Passionate about Passion Untamed

by Anna Campbell

It's with enormous pleasure that I bring fellow 2006 Golden Heart finalist Pamela Palmer to the lair. That 2006 Golden Heart year was full of really cool people - that's where I met all the Banditas!

Pam is currently on her way to world domination with a string of recent publications to her name and more to come. Whoo-hoo! She's a wonderful writer who manages to combine breathtaking emotion with heart-stopping action. Not an easy mixture! And all with a sizzling touch of magic! How can you resist?

For more information on Pamela Palmer and her books, please visit her website: http://www.pamelapalmer.net/

Welcome back, Pamela! You're one of the most popular guests we’ve ever had so I’m excited to have you returning to the lair to chase cabana boys and drink margaritas…um, no, I really mean talk SERIOUS writing stuff!

So much has happened since you last visited. Firstly, congratulations on the release of the first three instalments in the FERAL WARRIORS series which were a back-to-back release, July, August, September this year. Can you tell us about these books?


Thanks for having me again, Anna and the Banditas! (Doesn’t that sound like a rock band? Or maybe it should be Anna and the Cabana Boys.) Oh, right. SERIOUS writing stuff. Where are the margaritas…? Thanks for the congrats on the launch of my new FERAL WARRIORS series! I’m so excited about writing this series for Avon. These guys are a blast to write – dark, sexy, seriously untamed, and incredibly male. And the covers the Avon art department is doing for them are amazing.

The premise behind the series is that millennia ago the Therian race of shape-shifters and their traditional enemies, the Mage, were forced to mortgage most of their power in order to imprison the High Daemon, Satanan and his horde, and save the Earth. Only one shape-shifter of each of the ancient Therian lines was able to retain the power of his animal. Today, only nine true shape-shifters remain, each one a different animal. These are the Feral Warriors. But ancient evil is once more on the rise and they’re all that stands between the world and destruction.


The most recent FERAL WARRIOR instalment is PASSION UNTAMED, Paenther’s story. Can you tell us about this book? It sounds fabulous!

Thanks, Anna! PASSION UNTAMED is the third book in the series. In it, Paenther, the darkly intense black panther shifter, is captured by a Mage witch for the second time in his life. He barely survived the first time and his hatred for the Mage is terrible. But the witch who’s captured him has done so against her will. Skye is a pure spirit who’s been enslaved by the evil Mage as surely as Paenther has. But true hatred is a difficult thing to overcome.

What’s coming up next for those gorgeous FWs?

The next Feral story comes out in January as part of the BITTEN BY CUPID anthology I’m doing with Lynsay Sands and Jaime Rush. Though the story is the romance of two intriguing, star-crossed immortals, several of the Ferals show up in the tale, and things are revealed that will have a major impact on future books.

Then in July 2010, RAPTURE UNTAMED comes out. This one is Jag’s book. Jag is the Bad Boy of the bunch, the jaguar-shifter who delights in causing trouble and antagonizing the others. Everyone deserves a happily-ever-after, but Jag’s got a long way to go to earn his. He finally finds his match in Olivia, a woman who not only can hold her own against him, but who can see past the mask he shows the world to the good man even he doesn’t know exists deep inside him.

You’ve recently had a Scottish time travel published under the pen name Pamela Montgomerie. Please tell us about SAPPHIRE DREAM, which by the way I read in a single sitting and just loved!

SAPPHIRE DREAM and I go back a long, long way. I wrote it over the course of many years, putting it aside and taking it back out again as I figured out how I wanted to tell the tale – and acquired the skills to do it. It was my third completed manuscript and the first to really come together the way I’d envisioned. I love all my books equally (I can’t play favorites among my book children), but this one holds a very special place in my heart.

SAPPHIRE DREAM is the story of a modern woman, Brenna Cameron, who travels to Scotland looking for answers about her past, only to awaken aboard a seventeenth century pirate ship. Eventually, she learns that she was long ago named in a prophecy and that Hegarty, a wee little Rumplestiltskin-like magical man, has called her through time with the help of a magical sapphire, in order for her to fulfil her destiny. The captain of the ship, Rourke Douglas, knows all too well about that cursed prophecy and wants nothing to do with it, or Brenna. But fate has other plans.
Are there further time travels planned? It’s a genre I always enjoy and it seems to be having a bit of a renaissance at the moment (no pun intended. Well, maybe a wee one).

AMETHYST DESTINY, the sequel to SAPPHIRE DREAM, is slated for release next summer. In this book, Hegarty is at it again, his magical stones causing more mischief and creating more havoc. Hegarty loaned one of the stones, the amethyst, to Talon MacClure when Talon was a lad, and the boy learned to manipulate its magic – as well as anyone can, for the stone has a mind of its own. Now a man, Talon’s become known as the Wizard – a mercenary who will find anything, or steal anything, for a price. He finds the name ironic, for none know he truly possesses magic. But when he requests help from the ring in locating his latest prize, the ring sends him a woman -- a none-too-pleased petite beauty from the future. And the true adventure begins.

Your Esri books for Silhouette Nocturne are still among the most memorable paranormals I’ve ever read. I remember when I was in Washington, I kept getting the creeps when I saw the fountain in Dupont Circle because that’s where the bad guys turn up! Are there further stories planned in that series?

I love that the Dupont Circle fountain made you think of the Esri, Anna! In all, the Esri series will be four books long, though only two have hit the shelves so far, THE DARK GATE and DARK DECEIVER. The third book, Charlie’s book, is written, and I’m working on the final book in the series now. Silhouette plans to schedule the release of the last two books fairly close together, though just when that will be, I don’t know. I’ll post it on my website as soon as I hear!

Your schedule over the last year or so has been spectacular (or terrifying – pick your adjective!). Can you tell us how you juggle all your commitments and manage your writing day?

My schedule has been crazy lately, at least for me. Books due every two to four months. There are certainly writers who write books in 2-4 months on a regular basis, and still have a life outside the writing, but they write faster than I do! I wrote three books last year and, once I finish what I’m working on now, will have written three books and a novella in the first 10 months of this year. But it’s pretty much all I do. It’s what comes of writing for three publishers at once. Fortunately, it’s also what I love to do, so other than feeling rushed a bit at times, it’s no hardship. And I’ve found (don’t tell my editors this) that it’s actually easier to write them faster because the characters and the situations stay crystal clear in my head.

Juggling my commitments is a matter of setting personal (false) deadlines. Case in point is my current situation. My last deadline was May 15th. My next two books are due October 1st and November 1st, respectively. All three to different publishers. If I wrote strictly to deadline, I’d have had four and a half months for the October book and one month for the November. Not good. So I set a deadline for myself to have the October book written and to my two critique partners by August 1st. Which I did. While they read and critiqued it, I dove into the November book. They’ve gotten back to me with some concerns (Jag is proving to be his usual, difficult self), so I’ll set aside the November book for a bit while I revise the October book, then dive back into the November.

Managing my writing day is pretty easy. I get up, exercise, then write on and off for 10-12 hours. I’m really not a fast writer. I just write constantly! Over the years, I’ve experimented with different productivity mindsets. I’ve tried setting daily time goals – I’ll write for x number of hours today. But that didn’t work well, since I could imagine stories in my head for hours without writing a word. I’ve tried setting daily page goals. But that also didn’t work well, at least not by itself. Because left with too much time, I like to explore options. Before I published, I would sometimes write a book three or four times, from scratch, experimenting with different scenarios, sometimes different heroines (I always knew my heroes). What I finally learned to do was set delivery goals. Critique partners are a great tool for this. “I’ll have the first three chapters to you by Friday.” Nothing like a deadline to keep you focused. Nowadays, the promise is more like, “I’ll have the book to you by Friday.”

Now I have a question for you guys. Actually, two questions so answer both or take your pick!

First, if you could shift into any animal you wanted, only when you wanted, what animal would you choose?

Second, if you could travel to any point or place in time, past or future, when and where would it be?

Pamela has very kindly offered two lucky commenters here signed copies of DESIRE UNTAMED, her first Feral Warrior book featuring the gorgeous Lyon. So get commenting, people, and good luck!