Meet Pamela Beason

Please welcome author Pamela Beason here to Writers Gone Wild. I first met her last November at a writing workshop with Bob Mayer, and learned she had a romance coming out this summer with The Wild Rose Press. She's giving away a digital copy of On Shaky Ground to one commenter, so be sure to leave a note. Here we go!

Tell us about your interesting professional background.
I work at two jobs: freelance writing/editing, mostly technical stuff; and private investigation. No, I was never a police officer. I actually chose to go into private investigation because a lot of my writing work was being outsourced to India and investigation uses a lot of the same skills and cannot be outsourced. The basic steps are these for both professions: 1) Meet with client and determine what your ‘product’ is; 2) Find out where you can get the information you need for your product; 3) Go out and get that information (interview people, get video/photos, measure scenes, get court records, etc.); and 4) Assemble the information into the final product. In the case of tech writing, this is usually a manual or an online help system or a website; in PI work, it’s usually a report to your client. The main difference between the two fields is that you don’t deal with a lot of thugs or crazy people in tech writing, whereas they are frequently present in investigation work.

Sound like an interesting mix. What got you started as a writer?
I’ve always been addicted to stories of all kinds, and I think I’ve written since I could hold a pencil. I wrote some stories about a dog secret agent when I was in junior high; the poor pooch was always being captured by the dogcatcher or booted out of the taxi at crucial moments on the case. On paper I can always make justice prevail, which is so satisfying. The right people don’t always win in real life.

Sad but true, and you’re exactly right. Tell us about your new release.
On Shaky Ground will be published by The Wild Rose Press on August 20, 2010. I’d classify it as a nontraditional romance. The heroine, Elisa, is half-Guatemalan and trying to run the family’s plant nursery after the sudden death of her father. Nothing is going right, the business is plagued by a vandal, and she hasn’t had a romantic relationship for well…forever. What man is going to fall for a tough half-Latina who drives a backhoe? The book opens with an earthquake, and when she’s rescued by some hunky firemen, she has hopes for the ethnic-looking EMT, but no—that guy falls for her blonde stepsister. It’s the story of Elisa’s life. The only man she attracts is the insurance investigator, who’s pretty sure she’s committing fraud with all her insurance claims. It has a lot of humorous moments as well as dramatic and poignant turns. I had a lot of fun writing it.

Blurb: When Terrence Langston ran Langston Green, the plant nursery sailed along like a well-run ship. But when his daughter Elisa takes charge after his sudden death, she feels more like the captain of the Titanic. First, vandalism, then a major earthquake, then arson. And now a handsome insurance investigator believes that she's behind all the destruction? Will she have to get killed to prove him wrong?

How does your knowledge as a private investigator help you with plotting and writing?
Hmm….never thought about that. Does it help? Well, I guess I know how crime investigation works, both in the private sector and in the police force, and I meet a lot of interesting people. I never lack for story ideas or for interesting characters. Being a PI doesn’t help with writing romances, though; I don’t investigate people who love one another (quite the opposite), and not many men want to date a private investigator. Hmmm…maybe the heroine of my next romance should be an investigator. At least I could make romance work out in fiction!

Sounds like a heck of a plan to me. And you could use some of your more interesting cases as background in a story :)
You've got an upcoming mystery series with Berkley Prime Crime. What is it about, and when are the release dates?
After a multitude of near misses, I self-published my mystery, Wild, the first book in my Summer Westin series. (You can still find a few copies floating out there on Amazon.) Then Berkley Prime Crime (and another publisher) made me a 3-book offer that of course I couldn’t refuse. The first book is about the search for a missing child in a national park in Utah. The main character, Summer Westin, is trained as a wildlife biologist, but forced to eke out a living writing about wildlife and outdoor adventure on the internet. She’s in the park writing about wildlife when the child disappears and the media goes berserk, accusing the park’s cougars of snatching the child. I have the sequel written, too—it takes place on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State and involves an anti-government terrorist group. I’m still pondering the third one. So many ideas, so little time. The first book, which will be Wild with a few minor changes (and possibly a new title), is currently not scheduled to come out until November 2011, which is a little frustrating to me. The sequels don’t have dates yet, but since I have to deliver them six months apart, I’m hoping they’ll be published six months apart. Maybe I can figure out a creative way to bump off another Prime Crime author and take his/her slots.

Well, that’s one way to do it (*grins*). What less bloodthirsty advice would you give to a new author?
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that persistence is the key. Publishing is a brutal business. You’ve got to keep improving and keep trying every route to publication. Your manuscript has to land on the right desk at the right time, and that means trying every editor in your genre and sometimes trying the same editor multiple times. If you know your manuscript is good (and this means that more than just your friends are telling you so) and you are willing to put forth the money and time to self-promote, it can’t hurt to put an e-book out there in the Kindle store or Smashwords or other online venues.

Has anything surprised you about the publishing industry since you've become a published author?
The publishing business is a mess right now, and everyone is trying to feel their way through the chaos. Nobody knows what to do about e-books. Sure, it’s easy to throw one out there, but how will readers find it? What is it worth? But then, publishing has always been chaotic. I published 11 “how-to” books years ago. Four of those were with an imprint that was sold three times in two years. None of those books sold because they were not marketed, the publisher who ended up with them declared the whole line out of print after they purchased it, and I was never able to resell those books because other publishers said, “Well, jeez, they didn’t sell, did they, so why would we want them?” Publishers have the power to make or break an author, and frankly, the biggest thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have much control after you hand over a manuscript. I am hopeful that The Wild Rose Press and Berkley Prime Crime will help me reach success in fiction. That’s one thing about writers—we are hopeful creatures, aren’t we?

Yep, we are that. And you’re right, publishing is changing every day. What's next for you?
More work, more mysteries, more romances to write. I’m also very much an outdoor gal, so I hike, kayak, scuba dive, etc. every chance I get. I’ve also written a couple of screenplays, and I’d love to see them made into movies.

I love how big you dream! Where can readers find you?
My website is http://www.pamelabeason.com/. I’m attaching a blog called Who Am I Today? to it. I’ll write a bit about the chaos of being an investigator/writer/editor/author but mostly I’m writing about the solace and sense of wonder I find in nature, because a nature lover is the one persona I wear every minute of every day.

Thanks for coming by, Pam, and best of luck with your books!

Kaylea Cross :)