Amber Belldene's Blog, page 9

On Mystery and the Virtues of a Blood-Splattered Alexander Skarsgard

I’m at Paranormal Unbound today talking about life’s great mysteries and why hot men help me contemplate them:

“These days, I’d rather not read a heavy, nonfiction book.  But take off Alexander Skarsgard’s shirt and smear him in blood, and I’m willing to contemplate the horrors of genocide…” Read More.

Come by and comment and/or tweet to enter a giveaway.

 

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Aubrie Dionne on Writing about Her Own World + giveaway: Playing the Maestro

I am very happy to welcome Aubrie Dionne to my blog today.  She’s a concert flutist, teacher and writer, and I was intrigued by her idea of setting her latest release Playing the Maestro in the contemporary world of music where she really works (so intrigued that it got me thinking playfully about what a romance novel at church would look like!).

Aubrie is giving away a copy of Playing the Maestro to one commenter so leave her a line for a chance to win! 

I love that you have made both your dreams—of becoming a concert flutist and a writer—come true.  How do you see music and writing go together?  In what ways are they totally different?

They are both creative art forms that require hard work, determination, and love. I’ve used what I’ve learned as a flutist to become a better writer. Composing music is like writing in so many ways. The big difference for me is that in the art of performance, you have to recreate your product each time. But with writing, once a book has been written, it’s there for all posterity. When I go to a book signing, all I have to do is sit there with my finished product. But when I play a concert, I have to recreate my product on the spot.

I’m not surprised by that similarity, but what an interesting difference! Can you tell us a funny story from the secret world of orchestra musicians?  (You all always look so classy and serious in your black clothes—is their scandal or silliness behind the scenes?)

Sure! We are very silly Sometimes we write funny things in the music or joke around when the conductor is talking to another part of the orchestra. The best thing I’ve seen is when you play a solo, the person next to you may shuffle their foot or tap their finger on their knee to show applause and support-during the music right after you put your instrument down. That has always warmed my heart.

It makes me smile just to think of that! Do you have a favorite fictional book about music?

Not really. But I do love Mr. Holland’s Opus- a great movie.

What is your favorite romance novel and why?

Winter Rose by Patricia Mckillip- the language is gorgeous and the story has just enough turmoil and romance for my taste. Also, it’s set in a fantasy world- a plus for me!

That sounds great–I’m adding it to my TBR. Now, tell us a little bit about your writing process? 

I like to listen to Radio Gaia- it’s an internet radio station. I sit at my messy desk with all of my little totems: A miniature Jack Sparrow, a miniature Legolas, my Hobbit calender, my Darth Vader doll, and a whole bunch of sticky notes. I write in the morning before work, and at night after work. I try for 1k a day 365 days a year. Last year I made it to 316. Pretty close, but this year I really want to get to 365!

That’s really impressive.  What do you find hardest about writing?

The bad reviews. I don’t even read them anymore. They just halt my creativity. Why da people have to say bad things about anything in the world?

I know what you mean.  I don’t mind a thoughtfully critical review, but rudely negative ones are annoying!  I think your approach is right-on–don’t pay them any attention.  Can you tell us about what are you working on now?   

I just finished the sequel to Playing the Maestro! This time the orchestra tours Italy and the oboist falls for an Italian tour guide. I thought Maestro was going to be my favorite, but I love this story even more for different reasons. In a way, it goes deeper than Maestro did, taking the characters out of their element and making them question what music really is.

Playing the Maestro and the sequel both sound wonderful! What was it like to write about a world you know so much about?  How much did you draw on your personal experience?

It was so easy for me to write about a world I knew about. The words flowed very fast, and I had to watch myself and create characters that no one would be insulted by! I have too many music friends, and I didn’t want them thinking I’d written any of them into my book! I remember the day I had to break the news to my violinist friend that the violinst was going to be the “bad guy.” Thankfully she laughed and said I got that right!

LOL.  I can imagine that would be tough.  I know you like Sci-Fi and Fantasy.  Was it is big switch to write a contemporary novel? 

Oh yes! I felt like I was going naked. No pretty worlds, space aliens, or unicorns to hide behind. And unicorns are pretty big, too. Easy to hide behind if you want.

Do the musicians you play with know about your writing? 

They think it’s a hoot. They look at me like, “I didn’t know you were a writer?” It’s good, because it balances my music well.

Okay.   Here are some fun questions

Red wine or white? Red wine. White wine tastes like toilet cleaner.

Coffee or tea? Both. Anything with caffeine.

Vampires or werewolves? Vampires. Werewolves are smelly and don’t live forever.

History or Future? Future. If I’d lived back in Mozart’s day, I’d be dead by now of appendicitis. They probably wouldn’t have even known why I died. Sad for me.

LOL.  You are a woman after my own heart!  I think about things like that all the time.  I’m so glad to have you as a guest on my blog today and to have gotten to know about you and your writing.  I’m really looking forward to reading Playing the Maestro.  

Aubrie is giving away a copy of Playing the Maestro to one commenter so leave her a line for a chance to win!   This give away will end on Saturday 4/13 at midnight PST.

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A Blood Vine character interview for @ScorchingRevs LGBT Event

I am so excited to be a part of this’s month’s LGBT event on Scorching Reviews.  It’s a great idea, and I am honored to be included.  It was especially fun since Pedro interviewed me about why I felt his story with Lucas was important in Bood Vine.

The other authors’ posts this month have been great, but of course, Pedro made ours silly!

Hope you can come by to read our interview, plus a Blood Vine excerpt!

 

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Kick-Ass Heroines and Feminism in Paranormal on @ParaUnbound

I’m talking with my friend and fellow writer A.J. Larrieu today on Paranormal Unbound about about what makes a great heroine, and what it really means to be kick-ass.

A.J. is smart, funny, and a sexy scientist, so you don’t want to miss this.

Stop on by and share your favorite heroine for a chance to win a copy of both our books, plus one of the winner’s choice from our feminist heroines list.

 

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Blood Vine news: A 5 star review & Video Interview @BittenbyBooks + #giveaway

I’m on the website Bitten By Books  for a video interview if you want to see me geeking out about writing, wine and vampires.  And you can win a $40 Amazon Gift Card.  RSVP here, or just drop on by any time after noon CST.  In preparation for the event, they reviewed Blood Vine.

Not much is better as a writer than when a reviewer really sees your vision of your book, so I SWOONED this when their reviewer Kristin D, said this about Blood Vine:

“Belldene creates a rich, beautiful, complex love story that has amazing characters, a unique mythology, and lush setting. While this is very much a romance, Blood Vine is really more about creating a family, and Belldene has taken these broken characters and made them whole. This is one of the best vampire novels I have read in a very long time.” Read more…

And she gave it 5 Tombstones!

 

 

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Greetings from our new paranormal group blog @ParaUnbound!

I am so excited to announce the launch day of my new group paranormal blog, Paranormal Unbound– breaking rules, redefining genre, stuffed full of awesome.

I feel lucky to be part of a group of such smart and talented authors, dedicated to promoting and defending all that is awesome about the paranormal genre.

We have big bundles of our books to giveaway all week for our launch.  And you just don’t want to miss what these ladies have to say about books.  So come on by, and be prepared to add to your To-Be-Read shelf!  Here is our welcome post, written by the lovely and hilarious Angela Quarles, which makes me giggle every time I read it! Greetings, we come in peace!

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Why I love teaching Sex Ed

One of the most meaningful parts of my job as a priest is getting to talk to adolescents honestly about sex and so I want to share two things that made me especially grateful for this role in recent weeks.

After that horrible date rape incident and the widespread critique of its coverage in media last week, I saw this wonderful post:

I am so fucking sick of teaching our daughters not to get raped

I appreciated the outspoken honesty of this blogger, and immediately I felt blessed that it IS a part of my job to teach boys that no always means no.  In all honestly, as I thought more about it, I remembered the times kids have asked me about safe words and BDSM, because they see and hear about these things in media. It’s HARD to explain the ethics of BDSM to kids, but even those conversations became chances to deeply explore the meaning of consent.

Today I saw this awesome post:

How to Start Loving your Vagina

Amen.  Much of what I teach is an age appropriate version of this feminist’s rant, because I do think it is a part of my sacred duty to teach girls to love their vagina, and for kids to know what they look like, not only in porn.  And for girls to understand how their bodies feel pleasure, since it’s not quite as obvious as it is for boys.

I am saddened by how many parents shy away from these conversations because it makes them uncomfortable.  But so many of them have expressed gratitude to me for being able to talk to their children when they are afraid.  And, honestly, the kids are more comfortable with this too.  I wonder if has to be that way, but it usually is.

I don’t really know for sure what the Bible means when it says humans were created in the image of God.  (Does God have a vagina !?!)  But I am certain it means our bodies are holy, and beautiful, and meant for love and pleasure, and we should always have the right to set our own limits.

I am enormously grateful I get to teach kids about that, and pretty darn sure that discovering my passion for teaching kids about sex was a stepping stone on the path toward discovering my love of writing sexy romance.

P.S.  Isn’t my cupcake cute?

 

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Fatherhood, Feminism, and Poetic Inspiration

I’m more than halfway finished with my first draft of the third book in the Blood Vine series and I have a lot of plot lines to resolve, so I’ve been thinking about the complexities of family love—the push and pull of independence and reliance, the experience of intimacy with the people that know us best, the balance of power in relationships, and the duty to one’s family in our modern world (versus times when obligations were more formally defined).

These tensions fascinate me, not just in my own life, but as a friend, a priest, and perhaps most as a writer, although it pains me to admit it wasn’t until I had completed my first draft of Blood Vine that I saw its familial themes clearly and understood how they would play out over the series.  Strangely, all the new projects I have planned are in some ways family sagas.

This week, I have also been watching a lively conversation about feminism and romance novels in the blogosphere that has made me think about my writing in new ways. I won’t recount it here, except to mention something the conversation on historical romance novelist Cecilia Grant’s blog got me thinking about: that not only does feminism say a women doesn’t have to find motherhood the only meaningful occupation in her life, but also that men ought to be free to be fully engaged fathers. Which is to say, gender equality frees everyone.

I recently read Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels, a widely beloved historical romance novel, and (spoiler alert) when its hero faces up to himself as a father, I became a blubbering cry baby. Perhaps you saw my tweet: “Oh Shit, Lord of Scoundrels is about this? #BestBookEver.” What can I say? I’m a sucker for books that explore these themes.  My own husband did not always know he wanted children (neither did I, for that matter) but he is a devoted and joyful father, which is one of the sexiest things a man can be.

In Blood Entangled, the sequel to Blood Vine, Lena is torn between pursuing a human life as a wife and mother, or following her destiny to serve in a vampire household with all its accompanying pleasures. She finds a book of poetry on Kos’s shelf—Galway Kinnel’s New and Selected Poems—and she fancies herself a little in love with the octogenarian poet by virtue of his words. The poem that steals her heart is “After Making Love, We Hear Footsteps,” and if you don’t know it, you can hear Kinnel himself read it here. The poem represents Lena’s longing for something she cannot have—that family life with Kos. What Lena doesn’t know is that Kos also loves the poem so much that he had to stop reading it.

This poem holds a special place in my heart. It was given to me by the friend with whom I first began to explore my theological interest in sexuality and spirituality. And when I experienced years of infertility, the poem, although painful to read, was my prayer. Now I get to hear two sets of those footsteps, so it felt natural to give the same poem to Lena in my hopefulness for her happy ending. As a character, she couldn’t be more opposite from me, except in the sense that we are both women, trying to make choices and follow our hearts while negotiating many roles and longings.

Do you have a favorite book about fatherhood?

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The Zinfandel Mystery–a dispatch from the road

Since I am leading a retreat up in wine country this week, I decided to share the story of the inspiration for Blood Vine.

Years ago, I stumbled into a tiny tasting room at a winery called Sunce, which is owned by a Croatian family in Sonoma County.  I liked the place from the start because their whole operation felt intimate and focused on wine, rather than a gift shop of luxury items.

With lots of big peppery fruit and a high alcohol content, Zinfandel was already my favorite wine, but I didn’t know there was a mystery about the origins of this beloved California grape.  In a small, framed news article on the wall at Sunce, I learned that, after years of trying to match the vines, someone had the bright idea of using DNA to trace its roots.  And they did—all the way to the tiny picturesque country of Croatia, across the Adriatic Sea from Italy.  The whole story captured my imagination, and, years later, I remembered this curious nugget of history at just the right moment when I began to imagine Blood Vine.

In my research, I learned wine has been cultivated in Croatia since the Roman Empire.  (Even more interesting—people have been making wine in the Caucasus since 6000 BCE!  I totally geek out over that kind of deep history, and yes, it will figure in to the plot of the third Blood Vine book, in the works now.)  The true ancestor of Zinfandel is Crljenak Kaštelanski.  Only a dozen of these vines were found, the rest having died off in a parasitic epidemic in the nineteenth century.  If it weren’t for those straggling survivors, they might never have solved the mystery.

And this is where my historical liberties begin.  My vampires hail from the beautiful island of Šolta, where another ancient grape, Dobričić, has its origins.  But like me, Andre prefers Zin.  His family arrived in California during the gold rush with root balls from their potent vines bundled in sack cloth.  The varietal did truly arrive in the U.S. at that time, but not, as far as I know, on a ship with vampire refugees.  Around that time, Andre Maras purchased his estate in Sonoma County and named it the Kaštel Estate Winery, an homage to the Croatian name for the Zinfandel grape.

Zinfandel grows in California because we have a mediterranean climate, and Sonoma county has a few microclimates that must be especially Adriatic because the most delicious Zinfandel grapes grow in the Russian River and Dry Creek Valleys.  Here are a few of my favorites—big, bloody Zins that make me swoon almost as much as Andre does.

Seghesio

Limerick Lane

Sunce

On Friday, when my retreat ends, I plan on making it to a few of these spots.  If you’re online then, we can clink glasses via Twitter!

 

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Exciting News—Blood Entangled will release in July!

One of the most thrilling parts of being a published author is talking to my clergy colleagues about my book Blood Vine.  Since it’s a steamy book, I gave them plenty of warning and assured them I would not be offended if they opted out.  But I’ve been delighted by how many have read the book, including lots of men who have never cracked open a romance novel before.

One dear friend, who himself writes brilliant theology, actually “fanned out” on me at our preaching group.  Wow!–what an experience.  And when he asked me about the sequel I told him it would be Kos and Lena’s story.

“Oh good. She’s the one character you gave short shrift,” he said.  “I really wanted to know more about her.”

And so, I am happy to announce that Blood Entangled, the sequel to Blood Vine, will release in July of this year.

Here is the unofficial blurb:

KOS MARAS’s orderly life is in shambles—he must distribute Blood Vine to a population of ailing vampires, but Hunters block him at every turn.  To make matters worse, each night he watches over a temptingly beautiful woman sleeping in his bed.  He is convinced love cannot last a vampire-long lifetime and an entanglement will only cause them grief, but he doesn’t have the heart to send her away.

From a long line of blood servants, LENA ISAAKSON is destined to serve a vampire, but a string of humiliating rejections thwarts her pleasure.  When Kos shows her kindness, she hopes he will claim her.  Instead he proves himself a coward in the face of love and sends her to serve another.

Will the dark seduction of a rakish new vampire finally bring Lena the pleasure she desires or deliver her into the hands of Hunters who want to destroy everything the Maras family has worked for?

I’m blog-hopping with other Omnific Authors today–here are their links:

 

 

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