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 Q&A. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Q&A. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
DEADLY INTENT (I-Team #8) is OUT! Author Q&A
Deadly Intent (I-Team #8), the first I-Team full-length I-Team story since Seduction Game in 2015, is out! It tells the story of Pulitzer Prize-winning I-Team photographer Joaquin Ramirez and former US Army Captain Mia Starr, whose paths cross one night at a crime scene, changing their lives forever.
Here’s the blurb:
Secrets buried in the sand…
Former US Army Captain Mia Starr has built a new life for herself in Denver, far away from camel spiders and sand—and the terrible secrets of her first deployment to Iraq. She isn’t looking for a relationship, especially not with an intrusive photojournalist. Joaquin Ramirez might be sexy, but in her experience, photojournalists only want to make a buck off other people’s suffering. Still, the universe must have a sick sense of humor because it keeps throwing her together with Joaquin, making the desire she feels for him harder and harder to resist.
An undeniable attraction…
As a Pulitzer Prize-winning news photographer, Joaquin has everything a single straight guy could want—except the right woman. When he meets Mia while shooting a crime scene, he immediately sees beyond her cold exterior to the vulnerable woman beneath. Though the police consider her a suspect, he’s sure she’s innocent. Someone is killing soldiers—and trying to pin the blame on her. Unable to resist the pull between them, Joaquin stands by her only to find himself snared in the killer’s net as well.
A twisted soul hungry for revenge…
Mia can’t help it when the heat between her and Joaquin melts away her preconceptions. As their passion explodes, danger draws ever closer. When it becomes clear that Mia is the killer’s true target, she must trust Joaquin with a secret that could ruin her … or risk losing the love of a lifetime.
The story is available at all major ebook retailers. It will be out in print next week. At this time, I have no plans in motion for an audiobook.
Kinde US: http://amzn.to/2FhEfWS
Kindle UK http://amzn.to/2C9EX9Z
Kindle CA http://amzn.to/2okk02C
Kindle AU http://amzn.to/2GsViEP
Kindle DR http://amzn.to/2BE8wPB
Nook: http://bit.ly/2C9Lfq4
iBooks: https://apple.co/2C9RmdJ
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2sIq1LP
Smashwords: http://bit.ly/2ETVcso
Q: I thought you said Dead By Midnight was the I-Team finale.
A: At the time, I thought it was. I was unable to write romantic suspense because of contractual limitations. I terminated my contract last year, leaving me free to write romantic suspense again. Joaquin's story hadn't been told, and there were so many I-Team fans who wanted him to get his HEA that I knew I had to give him a story.
Q: Does that mean the I-Team series is going to continue?
A: Yes, though I'm not sure how many more books there will be. I have several novellas in my head, and then there's Matt Harker. He needs a story. Alex Carmichael, too. And now there's a new I-Team member, introduced in this story, Anna Hughes, who will need an HEA as well.
I will be launching a spinoff series this year focused on Cobra International Solutions, Javier Corbray (Striking Distance, I-Team #6) and Derek Tower’s security and black ops business. Derek will get his story first. We'll see beloved I-Team characters in that series. Holly and Nick (Seduction Game) work there now. There is a major shake-up coming in the life of one I-Team hero, and he might end up there, too.
Q: Oh, a new romantic suspense series!
A: Yes! I can't wait to sink my teeth into it.
Q: What can you tell us about Joaquin’s story?
A: Joaquin has changed tremendously from the first book. By the time we get to Breaking Point (I-Team #5), he's already starting to go through some big transitions. The Joaquin we meet in Deadly Intent is the Joaquin who survived the cartel attack and the hostage crisis in Dead By Midnight. In real life, you don't go through violent, traumatic events without changing. He is not the kid brother kind of character any longer. Also, we learn things about him we didn’t know before.
Qualities he has always had — the ability to see deeper into people, empathy, etc. — become clearer in this story. We know where they come from.
He is the perfect man for Mia, who doesn't like him at first. She has a hard-earned grudge against photojournalists from her time serving in Iraq.
Q: Are characters from the other I-Team stories in the book?
A: Yes. We see everyone, even if some of the appearances are more like cameos. It's hard with such a big cast of characters to have everyone play a meaningful role in every story. I try to make the connections realistic. We are not in touch with all of our good friends or family every day. We move in circles that overlap. Today, we're in this circle. Tomorrow, we shift to that circle. I try very hard to make any appearance by a character from a previous book meaningful, and not just “fan service.”
The couple known as Marcangelo have prominent roles in the story, as does Holly, and the entire West clan at the Cimarron. (If you don’t know what the Cimarron is, you've missed the I-Team After Hours novellas — Skin Deep and Soul Deep — and need to catch up!)
Q: Can this book be read out of order?
A: Yes, this can be read as a stand-alone. But I highly recommend you read Seduction Game and Dead By Midnight first. There are events and characters in this story whose lives are deeply impacted by those two books. If you haven't read them, Deadly Intent will be full of spoilers.
Q: What about your straight contemporary series — the Colorado High Country series?
A: I’m going to keep writing that series. There are so many characters whose stories we haven’t heard. I can’t just drop them and leave them behind. Writing straight contemporary has been a challenge for me. My heart is more romantic suspense. But there are some suspense elements that leak into these stories. (I can't seem to help it.) So we'll be back in Scarlet Springs soon!
In fact, I have a novella planned for this year that will bring some of our favorite I-Team heroes together with the Rocky Mountain Search and Rescue Team crew and Hawke’s crew of firefighters. That's going to be a very high-octane story.
Q: That sounds exciting! So, what's next?
A: I'll be starting the next Colorado High Country story next. I need to bring poor Conrad home from Nepal, where he lost his climbing partners in a summit bid for Mt. Everest. Megs is going after him. He will connect with search-dog trainer Kenzie Morgan, who will wisely give him a puppy to train. That puppy, and Kenzie's love, will ultimately save our hero from his crushing grief.
After that, probably the novella, and then Derek’s book in the new Cobra series.
Q: That's a busy year you have planned for yourself.
A: Yes, it is, but also exciting. I love these characters as much or more than my readers do.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add about Deadly Intent?
A: I think Joaquin will surprise you. He is one of my most sensual heroes. Anyone who thinks he isn’t really hero material is in for a shock.
Monday, October 12, 2015
SEDUCTION GAME Q&A with Author Pamela Clare
We’re a week and a day away from the release of Seduction Game (I-Team #7), which tells Holly Bradshaw’s story. Here’s a short Q&A about the book and about my writing plans for the rest of the year.
Q. Is it true your editor once told you she didn’t want to Holly to get her own book?
Q. Is it true your editor once told you she didn’t want to Holly to get her own book?
A. Yes, that is true. Back when Extreme Exposure was release, she mentioned to me that she felt Holly just wasn't heroine material. I told her that was fine, but I felt pretty certain that Horny Holly would win her over. My editor eventually asked me to write Holly’s story. When I reminded her what she’d said about Holly initially, we both got a good laugh out of it.
Q. Holly is a different sort of heroine, not what we’re used to from your books or in romance generally speaking. What made you so certain you wanted to give her a story?
A: Well, it’s no secret that finding a romance hero who hasn’t had sex with lots of women is like finding a four-leaf clover. They’re rare. At the same time, we find a surprisingly high number of virgin heroines in contemporary romance. I guess our culture romanticizes the notion of experienced men leading less experienced women through the wild world of sexuality.
But reality is very different than that. The last study I read found that the average number of sexual partners a US woman has had by the time she turns 40 is 12. That’s the average. All of my other heroines have fallen far short of that average, except perhaps Laura Nilsson from Striking Distance. I actually never asked her for a tally.
My point is that our fantasies about sexuality and the reality we all know and live are very different. I suspect slut-shaming plays a role in pushing heroines to the less sexually active side in romance. And that comes from the bad old double standard that has done so much to hurt women.
I consciously chose for Holly to be a more sexually expressive character 11 years ago when I started writing this series. Through the years, I’ve gotten suggestions from fans that she really hasn't slept with those men, that she’s actually a virgin and just making it up and so forth. No, no, no. She is who she is without apology. As a writer, I found that fun.
Q: Tell us about Nick.
A: Nick is a good guy who is going to seem an awful lot like a bad guy. He lost the woman he loved in an operation that went south, and he’s been looking to even the score with the man who murdered her. He comes from a big family. His parents immigrated to the US from the Georgia when it was still part of the USSR. Nick was born into the US and served in Delta Force before being recruited into the Special Activities Division (SAD) of the CIA. He is tough, serious about serving his country, and in some ways very alone.
Q: He sounds yummy! What’s different about Holly and Nick’s story? You’ve said in some of your comments about it that it’s lighter than the other I-Team books.
A. It is lighter. After last year’s cancer battle and after Striking Distance, which dealt with some very heavy emotional issues, I needed something lighter. I think it’s the funniest I-Team story, because, well, Holly. It’s also pretty hot—again, Holly. What else could we expect? That isn’t to say it’s just humor and sex. There is some darkness in the story, starting with the way Nick and Holly come to know one another. But Holly has a way of seeing the world that brings lightness to dark moments, as Kat once observed about her.
We see most of the other I-Team members. We learn some new things about Laura and Javier’s story. We get to know Derek Tower better. Darcangelo and Hunter are still at it with the bromance and the banter. It’s getting harder and harder to fit all the couples in as the series progresses, but most of them are represented.
Q: Rumor has it that Seduction Game is the last I-Team novel and that the series is over.
A. That depends on how you define “last.” I am determined to give Joaquin his own story. I love him, and so do a lot of my readers. But after that, there will probably be a few more novellas to wrap up some plots for secondary characters and then the I-Team will head into the sunset. I don’t want to continue the series to the point where it grows stale. I’d rather end on a high note.
Right now, I’m working on An I-Team Christmas, which is proving to be a really interesting experience. That will be coming out on Nov. 17, in time for some fun holiday reading. But this isn’t your average heartwarming holiday tale. Think Die Hard meets the I-Team. There will be pretty Christmas trees and lights and lots of bullets.
Also in time for the holidays, I’ll have an I-Team shop set up at Café Press, featuring T-shirts and other things with the official I-Team logo. This is really important to me because the logo was originally designed by a close friend of mine, Lynsey Marion, who died suddenly and unexpectedly last March. She made them as a gift for me but hadn’t yet sent me the final files before she passed on. Carrie at Seductive Designs has been recreating them so that I’ll be able to use them. Keeping the logo alive and putting it to use is one way of keeping her with me.
Q. What’s after the I-Team?
A. Good question! Do you have a crystal ball? I have a handful of historical romances I’d love to write. There are a couple of spinoff series that I’d love to do, one featuring Javier and Derek’s black ops firm and the other set in Scarlet Springs, which is mentioned in Soul Deep for the first time. Scarlet Springs is a Colorado mountain town but unlike the idyllic mountain towns in so many romances, it’s a real Colorado mountain town with three marijuana shops and lots of eccentric residents. That series will include Gabe Rossiter from Naked Edge (and possibly other I-Team characters) as cross-over characters and will focus on the work of the county’s Alpine Rescue Team—the men and women who save people’s lives day in and day out in the high country. There will be hard-core climbers, skiers, helo pilots, rescue dog trainers, wildland fire fighters, paramedics, avalanche rescue people and more. I’ll be publishing the Scarlet Springs series independently.
Also, I may have a secret project up my sleeves.
Q. How fast can you write?
A. Not fast enough, though to have written a full-length novel and two novellas in a single year after the year I had last year feels pretty incredible to me.
Q: Speaking of last year, how are you doing health-wise?
A. I’m doing pretty darned well. I haven’t yet had reconstruction, and I have short hair. Those are the two things that bother me most. But I am trying to focus on things I enjoy and moving forward with life. I’m taking a painting class and have gotten started with aqua fitness classes, which I really like.
All of the test so far show no sign of cancer. I was diagnosed as stage 1c, and I've got less than a 10 percent chance of recurrence. I’m actually surprised at how well I’m living with the fear of recurrence. I simply don’t think about it, except when it’s time for my next bunch of tests. Then I get a little nervous—butterflies in the tummy, that sort of thing.
I will never say that I’m grateful for the experience, because I wasn’t. If there are survivors who feel that way, that’s fine. But I could have lived my entire life without going through chemo or radiation or losing my breasts and hair and been just fine.
The truth is that we have very little control over how and when we die, as my friend Lynsey’s sudden death proves, but we do have control over how we live our lives. I’m trying to put 100 percent of my energy into living, into writing, into joyous things so that when the day comes I’ll be able to feel I lived the best life I could live.
Pre-order your copy of Holly and Nick’s story now! Available on Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Kindle UK, and in audiobook . (The print version will be out in March 2016.)
 |
| Feel free to download or share! |
Q. Holly is a different sort of heroine, not what we’re used to from your books or in romance generally speaking. What made you so certain you wanted to give her a story?
A: Well, it’s no secret that finding a romance hero who hasn’t had sex with lots of women is like finding a four-leaf clover. They’re rare. At the same time, we find a surprisingly high number of virgin heroines in contemporary romance. I guess our culture romanticizes the notion of experienced men leading less experienced women through the wild world of sexuality.
But reality is very different than that. The last study I read found that the average number of sexual partners a US woman has had by the time she turns 40 is 12. That’s the average. All of my other heroines have fallen far short of that average, except perhaps Laura Nilsson from Striking Distance. I actually never asked her for a tally.
My point is that our fantasies about sexuality and the reality we all know and live are very different. I suspect slut-shaming plays a role in pushing heroines to the less sexually active side in romance. And that comes from the bad old double standard that has done so much to hurt women.
I consciously chose for Holly to be a more sexually expressive character 11 years ago when I started writing this series. Through the years, I’ve gotten suggestions from fans that she really hasn't slept with those men, that she’s actually a virgin and just making it up and so forth. No, no, no. She is who she is without apology. As a writer, I found that fun.
 |
| Feel free to download or share! |
Q: Tell us about Nick.
A: Nick is a good guy who is going to seem an awful lot like a bad guy. He lost the woman he loved in an operation that went south, and he’s been looking to even the score with the man who murdered her. He comes from a big family. His parents immigrated to the US from the Georgia when it was still part of the USSR. Nick was born into the US and served in Delta Force before being recruited into the Special Activities Division (SAD) of the CIA. He is tough, serious about serving his country, and in some ways very alone.
A. It is lighter. After last year’s cancer battle and after Striking Distance, which dealt with some very heavy emotional issues, I needed something lighter. I think it’s the funniest I-Team story, because, well, Holly. It’s also pretty hot—again, Holly. What else could we expect? That isn’t to say it’s just humor and sex. There is some darkness in the story, starting with the way Nick and Holly come to know one another. But Holly has a way of seeing the world that brings lightness to dark moments, as Kat once observed about her.
We see most of the other I-Team members. We learn some new things about Laura and Javier’s story. We get to know Derek Tower better. Darcangelo and Hunter are still at it with the bromance and the banter. It’s getting harder and harder to fit all the couples in as the series progresses, but most of them are represented.
 |
| Feel free to download or share! |
Q: Rumor has it that Seduction Game is the last I-Team novel and that the series is over.
A. That depends on how you define “last.” I am determined to give Joaquin his own story. I love him, and so do a lot of my readers. But after that, there will probably be a few more novellas to wrap up some plots for secondary characters and then the I-Team will head into the sunset. I don’t want to continue the series to the point where it grows stale. I’d rather end on a high note.
Right now, I’m working on An I-Team Christmas, which is proving to be a really interesting experience. That will be coming out on Nov. 17, in time for some fun holiday reading. But this isn’t your average heartwarming holiday tale. Think Die Hard meets the I-Team. There will be pretty Christmas trees and lights and lots of bullets.
Also in time for the holidays, I’ll have an I-Team shop set up at Café Press, featuring T-shirts and other things with the official I-Team logo. This is really important to me because the logo was originally designed by a close friend of mine, Lynsey Marion, who died suddenly and unexpectedly last March. She made them as a gift for me but hadn’t yet sent me the final files before she passed on. Carrie at Seductive Designs has been recreating them so that I’ll be able to use them. Keeping the logo alive and putting it to use is one way of keeping her with me.
Q. What’s after the I-Team?
A. Good question! Do you have a crystal ball? I have a handful of historical romances I’d love to write. There are a couple of spinoff series that I’d love to do, one featuring Javier and Derek’s black ops firm and the other set in Scarlet Springs, which is mentioned in Soul Deep for the first time. Scarlet Springs is a Colorado mountain town but unlike the idyllic mountain towns in so many romances, it’s a real Colorado mountain town with three marijuana shops and lots of eccentric residents. That series will include Gabe Rossiter from Naked Edge (and possibly other I-Team characters) as cross-over characters and will focus on the work of the county’s Alpine Rescue Team—the men and women who save people’s lives day in and day out in the high country. There will be hard-core climbers, skiers, helo pilots, rescue dog trainers, wildland fire fighters, paramedics, avalanche rescue people and more. I’ll be publishing the Scarlet Springs series independently.
Also, I may have a secret project up my sleeves.
Q. How fast can you write?
A. Not fast enough, though to have written a full-length novel and two novellas in a single year after the year I had last year feels pretty incredible to me.
Q: Speaking of last year, how are you doing health-wise?
A. I’m doing pretty darned well. I haven’t yet had reconstruction, and I have short hair. Those are the two things that bother me most. But I am trying to focus on things I enjoy and moving forward with life. I’m taking a painting class and have gotten started with aqua fitness classes, which I really like.
All of the test so far show no sign of cancer. I was diagnosed as stage 1c, and I've got less than a 10 percent chance of recurrence. I’m actually surprised at how well I’m living with the fear of recurrence. I simply don’t think about it, except when it’s time for my next bunch of tests. Then I get a little nervous—butterflies in the tummy, that sort of thing.
I will never say that I’m grateful for the experience, because I wasn’t. If there are survivors who feel that way, that’s fine. But I could have lived my entire life without going through chemo or radiation or losing my breasts and hair and been just fine.
The truth is that we have very little control over how and when we die, as my friend Lynsey’s sudden death proves, but we do have control over how we live our lives. I’m trying to put 100 percent of my energy into living, into writing, into joyous things so that when the day comes I’ll be able to feel I lived the best life I could live.
Pre-order your copy of Holly and Nick’s story now! Available on Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Kindle UK, and in audiobook . (The print version will be out in March 2016.)
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