It's easy to confuse author Pam Houston with the "other Pam," the one she created as the "fearless narrator" of her upcoming new novel, "Contents May Have Shifted." As with most of her fiction, it's highly autobiographical ("Everything begins with autobiography," she has observed). Also, both Pams live in nearly perpetual motion, driven by the need to move through the world and be open to the changes it can bring.

Over the years, Houston has logged countless air miles getting to and from five continents – much like the other Pam. She recently returned from Mongolia and the Gobi Desert – a 50th birthday trip to herself – where "I got bitten by a dog and my hand turned black." Her cellphone message says, "I must be traveling in a place where there are no cells, so please leave a message."

Houston is the director of the creative writing program at the University of California, Davis, and the founder of the Tomales Bay Writers Workshops. She lives at 9,000 feet in historic Creede, Colo., on a ranch populated with horses and dogs. "I spend a third of my time there, a third in Davis and a third somewhere else – on an adventure, a teaching gig or a speaking engagement," she said.

She will be in Davis for two weeks in January, then on national book tour for "Contents" (W.W. Norton, $25.95, 320 pages; on sale Feb. 6), then back in Davis in March to teach the spring quarter. Her prize-winning bibliography includes essays ("A Little More About Me"), short stories ("Cowboys Are My Weakness") and novels ("Sight Hound"), as well as a long book's worth of travel pieces published in national magazines.

I caught up with her by phone in Hawaii, where she was with friends plotting a 2012 sea-kayaking trip along the Na Pali coastline of Kauai. To visit her, go to www.pamhouston.net.

You've been a hunting guide and a whitewater-rafting guide, but seem to have transitioned into a safer lifestyle.

In the earlier years, I was trying to work out some psychological and emotional (issues), so there had to be a lot of adrenaline. The highest river at the highest point of the year, the most dangerous ski slope. Now I'm much more inclined to choose my adventures for healthier reasons – the cultural experience or the beauty of the landscape. They don't have to have those same frenetic testing qualities.

Your fiction and nonfiction are populated by strong women in determined search of … what?

When I was younger I would have said love or happiness. Now I would say opportunities to live fully and be engaged, to learn how to be wiser and more open to the world. Pam in "Contents" is trying to be present and better. Another character asks her, "Why don't you stop trying to be better?" And she says, "Then what would I do?" In a big way, the book is about making your own faith.

You live in Davis while you teach, but do you make frequent trips across the Yolo Causeway?

Oh, yes. My other half (for five years), poet and electric guitarist Greg Glazner, has found his spiritual home at the Torch Club. I have always loved the Waterboy, but now there are so many good restaurant choices. Do you want to hear my Waterboy story?

Of course.

I took Greg there when we were first together. There was a foursome sitting next to us and they were rowdy and having a good time, but we didn't care, we were all in love. They looked over at us several times in an apologetic way.

After they left, we finished our meal and the waiter came up and said, "A gentleman at the next table picked up your bill. They thought they might have compromised your romantic dinner." But they really hadn't. Then the manager came up and said a line I put into "Contents": "Isn't it great that there are still people in the world who are conscious?" It was a beautiful thing.

In the past, you've been "in conversation with" noted authors onstage at the Crest Theatre, for the California Lectures series (which announced Friday that it is closing). Any favorites?

Each one of them was wonderful in a particular way, but I was so honored to interview John Updike. The fact that he died shortly afterward made it even more important that I got to meet and talk with him. He was so smart and gentle. By the way, everybody thinks I interviewed Norman Mailer at the Crest, but it wasn't me.

Given your expertise, what's your best advice to aspiring writers?

I'll default to (19th century writer) Henry James, who said, "A writer ought to strive to be a person on whom nothing is lost." My version of that is, "Pay strict attention to the world and don't miss the small but incredible things that are happening all the time." That comes from my belief that there is no shortage of things to write about.

You've said you believe in inexplicable forces, and you connect that to your strange encounter in the early 1990s with mystical anthropologist Carlos Castaneda (author of the "Don Juan" series).

That experience has resonated with me throughout my life. I'd missed my flight and was brooding in the LAX terminal when this bright-eyed, beautiful older man came up to me and asked what was the matter. I said, "I missed my plane," and he said, "I am the reason you missed your plane. My name is Carlos Castaneda and I have something to tell you."

He told me several things – which I didn't understand then, but I do now – then he said the most important thing, which I've held on to. "Do whatever you can to face your life and changes with love instead of fear."

That became like my mantra whenever I've had to make decisions. One of the central themes in "Contents" (explores) how to stay open and know who to listen to, because that kind of Castaneda moment can happen.

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