Writing

Pamela’s pre-published manuscripts won attention in several national contests. CHANCES received first place honors in the historical category of the Four Seasons Awards in 2003, placed second in the 2003 Put Your Heart in a Book contest, and was a 2002 finalist in the Spring Into Romance contest, the Colorado Gold contest, and the Laurie. CHOICES was a 2001 Colorado Gold finalist entry. In 2006, CHANGES (original title CHALLENGES) placed third in the Heart of the West Writers Contest and was a Spring Into Romance finalist.

CHANCES received several honors upon its release in early 2008: winner of 2009 HOLT Medallion for Best First Book, recipient of 2009 WILLA Finalist Award for Historical Fiction, named as One of the Top Ten Romance Books of 2008 and named as one of the Top 101 Romances of the Decade by Booklist.

CHOICES was a 2010 HOLT Medallion Finalist in Historical Romance.  Pam was named the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Writer of the Year that year.

CHANGES won the 2014 Colorado Book Award in Genre Fiction and a 2014 HOLT Medallion Award of Merit.

NEVER LET GO received multiple awards and honors in 2022. The novel received a First Place Laramie Award and a Will Rogers Gold Medallion Award. It was also a dual finalist (Women’s Fiction and Historical Fiction categories) in the Feathered Quill Awards, a finalist in the Arizona-New Mexico Book Awards (Historical) and named to the short-list for the GOETHE Award. The title garnered a nomination for Pam as the RMFW Writer of the Year.

NECESSARY DECEPTIONS received a First Place Laramie Award in 2023.

Reality

I’ve loved both history and romance for as long as I can remember. Growing up in Minnesota, I spent cold winter days crafting complicated plots for Barbie dolls and reading Laura Ingalls Wilder books and imagining wonderful stories while playing in the hot summer sun. In junior high, I discovered Judy Blume and twice started my own “coming of age” manuscripts (I still have the spiral notebook with its 100 plus handwritten pages). When I discovered romance, I read all the sub-genres, from sweet Harlequins to gothics to bodice rippers. But my heart set itself on historical romance when I picked up LaVyrle Spencer’s The Fulfillment.

Still, I never really thought of writing as something I would actually do. I put away my notebook and studied history at South Dakota State University, planning to teach. The week after I received my B.A., I married Tim and moved to Pierre, South Dakota where I actually did work as a teacher for a year. Tim and I shared a passion for history and our hobbies included participating in living history reenactments as well as in community theater.

Job transfers took us to Yuma, Arizona, where I served as a historic preservation specialist for the Quechan Indian Tribe at the Fort Yuma National Landmark. Our daughter Katrina was born in 1989 and writing was a distant memory. When we moved to Wyoming, I taught classes at the college level as well as adult basic education and GED classes at the state penitentiary. In 1993, one of my inmate students showed me a partial manuscript and told me he had just signed with an agent. Challenged, I figured I could do that, too.

I wrote my first 400 page manuscript in 6 weeks and thought it was the greatest piece of fiction ever. I was so wrong. Joining Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, I began to learn the writing craft and joined a critique group. Every time I mastered one technique, there was another waiting to be learned (as I suspect there always will be). I wrote slowly, in between my full time job and my commitments as a wife and mother. Thirteen years later, I sold my second manuscript, CHANCES, and became an author.

Though widowed in 2007, I was blessed to have unexpectedly found new love (it’s so great to live a real-life romance!) and currently live in the Albuquerque area with the light of my life, Ken, who has taught me to find joy daily. Together, we parent two cats and enjoy our combined grandchildren and daughters whenever the chance permits. I am a member of multiple writers’ organizations and employed part-time as Executive Director of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.