Marc and Sophie Hunter, Gabe and Kat Rossiter, Holly Andris and the rest of the I-Team gang find themselves in the same historic Denver hotel celebrating the approach of Christmas at different holiday parties. It’s an ensemble story, which made it the perfect farewell to the I-Team series. With Dead by Midnight: An I-Team Christmas, I was able to get back inside all of my characters’ heads again, including Kat’s. I adored her, and fans of the I-Team series adored her, too. Not only did I want her to be a modern Indian woman I wanted her specifically to be Diné. I had to be careful in doing that because pop culture over-spiritualizes Native people and Native culture. Kat was a special character to write, the only character I’ve written in a contemporary novel whose spiritual beliefs were essential to the story. I was able to touch on a host of topic that were important for me-how hard it can be to walk the Red Road in an urban area, the exploitation of sacred sites and Native artifacts, and so on.

Many of the events in that story were inspired by real life-the raid on the inipi (sweat lodge), for example. Half Navajo, she fights to find her place in the world and among her people. Katherine James was the heroine of that story. In that story, I tried to show how Native people who live in urban areas struggle to hold onto their traditions and their sacred sites. As a fiction writer, I put my years of reporting on these topics into Naked Edge (I-Team #4). As a reporter, I spent years traveling back and forth to the Navajo and Lakota reservations covering a range of issues from forced relocations to the struggles of traditional native people to hold onto their culture and languages. Anyway, what a timely post, and lovely yet painful – like so much of Native American history.Īs a writer of Native descent, I’ve tried to cover Native issues in ways that make them accessible to the outside world.

I don’t know if you’ve ever read her I-Team stories, but if not, you really have to, and especially don’t skip book 1 – Extreme Exposure – which is one of my favorites.

Hi friends! Time flies, yes? Today we have Pamela Clare is visiting with us today, and I’m so excited to have her share.

Naked Edge by Pamela Clare