And our Sue's Clues Mystery Author is:

Pamela Clare is one of those authors that come along and you are so glad they followed their dream of writing. It was a near thing, though. You'll see that Pamela has lived an interesting life. One of travel, excitement and tragedy - a tragedy that not only almost kept her from becoming a writer, but one that also nearly took her life .

Pamela's career in writing began at a newspaper as a part-time copy editor for the Colorado Daily in Boulder. Before she knew it, she was writing a controversial column, Uncensored, which earned her notoriety as an outspoken feminist. There were many people who didn't agree with her views, some who weren't shy about letting her know, but as she told a reporter for The Daily Camera, "I wanted to talk about things that made people uncomfortable."  Pamela went on to become editor and has earned numerous awards for her work as a journalist.

When she wasn't writing her column, Pamela was working on her writing. In 1994, it looked like her hard work was going to start to pay off. She won first place for the Colorado Romance Writers' Heart of the Rockies contest. To celebrate, she went on a 4 day backbacking trip with her father in the Rocky Mountains. Several hours into the trip, tragedy struck.

Pamela fell 40 feet down a cliff. It's an amazing story and you can read more about it at her Romantictimes.com author's cameo page http://www.romantictimes.com/index.html?/data/authors/11897.html, which I highly recommend. She's elaborated on it below in our interview, and the story will give you goosebumps. In essensce, as she says in her cameo, "I had survived a statistically unsurvivable fall."

Her road to recovery was not an easy one and life itself wasn't exactly a smooth ride either:

"The next years were a haze of painkillers and physical therapy, as my body tried to mend itself. I had no energy to write, and my chapters languished in a dusty computer. To make matters worse, my marriage of 10 years had fallen apart. Within a year, we were divorced. Although the divorce was amicable and we shared custody of our two sons, it wasn't easy. I worked full-time at a local newspaper, struggled to make ends meet." - RT cameo

Having made little progress on the novel, Pamela had decided to give up her dreams of becoming a writer in 1996. It was a letter she received that encouraged her to continue on. The two page letter was dated April 24, 1730 and from, of all people, Alec - the hero in SWEET RELEASE.

"I read the two-page letter, tears pouring down my face as Alec's kind words urged me to take up the story again. My ex-husband had written those words. His display of deep faith in my dreams touched me in a way I will never forget." - RT cameo

In 2003, SWEET RELEASE was on the shelves. Pamela has since published her second book, CARNAL GIFT, and working on her third, which I, for one, am eagerly looking forward to!

1. I've discovered that you've decided to write under a pen name. How did choose it ?

My brother and I were having one of our all-night conversations, listening to the Irish music we love. I'd had quite a few pints, but I swore he said "Clare" meant "white" in Irish Gaelic. I thought I'd use Clare then, because it would be a direct translation of my name and its the name of the county that's at the heart of Irish music.

I later discovered that Clare does NOT mean  "white." My brother claims he never said that, that it was the Guinness in my brain. Who knows. But I like it quite a bit, and it was too late by then to change it anyway. It feels like my real name now. I choose not to use White because I've been a journalist for so long, and I don't want those two lines of work to overlap.

2. I was stunned when I read about your close brush with death on your cameo page at the Romantic Times website!  It's a rather miraculous and incredible event. Are you still recovering from it? How old were your children at the time? They must've been terrified, along with the rest of the family. Can you tell us a little about the road to recovery ?

The miraculous part of it wasn't even in that story, and I'll share it with you here:

The part that got glossed over due to space in the RT article was what happened after I fell. We were at a very remote location very high on the mountain. This isn't a good thing in Colorado. Thunderstorms are a daily occurrence in the high country, and lightning kills climbers every year. We needed to get lower, because a storm was rolling in.

I started to go into shock. I couldn't talk. Couldn't control where my eyes focused. I couldn't respond to my father in any way, although I could hear and understand him. Then the storm hit. My dad put us both under a tarp he pulled from his pack until it passed. Fortunately, we weren't fried by lightning.

Once the storm passed I had regained the ability to talk (first moan, then talk). I began to feel my injuries also. Until then I hadn't really felt anything. But the closer things were to my brain, the sooner I felt them. I think the first thing I did was ask my father if I still had eyeballs and if my face was ripped up. It was the ONLY part of me that wasn't. My chest (including my breasts) were badly scratched and bleeding. My right hip had a deep gash in it that left a pretty noticeable scar. My pants were torn open and a good chunk of my right thigh was gone. I could feel that my ankle was badly injured, but we didn't take off my boot to look because we didn't want the swelling to prevent us from getting the boot back on.

My dad wanted me to try to stand. We were on a very steep rockslide, and he really couldn't help me. He had to focus on himself and on carrying my big old 40-pound pack. I tried to stand, couldn't. But I knew we couldn't stay there.

So we started to climb down. My dad took my pack, and I climbed down using just my arms and one leg. It was exhausting and took forever! When we got to the bottom of the rockslide there was a big snowfield (like a glacier). The only good spot for a tent was on the other side of it. Still it was terribly steep.

So I got on all fours and crawled across the glacier, dragging my leg behind me. It was SO incredibly painful. I screamed with each step. We later learned my tibia was broken and my ankle was about as badly sprained as an ankle can be.

I got to the other side, soaking wet and in pain, ripped open the first aid kit and found... little Band Aids and an Advil. Oh, yeah. Lots of help there.

Fortunately, a ranger on his day off happened to see us from a ridge above and came down to tell us we couldn't camp there. He was a paramedic and had a radio. He called for a helicopter rescue and helped my dad get me to the only place a helicopter could land. It took us hours to cross that distance, and my strength was fading fast. I could only stand short amounts of movement before needing to rest again.

It was so lucky for us that he was there. Otherwise it would have taken two days to get me to a hospital -- one day for my dad to hike out and another for rescuers to find me. I'd have been in dire straits by then.

For me, what happened after I fell is the part I remember so vividly -- having to rescue myself for a time because of the peril of the situation. My kids were pretty little at the time (7 and 4), and I don't think they really even remember that much about it. I don't think they were old enough to understand that mommy just about bit it.

No one really understood how severe the accident was until later (in the case of the head injury three years later). The most obvious injuries were treated right away in the ER. The hardest part about recovering was the head injury. I had short-term memory loss, which got worse for a while. And then I started having horrendous headaches, terrible migraines. I still have migraines fairly regularly, but not every day, which was pretty much how it was the first couple of years after I fell.

My right thigh hurts every day of my life. I lost about one third of it, part of it gouged out, and part of it simply liquefied on contact with rock. Ick.

And I have a wicked fear of heights these days. I have been in the rock gym and made it to the top of the rock wall, but it scares the heck out of me. And I have re-climbed that mountain again. That was an extremely emotional experience for me. I stood at the top, looked down at where I fell and cried - but happy tears. Then I cut a chunk of my hair off and threw it over the side.

I'd like to be more physically active than I am now, but my body is just more fragile then it used to be as a result of falling.

3. In the online newspaper article I found that you work as an editor for the  Boulder Weekly newspaper. It tells of a controversial column, Uncensored,  you started  in 1993 that "...drew hate mail, stalkers and death threats for years. But it also drew a  loyal following that remains today."  Do you still have a problem with the negative response you've gotten or has it become somewhat more tame? How do you deal with all of that?

It has mellowed somewhat. I think, for one, people have gotten used to me. For another, the world has changed and things I said that seemed outrageous to some people 10 years ago are less crazy now. Also, my photo no longer runs in the paper with my column, and that has made a WORLD of difference.

When people don't recognize you, they can't confront you directly. I'm still recognized, but rarely does anyone come up to me in a restaurant or bar yelling and swearing at me. So that's a nice change.

4. You are considered a "notoriously outspoken feminist" in your area. With two sons, I'm guessing there are quite a few girls out there who would benefit from that.  LOL Do you think you've consciously raised your sons with a better awareness of women's equality and to be more open-minded?

I certainly hope so!!! I figure a mother's duty when she's raising sons is to help them to become the kind of men who are good to the women and children in their lives. I think male strength has a purpose, and it's not to bash women around or bully other people. It's to make the world a better place and to protect those who are weaker. Also, I've raised my kids with lots of hugs and snuggles, something too many boys don't get. There's something in our culture that tells us we'll raise wimps if we're too tender with our boys when they're little. I don't believe that. I think boys need emotional nurturing when they're little so that when they're older they'll have gentleness, as well as strength. And isn't the combination of those two qualities what makes a romance novel hero.

5. You mention at historicalromancewriters.com your favorite memory is: "My favorite memory is of touring the castles and Viking ruins of Denmark. I felt connected to history in a way that touched me profoundly. I love history, and to see it around me is indescribable."  A trip like that would be hard to top in my book. Any chance you might write a novel in the future inspired by your adventures there? I can't remember the last time I read a good  romantic Viking saga.

I lived in Denmark for the better part of three years, and, had things gone as I wanted, I would have probably lived there for the rest of my life. Because I lived there, I have a tremendous desire to write stories set there. The country-side is lovely, and there are ruins and old buildings everywhere. History is literally under your feet. I could write several books just using folktales from the region where I lived (some of which are romantic and some of which are hilarious). I truly, deeply want to write some Danish-set stories one day, including Viking romances, but also some other stories. I speak fluent Danish and am hoping one day to get them published in Danish.

6. What can we expect from your next book? Is it a 'work in progress' yet or are you still coming up with ideas for it?


I don't do any real plotting. I get a basic premise for the story, do period research and let the characters grow out of that. Then I have some idea where the story is supposed to end up. And I start writing. Once I know the characters well enough, they take over and write it themselves. I've learned not to argue with them and to listen very carefully.

So my next book is already in the works. I've got about 12 chapters written, so close to halfway. This will be the third book in the Blakewell/Kenleigh family trilogy and will tell Nicholas' story. He's the eldest son of Cassie and Alec, the heroine and hero from SWEET RELEASE. The story is set in 1763 in the Ohio Wilderness on the brink of Pontiac's Rebellion. For some very painful reasons, Nicholas has been living on the frontier for six years alone. His plans to continue living that way are turned upside down when fate brings him together with a young Scots-Irish woman, Bethie, who has been widowed and is also alone in perilous circumstance. The story will bring all three heroes from the trilogy together to fight off a danger that not only threatens Nicholas and Bethie, but the Colonies themselves.

I love this family so much that it is going to be hard to abandon them and go on to writing other things. So I hold out hope that I'll have a chance to tell Ruaidhrí's story, as well as that of some of Alec and Cassie's and Jamie and Bríghid's children. And there a lot of them...

7. I loved your book, CARNAL GIFTS. One of the things that really made the book for me was your attention to historical details of the time and place. I  especially enjoyed seeing the Gaelic peppered throughout the story - just enough to truly appreciate the language without being overwhelmed by it. How much research did you need to do for this book? Did you find it difficult achieving the historical accuracy you wanted for either of your books?


I'm glad you enjoyed the Gaelic. Some people found it distracting. But as someone who has studied several languages and is multi-lingual, it would be impossible for me to set a book in a "foreign" culture and not touch the language. Language is everything to me. I love words. I love trying to speak foreign languages -- any and all of them.  Irish is so beautiful, so it was a real treat to work with Irishman Mick Bolger, the lead singer of Colcannon, on the Gaelic.

I did quite a bit of research, focused on research for about two months prior to writing. That's nothing compared to CARNAL GIFT, which I researched for 2.5 YEARS. But I had nine months to write CG, not seven years. I read histories, Irish plays, read lots about myths and legends, and listened to lots of traditional Irish music to get feel for speech patterns, which are not what most of us think of. I didn't want to write a story about the stereotyped Ireland of shamrocks and little people and green beer. I wanted it to be as real as possible. And I learned a lot, which was fun, because my family's heritage is in large part Irish.

I don't know that I'm every satisfied with the level of accuracy. If I could, I'd go back in time with a tape recorder and a camera and absorb as much as possible. I don't know how much readers care for highly accurate detailing, but when I was a reader it mattered to me. I've read lots of books, including straight historical novels, and the ones I love are the ones that take me away to another time and place. If a book doesn't do that for me, I'm not going to like it so terribly much. So if my books don't do that for readers, then I've failed to achieve what I set out to achieve.

Thanks, Pamela! Visit Pamela at her website: http://www.pamelaclare.com/index.htm
and at her cameo page: http://www.romantictimes.com/index.html?/data/authors/11897.html