Sorry I’ve been AWOL. I still do not have Internet. It’s the longest I’ve been offline since the Internet was invented. I should be able to “get it up” tonight or tomorrow they say — “they” being Qwest.

First, I wanted to thank Ronlyn for keeping you all updated about my sudden disappearance. And I want to thank those of you who worked so hard to get the word out about the DABWAHA vote, which is happening right bloody now! Naked Edge was chosen as one of the finalists and needs your votes!

I hear that trash-talking is part of the DABWAHA tradition, but I’m not sure I’m capable of that. But I can pimp it with the best of them. So we’ll skip trash-talking and go for hyperbolic pimping instead.

But first things first: PRIZES!

The DABWAHA is famous for it’s amazing prizes, so there’s lots of good reasons to vote. I’ll add more. For every round that Naked Edge wins, I’ll give away a signed copy of the book. The more Naked Edge wins, the more changes you have to win. (To be entered into the drawings, comment below.)

So spread the word on your blogs, on Facebook, via Twitter and help Naked Edge take the DABWAHA.

10. Gabe is uncircumcized. How often in a romance novel is the hero’s dick different?

9. Kat is a virgin, but she’s not a stupid, mousy virgin, so you get 100 percent of the hymen but zero percent of the “I'm a virgin at age 26 for no good reason” TSTL.

8. Gabe and Kat have sex in the snow.

7. I practiced Kat’s near-fatal falling scene before writing it. I deserve something for that, don’t I? Well, don’t I? (Read about that here.)

6. Kat is American Indian through and through, not a Hollywood Indian. Naked Edge isn’t Dances with Rangers.

5. Julian Darcangelo + Marc Hunter + Gabe Rossiter

4. Some of the events in the book actually happened — and I was there reporting on them.

3. You never knew park rangers could be so damned sexy.

2. “I love you, Katherine James. I love you with everything I am. You're the best thing that ever happened to me. Remember that.”

1. Other authors write romantic suspense. I live it. (Except for the “romantic” part.)

So head over to DABWAHA.com, raise Naked Edge to March glory and collect prizes along the way. If that’s not win, what is?

Calling Team Gabe! This is your chance to wax eloquent.

I meant to have this up this morning, but this week has been insane at the paper. I had a huge project more or less dumped in my lap and am trying to get it done before I leave for a week-long writing vacation that starts tomorrow at 5 p.m. Things have been so tense that I did something I really haven’t done in ages today — I got up in the middle of a meeting and walked out. Now I just want chocolate and a blankie.

::Deep breath::

Poor Kat and Gabe have been patiently awaiting their turn on the I-Team Reading Challenge stage so this blog is dedicated to their story, Naked Edge.

Naked Edge drew together some completely unrelated things. It combined my climbing accident — read all about it here — with my years of reporting on American Indian issue and my time volunteering as a naturalist for Boulder Mountain Parks (now called Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks). I borrowed names from my ranger friends, which amused them. More than that, however, this book was a very personal tribute to the Diné people and to my Diné friends.

Without a doubt, it was the most difficult book I’ve written. I wanted to make absolutely certain to be accurate when it came to the Navajo traditions in the story and to Native culture in general. That’s a very complicated, layered world to portray even when you’re familiar with it as I am — Kat’s Navajo heritage, the mixed cultures off the reservation where Native people from all nations come together for ceremony, friendship and a sense of belonging, their conflicts with mainstream society. I’ve said it a zillion times, but I wanted Kat to be Navajo through and through, not an “apple,” i.e., red on the outside and white on the inside. If I had to criticize most books, films, TV shows involving Native characters it would be for portraying Native characters in a way that makes mainstream readers/viewers feel comfortable.

At the same time, there were things I couldn’t write about. The real goings-on in ceremony, certain sacred words and phrases. Those things aren’t meant to be shared. Except how do you create an authentic Navajo heroine without going into those things? Well, you have to be creative and careful.

Kat became my favorite heroine. Strong and very comfortable being a woman, she knew exactly who she was. There was no need to “find herself.” She was herself. And some readers agreed at least, as she was voted Favorite Heroine in RBL Romantica’s Hughie Awards, ousting Eve Dallas from her multi-year hold on the lead spot. Go Kat!

But a lot of people didn’t care for her. The reviews range from glowing five-star reviews to a measly three stars from RT Book Reviews and one-star review in which the reader says the book was “incredibly stupid,” mostly because she didn't like the fact that Kat said she didn’t date. In fact most of the objections to Kat came as a result of her sexual choices. Some people got on Kat’s case for being a virgin and setting Gabe straight at their first real meeting (lunch). Some people got on her case for not wanting him to wear a condom the first time they had sex. Some people hated the fact that she went back to the rez to have her baby and for not having an epidural (!). Some didn’t understand how a woman could go to college and still have superstitious religious beliefs about coyotes and so forth. Allow me to explain:

Some women don’t date. Dating — i.e., sampling men to see which one you like, if any — is a serial event. Some women wait for a man who is interested in them as a wife and explore that territory very carefully. These are mostly women of strong religious conviction.

A lot of Native people — not just Navajo — don’t feel comfortable with contraception. In the case of the Navajo, the mingling of male and female waters is part of what’s sacred about sex. If you remove that, you’ve destroyed the significance of the sex act. So naturally Kat would want her first sexual experience to be all natural.

As for the birth at the end, if Kat hadn’t gone home, her daughter would not have been considered Navajo. To be Navajo, you must have a certain blood quantum AND be born on the rez. And not all women have epidurals. A lot of women prefer completely natural births. What’s the big deal about that?

And lastly, a lot of women go to college and yet are Christian, Buddhist, Muslim or whatever. They have beliefs that may seem strange, stupid and/or superstitious to outsiders, too, even though they’ve been to college. To suggest that going to college eliminates a person’s belief system is to fail to understand the importance of tradition and one’s connect to one’s own spiritual truth.

What struck me as so funny as I read through all of these objections to Kat’s character, particularly the sexual ones, is that they were coming from women. Haven’t women fought long and hard for the right to make decisions about how they live their lives? Kat was making choices that were right for her, but there’s a segment of the romance reading world that just is only comfortable with sex for fun and wants heroines to be rockin’ the contraception.

But I write stories about characters who feel real to me. Kat was a traditional Navajo. These things were natural for her.

I guess I needed to get that off my chest. Whew!

As for Gabe, there were some readers who felt he was so repugnant that he couldn’t be redeemed. I found that funny, given how many novels have man-whore heroes. Gabe isn’t a man-whore by nature, of course, and meeting Kat was a scary re-introduction to his core self. Ultimately, it forced him to confront his choices, his past and the way he had changed. But, yes, it probably took readers a while to warm up to him. That didn’t bother me, because I knew by the end they would love him.

Because this book took a lot of risks, I was pretty nervous before it came out. I even blogged about how nervous I was. Despite the fact that the story received some of the nastiest reviews any of my books have ever received, it’s getting nominated for all kinds of awards — and winning. Between AAR and the Hughies, it won six awards. So I think a lot more people appreciate the risks the story took and the different feel of it than hated it.

As for the Big Event at the end, you all have done such an amazing job of keeping that secret! I can’t thank you enough for that. It was a crucial moment in the story, the one where past and present come together and Gabe has to make a choice. And the only choice he can make is to express his love for Kat in the ultimate fashion. I wanted that to feel real and to break hearts. I think it succeeded because Naked Edge has been getting a lot of tear-jerker designations.

So, a year after it’s release, I stand amazed by the recognition the story is receiving. I hope with all my heart that it opened up hearts and minds to the contemporary Native experience. Much of what was in the book is real and those real events represent the kinds of things that happen to Indian people every day: the raid on the inipi, the theft of artifacts, the corruption and loss of sacred sites, the desecration of graves, the struggle to maintain identity, the fight to preserve one’s own spiritual beliefs and practices, and so on...

I’ve been an eye witness to much of that. The raid on the inipi really happened. The loss of a prominent sacred site really happened. I covered it, shared the outrage and wished I could have done more.

I suppose the ultimate satisfaction for me came when my friend Kat, after whom Kat is named, read the book. Her husband, whom I call Uncle Ray, is a full-blooded hereditary Navajo spiritual leader, and both of them are dear to me. Kat read the book and e-mailed me to say it was perfect and that it felt authentically Navajo to her. She saw things that no one else could see — elements of shared experience between the two of us, late-night conversations, jokes, my own personal experiences on the rez. There are elements of our friendship that are woven into those pages.

Maybe that’s what makes the book feel special to people, even if they don’t know what those elements are or realize they’re even there. (Egads, now I miss her so much!)

Today, she sent me a link to a hideous news broadcast in which a non-Native reporter took news cameras into an inipi ceremony. Cameras! She filmed it. They filmed the altar. They filmed the sacred elements. And they put it on TV. During the call-in portion of the program, a Lakota elder called in to say that what they had done was wrong. She cut him off! I was horrified. (I’m not posting the link because that would only perpetuate the insult and damage.)

I didn’t intend for this post to be so long. This is all really heavy stuff. I guess it’s okay to share it with you, though, because these are the things I think about when I put a story together.

So I’ll shut up now and turn it over to you.

I logged in to check my e-mail a few minutes ago and discovered that Naked Edge, voted Favorite Romantic Suspense by AAR readers in their annual poll, is a finalist for the 2011 DA BWAHA contest that’s run by Dear Author, Smart Bitches, and The TBR LLC.

Is there something in the drinking water? Or is there something in the book? This is what I ask myself late at night.

If you know anything about DA BWAHA, you know it’s modeled after March Madness, an event pertaining to basketball. Call it basketball playoffs if you want. Teams are arranged into brackets and compete until there’s a single champion. (Can you tell I’m not a sports reporter?)

Naked Edge is one of eight finalists in the Contemporary category. But unlike basketball teams, novels can’t actually face each other down. Imagine the chaos in bookstores if they could! Flapping pages in the aisles, paper flying, broken bindings.

But that’s where readers come in, voting on brackets that are sent in and tabulated. Put simply, if you participate enthusiastically and all of you who love Gabe vote for Naked Edge, it just might win. The competition is stiff. The other finalists are wonderful novels written by extremely talented authors. But I believe in you as much as you believe in me!

The cool thing for readers is that this competition is loaded with prizes. Berkley, my publisher, is giving away an ARC of Breaking Point and a number of other novels. There are other cool prizes, as well, not just books. (But what’s cooler than books?)

Motivated? Head over to the DA BWAHA website to read more about how to play, to see a list of prizes and finalists — and to get your game on.

Please spread the word among other I-Team fans and Team Gabe members!

So thanks to Dear Author, Smart Bitches and The TBR LLC for choosing Naked Edge as a finalist.

The real Kat James passed me the link to this. You truly can find anything on YouTube.

This series of videos highlights the Navajo-Hopi Relocation Act, one of the great crimes perpetuated by Washington, D.C., against Indian people. This is why I first went to the Diné reservation to report on Indian issues, and it's why I kept going back, doing my best to share with a disinterested outside world what was happening to more than 15,000 Navajo people.

The relocation forced people who didn’t speak English and who’d lived their entire lives freely on the land as subsistence farmers and sheepherders into government housing where they had to pay rent, utilities and taxes — things they’d never been exposed to before.

Imagine that you have the entire landscape as your home and that you migrate back and forth across that landscape with your family, herding sheep, growing corn, and drinking water from washes and springs. First, the water disappears, drained off to feed the coal mine's slurry line. Then the government tells you that you can’t have sheep because... well, they don’t want you to overgraze the land, even though you've been doing this without their help for centuries. Then they tell you that you must disappear and that your hogaan, the burial sites of your ancestors, and everything you've known is going to be off limits to you. They force you to sell your sheep, drop you in a government house, and force you to pay rent. You don't have a job. You've never been to school. You don't read or speak English. And your entire lifestyle, the rhythm of your life, is gone forever.

So many Diné were heart-broken by this. Many became homeless. It’s such a terrible thing. Words can't adequately describe to you the loss that relocated Navajo feel. The Navajo I know in the Denver area are all victims of this forced relocation, and their carry the grief with them everywhere they go. What was done to them was a sin against humanity.

I don’t often get gritty and political on this blog, but I thought you all might find this interesting or at least be curious as to why I ended up spending so much time with the Navajo.

A while back, I promised you an interview with a true powder hound, someone who skis the way Gabe skis — in defiance of gravity and as often as possible. I work with a guy like this. He writes for the outdoors section of the newspaper.

Extreme skiers, climbers, etc., are not an endangered species in Boulder; in fact, meeting people who excel in sports like skiing or telemark or skateboarding or rock climbing is just part of life here. People like Isaac come to Colorado, and to Boulder specifically, because of the thrills it offers.

Isaac has been writing for the outdoor sports section of the newspaper for almost eight years now. (Can you believe that, Isaac?) He works freelance, going on fun outdoor adventures and then writing about them, or testing outdoor gear and sharing his experiences. When I met him, he had a girlfriend and lived for adventure, his life focused on chasing powder during the winter and hitting the singletrack during the summer (i.e, mountain biking, an obsession it in our outdoor-crazy city).

Isaac knew a few things about Gabe and Naked Edge from the beginning, because I shared passages of the story with him, either because I thought he’d find them funny or because I wanted to run the lingo by him to make sure it sounded authentic. Rock climbing lingo is part of my family’s speech; skiing lingo… not so much. Oh, sure, everyone in my family skis, but no on snowboards. And no one has ever lived in his or her car driving to the places where snow is falling like true powder hounds do.

That’s one thing about Isaac’s writing I love — he writes the way those guys talk, whether it’s skiing or mountain biking he’s covering. He was writing about the impact of bicycle seats once and used the term “manberries,” which I stole outright for Unlawful Contact. (Dude, I’m giving credit where credit is due.)

I asked Isaac if he would mind answering a few questions. The guy is now married with a wee son (who is adorable) and a full-time job. Despite that busy schedule, he agreed.

Pamela: Isaac, thanks for agreeing to visit my blog. Can you tell us how old you were when you slid down your first snow? Was it love from the beginning?

Isaac: I was actually 10 when I took my first turns, prior to that I was a Cali kid, skatepunk and BMX shredder. I moved to Vermont and remember thinking as I watched the local Vermonster’s ski that I was TOO OLD. Funny, washed up at ten. :) Then I got a pair of skis at the local ski swap took my first turns as was hooked! I’ve been lucky enough to log a 1000+ plus days since then. Still trying to perfect glorious art of the Telemark turn. Practice, practice!

Pamela: I never learned the Telemark turn. I did master the Telemark face plant, though. I have that down cold. So what brought you to Colorado and to Boulder, specifically?

Isaac: Sun and light dry powder, which Seattle where we lived previously had approx NONE. Viva Colorado!

Pamela: Describe the most powder-houndy period of your life.

Isaac: Lived in Bozeman, MT, for a year and ski bummed at the righteous Bridger Bowl in 1992 (damn, I’m old). Skied 100+ days and worked the night shift at Dana Design backpack checking seams. Lived on $110 a week. Those were the days...

Pamela: Don’t complain about getting old to me, please. I’m 11-1/2 now, and that’s awful. How long have you been mountain biking?

Isaac: Got my first mountain bike in 1988 (that’s actually rocking my world as I type — sheesh!) Thumbshifters and canti brakes. Mongoose IBOC Pro — but pro I was not. LOVING mt biking more with every passing year, just signed up for BC Bike Race for my 40th birthday — 500km over 7 days of rocks, berms, bridges and hopefully a few cold adult beverages. :)

Pamela: That sounds so fun! What is it about crashing down rocky mountain trails in defiance of death that appeals to so many people here? I mean, when your bike requires shock absorbers and you have to wear a kind of motorcycle helmet — is that what God intended when She created the bicycle?

Isaac: We all know SHE shredds :) I thinks it’s the totally focus that is addictive. No time/way to contemplate the bills, the laundry, the meaning of life. Just raw caveman/women ripping through the woods. We ain’t engineered to sit under fluorescent lights all day!

Pamela: I have to agree with you there (as I sit under fluorescent lights). How do you feel about alpine climbing, rock climbing and ice climbing, which are my family’s addictions? (Except for me, of course. I’m still recovering from my near-fatal bout of Rapid Deceleration Syndrome, as you know.)

Isaac: I like to climb but um, well, SUCK. I get the Elvis shake-y leg syndrome pronto. Glorious sport, but in Boulder, the comp is pretty high (no pun intended).

Pamela: Can you define some terms for us? Gabe and Marc used some of these in the story: “shredding the gnar”; “sick terrain,” or sick powder”; “epic”; “catch air”; “snow farm,” “face shots.” (As a side note: Do you think it’s coincidence that there’s an overlap between porn slang and outdoor sports slang and the fact that most of those who pursue outdoor sports on a hardcore level are young males? Never mind. You don’t have to answer.)

Isaac: Yes, it’s true that the bro/brahs of the sports world do sometimes speak in tongues! Maybe related to lack of oxygen at altitude??? LOL. In sum, the sick-er, gnarly-er, etc., the better-er!!!

Pamela: Did you have any epic days this year? Do you have a skiing memory that stands out for all time?

Isaac: Skied Jackson in mid-March with my best buddy after 20 inches of powder. It was a dream trip to the “White Room.” It doesn’t get any better, and let’s just say that all the powder/orgasm analogies are right on the $. Unreal.

Pamela: Thanks, Isaac, for your time. I love having your work in the paper. You’re great to work with. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without a smile on your face. And thanks for being willing to hang with us today and for sharing links to your ski vids.



Here’s a clip, filmed by Isaac, that shows his buddy Doug Telemark skiing glades at Eldora. The trick about skiing glades is, well, not hitting trees and killing yourself. Doing it Telemark is even tougher. But there’s even more than that. Tree wells, hollows of snow around a tree’s trunk, can trap you and lead to a nasty fall and/or piercing by branches. Or you can catch your tips or tails on a trunk/well/branch and wipe out, perhaps hitting wood. To ski the way Doug and Isaac are skiing here, you have to be good. We get a glimpse of Isaac, who is filming while skiing, as he turns the camera on himself.




Here’s a clip he filmed of some buddies Telemarking. Note the face plant at the end. That is my only true skill when it comes to Telemarking.


And here’s a glimpse of mountain biking. This location, Walker Ranch, is about 25 to 30 minutes from my office. It’s just above Boulder. And this gives you a good idea of what Boulder Mountain Parks land looks like, i.e., where Gabe would have worked. One of my ranger buddies lives in at Walker Ranch. Lucky SOB.




OK, well, I hope you enjoy watching these. I’m spending the weekend with Natalie and Zach, who will finally be unchained very soon. I need to catch up on writing so I won’t be around much. But I do read your posts and enjoy them. I hope you have fun with this!

Incidentally, if you’re interested in mountain biking or skiing videos from Colorado, YouTube is loaded with them. You can probably Google all the places in Naked Edge and see them there, i.e, Redgarden Wall where Gabe was climbing, Boulder Mountain Parks, the famous Third Flatiron, etc.

I’m adding this link to another YouTube video because it offers a great little overview of my hometown, together with some mtb (mountain biking) how-to. It made me laugh. You get glimpses of our bike path infrastructure, as well as Boulder Canyon, where, I swear, I grew up with my dad climbing those canyon sides with traffic whizzing by below.

Sorry to have vanished. I typically like to reply to each and every one of you, but this week has been a madhouse. I might still get a chance to go back to my previous post and reply. If not, please know that I’ve read your posts and really appreciate them.

Also, please know that if you’ve sent me e-mail, I'm behind on that, too.

First the news: I have a senator willing to carry the bill about the shackling of inmates in labor. I’m meeting with her on Tuesday afternoon to help write it. Now, that’s something I've never done before. Draft a bill. OK, sure.

“And there shall be cookies and milk for all at precisely 3 p.m., followed by nap time. Bedtime stories shall consist of romance novels with heroines who present positive role models for inmates. Sexy man posters shall be posted in all cells so that all female inmates get their recommended daily allowance of man-chest and six-packs. Chocolate shall be included with each evening meal. And there shall be absolutely no shackling of pregnant inmates in labor! Duh! What were you people thinking?”

Hmm... Probably needs some work.

Some other folks have connected with me hoping to be a part of pushing this forward. But, typically I guess, there are people who want this bill but want it on their own time. As in, “How about we do this next year?”

Call me naïve. Really, call me anything you want. I don’t care. I want to do what I can while I can, not next year. There are inmates who will be having babies this summer whose experience will be different if we pass a bill before the session recesses in May. So I remain undeterred.

Less interesting news: I want a new back! I‘m taking steroids and narcotics, and every day is an exercise in endurance. I am not enjoying this. Obviously, as I'm whining about it in public.

And now on to the fun stuff!

On Saturday, I’m inviting any of you who’ve read Naked Edge and want to talk about it — but don’t want to spoil it for your friends — to join me for an After the Epilogue chat where you don’t have to worry about spoilers.

Here’s how it will work:

I will put up a new blog post tomorrow at about 7 Eastern/6 Central/5 Mountain/4 Pacific time right here on this blog with a link to a Chatzy chatroom. These are just chatrooms you can create and sign into on Chatzy.com. Registration is minimal.

You’ll just follow that link to the chat, register and pop in.

The chat itself will begin at 9 E/8 C/ 7 M/ 6 P and continue as long as you like. This is for you, and I want it to be fun for you.

During the chat, I'll take down the names of participants and someone will win a signed copy of Naked Edge, plus a $25 gift card to Borders.

Spread the word. Bring your friends.

I’ll be having another one in a couple of weeks because there are people who want to participate but who can’t.

If you have questions, post them here or e-mail me: pamelaclare @ earthlink.net (remove spaces). Also, feel free to propose discussion topics, but if please be careful not to post spoilers or at least to warn people before you do.

This is the first time I’ve done anything like this, so I’m very excited!

See you tomorrow night!

Congratulations to Lori, Joy, Liz P, Ronna and Alba!

You each won a signed copy of Naked Edge! E-mail me your mailing address, and I’ll pop your books and matching bookmarks in the mail.

Sorry to have vanished. No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth or get arrested. I simply was consumed by problems at the paper this week. We missed our press deadline by more than an hour due to serious, prolonged computer problems in the production department, and it wasn't pretty. But we did eventually get the paper out. And we're getting a new computer for production.

As a result of the chaos, however, I missed hanging with you on release day — the problems started Tuesday morning — and am just getting caught up now.

I’m starting to hear from those of you who’ve had time to read the book, and I’ve been relieved and thrilled by what you’ve shared with me. Several of you have told me you wanted to talk about the book with others who've read it.

So... I’m setting up a chat. It’s the “After the Epilogue Naked Edge Chat” for Saturday evening, March 13 at 7 p.m. MST (9 Easter/6 Pacific). If anyone has a chatroom, let me know. Otherwise I’ll set it up at Chatzy and post the link.

What will we do in this chat? Well, we'll chat about the book without worrying about giving spoilers away to those who haven’t read it. You can ask me anything you’d like, and you can compare your thoughts and favorite scenes to those of other readers. You don’t have to be a regular poster on this blog to participate. Whether I know you from my blog or Facebook or Goodreads or a past life, you are welcome!

Everyone who participates will be eligible to win a signed copy of the book with a bookmark. Think of it as a perc for those of you who zipped out, got the book and read it — people like Kara C, who seems to have inhaled it. I’ll share some things that you don't know about the story — not the boring stuff about my falling off mountains, but more the specific details in the story.

It's also my way of thanking you for not giving away the surprises at the ending of the story in your reviews. I’ve been amazed at everyone's restraint, and I'm very grateful that no one has spilled the beans! Since you've all been so circumspect, you deserve a place to hang out and talk all you want about you know what!

So here were some fun things from the first couple of days of the book’s release:

Chatting at Leontine's Book Realm, Sapphire Romance and Borders True Romance.

Leontine's question about the kind of personal ad Gabe would run had people laughing, including me. Jenn J at Sapphire Romance asked some insightful questions based on her deep knowledge about the story. At Borders, I met a lot of new people.

And then there was the review at Smart Bitches. I loved it! SB Sarah gave the book a B+ and offered my favorite description of Gabe so far:

"[Y]ou see him act so honorably one moment, like when he comes to the heroine’s rescue after another police officer way oversteps his boundaries, and then you see him act like a callous, heartless self-absorbed dickbag and wonder how it can be the same person.”

I fell in love with the word dickbag and have tried to use it in as many situations as I can since then. I may have to put it in my next I-Team book.

I still have bookmarks. If you work at or own a bookstore and would like some, please let me know. Or if you’re a reader and would like one, also, let me know.

Other fun and games to come:
More contests
An interview with Gabe Rossiter
Naked Edge trivia
An interview with a true powder hound/extreme skier friend of mine (complete with video)

So has anyone seen the book on bookstore shelves out there anywhere? Does anyone have any release week stories to share?

Also, please RSVP if you'd like to come to the After the Epilogue Chat. I'll need your e-mail address to invite you in.

Thanks!

Thanks to those of you who joined me through the countdown to the release of Naked Edge. That day is finally here! It's been one year and 11 months since Unlawful Contact brought you Marc and Sophie's story, so it's about time!

Today, help me celebrate the book’s release. There are lots of fun ways to do that.

The best way to celebrate is to get your hands on a copy of the book and spend the day or the evening reading, and then to come back and share your thoughts on the story. There are drawings for free copies of the book going on across the 'Net.

Chat with me here and be entered into a drawing to win one of FIVE autographed copies of Naked Edge that will be given away during the course of the day. Just share with me your favorite moment from a Naked Edge excerpt (listed here on this blog), and you’re in!

Or come to Borders True Romance, where I will be blogging all day, and be entered into a drawing for an autographed copy of the book there.

Visit Leontine's Book Realm to read an interview with me about the book and to be entered into the drawing there. We had a lively chat yesterday.

If you're out and about and see displays featuring Naked Edge, snap a photo, email it to me and I'll post it here.

Here are more ways to join in the fun:

If you are a reader and would like a matching bookmark or a signed bookplate to put in your copy of Naked Edge, send an e-mail or contact to me through my Web site's guestbook with your mailing address.

If you represent a readers group and would like bookmarks for your entire group, or if you want to set up a speaker phone chat with your readers group to discuss the book, please contact me, and we’ll set it up!

If you are a bookstore owner or employee and want bookmarks for your customers, let me know and I will get them in the mail to you.

If you love the cover of the book, go to my Web site and download the free wallpaper for your desktop.

Then stay tuned, because I'll be having an After The Epilogue chat later this month so that those of you who want to talk with me about the book can spend a couple of hours doing just that without worrying about spoilers.

Plus there will be more contests and craziness to come.

So get yourself a cup of coffee or tea, and help me make this the best I-Team book release party ever!

Today is brought to you by the Number 2. Two is for... Two people, a man and a woman — opposites who most definitely attract.




Yes, he’s male — six-foot-four of dark-haired, blue-eyed male, to be precise — and she’s female. But there’s much more than that.

Kat is deeply spiritual. Gabe believes in nothing — and no one.

Kat is thoughtful and a bit introverted. For her, a quiet hike is a great way to relax. Gabe’s idea of a good time is rock climbing without ropes and skiing off cliffs.

Kat gives selflessly to her friends. Gabe has no close friends.

Kat is saving her virginity for one man; she wants marriage and lots of children. Gabe drifts from one emotionless sexual relationship to the next, with no interest in being a husband or father.

Kat believes in love that lasts. Gabe believes “love” is nothing but a hormonal haze in the brain, a matter of chemistry. From his point of view, a good relationship involves good sex with no strings attached.




Deep down, Kat has an unshakable but quiet self-respect. She makes no apologies for her choices in life. Gabe behaves as if he’s the only center in his universe, but in reality he can’t stand himself.

These two never would have connected on Match.com or eHarmony, where matchmaking is built around shared interests, commonalities and compatibility.

But connect they do. When Kat is caught in a rockslide while hiking and is badly injured, Gabe, a park ranger who just happens to be rock climbing nearby on his day off, rushes to help her, saving her life. They meet again when he’s ordered to shut down a sacred inipi ceremony on Mesa Butte.



The results of these two chance meetings go beyond what either of them could imagine.

Tension. Heat. Passion. And a struggle to stay alive.

Gabe will have to summon every fiber of his strength and courage to keep Kat alive. And Kat will find herself in the fight of her life, trying to save the soul of a man who no longer believes he has one.

Only two days till release date! I can’t wait to share this story with all of you!

Join me tomorrow for the final day of our countdown, which will be brought to you by the Number 1: One man’s determination, one man’s love for a woman, one man’s astonishing sacrifice.

I’ve decided to do a different kind of countdown. For each of the four remaining days, I’ll post that number — and how it relates to the novel in some way. Think of it as Sesame Street for romance readers.

There are four days till Naked Edge hits bookstore shelves, so today’s blog is brought to you by the Number 4.

Four is for...

The Four Directions and Native ways of life





Native traditions and culture make up a big part of this story. If the love story between Kat and Gabe is the beating heart of the story, then Native traditions and ways of life are its soul.

This image above depicts a medicine wheel, representative of many things — among them, the circle of life; the hoop that ties all living things together in existence, and the Four Directions. Different Indian nations have different meanings for each of the Four Directions, and I've seen different spiritual leaders assign different colors to every direction but one: East.

East, which is always yellow, is sacred to many Native culture. Among the Navajo, East is a sacred direction. When they awake in the morning, many traditional Navajo offer a bit of corn pollen to the East or say a prayer or sing a song to the east. Some run toward the east. During her kinaalda (puberty rite), a young woman runs to the East every day. Hogaans are "sung into being" with the door facing east. When women give birth, they face the East. When offering of tobacco is made to the Four Directions, it is first offered to the East.

The heroine of Naked Edge, Kat James is Navajo and grew up in her grandmother's hogaan on the reservation near K'ai'bii'tó in Arizona. She had no electricity or running water and spent her time when she wasn’t in school helping her grandmother by herding and shearing sheep, planting and harvesting corn, and carding wool. She lives a traditional Navajo life — with her share of hardship and heartache.

When she leaves the reservation and moves to Denver to work on the I-Team, she's far away from the songs and ceremonies that are a part of traditional Navajo life. But she's taken under the wing of a Hunkpapa Lakota medicine man and joins in Lakota ceremonies, like so many other displaced Native people of all Indian nations.

Kat's beliefs guide her actions in life. She wants to walk a good path, to walk in Beauty, even though living a good life isn't necessarily easy. She plans to remain a virgin until she meets her true "half-side" — her perfect matching male half.

From the moment she sees Gabe until the last page of the epilogue, Kat holds true to her beliefs, perhaps one reason why she is, in my opinion, the strongest heroine I've ever written. She's not a "kick-ass" heroine, but in her own quiet way she is utterly indomitable, drawing her strength from a deep knowledge of who she is.

It's this very quality that Gabe senses. A man who believes in nothing, he is drawn to her rock-solid goodness and her spiritual strength. In the end it is her inner strength that saves him.

Tomorrow, we look at Number 3... and the power of three friends — Gabe, Marc and Julian — and how they come together to save a woman who is special to all of them.

So, I’ve been sharing excerpts from Naked Edge for a while now. I think there are several scattered between this blog, my Yahoo group, Goodreads and my Facebook notes. But sometimes a person needs visual aids.

So with the help of the talented Jenn J — thank you, Jenn! — I offer this book trailer for Naked Edge.

It’s up on YouTube, as well, so feel free to embed it and share it wherever you’d like.

Also, I wanted to let you know that we'll have a very special guest visiting this blog on Feb. 22 — the prolific and talented Christy Reece! I decided to play journalist and interview her, and I’ll be posting that interview on Feb. 22. Christy will stop by as she’s able to answer your penetrating questions.

Christy’s next book, No Chance, hits bookstores on Feb. 23, and I know I’ll be dashing to Borders after work that day to get my copy. Christy will tell us all about her new series — and give us a glimpse of what’s next. Plus, she's giving away TWO COPIES of the book. So put the date on your calender: Feb. 22 for a day of chatting with Christy Reece, and Feb. 23 for the release of No Chance.

Another couple of reviews have gone up online. There’s one from Romance Junkies here, and a more personal one by that same reviewer, Laurie, here.

I’ll be doing some guest blogging as the release date for Naked Edge nears. I'll be at www.SavvyReader.com tomorrow (Feb. 18), at Leontine's Book Realm on March 1, and on the Borders blog on March 2. Stop by because I’ll be giving away signed copies of the book.

Today I got home from work to find a big box and a padded envelope waiting on my front steps. I got very excited because I thought my author copies were in the box and the bookmarks that my publisher had made up for me were in the padded envelope.

Other way around!

I have a single lovely copy of Naked Edge that I shall be cuddling tonight and about a zillion sexy Naked Edge bookmarks. That’s just an estimate, of course. There could be more than a zillion.

Which means I’m giving bookmarks away!

Anybody want one? Yes?

Well, then all you need to do is complete one of the following I-Team hero quotes:

Reece: “You need a man, Kara. A man you can open up to. A man whose passion for life matches yours. A man who grabs your hair in big fistfuls and twists and pulls it when he’s fucking you. A man willing to .....”

Julian: “If you try to tell me next time I see you that you haven’t been thinking about fucking me, I’m going to....”

Marc: “It’s not so much where I want you, Sophie, as it is how. Nothing tastes quite like a woman, and no woman...”

Extra points for anyone who can complete this quote:

Will: “I agreed not to have sex until after the wedding. But I didn’t agree not to touch you, Lissy. I intend to touch you every day. Get ...”

Double extra points for this one:

Gabe: “If I can’t be man enough to keep my hands off you like I should, then at least let me be man enough to ...”

E-mail your answer to me at my e-mail address, together with your address. If you’re suspicious that “Pamela Clare” is just a cover for an international crime syndicate and don‘t want to give me your address, then just mail me a self-addressed stamped envelope to: PO Box 1582, Longmont, CO 80501.

Have fun!

I posted this excerpt to my Yahoo group, but I thought I would post it here as well. My last post was so serious, and I know how hot men cheer you all up.

These scenes take place in the first half of the story. The first scene shows when Gabe meets Marc. The second is their second meeting, but this time Julian is along for the ride. Since there are those of you who never, ever seem to get enough Julian and others who can't get enough Marc Hunter, I thought you might enjoy these little snippets.

When Gabe meets Marc...


“Kat!” Gabe was on his feet, blocking her path, drawing her into his arms,
relieved when she seemed to come willingly. He ran a finger over the curve
of her cheek. “It wouldn’t have been like that, not with you. If we’d had
sex—”

The doorbell rang, stopping him from saying God only knew what.

“That must be Marc.” She drew away and hurried off to get her things.

Gabe opened the door and found a man about his own age. With shoulder-length brown hair and wearing a faded denim jacket, the man stood tall enough to look Gabe straight in the eye, and Gabe was certain he’d seen him somewhere before.

“I’m guessing you’re here for Kat.” Gabe moved aside to let him in.

The man stomped the snow off his boots and stepped inside, sizing Gabe up like a big brother who’d found a stranger sniffing around his little sister. It made Gabe wonder whether Kat had mentioned their little make-out session when she’d spoken with her friend. And why did the bastard look so familiar?

The man held out his hand. “Marc Hunter, Denver PD.”

And then it clicked. This was the son of a bitch Gabe had spent three weeks chasing through the mountains in the dead of winter, the son of a bitch whose face had spent the better part of a month hanging on Gabe’s office wall — on a wanted poster.

“Gabe Rossiter, Boulder Mountain Parks.” Gabe shook Hunter’s hand, giving back as good as he got. “I busted my ass trying to bring you in.”

“It’s lucky for both of us that you didn’t find me.” Hunter glanced about, obviously looking for Kat, his gaze falling on a climbing harness that Gabe had overlooked on the hallway floor. “You’re a rock jock, huh? I bet that helps you out when it comes to scrambling up the east face of the Third Flatiron and shit.”

Third Flatiron above Boulder

<----East Face/West Face--->

“No, not the east face of the Third.” You prick. “But it did come in handy when a couple of guys got stuck in a freak blizzard climbing the Diamond on Longs Peak not too long ago.”

The Diamond

Hunter’s eyebrows rose a notch, and he nodded. “Thanks, by the way, for saving Kat’s life this past summer and for stopping that son of a bitch who pulled her hair. I’d like to kick his ass.”

“That makes two of us.”

And later in the story.....

You saved her life, man.

The thought struck Gabe right between the eyes, seeped through him, leaving him with a bone-deep sense of… satisfaction. He was used to saving lives, but not like this. To know that Kat was alive tonight because of something he’d done…

Maybe you don’t suck after all, Rossiter.

He turned the water in the shower and stepped under the warm spray, washing dirt, sweat, and blood from his skin, letting the water loosen his tense muscles. Then he got out, dried off, and dressed his wound, the sting of antiseptic making him cuss a blue streak. He’d just covered it with a large bandage when his doorbell rang.

He skipped the underwear and slipped into a pair of jeans. Taking no chances, he picked up his HK .40-cal semi-auto—he’d seen the last of the Glock, which belonged to Mountain Parks — and walked quietly to the door. He looked through the peephole — and felt his heart knock against his breastbone.

Kat.

She stood on his doorstep flanked by Hunter and someone else — a man in a black leather jacket whose face he couldn’t see. He tucked the firearm into the waistband of his jeans, unlocked the door and opened it. And for a moment all he could do was stand there, staring into her eyes. She looked exhausted, overwhelmed, beautiful.

Had she been crying?

“Good to see you in one piece, rock jock. I see you took a hit.”

Gabe tore his gaze from hers, gave Hunter a nod, rubbed his fingers over the bandage. “It’s just a graze. Hey, Darcangelo, how’s it going? You hang with this guy? That’s ironic.”

Julian Darcangelo, the best damn detective Gabe had ever met, shrugged then reached out and shook Gabe’s hand, a grin spreading over his face. “What can I say? Every superhero needs a sidekick. Plus, it’s a good way to keep an eye on him, keep him out of trouble.”

Hunter glared at Darcangelo, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like “fuck you.” Then he frowned, pointing back and forth between the two of them. “So, you two know each other?”

“Of course we know each other. We met chasing your sorry ass through the snow. Rossiter here is pure hell on a pair of skis.” Darcangelo shifted his gaze back to Gabe. “Is Kat going to be safe here with you tonight?”

Gabe met Kat’s gaze again. “Yeah, she will. Do you boys want to come in?”

Hunter’s gaze dropped to Kat, as if trying to gauge his response from her. “I think we’ll head home and let you two get some rest.” Then his gaze shifted to Gabe. He drew out a business card and held it out “Give me a call. Let us know what we can do.”

“Will do.” Gabe pocketed the card, watching as Kat thanked her friends and said her good-byes. Then he took her hand and drew her inside, the two men’s voices drifting back as they headed down his front walk.

“You didn’t tell me Kat’s rock jock was Gabe Rossiter. He’s not a rock jock, Hunter, he’s a rock god.”

“How the hell was I supposed to know you knew him?”

Gabe closed the door and locked out the night, while Kat hung her coat on the coat rack and slipped off her boots. They turned and faced one another, and for a moment neither of them moved or spoke, Gabe drinking in the sight of her, from the dirt smudge on her cheek to the shadows in her eyes. Then he did the only thing he could do. He drew her into his arms, and held her, just held her, his face pressed against her silky hair, the honey scent and soft feel of her a balm for all the rough edges inside him.

As I write this, there are only 25 days until Naked Edge is released, and I’m getting the butterflies in my stomach that I always get before a book is released. I know you other authors know what I mean when I say that a book’s release date feels a lot like the day you send your kindergartener out into the big, cruel world for the first time. Books are our babies, and no matter what we write and no matter how hard we try to write the perfect, engaging story, someone will tell us our baby is ugly and stupid.

I tell my family that writing novels is an act of will. From the story concept to filling yourself with the emotions of your own characters to seeing the story through page after grinding page, hour after hour, day after day, month after month, you must fight discouragement and frustration that threatens to psych you out and make you quit. That’s true for every novel I’ve ever written.

But before I sat down to write Naked Edge, I had to decide whether I really wanted to do this — whether I really wanted to write a romance with a traditional Native heroine and all that implies. I’d sworn at one point early in my career that I would never write Indian romance. Far too often the Indian romances I’ve read are filled with stereotypes and often include assumptions that many Indian people find offensive. And though I’m not concerned with political correctness, particularly in a historical setting where life was anything but politically correct, I am close to a number of Indian people who would expect me to produce something that was accurate and culturally sensitive.

I’ve been asked by three different Native leaders from three different nations — Diné (Navajo), Hopi and Lakota — to act as a bridge between the Indian world and mainstream America. It’s a responsibility I’ve taken seriously through more than a decade of reporting on Native issues, and it’s a responsibility I have to take seriously as an author, as well. It seemed to me that the best way to deal with the complexities and risks involved was simply not to write novels with Native heroes or heroines.

Except that, because my life is deeply entwined with those of several Indian people and because my work as a journalist has so often involved Native issues, my head kept filling up with ideas.

So here are the 5 reasons I almost didn’t write Naked Edge — and what led me to change my mind.

5. There is very little about contemporary American Indian life that isn’t highly political. That’s just a fact. I decided I would have to find a way to remove the politics to the best of my ability. This is a romance novel, after all.

4. Someone somewhere will use the word “half-breed” to describe the heroine. This word is roughly the same to Indian people as the “n-word” is to African Americans. It’s right up there with “redskin.” I would hate for anyone to use this word to describe Kat, but I decided that it would give me a chance to do what I just did — to explain to people that they shouldn’t use the word unless they’re trying to anger someone. (And while I’m at it, the word “thoroughbred” refers to horses, not people.)

3. Modern Indian life can be confusing, and I would want to depict it as accurately as possible. There is so much most people don’t know about contemporary Indians. The idea that most Indians have gotten rich off casino money is absurd. Some have; most have not. Most don’t live on reservations. Most don’t speak their ancestors’ languages. Many have little idea about the traditions and spiritual beliefs of their ancestors. Some have adopted the world view of mainstream culture and Christianized. In cities, it’s not uncommon for Indian people from many different nations to practice a sort of mix of traditions. So you’ll find people from many different backgrounds participating in Lakota ceremonies, and you’ll find Lakota who’ve never been to a sweat lodge (inipi) or Sun Dance (wiwang wacipi).

On the other end of the spectrum are families that live on reservations in extreme poverty in homes without electricity or running water. Some speak almost no English. The struggles of their daily lives are beyond the imaginings of most Americans.

Sifting through all of this — and much more that I won’t go into — would make writing this book very difficult. And, indeed, it took more than a year as I tried very hard to make the story reflective of this complex reality. Inevitably, someone whose great-great-grandmother was a third Cherokee (or whatever) is going to point to something that they believe is inaccurate. But everything in the story is based on things I have seen/done personally during my time on the Navajo and Lakota reservations.

2. In a society rife with stereotypical depictions of Indian people, I wasn’t certain that readers would be able to relate to a more realistic Native heroine. Too many books and films seem to present the Indian world as if it had been created by Disney. There are almost 600 federally recognized Indian nations — and there are many that for bureaucratic reasons are not recognized. Each nation has its own history and culture. It is impossible to generalize, and yet most depictions of Native people contain lots of generalities. I decided I would do my very best to avoid that.

1. The book is bound to anger some Indian people who justifiably wonder what a chick with blond hair and blue eyes is doing writing about Native issues. Some might see the book as exploitation. This, more than anything, gave me pause. I decided that there really was no way to avoid this. I’ve tried to act with integrity during my years of reporting on Indian issues. I’ve never gone anywhere I wasn’t invited to go. I’ve never participated in a ceremony that I wasn’t invited to attend, nor have I ever participated in New Age copycat ceremonies run by non-Indians. There’s nothing I’ve done as a journalist that I wasn’t asked to do. Because I know this, and because the Indian people who are my friends know this, I won’t be hurt by what might be said in this regard.

But there’s something else: I participated in the events that inspired this story, so, although the story deals with contemporary American Indian issues, the kernel of real life that the story contains reflects my own life as a journalist. In that way, aspects of this story are my story, too.

In addition, I have committed to donating a portion of the proceeds from the book to programs on the Navajo reservation that serve women and children.

I wanted to go on the record with all of this before the book comes out. That way, my response to these things, should they arise, can’t be dismissed as “sour grapes.”

Ultimately, this book produced more anxiety for me than most of my other novels because it required me to take more risks. I felt a enormous sense of responsibility. I have done my best to address the problems and potential pitfalls that come with wading into these waters, and I’ve done so as respectfully as I know how.

The result will be on bookstore shelves in just 25 days. I hope people will enjoy Kat and Gabe’s story, and I hope they’ll learn a few things about the Native world they didn’t know. I hope that the book will act as the bridge I’ve been asked to be, fulfilling the expectations of the elders who trust me.

I did my best to tell a sensual love story between a contemporary Navajo woman and a white Park Ranger. He saves her life; she saves his soul.

Judging the story is up to you.

Guess what came in the mail today? Advance review copies of Naked Edge! And that means...

IT’S CONTEST TIME!

I didn’t even know I was getting ARCs of the book, but here they are, all nice and bound and unedited. The author’s note, which I turned in at the absolute last moment, isn’t included, but the rest of the story, including the epilogue, is there.

So, in honor of Thanksgiving and in gratitude for your wonderful support, I'm giving away an autographed ARC of Naked Edge to one lucky reader. All you have to do is leave a comment, and your name goes in the hat. I'll pick the winner Sunday night, Nov. 29 at 9 PM Mountain Standard Time.



In the meantime, I wish you and your families a restful and bountiful Thanksgiving!

Blessings,
Pamela

How pumpkin pies are made
Cómo se hacen los pasteles de calabaza


Pumpkin pie is the winner by a landslide in our first-ever Thanksgiving Pie Poll. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Pumpkin is so deeply entrenched with the months of October and November — pumpkin lattes (UG!), pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie — that most people must associate this holiday, and perhaps even Christmas, with pumpkin pie.

Pastel de calabaza es el ganador por un deslizamiento de tierra en nuestra primera encuesta Pie de Acción de Gracias. Creo que no debería sorprendernos. La calabaza es tan profundamente arraigada en los meses de octubre y noviembre - Lattes calabaza (UG!), Pan de calabaza, pastel de calabaza - que la mayoría de la gente debe asociar este día de fiesta, y tal vez hasta Navidad, con pastel de calabaza.


This will be the second year that we do not have pumpkin pie at my house. Last year, we all realized somewhat in unison that pumpkin pie really wasn't our favorite pie (gasp!) and that each of us — me and my two sons — preferred pecan pie any day of the year. So we ordered a pie from a local bakery.

This year, however, Benjamin and I are going to make our own pecan pie from scratch and see how that goes.

Este será el segundo año que no tenemos pastel de calabaza en mi casa. El año pasado, todos nos dimos cuenta un poco al unísono que el pastel de calabaza en realidad no era nuestra tarta favorita (¡oh!) y que cada uno de nosotros - yo y mis dos hijos — pastel de nuez preferido cualquier día del año. Así que pedimos un pastel de una panadería local.

Este año, sin embargo, Benjamín y yo vamos a hacer nuestro propio pastel de nuez de cero y ver cómo va.

Here's our Thanksgiving menu, all of it made fresh from scratch:
Butternut squash soup (made from squash grown in our garden)
Roasted turkey breast
Mashed potatoes
Fresh green beans
Salad
Cornbread stuffing

And pecan pie with fresh-made whip cream or vanilla ice cream or both (why not?)

What's going to be on your Thanksgiving table? Got any cool recipes to share or any you're looking for?

Aquí está nuestro menú de Acción de Gracias, todo hecho nuevo desde cero:
Sopa de calabaza Butternut (a base de calabaza cultivadas en nuestro jardín)
Pechuga de pavo asado
Puré de patatas
Frijoles verdes frescos
Ensalada
Relleno de pan de maíz

Y pastel de nuez fresca hecha con crema chantilly o helado de vainilla o de ambos (¿por qué no?)

¿Qué va a ser en tu mesa de Acción de Gracias? ¿Tienes frío para compartir recetas o cualquier estás buscando?

Oh... I finished proofreading the second pass of copy edits on Naked Edge. That puppy is now officially out of my hands about to go to the press.

This weekend, while hosting a surprise birthday party for Benjamin, who is now 20, and baking his birthday cake and feeding half a dozen teenagers, I managed to dream up Natalie's story. There will be a sneak peek of her story in the back of Naked Edge.

I don't have a title for her book yet, but I do know her hero's name: Zac McBride. I don't want to steal Gabe's thunder by saying too much about Zac yet, but I will tell you that he's a Deputy Marshal with the U.S. Marshal Service. And much of their story takes place not in Denver but... in Mexico.

Oh ... Terminé de corrección de pruebas el segundo paso de ediciones copia en Naked Edge. Ese perrito está ahora oficialmente fuera de mis manos a punto de ir a la prensa.

Este fin de semana, mientras se celebraba una fiesta sorpresa de cumpleaños para Benjamin, quien ahora tiene 20, y hornear el pastel de cumpleaños y la alimentación de media docena de adolescentes, me las arreglé para inventar la historia de Natalie. Habrá una vista previa de su historia en la parte posterior de Naked Edge.

Yo no tengo un título para su libro todavía, pero sé el nombre de su héroe: Zac McBride. Yo no quiero robar el trueno de Gabe diciendo demasiado sobre Zac todavía, pero te diré que es un agente judicial con el Servicio de Alguaciles de EE.UU.. Y gran parte de su historia tiene lugar no en Denver, pero en ... México.

Still to come:
An interview with the delightful and brilliant Anna Campbell
A review of Kathleen Givens' historical novel Rivals for the Crown
Interviews with I-Team heroes, including an introduction to Gabe

Aún por venir:
Una entrevista con el anuncio delicioso brillante Anna Campbell
Una revisión de novela histórica Kathleen Givensrivales por la Corona
Entrevistas con I-héroes del equipo, incluyendo una introducción a Gabe

Para mis lectores de habla española:

Autoras en la Sombra dio una entrevista a mí que ya está disponible en su sitio Web. Estas maravillosas mujeres salieron de su manera de hacerme preguntas diversión. He disfrutado con él! Haga clic aquí para leer la entrevista.

I just had to share this right now. Jennifer Johnson made it for me this evening, and it will soon be up on my Web site as downloadable wallpaper beside the other fun wallpaper she's made for the I-Team series.

It won't be up online for a while, so if you just can't wait, email me and I'll send it to you.

Thanks, Jennifer!

I'm in the middle of a massive Web site update. There are many new foreign covers, as well as an excerpt from Naked Edge and the novel-length author's note. OK, it's not quite that long. It's only eight pages, but for an author's note, that's looooong. My editor read it and said, "It's a lot more than I expected but then you never do anything half way."

Work at the paper is ratcheting up for the holidays, and things are busy with this book even though I'm done writing it. I'm almost done proofing the second round of copy edits to make sure no one added mistakes to the book. In some places, the accents on the Navajo words were changed, which if you know anything about Navajo, is a big deal. So I'll get those fixed. And then the book will head off to the presses. Before long there will be Advanced Review Copies (ARCs), and I'll be holding contests here and on my Yahoo group to give some copies away.

For now, though, just wallpaper. And this excerpt...

Haha! Yes, it's torture time again!

From Naked Edge:


Geee-zus!

Gabe sucked in a breath, shocked by the blistering impact of Kat’s unexpected kiss, heat shearing through his gut at the first clumsy press of her lips against his. Even as his body responded, some part of his brain knew this shouldn’t be happening. “Kat, you’re upset and tipsy and—”

She kissed him again, tilting her head to better slant her mouth over his.

Christ!

He turned his face away, felt her lips brush his jaw. “Honey, you don’t really want this. You’ve just lost—”

She made a little sound of protest, her arms sliding behind his head, drawing his lips closer to hers, as if to show him that she did really want it.

Good. So did he.

Ignoring the pathetic warnings of his conscience, he took control of the kiss, drawing her tight against him, capturing her mouth with his.

God, she tasted sweet! She smelled sweet, too — like honey and woman. She gave a little whimper, melting against him in a way that was utterly feminine, every inch of her soft body molding to his, her breasts pressing against his ribs, her lips parting to give him access. He swirled his tongue over hers, felt her body tense. And through a pheromone fog, he realized she wasn’t just a virgin between her legs.

Kissing — real kissing — was new to her, too.

Not just virgin, buddy — extra virgin.

He reined himself in, gentled the kiss, slowed it down, brushing her lips lightly with his, teasing their outline with the tip of his tongue, nipping their fullness, his lust for her at war with some strange urge to protect her from himself. In his world, any night that started with kissing ended soon after with fucking. His cock had already risen to the occasion and strained painfully against his fly, looking for the surest route out of denim and into her. But that couldn’t happen — not tonight, not when she was vulnerable and afraid and hurting, probably not ever. She wanted happily ever after, and all he could give her was sex. Still, he could keep kissing her…

Hell, yeah.

He claimed her mouth in a no-holds-barred kiss, penetrating deep, taking her tongue with his, sucking it into his mouth, biting down. She whimpered, kissed him back, meeting the strokes of his tongue with her own, her fingers curled in his hair, her body almost undulating against his, communicating in a primal language of its own, one Gabe’s body understood only too well.

Katherine James might want to save her virginity, but her body had other plans.

With a groan, he drew her beneath him, testosterone shorting out his brain, his body taking over, his blood running hot and fast. He found her throat and pressed his lips against the rapid beating of her pulse, kissing a path over soft, sweet skin, tasting her, nibbling her earlobe. And he wasn’t finished — not by a long shot.

Kat heard herself whimper and turned her head to the side, surrendering her throat to Gabe, the heat of his lips raising goose bumps on her skin, his male scent filling her head, the hard press of his body on top hers making her belly flutter.

She’d never felt anything like this, never even imagined it — the heat, the intensity, the overwhelming physical force of it. Her body trembled, and her heart raced, her breathing uneven as if she’d been running. And she was running — from her grief, from her fear, from everything that hurt. Some part of her knew this, but that only made her run faster.


The rules don’t apply tonight.

She didn’t stop him when he slid a callused hand beneath her sweater to trace tiny circles up her ribcage. She didn’t object when his clever fingers found the clasp of her bra between her breasts and unhooked it. And when he cupped her left breast, when his thumb flicked her nipple...

She gasped, stunned, the sensation too astonishing, too arousing, too wonderful to be real. Jagged shafts of heat seemed to shoot straight from her breast to her belly, turning to liquid between her thighs.

“You like that, don’t you?”

At the husky sound of his voice, her eyes flew open. She found him looking down at her, his breathing as rough as hers, his blue eyes burning, a smile on his wet lips. She forced herself to hold his gaze, shocked by the intimacy of watching him as he watched her, as he watched the effect his touch had on her, his hand still cupping and shaping her breast, his thumb tracing lazy circles over its aching crest.

And the heat in her belly became a wildfire.

Then he pushed her sweater up, baring her breasts, his gaze raking hungrily over her. “God, Kat, honey, you’ve got beautiful breasts. They’re so… Mmm.”

Whatever he’d been about to say became a moan as he ducked down and drew one of her nipples into the scorching heat of his mouth.

“Gabe.” Kat’s body jerked at the initial shock of it, the pleasure staggering as he suckled first one nipple and then the other, tugging at her with his lips, teasing her with velvet strokes of his tongue, tormenting her with nips of his teeth. It was sweet, so sweet, and terrible, too, the fire between her thighs now a throbbing ache. She heard herself calling his name, felt her hips lifting toward him, wanting, wanting…

Wanting him.

He groaned, settled his weight between her thighs, and answered her need, grinding what could only be the thick ridge of his erection against her… there. Slowly, so slowly he moved against her, taking the edge off the ache, only to make it so much worse. She was wet, the emptiness inside her burning, her inner muscles clenching around nothing. And she knew.

If he kept going, if he pressed her, she wouldn’t be able to stop him. She wouldn’t want to.

Gabe’s body was strung so tightly he thought it might snap. He’d been a damned idiot to take it this far. He’d wanted to give her the comfort she so obviously needed, and one thing had let to another. Or that’s what he’d told himself. In truth, he’d wanted to kiss her and hold her — and so he had.

He needed to stop. But how could he when Kat was coming apart in his arms, her response burning him up? Her little mewls and whimpers were driving him out of his mind, her wine-dark nipples drawn into tight buds that begged for his mouth, her hips moving in a way that was both feminine and undeniably erotic. He didn’t want to stop — oh, hell, no! He wanted to fuck her long and hard. He wanted to make her come again and again. He wanted to forget himself inside her.

And then what, buddy? You’ll pluck her sweet cherry and show her the door? She deserves better than that, and you damned well know it.

Gabe dragged his lips from hers, forced his hips to hold still, sexual need grinding in his gut, blood pounding through his veins. “Kat.”

She looked up at him, so beautiful it made his chest ache, confusion and longing in those hazel green eyes, tear stains on her cheeks, her lips red and swollen, her delicious breasts rising and falling with each rapid breath — no makeup, no silicon, nothing but sweet, soft, sexually aroused woman.

He fought the urge, so elemental, to kiss her again and settled for running his knuckles over her cheek. Somehow, he managed to string a few words together. “If I don’t stop now, honey, we’re going to be at this all night.”
(c) 2009 Pamela Clare
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Kat is the first contemporary heroine I've written as a virgin — and for reasons that become apparent in the story. It was an interesting experience. But more on that in another post. I have pages to copy edit!