Mysterical-E

He Said, She Says

Pamela Beason

Interviewed by Barbara Hodges

Pamela Beason lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she writes novels and screenplays and works as a private investigator. When she's not on the job, she explores the natural world on foot, in cross-country skis, in her kayak, or underwater scuba diving.
Pam is the author of seven full-length fiction works: THE ONLY WITNESS (1st of the Neema mystery series and Grand Prize winner in the Chanticleer Book Reviews Contest), THE ONLY CLUE (2nd of the Neema mystery series), ENDANGERED (1st in Summer Westin eco-mystery series), BEAR BAIT (2nd in Summer Westin series and winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award), and UNDERCURRENTS (3rd in the Summer Westin series), SHAKEN (1st of the Langston Green romantic series), and CALL OF THE JAGUAR, a romantic adventure novella. She also wrote the nonfiction titles SAVE YOUR MONEY, YOUR SANITY, AND OUR PLANET and SO YOU WANT TO BE A PI? She is currently finishing a new YA adventure novel and a sequel to SHAKEN.
As an avid outdoorswoman and animal lover, Pam challenges the human assumption that we are the superior species. Pam blogs and tweets about writing, outdoor adventures, and the value of being present in the moment. She looks forward to connecting with readers on her Twitter, Goodreads Page or Blog. You can find her blog and more information about all her books on her website: http://pamelabeason.com

BMH:    Where do you live?
PB:    I live in beautiful Bellingham, Washington, which is about 25 miles south of the Canadian border on the west coast.

BMH:    How long have you lived there?
PB:    I have lived here for a little more than seven years now. I moved from Redmond, Washington after I escaped from Microsoft, where I was a managing editor. And I moved to the Pacific Northwest from Oklahoma after grad school. I’m originally a Kansas girl.

BMH:    Why did you choose to live there?
PB:    I chose Bellingham because I love the laid-back, outdoorsy lifestyle here. Almost everyone who able-bodied hikes, snowshoes, skis, kayaks, bikes, etc. and we have great bookstores (both new and used) and a thriving indie film scene, too. We have a wonderful network of parks and trails in this area. I always say that people here work to live, rather than live to work. I love the fact that conversations about jobs are rare; most Bellinghamsters talk about books and movies and outdoor adventures instead.

BMH:    Tell us about your family.
PB:    My friends are my close family, and I’m lucky to have a lot of them. My blood relatives are mostly farmers and teachers and entrepreneurs who live in Kansas and Oklahoma, but a few of the more adventurous ones are scattered to Oregon, California, and even abroad to Germany. My mom followed me to Washington State; it’s nice to have one small piece of my immediate family close by.

BMH:    You have a long weekend. What would you do with the time?
PB:    My plans almost always depend on the weather. If it’s nice, I’m likely to go somewhere that I can hike or kayak. If the weather is miserable, there’s nothing better than curling up, purring cat in lap, with a cup of coffee in the mornings or a glass of wine in the evenings and reading something from my endless stack of To-Be-Read books. I also love to paint (watercolors) and do country line dancing (eehaw!) and have potluck dinners with friends.

BMH:    You can go back in time, meet and chat with anyone, who would it be? What would you talk about?
PB:    Hard questions, all of those. This might sound sacrilegious to some, but the person I’d most like to talk with is Jesus Christ. I’d just want to hear his life story. Religion is so often used to divide people instead of unite us, and all the stories have become so muddled down through the centuries by endless translations and creative editing and mingling with myths and such that I believe it’s impossible to know what the truth is. No matter what Jesus had to say, it would really help to set the record straight and be informational for everyone.

BMH:    Who are your favorite authors?
PB:    Whoa! A really hard question. I have a new favorite author almost every week. I read in all genres, usually more than 100 books a year. There are too many good stories out there! It varies by genre, I guess. For mysteries (my most common writing genre), I enjoy any book by Nevada Barr and Sue Grafton, and I adore C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett series and Craig Johnson’s Longmire series. For “women’s fiction,” I especially look for Jodi Picoult. Lately I’ve been reading YA to glean its secrets, and I am working my way through all of the books by Catherine Ryan Hyde. One of my favorite books in recent years has been The Memory Thief by Emily Colin, which I guess I’d classify as a ghostly love story. See—too many good books!

BMH:    What is something you wish someone would have told you before you became an author?
PM:    I wish I’d known that I would need to do all the marketing myself. I made the mistake of thinking my traditional publisher would help a lot more than they did. I should have started sooner and worked harder at it. Now, although I have a lot of books out, I’m having to make up for lost time.

BMH:    What do think about the new faces of publishing?
PB:    If you mean all the self-pubbed folks (I am a half-traditional/indie author myself), I have mixed feelings. So many authors publish half-baked and error-ridden books and then give them away for free or 99 cents that it makes it very difficult for the rest of us to make a living. On the other hand, I am well aware that there are very few slots in traditional publishing houses for new authors, and I’m also painfully aware of how most publishers treat authors as the least important cog in the publishing machine, so I’m thrilled that e-books and POD services are providing opportunities for so many new authors who deserve to be read. Personally, I’d love to have a good publishing partner who would work at marketing and distribution so I could focus more on writing and we could both earn a decent living.

BMH:    What's your favorite flower?
PB:    I haven’t encountered them often enough, but I’d have to say tuberose. The scent is absolutely heavenly. I’d live surrounded by them if I could.

BMH:    Do you watch television? What is your favorite program?
PM:    Yes, I watch television. Like books, I’m not sure I have a favorite program. I’ve studied screenwriting, and I generally prefer movies to TV series—there’s just more time for character and plot development and meaningful action. But as a mystery author and a working PI, of course I always watch Castle, although the to-be-married relationship between the two main characters has lessened the appeal for me; It thought it was much more “fun” when Kate and Castle were in opposition. I also enjoy Major Crimes and Rizzoli & Isles and Switched at Birth. I watch a lot of true crime series and a lot of PBS series, too, especially Call the Midwife, Downton Abbey, and Nature. One series that I watch that most people wouldn’t suspect is Project Runway. Hey, I’m a Midwest gal who grew up sewing! I’m not a fashionista by any stretch of imagination, but I’m amazed at the creativity and construction abilities of those designers.

BMH:    How do you promote yourself?
PB:    Not well. I am not a natural marketer. I blog now and then and I like Twitter and Google+. I’m a bit Facebook-challenged, but I’m learning (I think). I like Goodreads but use it mostly as a reader, not as an author. And I give talks to writers groups and at libraries and conferences when I can.

BMH:    What would be your ideal vacation spot?
PB:    Generally speaking, I go on vacation to have adventures that I can’t have at home, so I would always choose some place exotic like Africa or the South Pacific. When I’m on vacation, I want to see different landscapes, hear different birds, smell different flowers, and eat different food than I do at home.

BMH:    How did you celebrate when your first book was published?
PB:    This is a sad answer: I didn’t. First of all, I self-pubbed my first, and somehow, it didn’t seem right to celebrate that. Then, when that book got picked up by a publisher, it didn’t seem right to celebrate the contract. Then it took so long for the book to be published again that it didn’t seem right to celebrate it then, either; I’d self-pubbed a few others in the meantime. I STILL have the friggin’ bottle of champagne in my fridge waiting to celebrate! (How long does champagne last?)

BMH:    Do you have some hard learned advice for new authors?
PB:    Oh yes. Selling books is going to be hard work, no matter whether you’re self-published or traditionally published. Don’t give your work away; have some respect for yourself and your fellow authors. Our skills are worth paying for. Support your fellow authors, no matter how they choose to publish. And celebrate every chance you get!

BMH:    What is the oddest thing you've ever done?
PB:    What makes you think I do odd things?
Actually, I’ve had so many weird experiences it’s hard to choose. I am a working private investigator, and we necessarily do a lot of odd things, like wearing disguises and hiding in the bushes. But probably the most unusual things I’ve done in my life were when I was when I was a teen, in a zoology post as an Explorer Scout. We learned how to catch snakes and helped train a baby elephant and were filmed for television as we slipped around in the mud catching swans and geese to move them to a new cage. (It was set to music on the evening news; very embarrassing!)

BMH:    What do you do just to cut loose and have some fun?
PB:    As you can probably tell, I have a LOT of fun on a pretty regular basis. I like to go western line dancing (my country gal roots coming out), and I love to go snowshoeing or kayaking under a full moon or—the very best—when there’s a spectacular meteor shower. I’ve also had a lot of great experiences scuba diving—every expedition into the sea is like a visit to another planet. Carpe diem is my favorite saying!