Former court reporter Pamela Dehnke owns an Ashland B&B and authors books inspired by her years in California courtrooms

By Ed Battistella for Ashland.news

Pamela Dehnke (den-key) is a retired California court reporter, who now owns Nightingales Bed and Breakfast in Ashland. She’s mined her career for the Court Reporter Mystery series, which includes “The Court Reporter Always Gets the Last Word,” “Upon Further Examination” and “Wrong Place, Wrong Time.” She is also the author of “The Diary of an Extraordinarily Ordinary Woman” as well as “Cabin 12,” the first book in the Sorority Sisters Mystery series.

Dehnke is active in the mystery world locally and nationally. She has attended and been instrumental in coordinating the Left Coast Crime Conference, at which she was the Fan Guest of Honor in its meeting in Hawaii in 2009. She is noted for her Bouchercon hospitality suite in Monterey, California, in 2004, and she’s been a guest at CrimeFest in Bristol, England. And she was on the committee that recently presented the second annual Ashland Mystery Fest featuring author Ellie Alexander.

You can learn more about Pam Dehnke at her website, pamdehnke.com.

Ed Battistella:  Congratulations on your Court Reporter series of books, “Wrong Place, Wrong Time,” “The Court Reporter Always Gets the Last Word” and “Upon Further Examination.” What is the series about?  

Pamela Dehnke: The Court Reporter mysteries feature Addie Henkey, court reporter, and a wacky cast of characters that take readers on a wild ride through the bedlam of the legal world. The books are set in Santa Monica, California, in 1996.

Addie is a fun-loving, spirited gal who loves her life, her family and friends, her cocktails, and her two Siamese cats: Law and Order. She lives in the upper flat she — and I — grew up in on 7th and Marguerita, just a few blocks from Palisades Park and Sorrento Beach.

Her mother, a retired Vogue model, lives in a cottage on the property. And Addie’s assistant, Jaime, and his husband, Chris, the most sought-after hairdresser in Southern California, live in the lower flat. Addie’s 73-year-old father is well-known around the world for his work as a consultant for aviation startup companies. Her brother is a highly respected attorney and lives in a house on the beach below Palisades Park. Their evil sister, Missy, is ever ready to throw in a handful of intrigue and humor. And, to add to the fun, Dixie, Addie’s best friend, owns the most popular escort service in SoCal.

EB:  How long have you been working on the series? 

PD: Creating the series had been on my mind for many years. I actually started writing it about three years ago, but during that time, I also wrote the first book in the Sorority Sisters mysteries and the prequel to the Court Reporter series. Cozy mystery readers enjoy holiday-themed mysteries, so I set the books during Halloween and Thanksgiving, and they weren’t quite ready to go last fall, so they were released this year.

EB:  The main character, Addie Henkey, is a court reporter, and you were a court reporter for many years? Are you the model for Addie Henkey? 

PD: Addie is based on me and my life. I’d intended to be an English lit professor, but when my husband and I separated, I realized I wasn’t going to support my lifestyle on a teacher’s salary. My mother’s uncle had been a court reporter during the Great Depression and not only survived those years but thrived. I had a mortgage and a 4-year-old daughter at the time, so off I went to court reporting college.

I finally passed the California State Court Reporting Exam, went to work and loved it. Reporting is like playing a word game all day and getting paid quite nicely for it. My first job was taking a deposition for a law firm on the 23rd floor of the Embarcadero in San Francisco. I reported the case while looking out over the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. I couldn’t believe I was actually getting paid for it.

I’d intended to report part time and return to college to finish my master’s and go on to my Ph.D., but reporting was so much fun, I kept at it, taking the more challenging cases that were usually more exciting. I had some amazing adventures, and when I retired and purchased Nightingales Bed and Breakfast in Ashland, I’d planned to run the B&B in the summers and return to San Francisco or Los Angeles to report during the winters.

But instead I began writing. I’d written during my high school and college years, turning out some magazine articles and a few romances. I’d been keeping diaries and journals since I could form letters, and I wanted to try my hand at writing a novel in diary format, so I did, and “The Diary of an Extraordinarily Ordinary Woman and Her Rather Eccentric Sister” was born. I’d been passionate about mysteries since I was 10 years old and found a box of my mother’s Nancy Drew books in the attic. I missed reporting, so I decided to keep it with me and write a mystery series featuring a court reporter.

EB:  The books are set in different times.  How does Addie evolve in the three books?

PD: I can’t say too much about how Addie evolves in the books without giving away spoiler alerts. That said, in the prequel — “Wrong Place, Wrong Time” — we see Addie in 1973 as a married master’s student with a 4-year-old daughter. Circumstances involving a murder change the course of her life. I love this period of tie-dyed shirts and bell-bottom pants, when you could fill up your grocery basket for $20 and your gas tank for 39 cents a gallon. Fast forwarding to 1996, we find Addie loving her life, but agonizing over the presumed death of the man she loved. He was last seen entering a building that had just burst into flames. Four years have passed and Addie’s beginning to date, which leads to some extremely amusing anecdotes.

EB:  What’s next for Addie Henkey?

PD: What’s next is very exciting. I’ve been asked to write a piece about how the death of my brother impacted my life and lives of my family members. My brother died in Vietnam on his 23rd birthday. He was a member of an elite group of Special Forces men — boys, really — and he was a brilliant young man. He flew helicopters and small fixed-wing aircraft, was a pro baseball player and intended to go on to law school. Addie’s brother is my brother as I believe he would have been had he lived in the 1990s. How his death affected our lives involves money, murder and mayhem. It’s a real-life page-turner. I plan to use this piece as an outline for Addie’s next adventure. I’ll write it from the perspective of a case she’s working on.

EB:  I imagine you’ve included true-life incidents from some of the weirder cases you were involved in.  Can you share a couple?

PD: Oh my goodness, you wouldn’t even believe all the exciting times I had. The opening scene in “The Court Reporter Always Gets the Last Word” really happened. Towards the end of a long day of reporting a deposition, I was ready to tell the attorney that he had about two more questions to ask before I fell off my chair, when all of a sudden, the witness dove across the table and started choking the attorney. The witness’ counsel was trying to pull him off the poor guy, and I was yelling for security, but not before I typed in, “Witness attacking attorney. Off the record at 7:08 p.m.”

On a sadder note, I spent three years reporting a class-action, wrongful-termination case. During that time, the husband of one of the plaintiffs had died, and I took her testimony in which she talked about how they’d been together since college and how tragic his death had been. The testimony was heart-wrenching. I gritted my teeth and bit my tongue, but I couldn’t stop the tears from running down my cheeks. When the plaintiff’s attorney noticed my tears, he spoke up, “I just want the record to reflect that Madam Court Reporter is crying.”

EB:  What do you enjoy most about writing? And what is the most challenging or frustrating thing? 

PD: What I love most about writing is what I term the “what if” factor, taking a simple scene and allowing it to grow into something monumental. My books are based on incidents that actually happened to me, whether in reporting or in the course of events in my life. The characters are analogues of my family and friends, from my dad, who flew the first helicopter into the state of California, landing in Santa Monica in 1954, to one of my girlfriends, who owns an escort service.

The most challenging and very frustrating thing I find about writing is time and organization. My home is the foundation of my life, and I feel like I have to have it in order before I can relax and write. OK, what’s difficult about that is that my home is never in order. I’m in awe of people who have spacious and uncluttered homes. Mine is always in disarray with books, magazines, music, knitting, cooking and cats. However, I’m forever hopeful.

EB:  This is your fifth book.  What have you learned along the way?

PD: What I’ve learned along the way is that writing is an amazing process. I think that each book I write gets better. I also believe in continuing education, so to speak. I take various writing courses here and there, and I just hosted a writers’ retreat with Cal Berkeley professor Margaret Lucke. We were very lucky because her incredible husband, Charlie, came along and cooked for us. Three percent of the people that begin court reporting college actually finish and work as a court reporter. I don’t know what that statistic is with regard to writing, but I know that if you don’t follow your dream, you’ll never know whether you might have succeeded.

EB:  Tell readers a little about your writing process and routine.  When do you find time to write between running a business and your other activities?  Do you write every day or in binges?

PD: Most of my life I was up and out running at 5 in the morning before I took off for work, so when I retired, I decided I would do nothing before noon. That didn’t pan out too well because I had to get up to serve breakfast at Nightingales, but then the winter months are slower here in Ashland, so I get up when I wake up, which is usually around 8. I like to have a few cups of coffee, check the weather and emails, get some exercise, do a few chores and begin writing. I’ll write about four to five hours and then spend an hour on marketing.

Once the witching hour of 6 arrives, I sit down with a cocktail and a magazine. I love cocktail hour! In addition to writing, I study the Italian language, taking two to three classes a week. I’m involved in three book groups, one of which is a mystery reading group that meets at my home, and we welcome new members. Contact me for more information. I enjoy knitting and sewing, Webster’s and Sew Creative being two of my favorite stores in Ashland.

Having been an English lit major, I’m passionate about theater and attend everything offered in the Rogue Valley. Jessica Sage is doing a remarkable job with Rogue Theater Company. Collaborative Theatre Project is putting on incredible productions. And, of course, Camelot is always a favorite. I’m also very involved with the Tudor Guild, and yes, I’m the incoming president for 2025, which, by the way, is going to be an amazing year for OSF and Ashland. As the Tudor Guild president, I’m billing it as We’re Back! If you haven’t taken the Campus Tour — a remake of the old backstage tour — please do so. It’s a ton of fun! I’ll also just mention here that the Tudor Guild will be having a fundraiser at Camelot on April 23, 2025. Please purchase a ticket and join us for a very merry time.

I’ve also been on committees to present the Left Coast Crime Conference, Bouchercon and more recently the Ashland Mystery Fest, the brilliant idea of Ashland’s mystery writing sweetheart Ellie Alexander, author of the Bakeshop Mysteries and others.

EB:  Who are some of your favorite writers?  And how have they influenced you?

PD: Some of my favorite writers of mystery fiction are Carolyn Hart, author of the Annie Darling series; Ellie Alexander, of course; Janet Dawson; Sue Ann Jaffarian; Wendy Hornsby; Terry Shames. Oh gosh, the list just goes on and on. I’ve taken various things from all of them. Carolyn mentions other authors in her books. I loved that idea and adopted it. Sue Ann will always share my book releases on Facebook, which is one of the best ways to get your books out in the world, so I truly appreciate people sharing. Ellie is immensely supportive of new authors and featured me in her September newsletter.

EB:  You are also in a writing group, with Will Astryke, Ginny Dean, Colleen Patrik-Riley, Peter Finkle, Lynn Ransford, Mary Silva, and Douglas Derrer. What goes on at your meetings? I imagine your group has offered helpful critique. Does anything stand out? 

PD: I love my writers group. I wanted someone to critique my work, so I started the group about eight years ago. At the time, I said any one of us that wanted to be published would be, and we are. Will Astryke writes award-winning historical westerns. Peter Finkle started Walk Ashland and shares his knowledge of the history of Ashland, public art and the various ghosts that have lived in some B&Bs — not mine! You asked what stands out about our group, we laugh.

EB:  You are the owner of the Nightingales Inn, which you bought when you retired from your career as a court reporter. What prompted you to choose Ashland for your second act?

PD: I first came to Ashland as a college student in 1981. I brought my little girl with me and planned to spend a three-day weekend. We stayed two weeks. Needless to say, I fell in love with OSF and anything Ashland. In 1989 my mother — who, by the way, was a model, though not a Vogue model, is the basis for Addie’s mother — began coming up to Ashland with us and we spent most of our summers here. Gradually, other family members and friends joined us, so we’d rent a cottage and people would come and go all summer. I would come up for the opening of OSF in February, the closing of the April play, the closing of the Lizzie (the Elizabethan Theatre) in October, and I was here for the dedication of the Thomas Theatre because I adored Peter Thomas. In other words, retiring here was a natural transition.

EB:  Tell us a bit about Nightingales Inn. What’s it like?  Are there any mysteries associated with the house?

PD: Nightingales is very special to me. Mrs. Russell, fondly known as Grandma Russell, was a tough old gal who had the house built in 1901. The property was bought and sold several times. The owner previous to me was Gail Barham, and I first met her when she bought the property in 1991. We became fast friends. One day I was standing in the living room and I whimsically said to Gail, “I would love to live in this house someday.” I never in a million years would have dreamed that would happen, but it did. Honestly, every day I say to myself how fortunate I am to be living here.

EB:  You are the incoming president of the Tudor Guild here in Ashland. Congratulations. How did you get involved with that group? What’s involved in being president? Anything that would turn into a cozy mystery? 

PD: I said a bit about this earlier, but when I first came to Ashland, I visited the Tudor Guild Gift Shop and thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be fun to be one of those ladies who wear the Tudor Guild aprons and walk around happily chatting with people?” And it happened! Upon moving here, the first thing I did was ask to be a member of Tudor Guild. You asked if a cozy mystery could come out of my Tudor Guild experience, and yes, I’m planning on setting one of the upcoming books in Ashland. Addie’s aunt and uncle own Nightingales Inn, and Addie grew up on Ashland summers, so she’ll be visiting and solving a mystery.

EB:  Finally, where can readers get your books?

PD: My books can be purchased just about anywhere. They’re readily available on Amazon. Locally, they’re available at Bloomsbury and Paddington’s. At the Ashland Mystery Fest, I was one of the debut authors that Paddington’s hosted — thank you, Stefanie, for all you did — and I’m happy to say that my books were flying off the table like hotcakes.

I do want to mention my other mystery series, Sorority Sisters, the first book of which is “Cabin 12.” I said earlier that I grew up on Nancy Drew, and I had those books in mind the entire time I was writing “Cabin 12.” I will also say that I wrote it on a Write Practice — a writing course — challenge. How it came about is that the daughter of one of my mother’s sorority sisters got in touch with me, saying that she had photos and articles about my family that she found amongst her mother’s belongings and she wanted to send them to me. That, along with one of my favorite classic movies, “The Mad Miss Manton,” and my love of the Nancy Drew books, led me to create the Sorority Sisters Mysteries. I set them at Michigan U in 1941 and brought in Mom’s sorority sisters. Of course, I did a lot of “what ifs,” but the murder depicted in the book really did happen in 1967; I just moved it up to 1941.

Dehnke recently launched Book Two in her Court Reporter series, “Upon Further Examination,” at Lovejoy’s Tea Room.

Retired Southern Oregon University English professor Edwin Battistella’s latest book, “Dangerous Crooked Scoundrels,” was released by Oxford University Press in March 2020.