Pam Beason in the Author Spotlight

Cate: Please welcome Pamela Beason. Pam, will you please share a short bio with us?
Pam: I usually introduce myself by saying I have multiple personality disorder. That's because I work at three jobs, and at multiple contracts within those three jobs.

First, I'm a freelance writer and editor, so I write and edit all kinds of technical and creative materials and occasionally ghost-write and doctor books for money.

Second, I'm a licensed private investigator, so I'm sometimes busy with background checks and surveillance and other tasks too weird to mention. (If you ever see me crouched in the bushes with my camera, please just walk on by.)

Third, I'm an author with both self-published ebooks and a three-book contract with Berkley Prime Crime. So I'm both an indie author and a (soon-to-be) traditionally published one.

I can't wait until I can say that I am first and foremost a fiction author. That's always been my dream, and I'm getting closer every day to making a living at that.

Cate: Wow. Impressive! :)

Tell us about your books and where they are available.
Pam: I have three fiction ebooks that you can find in any ebook store. They're available in Kindle, Nook, and other formats. 

My mystery/suspense novel, The Only Witness, opens with Brittany, a teenage mom, leaving her infant alone in the car while she dashes into the grocery store. When she comes out, the baby has vanished. The detective in charge, Matthew Finn, can't tell whether this is a case of infanticide or kidnapping until a tip comes in about an eyewitness to the crime. The only problem is that the only witness is a gorilla who communicates in modified American Sign Language. Can a gorilla provide the clues to solve the case?

Call of the Jaguar is a romantic adventure novella that I adapted from a screenplay I wrote years ago. It's about Rachel McCarthy, who ditches her cheating spouse to go in search of a romantic former lover who is working as an archaeologist in Guatemala. He has no idea she's coming and she has no idea he's working in a war zone. She and her bush pilot are shot down in the jungle, and events go downhill from there. I'm not telling you the ending; I'll just say it's a wild jungle romp that ends happily for Rachel.

Flashpoint is a contemporary romance that begins with vandalism and an earthquake and our heroine Elisa Langston trapped under a tree. Then there's arson and an explosion. The hunky insurance investigator, Jake Street, is convinced that Elisa's causing all the problems to cash in on insurance money because her plant nursery business is not doing well. Elisa is half Guatemalan and was raised in a quirky Anglo family. There are quite a few laughs in this book. I won't reveal who The Gremlin (the vandal) is here, you'll have to read it for yourself.

So you see I write mysteries and romances, but all my stories have a few things in common: the heroines are can-do, kick-butt women; the men are strong and handsome and kind and funny; and all my stories end more or less happily, so don't ever be afraid to pick one up. I don't like blood and gore or violence, so you won't find sadistic killers or unpunished perverts in these books. You also won't find erotic sex scenes; hot kisses and sexual innuendo, yes, but no graphic descriptions.

Right now these are all ebooks because I'm giving my agent a chance to shop around print rights, but if I don't get a major offer soon, I'll be offering printed versions as well before long.

Cate: Very cool. What's next for you?
Pam: For (Penguin) Berkley Prime Crime, I'm writing three novels in my new Sam Westin outdoor mystery series. The first book, ENDANGERED, is about the search for a child who disappears from a campground in a Utah national park. The local television coverage makes everyone believe that a cougar took the child, but Sam has good reason to suspect it was a human kidnapper and she's relentless in searching the wilderness for the real criminal. In the second book, Sam's on a temporary contract in Olympic National Park when she becomes the unwitting target of an anti-government group. I'm working on the third book now: Sam's in trouble in the Galapagos Islands and I've got to figure out how to rescue her. ENDANGERED will be available in December of this year; the others about nine months apart after that.

I also have plans to write more romantic adventure stories and to convert a murder mystery screenplay I wrote long ago to novel form.

In the summer, I'm a hiker/kayaker/scuba diver. In the winter, I'm a snowshoer/cross-country skier. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, I feel like I should be at least two other places working on two other projects. There's never enough time to do it all!

Cate: Congrats – very exciting. What inspired you to draft your first story?
Pam: I can't live without fiction. I see WAY too much reality in my investigation work, and it's rarely pretty. In fiction, I can make justice prevail and see my characters get what they each deserve.

Cate: Do you have a writing routine?
Pam: I put my butt in the chair whenever I can each day, and keep it there as long as possible while typing as fast as possible. When I get stuck, I go for a walk and think. For some reason, I can solve plot problems a lot better when I'm in motion, and nature always revives me. I always carry a little notepad and pen in my pocket to jot down ideas.

Cate: Where can readers find you on the web?
Pam: http://www.pamelabeason.com

I occasionally tweet, too, as @PamBeason. I have to say that I don't really 'get' Facebook, so although I have a page, I rarely go there. Maybe readers can help me figure out the benefits.

Cate: I hear ya – I’m terrible at tweeting. :(

Is there anything you’d like to ask our readers?
Pam: Two questions: 1) What's the most romantic gift you've ever received? For me, it was a loaded toolbox, which does not sound romantic at all, but I really needed those tools and I knew how to use them and it proved the guy was actually buying a gift for me, not just for some idealized version of a generic woman. 

Question 2) What's the greatest adventure you've ever had? I've had quite a few, but I'd have to say my best so far was an expedition in Kenya. If you're a wildlife enthusiast like me, there's no place like Africa. I'm finally going back this fall.

Cate: Great questions. Readers, Pam is giving away any of her ebooks to one lucky commenter on the last day of her blog tour. Good luck to all!

And thanks for being my guest Pam!

Pam: Thanks for hosting me!