Bio: Pam Bainbridge-Cowan
I am an army brat who was born in Ansbach, Germany and lived in 17 different places by the age of 13. Oddly, I started writing about the same time we stopped moving. Maybe I wanted the adventure to continue?
My first short story, “Jose, Bobby and Me” was about three boys growing up in an urban environment with absent parents, drugs and warring gangs. While I don’t recall the outcome, I do remember my father reading the story and crying. That was it. If I could make my father cry than I’d discovered real power. I’ve been writing ever since.
The first time I saw my work published was when I took a class in journalism and wrote for my college newspaper. I believe the story was, “History Professor Accepts Job in Alaska.” More articles followed--all equally profound.
My first sale was an interview with a quirky robotics professor at the Oregon Institute of Technology who built robots that went out and did half-time shows with the school’s cheerleaders. The editor of Voices said I had a great way with human interest and he was sure I could make him cry. Well, there I went again. What is it with this crying business?
After graduation I got busy with marriage; kids; hobbies; work; divorce; marriage; career; and like some weird Mobius strip looping through all of it, writing. I joined a writing group. I wrote a little poetry, several short stories. I even submitted a few of them. I sold some horror, a little science fiction. I started a writing group. I guest lectured on writing at the community college. I edited a magazine. I decided to try writing a novel. It took three years and the result was the psychological thriller/mystery “Something in the Dark.” I got 28 rejections from agents who didn't think the book would fit the current line they were creating. Is this like a fashion line? Was I so poorly dressed?
I decided writing was not the thing for me after all. It would be much better/smarter to spend my free hours doing something more fun and/or meaningful. Since I never listen to myself I then wrote my next book, “Yetzirah” a world-building, high-fantasy novel. I started sending queries out to the world, knowing full well I’d be getting a flurry of rejections and should really give it up and…in the meanwhile…I started writing the serial killer suspense novel “Cold Kill.”
I guess I should abandon the idea that I’ll ever have free time to travel, to paint, or to do whatever people do who never made their fathers cry. So, now that I’ve enjoyed my whine, here’s my real bio, condensed, revised, and mostly true.
Bio: Pam Bainbridge-Cowan My fiction has been published in Nocturnal Ooze, Space and Time and Visions and was read on Oregon Public Broadcasting supported Radio. I am past editor of the speculative magazine, Nanobison and writer/editor of the newsletter Together for Children. I am the writer/producer of the spoken word CD, Stories of Oregon. My non-fiction has appeared in many newsletters, local newspapers and websites. I have a degree in Communications from Oregon Institute of Technology, a bachelors degree in Psychology and a certificate in Creative Writing from Portland State University.
Since they say you should write about what you know it might interest you that, like Austin in Something in the Dark, I owned a landscaping company in Southern Oregon, and like Keyla in Cold Kill, I worked in probation and parole. I have not, however, killed anyone, serially or otherwise. I hope you will overlook my lack of experience in this area. I do read a lot!
My affiliations: Becoming Fiction
Critters.org
Klamath Writers Guild
Willamette Writers