My guest is Best Selling author, Pamela Palmer. I hadn’t read any of her books. Oh, I heard and saw her name, but not read her. I attended RT (Romance Times Conference) in April and sat in on one of the panels on which she was a participant. Pamela was a bit quiet at first, but when she did speak she made some great points. I took note of what she said for later use and knew I wanted to have her as a guest.I’ve since started reading her Feral Warriors series, which I love. Good solid stories, a touch of magic, suspense, a big dose of wonder. I love her world and it was fascinating how she created it. She shares a bit of that with us today.
Pamela, it was a pleasure to meet you at RT and I learned much from listening to you and others on the panels. I’m so glad to have you visit Over Coffee.
Thanks for inviting me, Sia! It’s great to be here.
I remember attending one of your panels during RT where you spoke about career arcs and when your publisher might prefer the use of a pseudonym. You have dual career arcs, one as Pamela Montgomerie, writing historicals and another as Pamela Palmer writing your Feral Warriors.
As Pamela Montgomerie you have a series called the Jewels of Time (Time travel) and Amethyst Destiny has just been released. Will you continue creating stories under this name how many books are planned in this series?
What made you decide to branch into dark paranormal?
There are currently two books in the Jewels of Time series, Sapphire Dream and Amethyst Destiny. Both are action adventure time travel romance set in 17th century Scotland. They were a lot of fun to write, but I’m concentrating on urban fantasy types of paranormals these days and don’t currently have any more time travels in the works. But that could always change.
Dark contemporary paranormal is my preferred reading right now, and my favorite genre to write. I actually started in this genre.
I didn’t realize that. I knew you wrote historical time travel…
You know I hadn’t read any of your Feral Warriors until I met you and you gave me a copy of Obsession Untamed (#2). I loved it. I like your world in this series. A kind of mixture of ancient and modern.
What gave you the idea for the idea of Feral Warriors?
My first sale was to Silhouette Nocturne. A couple of years later, I sold the time travels to Berkley and the Feral Warriors to Avon, almost at the same time. I’d submitted Sapphire Dream (the 2005 Golden Heart winner for Best Paranormal) to Berkley two years before and a new editor found it in one of their massive piles at the same time my agent was shopping the Feral Warriors.
It was a total coincidence that the two offers came in within weeks of one another. All three editors asked me to take a second name, so I did.
Thanks, Sia!
The idea for the Feral Warriors series started with the main characters of Desire Untamed – Kara and Lyon. At first, all I knew was that I wanted to tell a story about a girl-next-door heroine who thought she was human, and the fierce, dangerous male who stole her away for the power she possessed to save his race. I knew they were immortal. But not what kind of immortal.
I haven’t yet read Lyon’s story. But I love the idea of an unknowing immortal girl next-door theme. I like Kara, she’s strong but like glue that holds everyone together.
You’ve created a sort of family of warriors…
- I’m a huge fan of J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, Alyssa Day’s Warriors of Poseidon, and Suzanne Brockmann’s Navy SEALs. I love the band of brothers theme, the warrior males bound together by a common cause or a common enemy, and the wonderful interactions between them. I knew I wanted to tell that kind of tale. My warriors were immortal, but what were they?
- I’ve always loved the concept of men who could shift into animals, but most shape-shifter books deal with packs and prides and although I love reading about them, that wasn’t the story I had in my head. I finally realized my band of warrior brothers weren’t exactly brothers at all. They were shape-shifters, but not a pack. Not a pride. Each man was the last of his unique line. Each shifted into a different animal. Each went by the name of that animal.
Your series has only 9 warriors. Is there any significance to this number?
There really isn’t any significance. After coming up with that first story idea, I pounded out the details of the world, the warriors, etc. in a matter of a few weeks. There was no deep thought as to how many warriors I should have. Nine sounded like a good number, so I went with nine.
You’ve had one of your 9 warriors die. Will we see how they are chosen? Will we see a woman warrior?
Good questions, Sia. I haven’t written a scene about a warrior being chosen as yet, but I may. A woman Feral? Why not? : )
In your newest book in the series, Rapture Untamed, you write about one of my favorites of the Warriors, Jag. He’s a bit surly and argumentative, yet loyal, but you get the feeling he doesn’t want to care.
What do you like about him?
What about Olivia?
Jag has always been one of my favorites, too. He was great fun to write. I never knew what was going to come out of his mouth. But making him into a hero was a serious challenge. He didn’t want anything to do with that role. For a while, I wasn’t sure he had it in him. But he surprised me. And when he discovered the hero within himself, Olivia wasn’t the only one who fell in love with him.
Olivia is my favorite kind of heroine – tough, yet vulnerable if she ever lets you past her shields. She was absolutely strong enough to handle Jag. Even better, she saw past his pain-in-the-ass persona to the man he could be. Almost from the beginning, she understood him better than he understood himself. She almost had the upper hand with him for a while. Until he learned her secret.
You mention that you didn’t always want to grow up to write books?
I didn’t, not at all. I didn’t like English class, could see no reason in the world I needed to know parts of speech, and hated the books they made me read. I wanted to read Nancy Drew and Narnia, not Steinbeck. As a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. In college, I lost interest in that dream and wound up majoring in Industrial Engineering, and then went to work for IBM.
Tell us a bit how you came to write romance?
I’d always loved to read and I was a constant daydreamer. Honestly, one day one of my daydreams got too big for my head and I migrated to the computer and started typing. A few days, and three chapters later, I was hooked.
For someone who didn’t think about writing as a career, you’ve done well, and Rapture Untamed is now on the bestsellers list.
Big congratulations on that!
Is this your first placement on the list? How did it make you feel or better, what was your reaction when you learned you were? Did you ever see yourself there?
Thank you! Yes, Rapture Untamed debuted at #28 on the New York Times extended list and #139 on the USA Today bestseller list. It was my first time on either list solo. (The anthology I did with Lynsay Sands and Jaime Rush, Bitten By Cupid, hit both lists last January.)
My agent and editor got the list at the same time, but my agent called me first, by seconds. My call waiting was beeping, my editor calling, while my agent told me I’d hit the NY Times list. I was thrilled, as you can imagine, though what I actually said, I don’t remember. Something like, ‘No way, no way.”
Did I ever see myself there? Sure. I don’t think there’s any writer who doesn’t dream that dream.
Do you write full time? Or are you still juggling a career as an Industrial Engineer, wife, mom, and now author?
- I’m a full time writer these days. I quit IBM years ago to stay home with my kids and focus on the writing.
You have two books released in two series, what’s coming up for next year?
- Hunger Untamed, book 5 in the Feral Warriors series, will be out in February. I’m still waiting on a release date for book 6, though I suspect it will be out late next year. Plus, I’m waiting for release dates for the last two books in my Esri series for Nocturne. The first two books, The Dark Gate and Dark Deceiver, came out a couple of years ago, but I got sidetracked with the other books and just finished up the last one. It’s possible they’ll be out next year, too.
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Rapture Untamed Blurb
The most combative - and tormented - of all the Ferals, Jag is a predator who hunts alone - until daemons terrorize the human population. To stop them, he partners with Olivia, a flame-haired Therian temptress as strong as she is beautiful. But Olivia is no ordinary immortal. The survivor of a vicious supernatural attack, she possesses a deadly and forbidden skill - one that must remain hidden, especially from the powerful Feral Warriors.
As Jag and Olivia's sensual dance of dominance and seduction gets wilder and hotter, a dark force sets its sights on Olivia, threatening to destroy everything she has vowed to protect. And the only one who can save her soul is the arrogant jaguar shifter she lusts for but dares not love.
EXCERPT
When New York Times bestselling author Pamela Palmer's initial career goal of captaining starships didn't pan out, she turned to engineering, satisfying her desire for adventure with books and daydreams until finally succumbing to the need to create worlds of her own. Pamela lives and writes in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Please visit her on the Web at http://www.pamelapalmer.net/.
Buy: Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble
Please visit her on the Web at http://www.pamelapalmer.net/.
