Pamela: Goodness! Get personal? Okay, I can do that.

I am 39, born on Leap Day in 1964. (That means I'm actually only 9, turning 10 next year, and a Pisces with a Cancer ascendant.) I come from a biracial family - Irish, English, Cherokee. (As my younger sons says, "We're made up of enemies.") I am descended from a Cherokee chief and have cousins on the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma. I grew up with Irish music and Cherokee attitudes toward nature and gardening (they were awesome farmers).

I am divorced with two teen-age sons, Alec, 16, and Benjy, 13. Those of you who've read SWEET RELEASE are going, "Aha!" Yes, I named the hero in SR after Alec. Jamie is derived from the "jam" in Benjamin, so Jamie in CARNAL GIFT is in honor of Benjy.

I grew up in Colorado in a family that spent its time outdoors. My father was a mountain climbing instructor during his college years, and he took us up into the foothills and mountains with him almost every weekend, luring us down the trail with Hershey bars. Some of my earliest memories are of hiking and climbing around on rocks. As a result, the mountains around Boulder, where I live, feel very personal to me. I know the trails, the plants, and the wildlife quite well and have worked as a volunteer naturalist for Mountain Parks, leading hikes and such. Over the years, I have had close encounters with mountain lions, a mama bear and three cubs, eagles, foxes, coyotes galore, red-tail hawks, deer, elk - you name it. I love nature and wildlife, and my family has always had a close tie to the landscape.

For most of my life, the outdoors has been a big part of my life, as my weekends were spent hiking, climbing, and skiing. It really is the center of my family's existence. But I had a near fatal climbing accident in 1994 and haven't been very physical since. I've gained a lot of weight as I've tried to recover from pretty severe injuries, and I've never managed to get back in shape, although I have reclimbed the mountain that nearly killed me and last year won a fitness competition at the gym.

My brother is now a mountain and rock and ice climbing instructor, and in December summitted the highest mountain the Western Hemisphere - Aconcogua. I was very afraid while he was away, as more people die on Acon (as we call it) every year than on Mt. Everest. (Last year, 18 people died climbing Acon.) While my brother was away and out of contact, I dreamed that he was trying to connect a piece of equipment to the mountain and realized that where he was about to connect the equipment were the frozen feet of a partially buried corpse. When he got back (safely!), I told him about the dream, and he told me that he had been about to set up his tent and realized that he was looking at a corpse's frozen feet at the place he had intended to put it. The dead climber's feet had become unburied.

(Yes, I have prophetic dreams and visions on a fairly regular basis, while I'm asleep and in sweat lodge and whenever. Benjy is alive because of a dream I had. But that's a different topic.)

So the mountains and climbing has been a big part of my life until the past decade. I still try to hike when I can, but writing has made a dent in my free time. To be truthful, there is no free time anymore. I work Monday through Friday, then try to do everything else, including write on my works in progress, on the weekends. It makes for a very hectic life. When I'm on deadline, my kids spend most of their time with their father.

Let's see, back to your question - getting personal - I have some white fuzzy slippers, and I have a pair of blue slippers that have moons on the toes. Both are falling apart and have holes in them. I only wear jammies when I'm writing or slobbing around. I have some silk ones, and I have an old ratty black cotton tank-top-style nightgown I wear all the time. The trouble with it is that my boobs fall out of it, so I have to cover up if someone is around.

I live in a tri-level home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms and a very big yard with a giant flower garden that I never have time to tend. I LOVE flowers, absolutely cherish flowers. So I have a rose garden and a garden that mixes all sorts of things, from Russian sage bushes to roses to goblin flower and delphiniums and rose mallow and, well, everything. People stop on the sidewalk and say, "I love your flowers!" But I only see the weeds everywhere and spend my summers wishing I could make the flowers pretty.

I love birds, too, and have a gazillion bird feeders. I like to fill them up, then sit down to write and watch the birds go crazy. I call it "turning on Bird TV." Benjy also loves birds, so he and I are always watching out the car windows for birds. We see kestrels, red tailed hawks, turkey vultures, bald and golden eagles, and other kinds of hawks and falcons every day, as well as meadowlarks and red-winged blackbirds, which we both love. I'm very lucky to have three very large mature trees in my yard.

Both Alec and Benjy are doing very well in school. I spent my junior high and high school years smoking pot and doing other drugs, but my kids are pretty darned straight. They have good friends and get along with their teachers. Benjy is in the TAG program (talented and gifted). Both of them write. Alec is in the midst of a sci-fi/fantasy novel, and Benjy has written several novellas, short 30- to 60-page stories. One had to do with a young boy who ran away to fight with the French during WWI. The others have been related to Star Trek. I adore and cherish them, but I don't spend as much time with them as I like. I do take pride in the fact that both of them are interested in writing and write very well. (Their father is a university professor, so I don't think I can take all the credit.)

I'm a Trekkie, though I haven't had time to watch it for years. I loved "Star Wars" as a kid, and I love the "Lord of the Rings" movies as a grownup. I want to have ten children with Viggo Mortensen. It will be tricky as I was fixed after Benjy was born, but Viggo doesn't have to know that. It will just take lots of EFFORT. I am willing to work up a sweat. ;-)

Probably the most significant thing in my past is the time I spent in Denmark. Those years transformed me. I left home at seventeen as an exchange student and went to a little town in Denmark called Sor�. It was the best year of my life. I went to school at Sor� Akademi (you can find it on the Internet by searching yahoo.dk), which was built in 1,000 as a monastery. It was converted into a boarding school for the male elite - aristocracy, royalty, others - after the Reformation in the 15th century. It was still a boy's boarding school when I was there in 1982, but girls who lived in the surrounding community were allowed to attend on a day-school basis.

So I ended up in a class with a millionaire gymnast, the son of Denmark's most famous actress, the son of an ancient aristocratic family, and others. As my trip to Europe was as much a quest to lose my virginity as anything else, this was ideal. And lose my virginity I did - on May 1, 1982 - to the millionaire gymnast. With the body of a god, he could easily be RBL wallpaper. I should send a photo.

Anyway, I was very shy when I arrived there, only to find that people didn't want me there. I was spat on, yelled at, cursed - all because I was American. They'd had American exchange students before, and in each and every case there had been trouble. Rule-breaking, drugs, violence, refusal to learn the language, etc. People seemed to blame me for Reagan's foreign policy, as well. The man who was the liaison between me and the organization that sponsored my exchange told me, "We don't want you here. We tried to cancel our involvement with the exchange student program, but it was too late. We had to take one more American, and you're it."

Welcome to Denmark.

I decided to try to prove to them that not all Americans were alike and set about immediately to learn their language, which isn't easy. Within two months, I had quit speaking English. By six months, I was fluent. After a year, I spoke it with no accent, and no one could tell I wasn't Danish unless I told them. In the process, I discovered I had a gift for languages. The fact that I spoke Danish broke the ice. My classmates, who had ignored me for the most part, began to talk with me. (I was so shy they didn't know I spoke Danish until one night when I got really drunk at a class party - there's no drinking age in Denmark - and ended up lying on the floor on my stomach speaking in Danish about who-knows-what.) We became very, very close. I didn't have much money, but they did. When the entire class decided to travel to Rome for spring break, they paid my way. I will never forget that trip as long as I live. (I went back to visit in 1999. It was so good to see all of them again. I have a bit of an accent now. Strangers ask me if I'm from Scotland.)

People in Denmark began to hear about me. The American girl who speaks Danish. People I NEVER met deposited money in my account or called up to see if I would come speak at their school or come to dinner at their house. At the end of the year, the organization that had sponsored me held a farewell dinner. The president of the organization said, "This was going to be the last year of our exchange program with America, but we wanted to let you know that because of you, we have decided to renew our participation."

I felt like I had conquered the world.

There is SOOOO much more to tell: My Danish host brother, pure Viking blood and 6-foot-3 of man; my wonderful host parents who saved my life in so many ways and are like real parents to me; my time in Danish forests, castles; going topless in public; traveling all over Europe. If you want more, let me know. I'm writing a book about it some day.

I came back from Denmark reluctantly after three years. I had tried to stay there because I absolutely fell in love with the country. My engagement to Mr. Gymnast fell through because he couldn't keep his hands off other women, and I refused to marry someone who was conflicted BEFORE the wedding. I went through major culture shock coming back. I hadn't spoken English for a long time, and everyone in the U.S. thought I was from England. I ended up getting married right away - on the rebound I guess. I got pregnant almost immediately.

I went to college, had a second child, got a degree in Classics (Latin, Greek, archaeology), ended up going to graduate school and teaching Art History at CU for a couple of years. Then I remembered my GRAND PASSION.

You asked about my GRAND PASSION. For all of my life it has been one thing: writing. All I had ever wanted to do since I was a little girl was be a novelist. I'd read all kinds of books but had decided I liked romances best by the time I was fifteen. I realized that staying in college and working on a Ph.D. was just a fancy way of avoiding writing. So I dropped out. Everyone thought I was nuts. I got a job at a local newspaper to hone my writing skills and moved up the ladder until I became that paper's first woman editor. Under my watch, the paper won five national awards, including the National Journalism Award for Public Service, which we accepted at the National Press Club across from the White House. I focused on hard-core investigative journalism, women's rights, and Native rights as a journalist, which is what I still do. I'm at a different paper now, and I am also the first woman editor at that paper.

I started researching SWEET RELEASE when I dropped out of college and won First Place in the Heart of the Rockies contest on the first two chapters in 1994. Then I fell climbing, and, well, it took me forever to finish it. But that's another story.

Another significant personal thing: I survived attack by knife wielding would-be gang rapists and was saved from being gang-raped by a margin of seconds by two police officers. This resulted in my having some serious emotional trauma to deal with for several years.

Vic and Beaty: What do your family and your professional peers think about the genre you write in? Have they read SWEET RELEASE? Are they helpful with critiques, or do they crinkle their noses and say "WHAT? You wrote WHAT? You wrote THAT?!"

Pamela: My family has been wonderful. They've been extremely supportive and shared the excitement with me. My sister, who lives in Sweden, reads everything as I write it, so she's been sitting back saying, "I told you it was good. I TOLD you!"

Most of my peers have been supportive - the people at Boulder Weekly, where I work now, have been so wonderful. Most of them have bought my book and are reading it. Some former co-workers from my other paper were overheard making fun of it, but it doesn't faze me. They clearly don't know how much work goes into a romance novel.

The reaction in the community has largely been surprise. In Boulder, I'm known as a pretty hardcore feminist journalist. So for most people - who think in stereotypes both of feminists and romance novels - it's hard to bridge that gap. Westword's media reporter did an article on just that. But I have been making a case for years that romance novels are very pro-woman and people are starting to listen.

Vic and Beaty: Is it hard to switch from being the newspaper journalist by day and romance writer EXTRAORDINAIRE by night? How DO you juggle being a full time journalist, mother and author?

Pamela: Gee, thanks for saying that! Switching hats is the hardest thing about my life. Journalism and romance writing don't have much in common. They come from different areas of the brain, I'm certain. I work so late that the only time I have to write is the weekend, and there are always so many things to do - pay bills, run errands, clean the house, etc. I feel very pressed for time ALL the time, and it results in no small amount of stress.

I just do the best I can each day, making sure things that must be done are done and going from there. I don't have a social life at all. I don't date. I don't see films. I don't watch TV ever. I don't shop. I don't do anything but work.

Vic and Beaty: Why did you choose to write in the romance genre instead of the more mainstream genre?

Pamela: I love romances, first of all. And most of what I've read in my life, if we count sheer volume of pages, is romance novels. I've read all the classics, all the serious stuff, and it's great, but I don't enjoy it as much. I do have "literary" things I'd like to write - my Denmark story, for example. But I felt writing romance would give me a place to start, a way of establishing myself. I don't see myself giving up writing romance to write other things. I want to work other things into writing romance.

And, hey, I love sex. What can I say? I love the spice of romance novels.

Vic and Beaty: Who was your first "hero"? What male figure inspired you (fiction or non fiction)? Same question in regards to a "heroine."

Pamela: THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER was the romance that first grabbed my heart. I'd have to say both the hero and heroine in that story really touched me. I can't for the life of me remember their names. I haven't read it in years. But that flavor of romance - with powerful men and strong, wonderful women - stayed with me. It's what I look for when I read a romance.

Vic and Beaty: Your debut novel is historical - early Americana. It's GREAT to have a new author writing in that period and geographical area (there are too few). Do you plan to go on to other eras and places? Is contemporary in your future??? Will you continue on with Cassie and Alec?

Pamela: My next book, CARNAL GIFT, is a sequel to Cassie and Alec's story. It features Jamie, who is only four in SWEET RELEASE, as a 29-year-old who has traveled to Britain (Ireland, England) on business vital to the Colonies. He ends up in a world of trouble, thanks to his attraction to a young Irish woman.

This is the result of some market interference, I must say. I had planned for it to take place in the Colonies, but was strongly encouraged to change my mind. Fortunately, a great concept came out of it, and I am so IN LOVE with my characters in CARNAL GIFT right now. Those of you who like sex right off will get something to tide you over, but the consummation of the relationship doesn't happen until after page 300. The book is going to be close to 500 pages.

I'm happy I'm doing a sequel because I would miss Cassie and Alec far too much. I got to mention them in Chapter One, and that felt SO GOOD. I missed them so badly. When I finished writing SWEET RELEASE, I started bawling because I realized I wasn't going to be hanging with Cassie and Alec anymore. So sequels are good.

My third book returns to the Colonies and tells the story of Cassie and Alec's son, Nicholas. After that, I'm going to take a short break from historicals to write a contemporary - a very steamy story (based on real life) of a journalist (who'd have guessed?) who meets and falls in love with a senator (forbidden). The two of them end up in a lot of trouble. I have a series of journalist-heroine stories I'd like to write. I've experienced so much as a journalist - I've been stalked, gotten gobs of death threats, been threatened in other, more serious ways, been clubbed by a cop, spent time in jail for a story, seen death and mayhem.

Then I'd like to get back to a few more historicals. I think I'm going to continue that way: a couple historicals and a contemp. Historicals are very time consuming because of the research - if you want to get it right!

I have a couple of medievals in mind, but truly I want to stay in America. My roots are here on a very deep level. My white ancestors came over in 1610. I grew up on the land, and it feels right to me to write about things happening in the Colonial period or maybe in the West. Supposedly those settings don't sell. Hmm. We'll see about that.

But I gave Cassie and Alec seven kids for a reason - I can always go back to them when I miss them too much.

Vic and Beaty: What's next in the "cooker"??? Come on, give us the scoop!

Pamela: CARNAL GIFT will be out in December. They're working on the cover art now. I'm very behind in finishing it and need to get busy!! Here's a little blurb about it:

Br�ghid N� Maelsechnaill has more than enough reason to hate the English. The accursed sasanach took her family's land, starved her mother, and sold her father into slavery. Her hatred grows the night she is taken captive by the local English lord and handed over to a tall, mysterious sasanach as a carnal gift, a plaything for his pleasure. Jamie Blakewell is shockingly handsome and somehow different from other Englishmen she has met. With a simple touch, he kindles a forbidden desire inside her, and Br�ghid discovers the line between hate and love can be dangerously thin.

Jamie Blakewell has come to the British Isles from Virginia on business crucial to the survival of the American colonies. He doesn't have time for the beautiful, young Irish woman whose dark hair, sweet face, and defiant gaze catch his eye. Nor does he have tolerance for her hatred of everything English. When she is given to him by a corrupt English lord, Jamie realizes he must pretend to claim Br�ghid in order to protect her innocence. But can he protect her from himself?

(And the answer to that question is, as we all know - "NO!")

Chapter One is on my website, in its entirety, though I have made some little changes to it. Click on "The Novels," and scroll down to the bottom to find CARNAL GIFT. Then click on "Read an excerpt."

Vic and Beaty: Let's talk about your characters. You've said that Alec and Cassie have been with you for a very long time. You obviously love them a great deal. Where did they come from and where did this story begin? Are they parts of people you've known or read about that you admire? Or did they just pop into your head and you built on them from there? Did they "listen" to you or did you have to bribe them to get them to do what you wanted?

Pamela: Cassie and Alec fell into my head, the way most of my characters do. The first scene that came to me was the one in which he wakes up, doesn't know where he is, and grabs her around the neck and threatens to kill her. The whole scene fell into my brain, together with the concept that she would OWN him.

I think Cassie is a lot of me. I gave her a lot of my own sensibilities. I gave her my hair, my mouth, my attitudes.

Alec came from my heart. He's exactly what I want. (Gimme some o' that!) I wrote from my own sense of desire in creating him.

I made a 30-page outline before I started writing, but my characters veered from it pretty quickly. I found myself talking with them, arguing with them. But I gave them free reign. The scene where Zach and Luke punch each other out was one they came up with themselves. I was just laughing as I typed it and wondering, like Cassie, what the hell they were up to.

Vic and Beaty: Was Alec OK with the whipping? Or did he give you a hard time about it?

Pamela: Alec was very brave. When he realized what his options were - he really had none thanks to Geoffery - his sole focus became survival. He had to survive to help Cassie. As long as he survived and was strong enough to go after her, he was willing to shoulder any amount of physical pain, though naturally he wasn't excited about it. His concern in that scene is exclusively for her.

I ADORE him.

It's funny that you single that scene out because so many people (romance-reading acquaintances) reacted with shock when I told them the hero was flogged. They couldn't fathom that level of violence in a romance. It made me wonder if I had a screw loose. But no one who has read it has complained about that scene.

Key to a powerful romance hero: Make him suffer! Put him through his paces. Why is he a hero? Why do we want our heroine to end up with him as opposed to the guy who works in the drive-thru at Wendy's? He has to be extraordinary. In order to prove how extraordinary he is, he must face really terrible odds. That's my concept of hero-building.

Vic and Beaty: Your love scenes are nice and spicy - just the way we like them. *VBG* Do you think about how readers are going to react to those scenes as you're writing them? Do you put "limits" on yourself in that area?

Pamela: The publishing company puts limits on it. My two uses of the word "fuck" - spoken by Alec first in the prologue when he's with his mistress, and again in the shackles scene - were deleted. That was sad.

When I first wrote the scenes, I did put limits on myself. I thought, "Pam, you know you're more open sexually than most women. You came of age in Denmark where there are so few limitations. Don't write things that will freak people out." But I rewrote them all just before the novel sold (the publisher bought the book with the old sex scenes, but loved the new ones). I rewrote them - and added the shackles scene - in one all-nighter. This time, I went more after my own preferences (future lovers of mine, take note!). I figured people who didn't want to read them wouldn't read them, but I didn't want to write books that are not me.

Vic and Beaty: The touch of magic you added to the story with Takotah is very intriguing and adds to the richness of the book. Where did Takotah come from?

Pamela: Native culture is a part of my life. Spiritually, I follow the Native path. I could never set a book in North America without acknowledging the people of the First Nations. As a reporter, I cover Native issues because so few people have the background or cultural understanding or even the willingness to enable them to do a good job of it. It's natural that Native characters should work their way into my stories in ways that are respectful to Native culture. I don't write Indian romances because I generally don't find them respectful of the culture.

Vic and Beaty: Your writing has been compared to the INcomparible Virginia Henley, as well as Kathleen Woodiwiss and Rosemary Rogers. VERY elite company and an ULTIMATE compliment to you. And what these comparisons mean is that you have brought back a bit of the "taste" of the GREAT vintage and original "flavor" of what the genre started out as, and maybe what we as readers find missing these days. How do you feel about these comparisons, and why did you "dare" to "go there" when other authors (including those you are compared to) have wandered away from because of publisher pressure?

Pamela: Wow! Thanks! Gosh, I'm so out of it when it comes to market research I didn't realize publishers had wandered away from anything. I just wrote the story that was in my heart, tried to make the history and the people real. If I had known I was doing something daring, I would have been terrified. I wrote SWEET RELEASE in a vacuum, unaware of market pressures. I hope I can continue to do that, even though I'm now part of the market.

As for the comparison to such great authors, when I read the first review that made that comparison, I cried my eyes out. There is no greater compliment in my mind than to be compared to these great writers. It still amazes me today. My response is to say, "Wow! Do you really think so?"

I want to keep writing stories that are built around deep passion, strong emotions, and epic events in the lives of real people. My characters write so much of the story that my biggest job is to "free" my characters and let them be who they are.

I love the term "vintage romance" which has been used for my novel several times, and I might latch onto that phrase.

Vic and Beaty: You have been through some very trying times in your personal life, with a divorce and near fatal accident that put your life as well as your book on hold for some time. But you received a letter from "Alec" that turned you around and gave you the courage and strength to go on. Would you tell us about that? And may we include that letter in this interview, because it is truly an inspiration and what romance and dreams are made of?

Pamela: Sure. It's very romantic and heart-rending. I found this letter on my keyboard not too long after I had divorced my husband of ten years. I was in the midst of physical therapy for my mountain climbing accident, and was working full-time at a newspaper as a columnist and arts and entertainment editor. I had reached a point of hopelessness about ever finishing SWEET RELEASE.

But my hero from that novel reached across time to rescue me. Here's what he wrote:

24 April, 1730
In the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord, King George VI

My dearest Lady Clare,

Although I am but a humble builder of ships, knowing little of the craft and art of writing, it pains both me and my love, Cassie, to hear of your doubts regarding your abilities to bring to life our romance. Know this, sweet Lady Clare: We have the greatest faith in your talents and trust in your vision of our love. Not only am I Cassie's hero, but yours. You have given me the breath of life. I live - an honest and honorable man, strong and sure of myself - because of the life you impart to me upon the page.

Lady Clare, Pamela, listen to your heart. You are not simply a writer, you are a storyteller, a weaver of tales. Listen to the cadence of our love - Cassie's and mine - in your soul. Trust in it, because we have trust in you. Revel in it, because in your act of creating, we live.

You will finish this book. You will bring our love alive for women and me everywhere to read. Remember me, your hero. And Cassie, your heroine. We are only as far away as your pen, only as far away as a heartbeat.

Your loving and loyal servant,
Alec Madison Kenleigh III

The letter was written by my ex-husband, perhaps the sweetest thing he'd every done for me. It was a profound act of faith in my writing abilities, and it gave me the strength to push on and eventually finish the novel.

Vic and Beaty: We would like to conclude this interview with a question to one of your characters. Is it okay to ask Takotah a question? Our question to her would be, "Why did you stay? Was it love?"

Pamela: When I saw this question, I got all weepy! You have read between the lines and discovered something that no one else has yet discovered, a little gem tucked away in the story. So I got in touch with Takotah for you.

Takotah says:
What I say now, I have said to no one. I tell you now only because you have seen something no one else has seen. I will not speak these words again.

Creator saw fit to bring me to this family when I was dying. Though they were white, they healed me. Through their kindness I survived, even though my children and husband did not.

At first I stayed because I owed them a life debt. I realized Creator had brought me to this family to care for them and teach them the ways of healing known to my People.

Then my grief passed and my heart began to heal, and I found my heart was filled with thoughts of Abraham, Cassie's father. Had he been one of the People, he might have taken me as a second wife. But among whites, men have only one wife.

And so I remained and healed their sicknesses. It was the only way I had to give him what was in my heart. To be able to care for a man again as I once did my husband gave me new life. It was a blessing.

But Abraham's soul was tied to that of his wife. And when she died, his soul made the long journey with hers. So I cared for what was left of him in this world: his body and his children.

I have kept my feelings secret all these years. Cassie suspects. I can see it in her eyes, but she knows some things are not meant to be spoken.

This is all I have to say. I will not speak of it again.

Thanks for the thoughtful questions! Thanks for interviewing me. I am totally flattered and humbled and hope I haven't bored you all to tears! Hugs!

Thank you, Pamela, for taking the time to share so much of yourself with us. You've made this a very special interview. We call you "sister," and now we call you "Author EXTRAORDINAIRE."

~Vic and Beaty~





Ketchup
March 2005



Some "talk" about RIDE THE FIRE:

This is one emotionally charged, breathtaking trip into early American history. Reminiscent of Cooper's THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, RIDE THE FIRE takes readers through the terror of an Indian raid, a wild ride to safety, and a burgeoning love between two people trying to run from their pasts ... Realistic dialogue and very detailed research along with beautiful writing make RIDE THE FIRE a terrific novel, and one not to be missed.

Jane Bowers, "Romance Reviews Today"

RIDE THE FIRE is a brilliant masterpiece to be savored like a fine wine. It's a journey to hell and back, with characters so rich, so endearing you can almost hear their voices, smell their scent, feel their heartbeats. You glory in their strength, celebrate their joy, feel their love; a true journey of the heart. RIDE THE FIRE is the reason why I read. If you read only one author in 2005, give yourself a gift and make it Pamela Clare. Even though RIDE THE FIRE stands alone in its beauty and magnificence, treat yourself to the whole trilogy. I will hold these stories in my heart forever. You will, too.

Suzanne Tucker, "The Best Reviews"

... the author pulls you into an amazing, sensually romantic adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat and turning the pages into the wee hours of the morning! The historical events are well researched and the characters are brought to life with a perfectly sumptuous sensuality that will raise your temperature ... this was one deliciously steamy and exhilarating read.

Marilyn, HistoricalRomanceWriters.com

Pamela Clare is like the great Virginia Henley and worthy of Kathleen Woodiwiss.

RT BookClub



Virginia Henley, Kathleen Woodiwiss. More than high praise, truly an honor well deserved, and not to be given lightly, to be spoken of in the same vein as two of THE most prolific writers in the history of the modern romance genre. Pamela Clare has lived up to those comparisons in her first two novels, and she continues in her newest release, RIDE THE FIRE.

"Brilliant masterpiece" seems to be a recurring phrase used for Pamela Clare�s newest historical novel, and I can only echo those words to describe my own feelings as I burned my way through this magnificent book - wanting to hurry to the next page, yet wanting to hold on to every single word and not reach the end. RIDE THE FIRE is the book that we have missed so dearly in our historical reading. It is the epic we miss, it is what romantic historical writing was in the past and is meant to be in our future.

When I asked Pamela to do this Ketchup, she said, "Good Lord, everyone already knows everything about me � they�ll be bored!" So, okay, we do know Pamela on a very personal level as she is one of our RBL "sisters," but this is about a book I believe is stunning and the best of her short, yet, I am certain, very long and successful career as a writer of fine books. Pamela is more than an author, she is a storyteller � there is a difference.

So here she is, our OWN Pamela Clare to talk to us about her "brilliant masterpiece," including discussion of some very important issues regarding her beautiful story - as well as to give us a passage that will explain and clarify a possible controversial topic.

Vic: RIDE THE FIRE concludes the Kenleigh/Blakewell Family trilogy, and it is the story of Alec and Cassie�s son, Nicholas, and a woman named Elspeth Stewart. I think many of us are very sad to say goodbye to a family we�ve loved and enjoyed so very much. And before we begin to talk about the book itself, can you tell us about YOUR "journey," your "ride through fire" to complete this story that was the beginning of a new, wonderful career for you?

Pamela: I�m a single mom, and I have a very demanding job as a newspaper editor, so I have very little free time. Writing fiction means doing nothing else. I don�t watch TV. I don�t go out. I don�t do most of the things other people do, because I have to stay 100 percent focused on work.

When I first tried to write fiction, I was overwhelmed by how hard it was. I would work all week and then try to hammer out some pages with a six-year-old and a nine-year-old running around the house, needing their mommy. I almost gave up but my ex stepped in, writing in the voice of my hero Alec Kenleigh, to encourage me to continue. I did, and eventually the book I�d been working on sold as SWEET RELEASE.

The sequel, CARNAL GIFT, was in some ways much harder to write. I was afraid of disappointing readers who�d liked SR, and I was pretty convinced that I couldn�t repeat what I had done with SR. It had taken me SEVEN years to write SR, and now I had one year to write CG. HA!

Well, it took one year and a month, but I did it. The manuscript was then cut by one hundred pages to make it fit the bindings that had already been printed. OUCH!

Then I started on RIDE THE FIRE. The characters were so strong in my mind that, in some ways, writing RTF was so much easier than my two previous books. Plus I think I�m improving at my craft. But with RTF the issue was physical and emotional endurance.

Let me put it this way: I haven�t had a weekend off since I started writing CARNAL GIFT. OK, perhaps that�s a lie. I�ve had a FEW weekends off in THREE years. I work seven days a week, often until the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes I get two or three hours of sleep before heading into the newspaper to do a full day�s work. And I�m always writing. I wrote more than 215,000 words of fiction last year, and 800 words to 3,000 words of news each week. That�s a lot of writing.

Toward the end of RTF, I was writing with almost no sleep day after day, so caught up in my story that I had a hard time remembering anything else, like why I was in the car or where I was going. I got caught in public speaking out loud to Nicholas, the hero. (Just slightly embarrassing.) I also developed a major addiction to caff� latt�.

But the hardest part was just finishing the story emotionally. I didn�t want to let go of the people I love so much. I wrote a 70-page last chapter, then I had to cut from it, knowing it wouldn�t work or fit or even be fun to read. I was just writing about my characters to stay with them. Then I reworked that ending a few times, trying to hit the right notes. And when I was done, I was as close to being a complete wreck as a person can be and still be walking and talking. OMG! It was terrible! Talk about post-partum depression! I cried for weeks. I still get teary talking about RTF.

It seems to have been worth it, however, as people�s reactions to this story have been, for the most part, incredible. It�s reassuring, because I put my soul into this book, every last wispy bit of it.

Vic: I think your research was (is always) exhaustingly accurate, to the compliment, and not detriment, of a very beautiful love story. Can you tell us a bit about your research and why you feel compelled to speak historical truth � good or bad?

Pamela: I�ve always been fascinated with history, starting with a day in sixth grade when an archaeologist visited our class with some little potsherds from ancient Greece. I held one in my hand, and it was like time travel. I realized that someone, probably a woman, had actually made this object more than 2,000 years ago. I found myself wondering what her life had been like, whether she had liked the pot when it was finished, what she had used it for.

That love of history only grew when I lived in Europe. In Denmark, you can take a walk through the forest � they have some amazing primordial forests there � and trip over the foundations of what was once an old castle, or find a Viking rune stone or the remains of an old city wall. Also, there are lots of castles, some dating back to the middle ages, that I was able to tour, along with churches built before the year 1,000. The school I attended had been built in 1,000 as monastery, then converted to a boarding school after the Reformation. I took advantage of being there to tour Europe as much as possible. I wandered through the Forum Romanum in Rome, stood where Caesar stood. I ate lunch in the courtyard of a home that had been buried by the explosion of Vesuvius in Pompeii, walked through halls of European palaces with gold leaf on the walls, touched frescoes that were 1,000 years old. The experiences made my skin tingle, even made me cry.

So I guess you could say I�ve spent many years � including my years in college, where I studied classical archaeology � absorbing history. I love that moment when I can feel the human imprint left on a place by people so long ago, when I can connect with them and be a part of their world. They were human beings just like us, but their lives were so radically different in so many fascinating ways.

So when I write a historical novel, I want to capture the truth of that period because that�s what real people had to cope with. Those are the circumstances they endured. If their lives were just like ours, they wouldn�t be very interesting. What�s so delightful about historical fiction is its ability to take us away to that period, to submerge us in experiences we could never have otherwise.

Some of the past is romantic; some of it is violent. That�s just how it was. And yet people loved and lived and raised children and went on with their lives, tried to make the world better, just as we would do in the face of crisis or catastrophe.

There is drama and conflict and passion in that struggle, and I love that. For me, historical research isn�t about collecting a bunch of dry facts, but about connecting with real people who lived on this earth years ago. I need to feel the past. I need to BE there. I make the assumption that readers want to be there, too.

Vic: One review of RTF refers to your historical accuracy as (and maybe not in a positive manner) as "grit," and "not for the gentle reader." While you were writing, did it ever once occur to you that RTF might not be for a "gentle reader?" Did it occur to you that "grit" might not be what "modern" romance readers want? Talk to us about why you feel so strongly about historical accuracy and detail.

Pamela: You know, I don�t think I thought about that at all at first. Nicholas, the hero from RTF, sprang into my mind fully formed down to the tiniest (very yummy) detail. I literally knew everything about him from the first moment he came into my mind, and I was so deeply moved by his story that I didn�t sit down to dissect it and consider the "market." I simply had to tell his story. In fact, he crept into CARNAL GIFT, and I ended up having to cut him out. That�s how powerful he was in my mind.

In retrospect, I�m glad I didn�t think about it, because I would have worried about reviews rather than storytelling. I don�t write books for reviewers; I write them for readers. And the first person who has to read my books is I, so it has to satisfy me. Most of the time, I don�t enjoy "light and breezy" reads. I like meat on the bone, so to speak, so I guess I try to write stories that have meat.

I know that not all readers care about accuracy. After all, a historical romance isn�t a history lesson, nor should it feel like one. But I truly believe an author can take details and the feel of historical period and tell a better story than if she simply paints 21st-century characters onto historical wallpaper. I�ve read plenty of novels where the only way you could tell the story was a historical was from the horses people were riding and their clothing. That might satisfy a lot of readers, but it doesn�t cut it for me. As for "grit," I guess I didn�t think of it that way when I wrote it. I thought, "Wow, this was actually horrendously common at that time. Thousands of settlers died this way (or that way)." I wanted to portray through Nicholas that terrible reality. I toned it down substantially, while still working for accuracy in detail.

That period of our history � the French and Indian War � was arguably THE most brutal. But on that landscape I see enormous potential for passion. The darker the night, the brighter the dawn.

This is a story of complete redemption, of love so strong that it conquers Hell and heals all hurts. Ultimately, the story is about the dawn, and not the night. But showing the violence is necessary to show who these people are. Truthfully, once Nicholas came to me, there was really nothing I could do but surrender to his story. Perhaps that makes no sense. But I�m not an author who imposes my ideas on a character; I do the research and let the characters form out of that. They write the story. I just take notes.

Plus I have to say this: Read a paranormal or a romantic suspense. They are full of "grit." Some of those bad vampires or demons or serial killers are downright macabre and very violent, grotesquely so. I don�t see anyone complaining about that. In fact, those two genres are very popular. What does that say?

Vic: In this same vein, your books, since the very first, have been likened to "vintage" romance - to your credit as well as success in MHO. Do you think the genre needs this "shot of vintage" to give it what many readers feel is now lacking in romantic historical fiction? Did you MEAN for your books to have a "vintage flavor?"

Pamela: When I first started writing, all I wanted to do was write the book I would want to read. I love subplots. I love rich secondary characters. I love accurate historical detail. I love to find myself living in another world. I love alpha heroes. I love hot sex. I love stories with an epic feel and a broad emotional range. These are qualities that I felt were disappearing in the mid-to-late �80s, as authors explored the beta male and tried to make romance more politically correct.

So I basically sat down to write the book that had those qualities, with no idea how the story would be received. I love that you use the word "vintage," because some reviewers and readers use the word "throwback." But at the same time, they were comparing me with early Kathleen Woodiwiss and Virginia Henley and Johanna Lindsey, which made me happy - particularly the comparison to early Kathleen Woodiwiss, whose books I�d read voraciously as a teenager.

As far as historicals are concerned nowadays, it�s gotten harder for me to find a story that completely satisfies. Part of that might be that I write these books and am more critical now than I used to be, but I think more of it is that the genre has changed. It�s less epic, partly due to constraints on book length. Also, authors and publishers are more concerned with not offending anyone, and because of that the stories on the whole are more reined in and less overtly passionate. And so many great historical authors are putting their time and energy into writing for other subgenres because those subgenres are popular. RBL had the most amazing discussion on historicals a month or so ago, and I found myself agreeing with so much of what was said.

These are just my observations, of course. There are still authors writing wonderful historicals. And what I like isn�t necessarily what another reader likes. Romance has broadened to accommodate pretty much every taste imaginable, and that�s a good thing.

Vic: While RTF was excruciatingly difficult for you to write because you knew you were saying goodbye to a family you love so very much, what pleasures did you derive from writing and completing this saga?

Pamela: The great part of writing this story was being so involved with the characters. I got to bring back the heroes from my two previous historicals in a big way, and so that meant I got to "inhabit" or hang out with my three heroes all at once. Yeah, I was a happy woman! It was fun to "feel" the differences between them, to hear their different voices in my head all at once. Alec and Jamie are really in this story, not just doing quick cameos.

Also, I got to see Cassie again, as well as all of her and Alec�s children. And Takotah. The whole crew. Br�ghid and her children are there, too, though we don�t really talk with them.

There was also tremendous joy in giving Nicholas and Bethie the Happily Ever After they deserved. They really earned it, and to experience that with them was amazing.

When it was over, I cried for weeks. Weeks! It was so hard to let go. Now I want to do a story about Emma Rose, Cassie and Alec�s youngest daughter. I also want to write Ruaidhr�s story (from CARNAL GIFT). So perhaps it�s not farewell forever. I can only hope.

(Vic: Oh! You MUST!!!)

I also enjoyed working on the research portion of it, because I got to read diaries written by soldiers who actually survived the siege at Fort Pitt. The educator at the Fort Pitt Museum photocopied them for me and sent them to me when he heard I was working on a novel. It gave me an insight into that event that I would otherwise never have had. It was like time travel.

Map of Fort Pitt from the archives of the Ft. Pitt Museum

Vic: Two items appear in separate issues of Romantic Times Magazine that mention, and in fact seem (to me) to focus perhaps a bit too much on, a subject that is part of RTF, and might possibly be a deterrent to potential readers. And I would like to touch on that subject because I think it�s important that readers NOT be deterred by it. And that is the talk about Bethie�s past sexual abuse. I think it�s important for potential readers to know there is NO rape involved in this book, and while abuse is part of her past, it is not a focus of the story but leads to a beautiful journey for her. You can explain this much better than I can, so please, if you will ...

Pamela: I�m glad you brought this up. It�s true that Bethie has a very traumatic past. She was sexually abused as a child by her stepbrother and physically abused by her stepfather. But she�s a grown woman in my story, and, as you say, this is all a part of her past. She isn�t raped in the story. But her past has made her the person she is when Nicholas rides into her life.

He has his own past to deal with. He was tortured by the Wyandot Indians and is living in self-imposed exile in the wilderness because he feels he is no longer worthy of living with those he loves.

The beautiful journey you refer to is the healing that Nicholas brings her. When I first started writing this story, I joked with my editor that it should be titled "Sexual Healing," because that�s what Nicholas gives her. His own past makes him unusually sympathetic to what she has suffered, and through trying to heal her wounds, he is healed of his own.

And THAT is the story � not sexual violence or war or anything else.

Here�s a passage from RTF, an excerpt available to no one but RBL, that tells exactly what I mean:

Aye, he cared about Bethie. He couldn�t deny that. Nor could he deny that his desire for her was growing. But she had her own shadows. Someone had abused her, had taught her that a man�s caress was hateful, a thing to be feared, not savored. And what a shame it was. A woman as beautiful and sweet as Bethie was made for pleasure.

Suddenly Nicholas found himself wishing he could be the man who healed that deep hurt and initiate her into the delights of sex. How he longed to be the one to awaken her desire, to drive her hunger to a fevered pitch, to make her cry out in delight. How he ached to sheath himself inside her and feel her melt around him as one climax after the next claimed her. The thought of it sent blood rushing to his cock, made him harder than the firewood in his arms. And even as the idea came to him, even as a part of him rejected it wholly, he began to wonder how he might accomplish this.

Could he, who trusted no one, win her trust? Could he, with his scarred body, heal the wounds hidden within hers? Could he as a man heal the pain caused by another man?

The love these two people discover with each other � people who come from different worlds, who�ve both lived through hell � is what RIDE THE FIRE is about. Nicholas is every bit the tortured alpha; in fact, if there�s something tougher than an alpha that�s what he is. Alpha-plus. But he is able to care for her, protecting her with every breath in his body, sure that he doesn�t deserve her but committed to getting her back to civilization alive. And Bethie, while strong and a survivor in her own right, is exactly the woman Nicholas needs to at last release his own anguish and become whole again. She knows about pain and suffering, and she is able to take his pain into her heart and set him free.

I am a rape survivor, and so in a very real way this book is about healing. I gave it everything I have, everything I am. I put every bit of emotion I have into this story. And it bled me dry. But the results are such that my editor was almost overwhelmed when she called me after she�d read it. She said she�d had a lot of misgivings when I gave her the outline, but she waited to see what I would do with it. She told me that I had handled it so well that the book exceeded her expectations. As a result, the publishing company pulled out the stops to promote it. My agent said the story stayed with her for weeks after she�d read it � and she reads a gazillion books.

Vic: Your first two books did not let those of us who ADORE "HOT" in our love stories down. And you�ve certainly not let us down in RTF either! Give us a hint which love scene you like the best and that you enjoyed writing the most!

Pamela: Well, trying not to give too much away, the sex in this book is somewhat unconventional. It�s on the creative side. I love all of it. It was great fun to write, also very challenging to write. If I have to pick one I love the most, it would be the scene where Bethie finally wants Nicholas inside her. I love it because it�s sexy. I love it because it shows how far her character has come and how much she loves and trusts Nicholas. And I love it most of all because of Nicholas� message to her, given with words, with every touch, every kiss, every breath, like a litany: "There�s no man but me, Bethie. There never was. No man but me." There�s a sacred quality to it.

Vic: Why do YOU think readers are going to love RTF as much as you (and ME ME ME!)?

Pamela: I think readers will enjoy it because it�s relentless in its pace and because, for all the darkness of these two people�s pasts, the ending is very uplifting. I told my editor when she was halfway through the book, "I hope the ending breaks your heart and puts it back together again." And she told me after she�d finished it, "The ending did everything you said it would and more."

I should point out that this is the first novel I�ve written that hasn�t been cut to save space. The ending, the full denouement, is there just as it was written. I think that makes a difference.

Vic: While our main focus in this Ketchup is to talk about your current release, I�d like to briefly touch on another work you�ve just completed. There has been much discussion recently at RBL about favorite authors changing subgenres, and maybe how it doesn�t always work. You�ve written a contemporary romantic suspense, EXTREME EXPOSURE. Why the change, and will you tell us a bit about it? How you were able to do this while your heart lies in historicals, and why you think we will love this side of you as a writer as much as we love your historical side?

Pamela: As most of y�all know, I�m a newspaper editor by profession. For thirteen years, I�ve worked as a columnist and investigative reporter. While I was in the middle of writing CARNAL GIFT, I was caught up in an investigation that resulted in my being threatened � not the first time that has happened. I�ve gotten death threats, been stalked, had to deal with people being aggressive with me in bars, restaurants, even the locker room at the gym.

One evening I was telling my agent how someone at the state government (I have to be careful what I write here) called to say he thought I was in very real danger. "These guys aren�t going to write you a letter to the editor. They�re going to beat the sh*t out of you with baseball bats," this person said. (I�ve gotten much worse, believe me.)

I told my agent, and she said, "Why don�t you write romantic suspense? You live it."

And I said, "Yeah, all except for the romantic part."

But the idea was hatched at that point that I should try to write romantic suspense and see what happened. I came up with a proposal and a synopsis, which then became the focus of an auction, with multiple publishing houses bidding on it. Penguin/Berkley Sensation bought it, and so I suddenly had to write it.

Hmmm. It wasn�t easy at first because my "vocabulary" as a writer is geared toward the 18th century. I had to reset my mind. And the result was an explosion of creativity and sheer joy over words. I loved being able to use any word that came to my mind. The expressiveness of it was a real thrill. As a result of that verbal freedom, the sex is probably the hottest I�ve ever written. My agent said it borders on erotica.

Also, I didn�t have to do research because I AM a journalist, and the heroine is a journalist. (In fact, that line about baseball bats is in the story.) I drew so heavily upon my own experience that my sister and sister-in-law, who read everything I write as I write it, said they couldn�t read it without thinking of me.

But, although writing a contemp is about 1,000 times easier than writing a historical, it also isn�t as exciting for me in some respects. For one, I get enough of the newspaper business working at one, you know? But also, the fun of playing with history is gone. It�s kind of a trade off, I guess.

As for the results, I guess readers will have to determine that. My editor at Berkley told me that few authors can authentically write both historicals and contemps, but she thinks I might be one of them. She said that when she read EXTREME EXPOSURE, she kept thinking, "And she writes historicals?" She said the contemp voice was so authentic she couldn�t imagine me writing a historical. (She hasn�t read my other books.)

Although romantic suspense is more profitable, and although it�s a lot easier to write a contemp, I have no intention of abandoning historicals. I enjoy them too much to leave them. Right now, I plan to write one historical and one contemp each year, using each to take a break from the other. Hopefully this will keep me fresh and also broaden my writing so that it reaches more readers. There are readers who like one or the other, and now I�ll be able to offer each side something.

I�m sure that there are readers who like my historicals who won�t get into EXTREME EXPOSURE because it�s a contemp. Likewise, there are probably readers who don�t read historicals at all who will "discover" my writing through EE. I just want each book I write to be the best possible story I can write, whether it�s a contemp or a historical � keep the emotion authentic and the sex super-hot.

Thanks for your wonderful questions! I hope I didn�t bore anyone to death!

Thank you, Pamela, for taking time I know is in such short supply in your life to Ketchup with us and give us your "author's view" of what it took to write what I call THE book of 2005 - and also for giving us a peek at your new venture into contemporary romantic suspense, which I know will be as wonderful, as exciting, and as well written as everything you�ve given us so far. We look forward to many, many years of "Ketching Up" as your star rises higher and higher.

~Vic~



~Special Feature~

The Background Story
for
EXTREME EXPOSURE!



Pamela's Website



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