Pamela Clare joins us today for some Q’s and A’s. Read on to learn more about this accomplished, award-winning author and journalist. Don’t forget to catch her newest romantic suspense release, Unlawful Contact (Berkley, 1 Apr 08).

TGTBTU: Pamela, tell us a little about your first book sale. How long did it take you to crack the industry?

Pamela Clare: My first sale was Sweet Release, a historical and the first book I wrote. It took me seven years to write the book because I had little kids at the time and was working my way up the newsroom ladder. But once it was written, I had an agent within a few months and, after a round of revisions, had a sale in nine. It seemed so easy. Beginner’s luck, I guess. I had written three historicals before I started my first romantic suspense. Writing RS was my agent’s idea. She and I were catching up on the latest, and I mentioned the fact that I’d gotten another threat at work. She said, “Why don’t you write romantic suspense, because you live it.” And I said, “Yeah, except for the ‘romantic’ part.”

TGTBTU: What other genres do want to write in?

PC: I’d like to try my hand a straight historical fiction one day, as well as erotic romance. I have an erotic romance under way that I’ll finish as soon as I get some time.

TGTBTU: How hard is it to write in a male voice? Do you have anything special you need to do to “get in the head” of your male characters, or any of your characters? How hard is it to “switch heads” when you are writing, anyway?

PC: I love writing in the male voice. Men are more action oriented. They want to respond by doing something. It’s not that they’re not emotional, it’s just that everything is more direct. I often find the hero’s passages easier to write than the heroine’s. Provided I’ve done the work I need to do with regard to characterization, switching heads is really easy for me. I have a kind of internal running inventory of where my characters are emotionally, so I just pick one up and put the other one down. Every once in a while, I’ll have a scene where I can’t decide whether to make it from the hero’s point of view or the heroine’s. Then I try to decide who has the most at risk in that scene and usually go with that person because the emotions tend to be higher. I’m an emotion junkie.

TGTBTU: Are you an obssessive outliner, or do you just sit down and wing it when you write? Tell us a little about your process.

PC: For me it starts and ends with characterization. I generally have some idea of what happens in the story. Publishers require a synopsis, so I always write one. But that’s the first work of fiction because I rarely even look at it. I know the general theme and action of the story, the events around which the story evolves — for example, my hero takes the heroine hostage to break out of prison because he knows someone is after his sister — and into that story I place my characters. They feel like real people to me, so I let them loose and take notes. If I really feel them, they do all the plotting work for me because, just like real people, they respond uniquely to whatever is going on around them.

TGTBTU: What is sure to distract you from sitting down and writing, no matter how determined you might be?

PC: Phone calls from well-meaning friends and family who say, “How’s the writing going?” Grocery shopping, paying bills, head-of-household obligations. Rarely does the newspaper interrupt my writing, because everyone there knows better than to call unless it’s a bona fide “holy hell!” emergency. They’re very respectful of my time.

TGTBTU: What other art forms do you enjoy, either as a hobby, collecting, or visiting (museums or performances) – painting, music, photography, etc.?

PC: I love, love, love to paint and draw. I was in Fine Arts in college for a time and got most of a master’s in Fine Arts History. I love listening to music (Celtic, rock, hip hop, blues, classical, etc.). I love concerts, museums, galleries, historical documentaries. Given that I’m also an adrenaline junkie — I blame 15 years of being an investigative reporter — I do crazy stuff sometimes for fun. Like go with one of my journalist friends to a part of Denver where we simply do not belong to hang out in bars or walk the streets. I’ve been the only woman in a bar before. It gets your adrenaline hopping. I don’t know if you can call that a hobby, but it used to be a regular pastime. Also, I quilt. Or I used to before I had deadlines. And I love my rose garden. I have a massive flower garden. My son helps with the garden so that I can write and just come out when I have time to sniff and putter. And when we have time we hike in the mountains, which are 15 minutes from my front door.

TGTBTU: What is your next project? Is it also romantic suspense and will we see the I-Team again?

PC: As soon as I finish Untamed, the sequel to Surrender, my 2006 historical that was a RITA finalist, I’m starting Naked Edge, the next I-Team book. It tells Kat’s story and that of Gabe Rossiter, a mountain park’s ranger. It’s going to focus on contemporary urban Indian issues, something I know quite a bit about from my work at the paper.

TGTBTU: Do you have any charity or pet project you want to call some attention to?

PC: In honor of Unlawful Contact, which is dedicated to a baby who was stillborn as a result of neglect her mother suffered at the hands of prison guards, I guess I’ll mention CCJRC — Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. They work to ensure that prison inmates receive humane treatment and they accomplish a lot. Although they focus on Colorado, they’ve been a resource to lots of people outside Colorado as well. You can find them online at http://www.ccjrc.org/ .

TGTBTU: Okay, now for the lightning round…

Mustard or mayo? Totally mayo.

Heels or flats? Flats! I’m 5-10.

Pants or skirts? Skirts. Who wants to dress like a boy?

Crunchy or smooth? Depends on my mood. 🙂

Chocolate or vanilla ice cream? Only vanilla please. Chocolate is too sacred for ice cream.

Dark or milk chocolate? Milk chocolate, Marabou Mælkchokolade if I can find it.

John Mayer or Mozart? Who can resist Wolfgang? Mozart all the way.

Morning person or night owl? Night owl.

TGTBTU: Thanks Pamela!

PC: Thank you! It’s been fun!