Somehow it’s November, and Thanksgiving is exactly one week away. As is typical for me, I have done nothing to plan or prepare for this event, even though it looks like I’ll be so lucky as to have both of my sons, Alec and Benjamin, home for the holiday.

Benjy arrives on Sunday, which just happens to be his birthday. He’ll be 22. So we have that to celebrate.

But when it comes to Thanksgiving, plans are still in the works.

Although I love a traditional Thanksgiving spread, I’ve started to change what I’m cooking based on — wait for it — what we actually eat. Whoa! What a concept!

I used to get a 12-pound turkey for the three of us. We would fight over the breast meat and then kind of work our way through the rest. Rather than buy a whole turkey, I started buying just a turkey breast. It eliminates waste and leaves more room in the fridge. The only trouble with this is that most turkey breasts are about 7 pounds, and part of that is bone. That doesn’t leave much in the way of leftovers.

I thought I’d be clever this year and order a big, fat turkey breast, but the woman at the butcher shop told me that turkey breasts only come in 7- to 8-pound sizes. Frustrated, I explained the situation to her, and she came up with this groundbreaking solution: buy TWO!


So this year, I’m going to buy and brine two turkey breasts so that we’ll have lots of leftovers. Here’s what’s on the rest of our menu:

Tray of munchables, like olives, radishes, celery sticks, Italian peppers — This keeps hungry young men from bugging the cook.

Mashed potatoes — Greatest food invention ever.

Stuffing — Not inside the bird, obviously. With potatoes, we don’t really need it, but what is Thanksgiving without stuffing?

Some kind of squash — I have acorn and delicatta left from my garden. I steam delicatta but bake acorn squash.

Green Beans — I usually just steam them but this year I might mix them with steamed golden beats.

Broccoli or Brussel sprouts — We love both in this house, and I saw a cool recipe for oven roasting Brussel sprout halves after stirring them in a mix of apple cider vinegar, olive oil and spices.

Cranberry sauce — Nothing from a can, thank you. I make my own from fresh berries. It’s easy and tastes so much better. Plus, you can cut back on the sugar.

And for the grand finale, a homemade Pecan Pie and my first attempt ever at Maple Cream Pie, something Benjy learned to love from his years in college in upstate New York.

I’m going to be back, probably this weekend, to discuss pie-making with Natalie Benoit McBride — the heroine from Breaking Point. This is her first Thanksgiving as a married woman, and she’s pulling out the stops to make it special and romantic for herself and her husband, Zach McBride. They definitely have a lot to be thankful for this year. I had hoped to bring Dessert Diva in from the newspaper to make pies with Natalie, but that never worked out, so you’re stuck with me.

Speaking of Breaking Point, it was named one of the top 10 romances both under books and Kindle romance of 2011 by Amazon.com — a huge honor and a thrill. Right now, you can vote for Breaking Point in the Goodreads Choice Awards, where it has made the semifinal rounds and faces some amazing competition. Click here to vote, and thank you so much for your support!

This year, it’s a Colonial Christmas for me. Not only is Surrender being reissued a few weeks before Christmas, but I’ll be finishing Defiant right around the holiday. I’ll do a post soon about Colonial Christmas traditions. But for today, I thought I’d share with you why I love writing Colonial American romance.

And I do love it.

Although I do intend to try my hand at a few other periods of history, the one I enjoy most is America’s colonial history. Here’s are 10 reasons why:

10. There was no television. People turned to one another for entertainment, reading aloud, telling stories from memory, playing music, singing songs together at night.



9. It was the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment, with science supplanting religious hatreds, Church control and medievalism. People were free to think for themselves, challenge old institutions, and create new ones.



8. The romance of old technology was still there — the chandler, the cheeser, the seamstress, the vintner, the milliner, the butcher, the rope maker, the sawyer, the blacksmith, the baker, the fish monger, the cooper, the poulterer and on and on.



7. The mix of cultures is fascinating, though often tragic. I’m not just talking about American Indians and whites. I’m also talking about the mix of Europeans, too — English, Scottish, Scots-Irish, German, French, Scandinavian, Dutch and so on. They had their own religions, their own customs. And somehow this mix of Europeans — often enemies back in the old country — managed to create communities and, eventually, build a nation.



6. The class conflict. That’s a strange thing to like, I guess, but that’s always something I include in my writing. Despite how it may seem in Romancelandia, most people were not nobility. Lords and ladies made up a tiny segment of society. The stratification was very strong in Europe. It was strong, too, in the Colonies, but the frontier eroded those boundaries, including the boundaries between men and women.

5. The clothes. They weren’t as absurd as the clothing from earlier in the 18th century, nor as ridiculous and comical as 17th-century attire. There’s something about a man with a queue and a tricorn that I find really sexy. Women’s gowns ranged from functional to works of art.



4. The women were strong, brave and skilled. They had to make clothing, cook, can, garden, treat all sicknesses — and give birth to many children at home, often without help.



3. The men were tough, skilled, and strong. They had to farm, care for animals, chop firewood, hunt and fight to keep their families alive.



2. The landscape was true wilderness, giving my characters something else to overcome besides the machinations of mere mortals. The wilderness is like another character in the story.


1. Men with muskets! Need I say more?


Only 21 days till MacKinnon’s Rangers muster once again and Surrender is back on bookshelves!

Whispering Rock by Robyn Carr

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I hate it when I buy a book and then discover I already have it. Such was the case with Robyn Carr's WHISPERING ROCK. I owned it — and then spent $23+ to buy it for my iPod. Oh, well. I should check Goodreads more often to see what I already own. But I digress...

WHISPERING ROCK was a delight and helped me make it through a difficult weekend when I need escape more than anything else. As I told my mother, the VIRGIN RIVER SERIES is “comfort romance” at its best, featuring a town of heroic men and women who are thoughtful, resourceful and care about others more than themselves.

This is the third book in the series and tells the story of Brie, a tough assistant district attorney, who has just been the victim of a brutal rape, and Mike (Miguel), a friend of Brie's older brother Jack and retired cop who is himself a survivor of violent crime — and deeply attracted to Brie.

As with all the Virgin River books, readers are brought up to date on the other characters' lives. Carr has a gift for involving us in multiple story lines involving primary, secondary and even tertiary characters without losing the readers' interest. This gives Virgin River the feeling of being a real town (though I have to say its residents are a lot nicer than the residents of my town).

While Jack and Mel and Paige and Preacher — characters from the first two books — deal with their own challenges, Mike slowly helps Brie back from the brink, offering her an understanding that no one else can. Having been shot and almost killed, he knows what it's like to survive trauma. Because one of the bullets struck his groin, robbing him of his ability to get an erection, he also understands what it is to be robbed of one's sexuality, something that's very real for Brie in the wake of this terrible rape.

As a rape survivor, I guess I'm drawn to stories about healing from sexual assault because it resonates. Mike was a true hero for Brie, putting her needs before his own on every single page. And although a few times — the initial sex scene between them, for example — I felt Brie's healing was a little too miraculous, lacking the darker edges of reality, I realize there's only so much an author or a reader wants to dwell on that in a novel with a happy ending.

Overall, I felt Carr did an amazing job of crafting a trauma victim's sense of reality, showing the way post-traumatic stress takes over a person's life. (I dealt with that for five long horrible years.) In one scene, Brie faces her first night in a house alone, and I felt every moment of it with her. I have lived that night many, many times — holding the gun, staying awake almost all night long, heart racing, stomach sick, every noise making me jump. Even the thoughts Brie had were familiar to me. Carr really did her research here — or perhaps has had experiences of her own.

Fortunately for Brie, there is Mike, who provides her with the healing that many rape victims never receive. The result is a poignant, beautiful romance that left me smiling.

For those who love babies in romance, the Virgin River series delivers... no pun intended. I happen to love babies and have a real interest in midwifery and home birth, so I love it.

It's the third book in the series, and I've enjoyed them all so far. Listening to it on audiobook as opposed to reading it forced me to slow down and appreciate Carr's use of language more. She has a very smooth, silky style that seems very simple but which, in truth, requires some serious skill.

When it comes to steam, I was satisfied. I'm more interested in story than sex. I'd rather feel connected to the characters than watch them do gymnastics on the bed. There is romantic, touching sex in this story, and I think most readers of contemporary romance will enjoy it.

As a P.S., just let me add that Audible.com really ought to make certain that its narrators and voice actors can actually speak the languages they’re speaking. Mike is Latino and spoke Spanish as his first language. The narrator, bless her heart, couldn’t speak Spanish at all, and her abysmal accent made me, a multi-lingual person, cringe.



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Time flies when you’re writing a novel. Now, suddenly, summer is over. Several inches of snow lie on the ground outside, with more snow on the way. Breaking Point is six months behind me, and Defiant is 10 chapters plus an epilogue away from being done.

And suddenly, without any warning, I find myself a month away from the reissue of Surrender, the first book in the MacKinnon’s Rangers series. How can that be? Surrender wasn’t slated for release until...


Well, now that’s just a month away.

I haven’t had a historical romance out since Untamed was released in 2008. My historical readers — bless them! — are the most patient people in the world. They’ve put up with this long wait while I’ve worked on I-Team books. And now finally they’re going to get some attention.

So here’s a big ((((((((((((Hug)))))))))))) from me to those of you who consider yourselves to be fans primarily of my historical novels. Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long! Thank you so much for your patience!

For those of you who’ve never read one of my historical novels, let me introduce you to the MacKinnon's Rangers series:

Set in far upstate Colonial New York during the tumult of the French and Indian War, it tells the stories of three brothers — Iain, Morgan and Connor — exiled from the Scottish Highlands as adolescent boys who grew up alongside the Mahican Indians. Forced by an unscrupulous British officer, Lord William Wentworth, to fight in the French and Indian War against the French, who are the traditional allies of the Catholic Scottish Highlanders, they forge a new breed of warrior.

The series grew out of research I did for the third Blakewell/Kenleigh book, Ride the Fire. I had come across references to Robert Rogers and Rogers' Rangers in the course of my work on that novel, and I decided to dig deeper. Robert Rogers is considered to be the father of the U.S. Army Rangers. He combined American Indian woodcraft and fighting techniques with European techniques and created a new kind of warfare Without him — without his contributions — the French might have well won the French and Indian War.

Rogers created this new kind of warfare, establishing what was the first special forces. The Rangers were the special ops teams of their day. They fought by rules that other units knew nothing about, accomplishing deeds wearing wool, carrying awkward tumpline packs and heavy rifled muskets, and using nothing but compasses and the stars to guide them that would push today’s special forces equipped with polypro, GPS, sat phones, and modern weaponry. You’ll find no greater fans of the Rangers than among U.S. Army Rangers, who revere them.

I found this fascinating and thought I would create a series out of this concept. I love the time period and the history, so it really came together for me as a writer. I have loved writing MacKinnon’s Rangers series.

The first book in the series is titled Surrender. It sets up the series and tells the story of the eldest brother, Iain, and Lady Anne Burness Campbell, who is betrayed by her uncle and sold into indentured servitude in the Colonies. Here’s the blurb from the back of the book:

A hand-picked cadre of warriors, they had the fierce courage of their Scots forefathers, combined with the stealth and cunning of the Indians who lived beside them in the wilderness. Battling the French in no-holds-barred combat, they forged a new brand of honor, became a new breed of men…


Iain MacKinnon had been forced to serve the British crown, but compassion urged him to save the lovely lass facing certain death at the hands of the Abenaki. He’d defied his orders, endangered his brothers, his men and his mission, all for a woman. But when he held Annie’s sweet body in his arms, he could feel no regret. Though he sensed she was hiding something from him, it was too late to hold back his heart. In love and war, there are times when the only course of action is… Surrender.


The first time Surrender was released, it had a gawdawful cover. The initial rejected version (at top) showed a guy who looked like Daniel Boone standing in the distance in front of a village of tipis. There are no Native cultures in New York that lived in Plains Indian-style tipis. And what’s with those mountains? Is this the Alps? It’s certainly not the Adirondacks.



The version that was part of the books first release, above, features the same image, but with the model’s shirt removed — and his sexy chesticles hidden behind what I call a modesty plaid. Why in the world did the publisher do this? I believe the distributor was pushing them to create “family values” covers or some other nonsense. Sadly, the tipis remained. It was a terrible cover, and a lot of readers bypassed the book for that reason, which left me very sad.

The book might not have captured the attention of readers who didn’t know my name, but it did get fantastic reviews and was a RITA Finalist, which was very exciting. This inspired the initial publisher to reissue the book with a new and improved cover (below).

This version was released just before Untamed, Morgan’s book, came out. Ride the Fire was reissued at the same time with a similar cover.

But then the publisher started having trouble. Before I could start the third book in the series, Connor’s story, my editor left, and the publisher quit publishing books in print. Which meant no book for Connor. I was so afraid the series was dead, and that broke my heart.

Fortunately, my editor at Penguin, which publishes my I-Team series, was pleased enough with the I-Team to be curious about my historicals. She read them and decided she wanted the series. Keep in mind that it’s almost unheard of for a publishing company to buy a series mid-stream. But that’s what Penguin did.

Rather than just putting out Connor’s book, which is titled Defiant, they decided to buy the rights to the entire series and start over. This past summer I got the chance to so something an author rarely gets a chance to do — revisit a story and make changes.

I gave Surrender a fresh edit, changing the way some parts were written to improve them. I also added some new scenes. A few of them are events that happened “off stage” in the original version of the story but now happen on stage where the reader can experience the full scene and not just a brief recap. One of the scenes is from scratch and shares a key Lord William moment toward the end of the book.



The new cover is historically accurate in every detail — the leggings, the rifled musket, the Mahican lodge, the New York forest, the strip of MacKinnon plaid, the hero’s hair. Does it scream romance? No. But I hope it’s appealing.

I like the shiny, gold medallion that screams, “Includes New Material.”

I want to make it clear that this is a reissue, so if you’ve read Surrender, you know what happens in this book. The plot doesn’t change. But the writing is re-edited, and there are a handful of new scenes. A reader emailed to ask me whether I felt the new scenes made the new book worth buying. I can’t answer that question.

But for those of you who didn’t catch MacKinnon’s Rangers the first time around, now is your chance to get in on the ground floor before Untamed comes out in January and Defiant, Connor’s book is finally, finally released in July 2012.

Only one month to go before Iain and Annie’s story is available again!

So which version of the cover do you all like the most?

Happy Monday, everyone! I’ve asked Marie Force to join us today to talk about her new release TREADING WATER. During the months that I’ve known Marie, she’s talked repeatedly about this book and how it is the book of her life. I found her journey from writing the first page to the books release to be very moving. I thought you’d find it moving as well.

So please welcome Marie Force.

Marie Force: Thanks so much for having me, Pamela! I always love visiting with you and your readers.

Pamela Clare: I’m so glad you could make time to stop by and answer some questions. Tell us about the plot of your latest book.

MF: Sure, here is the brief synopsis for Treading Water:

Love is the last thing on Jack Harrington’s mind when he sets out to meet Andi Walsh’s flight. Recently back to work after spending more than a year tending to his comatose wife, Jack is focused on getting through each day and caring for his three daughters. However, the moment he sets eyes on Andrea Walsh, the interior designer who has come to decorate the hotel his company is building in Newport, Rhode Island, Jack begins to wonder if Andi might be his second chance.

After a disastrous marriage, Andi, single mom to a hearing-impaired son, isn’t exactly looking for love, either, but that’s what she finds with Jack. The two embark on a long-distance relationship fraught with challenges as they balance the needs of their children and dueling careers while Jack continues to care for his wife, Clare. Just when Jack thinks his life is once again settled, he is confronted with a new challenge that tests him in ways he never could’ve imagined, leaving him to wonder if “happily ever after” is in the cards for him.

PC: You’ve told me this is the book of your heart and shared journey behind this book with me. Can you share it with my readers?

MF: It is most definitely the book of my heart, Pamela! Treading Water was the first book I wrote, way back in 2005. Jack Harrington was the first character to show up fully formed in my imagination around 2002. We had a long flirtation until I finally put fingers to keys to write his story. It’s been a long journey since the day I wrote “the end” in May 2005 to last week when Treading Water was finally available for sale. I laugh all the time at how I totally overwrote the first draft of TW. It’s now 60,000 words “slimmer” than that initial version. However, I learned from that experience and it hasn’t happened again. Two sequels to TW are coming soon, Marking Time (Nov. 29) and Starting Over (Dec. 27). These three books are my favorites of all my books, so this is a very exciting time for me!

PC: I think your books are a clear example of outstanding writing and storytelling that just doesn't fit in the NY box, for example, the hero and heroine being relationships with other people at the beginning of Love at First Flight. What advice do you have for other writers whose work likewise challenges some of those rigid rules of romance?

MF: I definitely don’t fit in the NY box. That used to bother me, but it doesn’t anymore. Now that I’ve had a taste of indie publishing and enjoyed full control over every aspect of the process and made a lot of money doing it, I’m grateful for all the rejections I received over the years. Every one of them led me to the place where I am now, and I’m in a very happy, indeed. As for those rigid rules you mentioned, I refer to Treading Water, Marking Time and Starting Over as the books I wrote before I “knew better.” I believe my ignorance made them better books than they would’ve been if I wrote them today with all my knowledge of “the rules.” I strongly advocate that authors write books they are passionate about. If we don’t love our own books how can we expect that anyone else will? The good news is that if your square-peg book doesn’t fit into traditional publishing’s round hole, you have many options you wouldn’t have had even a couple of years ago. (I didn’t intend for that metaphor to get dirty, but hey, I’m a romance writer!)

PC: Much has been made (and justifiably so) of your success as a self-published author. Certainly, you've been a huge help and inspiration for me and others. Where do you see publishing a year or two down the road?

MF: Oh boy, that’s a loaded question! In light of economic realities, I think traditional publishing will have no choice but to focus on their bestselling name-brand authors. I predict a long, cold winter ahead for mid-list and debut authors who are hoping to break out or break in. I’m not sure where this strategy will leave publishing in the long run as the name-brand authors won’t be writing forever, and with little attention given to their successors a vacuum of sorts will be created.

I’ve noticed hardly any new romance deals are being reported to Publisher’s Marketplace these days. I’m not sure if that’s because no one is reporting them or because there’re none to report, but that’s an interesting and worrisome development. Authors looking to break into publishing may have to try alternative routes to find their footing, and I think more and more new authors will skip the query stage to strike out on their own as independent publishers.

That said, I don’t think anyone should put the first book they write up for sale and expect it to jump-start a career. Authors far more successful than me who’ve been leaders in self-publishing recommend that you write two to three books before you even CONSIDER self-publishing. I agree with that advice. I also believe that quantity and momentum are as important to an indie author as quality writing and editing. Just like in traditional publishing, the more books you have for sale the better your chances are of breaking out. However, be very, very careful posting a book that’s not ready for prime time. You can do so much more harm than good to your career by posting a book before its time.

PC: So if a traditional publisher came a’calling next week and offered you a million dollars for your next book, what would you do?

MF: LOL! Another loaded question! My response to an offer like that would depend ENTIRELY on ebook royalties and whether there would be a time limit on how long the publisher would own my ebook rights. I’d be very wary of signing any contract that would more or less ensure that even my grandchildren wouldn’t be able to get the rights back to my books. Back in the day, books went out of print and rights reverted back to authors rather neatly (well, sometimes it was neat). Ebooks never go “out of print,” so as long as they’re still selling in reasonable numbers, an author has no hope of ever again owning the rights to her work. To make a long answer longer, like anyone I could be seduced by the lure of big money, but I’m far more concerned these days about royalties and rights reversion than I am about a big advance.

PC: What's your next project?

MF: I expect to spend much of 2012 working on the McCarthys of Gansett Island series that began last June with Maid for Love and continued with Fool for Love and Ready for Love. I’m working on Book 4, Falling for Love, now and hope to have it out early next year. I have at least three more books in mind for that series, maybe more. I’m also looking forward to getting to work on the next Fatal Series book, tentatively titled Fatal Attack, which would follow book 4, Fatal Flaw, which is due out February 6.

PC: How does a busy working mom find time to write?

MF: Ummm….well, nights, weekends, holidays, vacations, before work… It’s a tough balancing act, especially now that I’m running a growing business as a writer. With a busy day job and two teenagers to supervise, I find myself juggling a lot of balls all the time, but somehow it all gets done. I keep waiting for my head to explode! LOL! I’m also in favor of any legislative measure that would add a few more hours to the day!

Thanks again for having me and for the great questions!

Thank you, Marie! And best of luck with Treading Water, as well as your writing.

Now, Marie is exceedingly busy. However, if you have questions for her, feel free to post them. She’ll be checking back to answer as she has time.