Pamela Clare is in The Lair

Wow, the intro rhymes :-)

I'm pleased to host historical and romantic suspense author Pamela Clare. Pamela is the author of a fantastic series of Colonial American historicals. Her latest in her Rangers series, UNTAMED is a not to be missed read.

Welcome to the Lair Pamela !

Thanks! I’m happy to be here.

You have a degree in the Classics….Latin, ancient history, archeology yet your MacKinnon Brothers trilogy is set during the French and Indian wars. What drew you to this exciting time period?

I love history. In particular, I love the ancient world, medieval

Europe/Ireland/Scotland/England/Wales, and then the 18th Century and the American West. I’m not terribly interest in Europe in the 1800s or anyplace in the world after 1900. I’m not sure why that is... I’ve never considered writing a story set in the ancient world despite the fact that I have more than the necessary background to do that quite well. I studied Latin for 10 years and focused on ancient Rome, Egypt, and Greece, as well as the Minoan and Cycladic cultures, which I loved. But I was told early on that no one buys romances set in the ancient world — not sure that’s true, but whatever — and I intend to write straight historical fiction when I finally take up the ancient world.With those periods and cultures put aside, I turned to one of my favorite periods of American history — pre-Revolutionary Colonial America.

I love this period because of the fusion of cultures and because there’s such a vast frontier. The American continent itself can almost be another character in the story. Everything about that time period is so huge and so epic and so rich with conflict. When I started to write, I wanted to find a period of time in American history that no one knew about and really master that. By the end of my first trilogy, I had discovered an incredible love of the French and Indian War. It started with writing RIDE THE FIRE, which was set just as the war was ending and Pontiac’s Rebellion had taken off. While researching RIDE THE FIRE, I came across many references to “Rangers” and found myself curious about these men, who were referred to with worshipful tones by the military men of the day. That led me to Major Robert Rogers, the real father of the Colonial Army Ranger unit. I studied his diaries and books about his lives and the military exploits of Colonial Army Rangers, and I knew that my next series HAD to be about Rangers and would be set during the climax of the French and Indian War.I’ve loved every moment of the research and love writing this time period. I recently visited the places in my stories, and that was a mind-blowing experience for me, every bit as exciting for me as visiting the Roman Forum or Pompeii or the Great Pyramids or the Acropolis.

More exciting than the Forum? IS there any place more exciting? (Says the Roman author :-) So Major Rogers was the inspiration for the Ranger books. How much did he influence the development of your sexy, MacKinnon brothers?

I’ve actually been to the Forum and loved it, though I admit that I was rather seriously drunk most of the time I was in Rome. Still, it was incredibly exciting to stand where so many of the people I’d studied had lived out their lives. And, yes, Rogers Island and Fort Edward, Lake George and Fort Ticonderoga were just as exciting for me, even though I was sober the entire time. Maj. Rogers’s deeds provided much of the inspiration, but not his personality. He had amazing physical stamina and was a military genius and did things that would be difficult for modern Army Rangers to duplicate.

But his personality as it comes through in his diaries wasn’t anything like the MacKinnon Brothers. For one, he was a bit of a doofus at times. But he was also staunchly loyal to Britain, and he ended up fighting with the British and against the Colonists during the Revolutionary War. Reading about the battles he and his men fought and the things they were able to do in the wilderness is really where the inspiration came from for MacKinnon’s Rangers. I cannot fathom finding my way through endless reaches of forest in the dead of winter through deep snow wearing wool garments and buckskin moccasins and using only a compass to guide me. Thanks, but no thanks! :-)

LOL. No, there is no WAY Iain or Morgan MacKinnon could be described as doofus’ (doofi?) Not those hot, sexy Scotsmen. So, where did you get your inspiration for your Rangers?

I’m not sure which declension “doofus” is. LOL! I would have to say that the inspiration for the MacKinnon Brothers as sexy Highland Scots who were equally at home as Indians probably was a coming together of several things. I knew there were Scotsmen among the Rangers from my research. Some of it probably came from the film The Last of the Mohicans, which came out in the early 90s but which was no doubt sleeping in my brain. And part of it might have been my own ancestry, which includes both Scottish and Cherokee. It came to me in one of those “Yes!” moments after doing a ton of research — sons of Culloden who were in part raised by the Mahicans (same as Mohicans). To me, it offered the best of both worlds in a hero — big Celts with some Viking blood who knew the forest as well as any Indian. It just felt right to me.The whole conflict between the MacKinnon Brothers and their British commander was purely my invention, my answer to the question, “Why would Scottish Highlanders ever fight for the British!?!?” That’s one of the big, unanswered questions of history, as so many Scots fought with the British against Colonists and their traditional Catholic allies, the French, in the Revolutionary War.

SURRENDER was a RITA nominee in 2007. What did it mean to you to receive this coveted honor?

I was utterly astonished and very excited. I screamed and jumped up and down when I got the call. I’d forgotten all about it, actually, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to be a finalist. Being a finalist gave me hope. Writing is such a hard way to make a living. Anyone who’s even tried to write a book knows that writing is very hard. At times, it’s been difficult for me to feel that I’m making progress in my writing career. There are times I’ve felt invisible. As an author who sets my books in an unusual place and time, I’ve felt that much of my career has been an uphill struggle. So to have one of my books final in the RITAs felt to me like affirmation that all of this hard work is beginning to pay off.

Everyone has a different idea of what success means to them. Everyone who writes has different notions of what it means to be a successful author. I haven’t reached that place yet, but finaling in the RITAs helped renew my faith that I CAN reach that place. It also was very gratifying to know that the judges enjoyed the story so much and appreciated the writing. The quality of the writing is the most important thing to me. It’s something I struggle with on each and every page. It’s very hard for me to feel satisfied with anything I’ve written, but when I finaled for SURRENDER, it made me take another look at the story — yes, I actually read it — and I was able to give myself credit for having told a good story.

Thank you Pamela for visiting us today.

Thanks for having me!

As you can tell from Pamela’s answers, the depth of historical research was impressive. I’m gloaming onto a question she asked her readers on her own blog recently. How much does historical accuracy/detail mean to you as a reader? One lucky poster today will win a copy of UNTAMED but be forewarned….Morgan is MINE!