Here we are again at Off The Beaten Path!  A once-a-month opportunity to get to know a very special romance or women’s fiction author, in a fun and hopefully interactive way.   We all like to get to know our favorite authors a little better, and I want to make that fun for everyone.

This month, I’m so excited to have the fabulous Pamela Morsi here!!

Pam and I were separated at birth—I’ve decided this.  We both love to write about small towns, we have a similar writing style in my opinion (or maybe wishful thinking), and we both have the most unappealing brutal writing process EVER.

And I was so fortunate and excited to meet Pam in person in California this past July, at the RWA Writers Conference.  She and I both belong to the RWA-Women’s Fiction chapter, and had conversed many times online, but there’s nothing like one-on-one to really get a sense of someone. 

And we had a lot of one-on-ones on the patio. LOL.

Pam’s voice in her emails and in her books is exactly the person she is.  Now that I’ve met her, I hear her voice as I read her books.  Such fun and snarky wit—I’m telling you, she’s supposed to be related to me!

So—instead of me waxing on about that, I’ll let you get to know her too.

*  *  *  *  *

What top three words would you use to describe yourself?  

Sweet, mushy, sentimental . . .and most people would use “too” as a modifier for all three of those.  But I can also be snarky, self-centered and sarcastic if the occasion calls for it. 

I love your snarky-ness, Pam!  It’s what makes anything you write so much fun!    Okay….I’m a scent person.   Do you have a favorite scent of candle or lotion or perfume?   

Pizza?

Oh, I totally should have gone there.  I would say bathe me in popcorn…  So, next.   What is an odd or quirky trait about you that we would never guess? 

I am an incredible doodler.  For years I saved all my notes from school and college, just for the artwork.  Now I do it in business meetings and writer’s conferences.  If you see me with a pen in my hand, you can be sure I’m not making notes for my next novel.  Somehow it helps me listen to draw weird shapes.  My work is kind of like Kandinsky… if he were stoned on acid and had a broken hand. 

(Seriously?  Me too!!!   I’m slapping my head.  Right now.  Separated at birth, I tell you!!!! )

Okay…If you could go back and tell your younger self one important thing, what would it be? 

I doubt seriously if my younger self would have listened.  And I’m not sure what I would even say.  Things have turned out well for me, so I wouldn’t want to mess with that.   I dated a few idiots that might have been avoided.  But without those idiots, I might not have recognized the value of the wonderful husbands I found.  I might have chosen to give birth to more children, but the ones who’ve shown up in my life are as dear to me as those that share my genetic material.   I could have started writing earlier, but my life experience gave me better things to say.  I guess that good or bad or indifferent, I wouldn’t change a thing.  Though I might tell younger Pam to value her time, it goes by pretty fast.

I know what a wine connoisseur you are.     What are some of your favorite wines?

• Writing is hard work!   I never have time for friends!  Why am I not famous!
• Oh wait, you said “wines” not “whines”.  Sauvignon Blanc

Tell us about your grandchildren!  And what do they call you?

I have 9 smart, beautiful grandkids that I adore.  All of them are some version of step-grands.  But the goods new is that they are mostly unclear on the concept.  I’m called Grandma Pam or simply Pam. 

If you could pick a dream vacation where money was no object, what would it be? 

I’d like to do the Orient Express from London to Beijing.  Get off for a few days where it looks interesting.  Get back on when I want.  Slowly take it all in, the people, the architecture and the history.  All with the guy I love in the seat beside me.    We often talk about getting away for a summer.  Renting a house in Delft or New England or the Canary Islands.  But we have my special needs daughter, Leila, who thrives on routine and needs to do the same thing every day, go to the same places, hang out with the same people.  So our summer in Provence stays strictly in the realm of fantasy. 

Is there anyone you would be a total crazy fan girl over if you met them in person? 

I have totally fan-girled in person.  Fortunately, I’ve met most of my favorite writers.  And George Harrison is no longer with us. 
What is your favorite curl-up-on-the-couch-and-hibernate comfort food? 

I really do make a fabulous meatloaf.  It tastes as good as my mom’s.  And that is very comforting.  Unfortunately when I think of curling up on the couch, I want someone to bring me food, not to make it myself.  If you will bring it to me, I will be happy with anything. 

What is your favorite all time movie that you could watch over and over?

I’ll watch almost any romantic comedy.  And I love LITTLE WOMEN with Susan Sarandon as Marmee.   I also like FOOLS RUSH IN, because it’s a mixing cultures romance.  And it has one of my favorite lines:  “You’re everything I never knew I always wanted.”  But the one program what I can watch infinitely is the A&E version of PRIDE AND PREJUDUCE.  If I’m sick and stuck on the couch, that’s the DVD playing on the TV. 

Do you have a favorite teacher or mentor from your childhood that shaped you in some way? 

I was so fortunate growing up in a small town full of interesting, caring people who continue to impact and influence me long after they are gone.   The members of my family have a nice tendency to live far into old age.  So I had the story directly of my Grandma Vonnie coming to Oklahoma in a covered wagon and my Grandpa Bob moving around the country with his uncle, a Traveling Penman.  Then there was Old Pap, who left home at age 12 to start his own hack business in Wetumpka.  And Corrine who was orphaned at 14 and continued to run the farm and take care of her siblings.  The elderly storytellers in my life have inspired my love of history and sparked my imagination with possibilities.  Truth is very much stranger than fiction.  Which is why a writer can whisk up one little dust mote of an actual life and construct a huge book from it. 

Oh my God, I love that!!!!  What amazing family stories you have.

Pam, you totally made me laugh today, and I enjoyed having you here SO much.   Now it’s everyone else’s turn to have a go at you!!  LOL!

Pam was kind enough to offer a signed giveaway of her latest book, THE LOVESICK CURE, to one of you lucky lucky commenters!  

 Woot!  I’m reading this now in my 3-minutes-a-day of free time, and loving every bit of it.

So leave your comments, feel free to chat with Pam today, and a winner will be chosen tonight!

Good luck and have fun!!