Author Interview: Pamela Gibson

Let's welcome Pamela Gibson, Historical Romance author!

Author of eight books on California history and twenty romance novels, Pamela Gibson is a former City Manager who now lives in the Nevada desert. She has a bachelor's degree in history and a master's degree in public administration, but her passion is and always has been writing.

Having spent three years messing about in boats, a hobby that included a five-thousand-mile trip in a 32-foot Nordic Tug, she now spends most of her time indoors happily reading, writing, cooking and keeping up with the antics of Ralph, her Siamese rescue cat.

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What draws you to Regency Romance and what do you enjoy most about writing it?

I’ve always been a reader and as a child. But it wasn’t until I was married and pregnant with my

first child that I discovered Regency romances. I was bored and looking for some new-to-me

authors. A kind lady in a bookstore steered me to Barbara Cartland, Mary Balogh, and Georgette

Heyer and I was hooked.

I took my first trip to England when my son was nine and his sister was five. They loved the

broken castles and the pretty gardens and were thrilled that Godzilla and some other movie

monster had not destroyed London. My enthusiasm came from another source: the tours and my

ability to identify sights still standing that were in some of those Regency books I’d loved.

When I began writing fiction I first concentrated on small town contemporaries because

everyone told me to write what I know. But I loved Regencies, so Scandal’s Child was born, won

awards, and was my first historical to be published. An entire series followed.

How is your story in the anthology connected to the series. Can you tell us a little about the characters and how they come together?

In the anthology, there is a silent auction at the ball. My widowed heroine is a talented artist whose niece has donated one of her paintings for the auction. The hero, helping to sort through auction items, recognizes her as the artist and calls on her. He’d been her swain in their youth, but both had married others.

Lily and Alastair feel like years have fallen away as their connection ignites old sparks. But Lily has a terrible secret and if she attends the ball with him (he’s asked), she’s afraid they are destined once again for heartbreak. She attends with her brother, she and Alastair meet up at the ball, and if I say more, the story will be spoiled for readers.

In a genre brimming with passionate love stories and grand adventures, how do you maintain originality in your writing and keep readers on the edge of their seats? Are there any specific themes or tropes you particularly enjoy exploring in your Regency Romance novels?

It’s hard to keep books original because there are certain themes that are popular in the genre. I think originality comes from each author’s voice—the unique way each author tells a story. Having said that, I like my books to have elements of history the reader may not have known. I do this better in my early California rancho period novels (think Zorro) because that was my specialty as a history major in college. In my Regencies I focus on the story, I try to include a bit of a mystery in most, and I add a few tidbits of historical information. In Scandal’s Promise, where my heroine for the mistletoe anthology is introduced, I did more. Yes, it had a mystery, but I also show the difficulty of overcoming an addiction when there weren’t medical aids or support groups like people have now. This became one of my popular books.

Was there something funny, crazy or otherwise memorable in creating this anthology as you worked with the other authors and editors? Anecdotes are fun, please share!

I do have a crazy story to tell. The planning for the anthology had been going well with each of

us reaching out the others as the book was completed. The promotional emails began and then suddenly stopped. I wasn’t sure if all was well and there wasn’t anything more to do or a gremlin had intercepted all communication from the group. I found I was able to send an email to the group, but not receive them. Frantic, I searched graymail, but nothing was there. Then I went to my author email and voila, all the communications were there under spam. Each email was given a technical description of why they were spam, ending with a little envelope I could open “at my peril.” Needless to say, I opened those envelopes and all the promotional planning was there. I finally caught up. Whew!

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Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed learning about Pamela Gibson!

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