Pamela K. Kinney Interview
Hello Buzzy Readers, vampirologist Theresa Bane here. I have a special treat for you guys. Here for your reading enjoyment is an interview with author Pamela Kinney, but you may know her better by her romance author pen name Saphire Phelan. Pam is perhaps one of the most prolific authors I know writing about 3 books and 50 short stories a year give or take. And she still has time to Twitter if you can imagine.
I hope you enjoy this, and if you do please feel free to say so in the comment box below. Thanks guys, and see you around Buzzy!
Terry: Hey there Pam, happy to have you here with us. Can you tell us about your latest book.
Pam: I have two anthologies that I have fiction short stories in that are out right now. One is “The World Outside the Window,”
Both anthologies are available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble and their publishers.
May 2009 I will have a new non-fiction ghost book, “Haunted Virginia: Legends, Myths and True Tales” published by Schiffer Publishing.
Terry: And you also have an alias that you write under, correct?
Pam: By my pseudonym, Sapphire Phelan, I have an erotic urban fantasy, “Being familiar With a Witch,”
Terry: What’s coming down the pipe for you, what next?
Pam: Hopefully another non-fiction ghost book-I have some ideas. Also working on couple urban fantasies for each name. One is a sensual dragon shifter book and the other is straight urban fantasy. And the sequel to “Being Familiar With a Witch,” as the fans are demanding it.
Terry: Gotta do what the fans want. Gimmie the links where we can score your stuff at.
Pam: Sure, as Pamela K. Kinney its
Fantastic Dreams of Pamela Kinney
Pamela K. Kinney on MySpace
Fantastic Dreams Blogspot
and as you mentioned, I also now twitter at
Twitter with Pamela Kinney
Terry: For folks who may not know, tell us, how would you describe the genre in which you do most of your writing?
Pam: I write mainly in horror, science fiction and fantasy for fiction as Pamela. As Sapphire it’s science fiction, fantasy, paranormal and urban fantasy, mainly as romance, though have an erotic Lovecraftian horror novella, “Unwitting Sacrifice” out as a chapbook and eBook from Under the Moon. So far, non-fiction has been the ghost books and one upcoming article on the Black Dog myths in Withersin Magazine’s July 2009 issue.
Terry: Wow, so what motivated you to start writing in this book?
Pam: For the ghost books, Dinah Roseberry one day posted on the Mid-Atlantic Horror Professionals forum if any “horror” writer wanted to write real ghost books and not made up ones. Since I grew up reading ghost books by Han Holzer and later here in Virginia, L. B. Taylor Jr., I took a chance, submitted a book proposal and Dinah got back to me that they accepted it and gave me a contract for what became “Haunted Richmond, Virginia.”
Terry: How bout telling folks how you go about doing your research.
Pam: I go online and check out any stories of local hauntings. I even put up on my website, calling for ghost stories. Then I get me books from bookstores or the library on Richmond hauntings and read through it all. I also find local haunted places and get phone numbers or email addies and try to arrange to come by for an interview and to take photos of the place. The same for the upcoming “Haunted Virginia,” except this is for all over Virginia and not just ghostly legends and myths, but Civil War myths and legends, myths of famous Virginians, urban legends (like the infamous Bunnyman and the Bunnyman Bridge or the urban legend of how dogs and sailors are not allowed on the grass in Norfolk, Virginia). Plus the ghostly ones too, and the true stories that seem like myths but aren’t and are still told to this day.
Terry: What’s your process, like, do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow?
Pam: I try to write during the weekdays, during the daytime between 9AM to 4PM. After that, my husband comes home and I try to devote that time to him, or to read or watch a DVD or a TV show. That’s not to say if have a deadline, I haven’t worked weekends and nights writing-I have.
Terry: Where do your ideas come from?
Pam: From my imagination in my head. You might say, I listen to the “voices” in my head. LOL
Terry: We all have our heroes and the guys we look up to. Who, if anyone, has influenced your writing?
Pam: Gosh, so many writers over the years. Like Madeline L’Engle, Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, Anne McCaffrey, Hans Holzer, L. B. Taylor Jr., the Brontes, Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Nora Roberts, Victoria Holt, and so many more up to today.
Terry: When did you start writing? And how long have you been at it? Did you always wanted to be a writer?
Pam: Since I was eight-years old and wrote Sci-Fi and animal and ghost stories. Yes, I always wanted to be a writer. I was excited when I got published with three poems of mine in a poetry magazine, Hyacinths and Biscuits, at age 17.
Terry: Awww. What do you find is the most rewarding thing about being a writer?
Pam: That I hope that when I am dead and gone, someone will still be reading my books as I have read authors’ books who are dead and gone. A legacy.
Terry: Gotta love immortality. Among your own books, have you a favorite book? Favorite hero or heroine?
Pam: “Haunted Richmond, Virginia.” Also “Northern Haunts” (been reading my copy and some good stories in there). For Sapphire Phelan: “Being Familiar With a Witch” and in the past, “Iridescent Invasion.” As for hero or heroine, it’s hard as I have so many favorites-they’re my children, you know!
Terry: And speaking of, please tell us about yourself, like your family, hobbies, education, what not.
Pam: I am happily married for 32 years as of March 12, 2009. I have an adult son who’ll be 31 May 4, 2009. I am owned by two female cats, Baste and Ripley. Besides writing, I have done acting in films and on stage (latest was done few weeks ago for podcasted erotic audio drama, “Mistress and Princess” that I did the voice for an android that you can find here, did filming behind video camera at Ft. Lee, directed a Star Wars audio drama, Rise of Nobility that can still be found online, do crafts and make and wear costumes, mainly at scifi conventions, exercise, read, watch DVDs with hubby or go to the movies. Also take in museums and events. And I been to college twice, majored in film/TV/radio production first time around and theater second time around.
Terry: As a true Renaissance woman, are there any words of encouragement for unpublished writers?
Pam: Keep on writing and writing. Submit, too. You’ll get rejections, just keep plugging onwards. No reward is easy to obtain-not the good ones anyway.
Terry: And Now for the speed bonus round –
Terry: Chocolate or vanilla?
Pam: Chocolate, of course!
Terry: Favorite color?
Pam: Purple.
Terry: Favorite paranormal being?
Pam: Werewolf, also other shapeshifters.
Terry: Favorite mythological being?
Pam: Dragon.
Terry: Do you like science fiction, fantasy or horror?
Pam: I like all three.
Terry: All time favorite book?
Pam: “The Haunting of Hill House”,
Terry: Favorite TV show?
Pam: Right now, it’s divided between Heroes and Supernatural.
Terry: Favorite Movie?
Pam: Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back.
Terry: What makes you laugh out loud?
Pam: Whatever strikes me as funny.
Terry: If you could go anywhere in the universe where would that be?
Pam: On Earth: the British Isles and also Japan, Transylvania, and Prague, Czech, as my mother’s family came from there and Slovakia. Otherwise, another planet?
Terry: A secret fetish?
Pam: Chocolate truffles.
Terry: Horary, and Thanks Pam!
This was a very interesting read. For an author Ms. Kinney seems to have a finger in every genra. I’ll have to buy one of the anthologies, but that Skull house on the cover of your book… it calls to me. VA, eh? I may have to go there and see for myself.Its like if Skeletor had a summer home designed by Bob Timberlake.
Hi Pam! What a nice interview. I love the ghost stories too.
Great interview though I wish you had video to go along with it. “Being Familiar with a Witch” sounds like fun and I always enjoy a good ghost story. Looks like I’ll be adding Pamela Kinnry/Sapphire Phelan titles to my book list.
If Pam is reading this I’d like to hear your take as to what it is about ghosts and things that go bump in the night that people seem to find compelling. I know that ours’ is not the first generation to be fascinated by the unexplained but the resurgence within the last decade makes me believe something more is going on,
I don’t think that anything “more” is goning on but rather that it is “more” OK to openly talk about believing in ghosts without getting sent to a psych ward.
I think it became okay more so with the TV show, X-Files. people were questioning the government more, about life on other planets, etc.. And with Ghost Hunters being a hit and other paranormal shows like that, more and more people are interested. Everyday, it seems more and more paranoral investigating groups are forming. I do one near me.
Everyone would like an answer: “Is there life after death?” I am sure even non-believers, deep down inside. The human need to know.
As for me, yes, I believe–I had too much happen to me since I was young, with a family that had experiences.
With my new ghost book, on the back is the last picture of four of something colored blue forming, until it became an orb. This happened during the daytime, at Noon, on a nice day. Funny thing, the place it did this for me, is where an urban legend 9not real) of Virginia’s own UL of a serial killer–except he wears a bunny suit!
Hey Mike – I get what you are saying. Mainstream church attendance is way down but UFO Hunters, Ghost Hunters and all sorts of paranormal groups are on the rise. Lomax might be right in that people are able to express those interests without ending up in the looney bin or on the rack. Guess the bottom line is that old saw about nature abhorring a vacuum. If people are not finding answers in religion they will look for it wherever they can.
And ya know what else Ben, although church attendance is down I read a news article on the web that more Americans than ever claim to believe in God.
excellent post