a dose of humor thrown in. They’re definitely sexy, not sweet. Some of the I-Team guys might make cameos in the series down the road, starting with climber Gabe Rossiter.
I’ll have a cover reveal and excerpts for you soon, so stay tuned!
In the meantime, the first three ebooks in the I-Team series are still on sale. Between them, they have almost 11,000 five-star ratings on Goodreads. Extreme Exposure is $3.99. Hard Evidence is $4.99. Unlawful Contact is $5.99. Normally, the ebooks are priced at $7.99. This is a publisher promotion, so I’m not sure how long it will last. If you’re curious about the I-Team series and want to give them a read, you’ve got a chance to save $9 on the first three.
Amazon US
Extreme Exposure
Hard Evidence
Unlawful Contact
Nook
Extreme Exposure
Hard Evidence
Unlawful Contact
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