BARK BARK BARK

Hi, I'm Lucy, Pamela Tracy's dog.
We're on our way camping.
This is my absolute favorite thing to do.
I immediately get over-excited
and BARK  BARK BARK
the minute Mom (really Dad) parks the camper
in front of the house.

Used to be, my family only had quads
But, then, they purchased a side-by-side.
This is great news for a dog because
now there's not only a seat for me
but in case someone (human) takes the seat
I can always ride in the back
My job, of course, is to bark when my smallest human
Pamela Tracy's son
climbs too high.
BARK BARK BARK
He really needs to climb down
I worry

This is my Don
Pamela's husband
He's the sensible one in the family
He doesn't climb very high
From this angle,
he can easily toss me food.
I always say thank you
BARK BARK BARK

The Arizona desert is an interesting place
This desert tortoise is no fun for me to chase
and when I
BARK BARK BARK
its head and feet disappear
What's with that?

This hawk was no better than the tortoise
I mean really
when I BARK BARK BARK
the hawk did nothing.

Mom and I both agree
Meals are one of our favorite things about camping
Mom, because she doesn't have to cook
Me, because Don always tosses me pieces of bacon
BARK BARK BARKON

You can't see me
but I'm at the feet of my smallest human as we travel back home.
He's sound asleep so I cannot BARK BARK BARK
I've done my job and kept him safe.

By the way
I'm not sure where they got the dog
on Pamela's April release
but it's not me.
I'm much cuter and my BARK much more dignified.
Still, you might want to read it.
Here's the link.
Buy

Turning the Page by Pamela Tracy

 This past weekend, my family went to a place every author should visit.  Yup, Page, Arizona.

This is the entrance to Antelope Canyon.
It's on the Navajo rez.

Once inside, we were captivated.

Every turn brought something beautiful created by the Lord God.

What an amazing world he gave us.

We could have stood there, admiring its beauty, for hours.

All this was made over time by flash floods.

Sand falling

Unfortunately, there was an exit.

We're back home.  The wonders of upper Antelope Canyon are now memories in the scrapbook of time.  

We're going back.  There's other places to explore in lower Antelope Canyon (apparently the next adventure will 

involve ladder climbing).

Where did you have your last adventure?  And, did it have a "book" connection like Page, Arizona?

A Walk on the Wild Side - ASU's student crime scene lab EEK by Pamela Tracy

I'm lucky enough to belong to a fabulous RWA group called Desert Rose.  This past Saturday we had an excursion to a student crime scene lab. When it was first announced, my hand was in the air.  I love, love, love romantic suspense.

Yes, I know, crime scene and romance not necessarily two words that go together.  But, think of Turner and Hooch, Castle, etc.

Here's a big thank you to Kim and Leslie Jones for introducing the greater Phoenix romance authors to Kimberly Kobojeck, who stood at the door like a spider and said, "Come into my web.  I'll hook you."  Er, she didn't really say that, but I'm a writer so took a little liberty.

Just inside the door we are welcomed
by one of Kobojeck's contemporaries

Soon, we are at a crime scene.
There are lots of clues.
We see pills - was it an overdose.
We see a glove - who left it behind, was the victim smothered.
We see blood spatter (Yes, it is spatter, not splatter) on the lamp shade.
And, then, there's the baseball bat.

Blood is everywhere
And so is the crime lab technician

Did you know that if there's blood spatter on the wall
And the guilty party paints over it
It will still be found.
Oh, yeah.
And, the piece of wood with all the spots...
Well, it's paint - latex, primer, base coat, etc

Fingerprints are an amazing thing.
John Dillinger tried to get rid of his.
Even twins do not have the same.
And, now there's something about the indentations on your ears being individual
But really, now that we have DNA testing, do we really need all the above.
Oh, yeah

Here we have a few Desert Rosers, ready to solve the crime!

Pamela Tracy's favorites genre to write is suspense.
Go figure.
Her next is The Soldier's Valentine.
It's heavy on romance, though.
And light on suspense.
But, the suspense is there.
Just no crime scene.
This time.

It's Only a Party if Love Inspired is There! by Pamela Tracy

Yeah!  This year I was able to attend the Romance Writers of America's conference.  With just one except, I had the best BEST time.  Below, are some of the photos I took of Love Inspired ladies, most of whom are on this blog.  Enjoy!

I arrived on Wednesday and that night I attended
a hands-on Murder Mystery.
Who was there?  Why Jolene and her daughter.
Hmmm, were they suspects?

Each table had a bag as a centerpiece.
Each bag had a piece of evidence.

My table included Sherri Shackleford and Tina Radcliff.
Between them is a Harlequin  Heartwarming author.
For sure she, Leann Bristow, is a suspect.
After all, a Love Inspired author would never be involved in murder.
Except for writing it.

Thursday, Harlequin had a signing.
Here we have Lenora Worth and Terri Reed.
They are flanking Joanne Grant, editorial director, extraodinairre

Ah, here we see Sherri Shackleford enticing a reader

Marta Perry is signing a book for me!

Teri Wilson writers for LI
But, at the signing, she was lurking in the Special Edition area.

The Love Inspired editors also hosted a meet and greet for its authors.
Here we see Deb Kastner and lovely husband Joe

Here we see Patricia Davids.
And!  I'll send a book to whoever can name the author standing behind her
She'll soon be joining this blog

Walking through the conference lobby you might find a surpise.
Here we have Jill Kemerer's cover.
Hey, you can even put your face in the place of the model.

The highlight, of course, is the Harlequin party.
Here I am along side my best friend Cathy McDavid who writes for Harlequin Heartwarming

Love Inspired authors ready to party!

It's always great to reconnect with friends

Sigh.... the conference ended way too soon.  I didn't get to sit down and visit with my peers enough.

Next year, it's in New York.  A long way for this Arizona girl to travel, but I'm hoping to go...

Pamela Tracy's next book is
The Soldier's Valentine
Release date April 2019
from Harlequin Heartwarming

Pamela is also busy working on a
Love Inspired proposal.

A Summer Love Chapter 7, by Pamela Tracy

Fifteen years ago, he hadn't been mature enough to fight for her.  He'd had too many doubts and wanted to make something of himself and then come back for her, a hero.

He'd been sent overseas and seldom made it home.  When he did managed to land on Summer Shore's soil, Jenny was always off somewhere.  First, she attended in college, graduating with honors.  Then,  she'd joined the Peace Corp and used her nursing skills in places where few nurses trod.  Last he'd heard, she was in Alaska working at a clinic in a rural area.

Looks like their dreams weren't all that different.  Too bad they couldn't have made something of themselves together.

Bending down, he rubbed his ankle.  The damaged ligaments had been reattached to the bone, and yes, the military doctors called him "good as new" but they'd not put him back into active duty.  He was good as new and a little  unstable - thus, his limp.

Truth was, Jake wanted to fulfill his twenty year commitment to the US of A.  To do that, he needed his ankle to fully heal, and the military doctors to verify that he was better than new.  One of his buddies had gone through the same type of injury and had shared the name of a specialty clinic up in Oregon.

But, Jake would need a good chunk of change for the therapy.  If he were the only owner of his childhood home and sold it, he'd be able to swing it.

Sitting back in the rocker on the wrap-around veranda, he stroked Ralph's furry head as he watched  Jenny shashaying up the walkway.  Why had she returned home?  Why hadn't she married? One thing for sure, she'd not changed a bit.

No, he had, and although his goal had been to come back a hero - for her - it looked like he might fail again.

What A Difference a Day Makes

Pamela Tracy here...

I've titled this "What a Difference a Day Makes."
Really, it should be "What a Difference Thirteen Years Make."

I got the call from Love Inspired when I was pregnant with my son.

Age one month - foot not big enough to go inside Daddy's boot...
My first book for LI  Pursuit of Justice was being edited by Krista Stover

Age Two... I can wear Daddy's boots, but I trip a lot...
Pursuit of Justice  was up for the Rita and I was working on my third LI Suspense

Age 12, Dad's boots fit just fine and look, big enough to insist that the dog be included in the photo.
BTW, the dog refused to try on Dad's boots.
Oh, and Daddy is now Dad and the Lego posters in his room have been replaced with car posters
BTW, I've fifteen books with LI and  Heartwarming

Mom was too busy organizing to make sure to take a picture with the numbers 13 on the cake...
Ack, I have a book due... but Mike's B-day was a bit more important.
Okay, not a bit
I HAVE A TEENAGERS

Thirteen years ago, I got a phone call.  Since then, I've written for both the suspense and contemporary line.  Just like Mike, I've grown.  I'm a better plotter, and now that the family has a dog (whose idea was that!"), I put dogs in books more often LOL.

Like parenthood, writing is a wild ride.  

Pamela's next book is an October release
from Harlequin Heartwarming

When you dream, dream big.

Pamela Tracy here.

Roughly twenty-three years ago I decided to really try my hand at writing.  I set up my computer on a card table in my bedroom and I started writing a Star Trek novel.

I typed merrily for quite a few month before admitting to myself that there had to be some kind of guidelines for actually knowing what to do.

I've always loved school.  I've taken sign language and even a math class just for fun.

Signing up at my neighborhood community college was a no-brainer.  I was so excited my first night of creative writing class.  I felt like I'd arrived.

Clearly, a few of the other students had arrived earlier than me.  Some were taking the class for a third or fourth time.  I, quite frankly, was jealous.  Why hadn't I thought of taking this class sooner!!! I was behind!!!!

There were a few other newbies.  Sitting across from me, much younger and prettier was a woman named Stacey Connelly.  We exchanged pleasantries and soon friendships in the class formed.

A year later, Stacey and I were in the class for the third time because we WERE going to become writers.  

From that class, a core group of six formed a critique group, including the creative writing teacher.  We stopped taking the college class and once a week, we met at a restaurant and exchanged chapters.  The group ebbed, flowed, grew, shrank, but stayed cohesive with five - yup, count em - five of the original core members.

Stacey and I were the romance writers.  We went to conferences, joined RWA, and strove to perfect our prose.  We dreamed, and we dreamed big.

Last week something bearing Stacey's name arrived in my mailbox (ordered from Amazon!)

Nope, not a book.  She sold her first many years ago.

It's a movie.  A Hallmark movie.  Taken from one of Stacey's books!!!

Look, her name is right there!
Under the photos of the actors and actresses.  

I want to cry when I think of that long ago day.  It was before I married, had children, had wrinkles!  There I was in the hard, wooden classroom chair with my spiral notebook ready.  I was in a room with other people who had stories to tell.

Stacey was across from me, as she would be for many years and up until today.  We still room together at Nationals and such.

See, when you dream, you need to dream big.

Stacey's cover

Stacey did.

Tonight there are five of us meeting for a Christmas party.  Three are from the original six. The dream hasn't ended.  I wonder what will happen next?

Pamela Tracy, who sat across from Stacey Connelly, is still waiting for her Hallmark movie.
In the meantime, her most recent release is from Harlequin Heartwarming.

First Sale

Once upon a time there was an author - you could have called me unpublished or the politically correct term of the time prepublished.  Didn't matter.  I wanted to write, sell, and see my books on a store's shelf - even better know that some stranger in a distant land (like Florida) might actually be relaxing on a chair and reading my book.

I did everything wrong.  My first manuscript was hundreds of pages long, single spaced (I'm telling the truth) and I didn't plot at all - nada.

I realized that I knew nothing (think Schultz) so I joined a creative writing class at a nearby college where I had a topnotch teacher, found a critique group, and as a posse we all went to an RWA conference together.

I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote.
Submitted, submitted, submitted, submitted.
got rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections.

When I finished one book, I started another.

At church one day, someone said to me, "Hey, you're trying to be a writer, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, Darlene Mindrup sold a book."

Huh?  Darlene Mindrup?  I didn't know she was writing.  She hadn't attending any creative writing class I was a part of.  What?  There'd been no mention of a critique group or going to conferences.

What!

I'd been following the plan.  You know what I'm talking about - do everything in order, check off boxes and all.

That's next Sunday I cornered Darlene.  "You sold a book?"

"Yes, to Barbour Publishing, a line called Heartsong."

"Never heard of them."

Darlene told me they were mail-ordered and then gave me a few.  I promptly sent them a book and heard nothing.

For a year.

Then, I went to my first RWA National Conference.  Back then, ACFW didn't exist so all the Christian publishers came to RWA.  I signed up for an appointment with Rebecca Germany, pitched my book, and she said, "Sounds good, send it."

I told her she already had it.  She suggested I send it again.  I did.

Two months later I headed to my apartment mailboxes.  It was early afternoon, probably 4:00.  Back then, I was an elementary school teacher and finished at 3:00.

I found an envelope from Barbour inside the mailbox.  I ripped it open and saw, "If you make these revisions, we'd like to publish your book."

Yup, I was standing alone in front of a row of mailboxes whooping and jumping around like a happy mad woman.

I made the changes - btw, the edits were done by sticky notes put on the pages that needed changing.  That was my first book It Only Takes a Spark.

Cool beans, eh?

My first book ever.
It came out in 1999.
It was my fifth completed manuscript.

 

My first book with Love Inspired Suspense (this is the Thorndake version)
It came out in 2007.
It was my eighth published manuscript.

My first book with Love Inspired

This is my sixth book with Harlequin Heartwarming
It came out this month!!!!!
Go ahead, read the blurb.

Did Tom Riley arrest the wrong woman? 

For six years, the Sarasota Falls police chief has been hunting the cunning beauty involved in his partner's death. Now here she is, back in his New Mexico town, her face a match to the one on the wanted posters. But the woman Tom Riley knows as Rachel Ramsey insists her name is Heather Graves. 

Is Heather really as innocent as she claims? And what is he supposed to do about their undeniable mutual attraction? As his search for answers uncovers secrets in Heather's past, Tom realizes that Heather is the woman he most wants…

Buy me