Into Eternal Infinite and Beyond...
An in-depth interview with the talented Pam Kesterson, author of the exciting and thought-provoking Infinīte series.
Pam Kesterson lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband of 35 years. Pam has bachelor degrees in business and marketing. She has worked in publishing, sales and marketing her entire adult life.
Pam has been rearranging syntax since age 16, when her first poem was published. When Pam isn’t writing fiction or poetry, she’s working or can be found doing a variety of activities from skydiving to distance running. Her all-time favorite things in life are scuba diving while pretending she’s flying in another world, or simply enjoying a nice glass of wine with family and friends.
Pam also has a passion for healthy gourmet cooking with a love of strong coffee and super hot foods. She likes to enter spicy food contests whenever she has a chance, and she always wins!
Can you tell us why you decided to become a writer?
I’ve always had quite the imagination and started writing poetry as a child. I won a poetry contest at age 16. However, before I started my first book, Eternal Infinīte, I remember walking with a friend and we were talking about things we wanted to do in our lifetime. I mentioned, for some reason, writing a book. And I have this goal related curse, which if I say I’m going to do something, I set my mind to do it.
My friend caught me at a weak moment, and that started the process of me taking my writing goal seriously. I remember my girlfriend also telling me on that walk that I was probably Cleopatra reincarnated. I’m not sure why she said that, but that simple statement thrust me into more of a paranormal genre of writing. Of course, that was before such a genre existed.
What do you love the most about writing?
I love the ability to write words exactly how I want to say them. In conversations, that’s not always the case like an explanation that sank unnoticed or remembering a great comment afterward that I could have said but didn’t think of it in time.
Writing gives me the ability to plot and rearrange thoughts in my head, try the story on for size, work on technique and make changes as needed before I even put pen to paper. First drafts can and will always change—as they should, but first drafts start the process of improving and polishing for a finished product. So when I’m with people, I try to listen and chisel the sound of dialect on my mind and talk less. I prefer writing instead of trying to talk brilliantly about whatever subject.
Additionally, I love writing because it’s therapeutic, much cheaper than paying for a shrink and you can write anywhere, even if it’s in your head before put to paper. You can write about anything that makes sense or write about something while it’s starting to make sense to you. I love Ray Bradbury’s,
“Write a thousand words a day and in three years you will be a writer.”
– Ray Bradbury
Where do you get you inspiration from?
Some of my favorite authors are, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephan King, Robert A. Heinlein, who wrote Stranger In a Strange Land, Ray Bradbury, James Michener, and J.K. Rowling. There are so many writers that I love. As a child, my favorite book was, ‘Where the Red Fern Grows,’ by Wilson Rawls. I like to include animals, and creatures, even aliens in my writing.
I love history, and I listen for the hidden voice to speak to me about both good and terrible things that have happened throughout history. Though I'm not a historian, and I prefer to write alternate history because it doesn't get me in as much trouble. I guess I like to embellish the truth about things in my writing.
I also get so much inspiration from other Indie authors. For so long I simply wrote for myself and by myself without personally knowing any other writers and certainly not conversing with them. As a writer, I’ve always been an introvert, and all I wanted to do was write, but building relationships of trust and giving back to the writing community has offered so much satisfaction to my writing career. Other writers have helped me with my blind sides, and I like to be available to help them in support, with proofreading, and sharing what works or doesn’t work.
Overall, the day that we live in gives us access to great writers all around the world. Such a day brings me back in time to how it must have been like for ‘The Lost Generation,’ you know, that group of writers and artists who lived in Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s time who lived and worked in Paris during the Depression. Being around other Indie Authors from around the world (on line) makes me imagine I’m a character in The Great Gatsby book.
The Lost Generation group networked, and would even get together to critique each other’s work. What a great time to live in now, which is no different than how T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Fitzgerald and the rest of the gang sought their inspiration with constant interaction with all the writers and artists during that time and the connections it created with one another. Like a constant party of interchanging ideas and rubbing elbows with the rich and famous and the disguised rich and famous alike.
How would you describe Eternal Infinīte?
Eternal Infinīte and the entire Infinīte Series is like a modern day Camelot with Nazi camps—unique and magical. I’m not surrounded (so much) by castles and certainly not royalty since I live in the United States, so my imagination has to take over and for some reason the regency became center stage in the landscape of the Infinīte Series. Although not considered a Regency Romance, even if there are romantic, intimate parts in both books.
Why should people read the Infinīte Series?
Both books, and probably the third book that I’m currently writing focus on utopian and dystopian settings putting the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions. The third book involves some time travel to throw that out as a teaser. The further you get into both books, the darker it gets. My vision for my books is that it leaves the reader knowing hope prevails.
Where did the idea for Eternal Infinīte come from?
The idea for Eternal Infinīte came from a dream and stemmed from one scene about 1/3 of the way into book one. Less than a scene really, more like a sentence when Saidi (the protagonist) wakes up from being in a coma. The original name I had picked out was, The Incorruptible Seed.
What do you expect to accomplish with the Infinīte Series?
I want people to think about the possibilities of living forever. There have been books for years since Dracula about vampires, but not everybody wants to drink blood to live forever (though I do enjoy the vampire books). So I found another angle where people can have immortality if they choose.
What can you tell us about Eternal Infinīte?
Eternal Infinīte is a combination of angelic powers and devilish lures, psychic abilities that requires breaking the code of meaning, and heightened senses and special powers, twists and never attempted turns to keep the reader guessing. The story happened organically, so it kept me guessing too. The unique premise and saga continues into book two, but not just more of the same as in book one, some new characters, exotic locations and species, unlimited thinking and abilities, etc.
Which were the easiest and the hardest parts for you to write?
I love any interaction with animals and other beings. I find the personalities of animals come easy to me, capturing their heart. Many critters are non-judgemental in how they relate to humans and my imagination captures them in the story with that same honest willingness to please. They just want a voice on paper (or electronically) in barks or in supersonic squeals that come through loud and clear.
On the other hand, the horrific parts of the story are the hardest on me, toying with my emotions. I’m cognizant of how people think about my writing and what topics I choose to write. So when dealing with difficult material, you know, such as rape, disgusting and humiliating acts, pedophilia, and theft, to name a few or four, it’s quite difficult to write about such horrific acts, and I hope I handle them with tact and all the compassion they deserve.
In my defense, after first releasing Eternal Infinīte and as I was writing the second book in the series, my son, an avid reader and an English Literature major in college, told me, “Mom, I love the book, but some of your characters are just too nice?” He went on to critique the book further, but that one comment unleashed the “right,” to come up with a multitude of bad things that happen to good people and good people who do bad things. You’ll just have to read book two to know what I’m talking about – no spoilers here.
Do you have a favorite character, scene or situation in the Infinīte series, and can you tell us why he, she or it is your favorite?
I’d have to say my favorite character in Eternal Infinīte was Cladimir the Perfumer. The King commissioned him to design a perfume from Saidi’s scent while she lay in a coma. Which in itself could be a tedious task, but it’s quite an animated scene. When Cladimir’s perfectionist and snobby persona leaped into life, highlighted by the comedy of it all, he became one of my favorites in book one.
In The Thief Who Stole Eternity, my favorite character is Little Guy. When Cat and Shenser first discovered that Little Guy was A-sexual to continue his species, the Mouth-brooding was an interesting discovery.
What can we expect to see in the next books in the Infinīte Series?
The Thief Who Stole Eternity is available to Pre-Order now on Amazon. It’s the second book in the Infinīte Series, occurring in some of the same places such as Copenica. In book two they discover the world of remote viewing and their travels take them across their world as well as to other realms and places not accessible to the average human, inspired by Dante’s Inferno and other outlandish and at times whimsical beliefs. You can think of the book as a cross between Peter Pan and My Little Mermaid if you put it into a cartoon form, a cartoon for adults.
Some stories are what some have taken to calling Message Fiction, due to the fact that there are (conscious or unconscious) messages to be found in those stories. Did you insert any conscious messages in your story, and if so, what do they try to convey?
I don’t make any effort to write subliminally or blatantly so the reader can get a certain message out of my books, probably because I hate it when people try to cram their way of thinking down my throat. But, if a message comes through free flowing and organically, I like that.
My books have a lot of spiritual concepts, and even many of the stories are directly from the Bible as well as other happenings in history. That’s why I love Alternate History so much because I can take portions of history and rearrange some, change the places, the world in which it happens and voilá, I have my story.
I would never put my books under the genre of Christianity because I’d be offending too many people in other parts of the book. Rather, I’ve played around with various genres such as Spiritual, Alternate History, Fantasy, Paranormal (but you can’t tell me that the Bible isn’t pretty Paranormal), and Paranormal Romance. It could easily also go under Horror, Action, and Adventure, Thrillers and Sea Stories too.
If your story is mature in nature (containing graphic sexual scenes, violence, swearing, etc.), what led you to decide that this was the right way to go, despite the fact that it might limit your potential readership?
A movie rating of Eternal Infinīte would be PG13, as far as sex, violence and swearing go. I might have one F-bomb in book one if that. I decided to go that direction as I tested the waters. I didn’t want to throw in heavy sex scenes because it was expected in books that have an element of romance.
In the second book, there was a natural progression that took place as far as consensual sex. In a movie comparison, the rating for The Thief Who Stole Eternity is “R.” due to sexual content, implied sexual content, violence, and some swearing.
And finally, is there anything else that you’d like to add?
I tend to write longer novels. It’s really difficult to have an elevator pitch for the Infinīte Series unless I say; “It’s about a group of people who live forever, and several sub-plots come together at the end.” But even that doesn’t portray the carnal and spiritual side of the series.
I wrote Eternal Infinīte before its time. It sat on the shelf for a good ten years before I decided to publish on Amazon. Even now, it’s considered an Epic and not everybody wants to read an Epic. I tell the story and want to put the best story out there that I possibly can. In so doing, I have to have blinders on to a certain extent, and not care what others think. That is both liberating and difficult.
Thank you very much for this insightful look at your wonderful books, Pam!
Click here to get your copy of Pam Kesterson's Eternal Infinīte now!
Click here to preorder a copy of The Thief Who Stole Eternity (book two in the Infinīte Series)!
