How one Hill Country mom stumbled upon a mid-life career as an indie romance writer.
Pamela Humphrey was driving up IH-10 from San Antonio in November 2015 when inspiration struck.
“We were heading to Phoenix for Thanksgiving and, on the other side of Kerrville, I saw trees and the rugged landscape. The kind of space where you can look out and there are no houses visible. I thought to myself, ‘Somebody could get lost out here.’ That is where it all began. I opened my phone then and there and started writing.”
Those early chapters in what would become Humphrey’s first fiction book changed considerably as she learned her craft. One year and one month after she found inspiration in a Texas Hill Country landscape, Humphrey published Finding Claire, the first of three self-published romantic suspense novels rooted equally in the region and in Humphrey’s own experience researching and writing about genealogy.
The third book in the series, Finding Treasure, debuted earlier this spring.
Humphrey’s first foray into self-publishing was a non-fiction book about her Mexican-American heritage, Researching Ramirez. Later came a novella that merged fiction and non-fiction elements, named The Blue Rebozo. Although the homeschooling mom of three had long enjoyed reading works of fiction, starting a career—at mid-life, no less—as an author wasn’t something she anticipated back when she was an undergraduate at Texas A&M.
“I was a math major,” Humphrey said with a chuckle.
The more she tinkered with setting, characters, and narrative storytelling, however, the more satisfaction Humphrey derived from the craft of writing.
“In the very beginning, I didn’t really know who my main male character in the series, Alex, was. You know how they tell you to ‘write what you know?’ That’s what I ended up doing. I started thinking deeply about genealogy work and the idea of the protector, and what that means for a Hispanic male. ‘Alejandro’ means ‘protector.’ Once I made that connection, he came together for me. And with that so did all of the other characters in the series. Once I got to know them, I didn’t want to let them go.”
Hence Humphrey’s original series of three books—Hill Country Secrets—and a couple of related short stories.
“I like doing the short stories because it lets the readers experience snippets of time outside the main stories.”
She also regards the Hill Country region as crucial to the tales, going so far as to use her original photographs of the area in the design of her book covers.
“I make sure my covers respect the place because that feels true to me. It also helps people who are not from here to picture it.”
Like many writers today, Humphrey relies upon social media to connect with other novelists, both emerging and established.
“Online communities have helped me take something that was a desire and form it into a craft that I can be proud of. Writing isn’t just about dumping ideas on to the page. There’s a lot of work that goes into it. I use beta [or, early draft] readers from all over. I’m also in a couple of online groups where we support one another. I’ve made real-life friends.”
With the initial three books in the Hill Country Secrets series done, Humphrey has no shortage of ideas for the next round of books.
“I want to do two more in that series, but I have no scheduled release date. And then I have three other full books involving characters from the first series.”
As for who might enjoy her work, Humphrey is quick to point out that her stories are considered “clean” romances.
“Think of them as the equivalent of PG-13 movies,” she said. “There are some adult themes, of course, because that is the nature of romantic suspense. But my own mother reads them, which says something, I think.”
Story and photograph by Pamela Price.
Explore More
• You can find Pamela Humphrey at PhreyPress.com and you can follow her on Goodreads, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• For aspiring novelists, Pamela Humphrey recommends the work of Katherine Grubb, especially Grubb’s Facebook group. We’ve also included Grubb’s DIY novel book in our list of relevant, recommended reads (below).
• Humphrey’s third novel will be our featured read in our upcoming May 2018 newsletter. Subscribe now to get the next issue. (It’s free!)
