Guest
post for JeanzBookReadNReview
Bio:
Mayra Calvani writes fiction and
nonfiction for children and adults and has authored over a dozen books, some of
which have won awards. Her stories, reviews, interviews and articles have
appeared on numerous publications such as The
Writer, Writer’s Journal, Multicultural Review, and Bloomsbury Review, among many others. A
reviewer for over a decade, she now offers online reviewing workshops. When
she’s not writing, reading, editing or reviewing, she enjoys walking her dog,
traveling, and spending time with her family.
Visit her website at www.MayraCalvani.com,
join her mailing list, and automatically receive the free ebooks, Reviewers Talk about Their Craft and the
first lesson from my Slippery Art of Book Reviewing Workshop.
Just
released this week:
In a bazaar in Istanbul one
evening, ten-year-old Alana Piovanetti sees a man standing in the shadows. He
smiles, and over time she convinces herself that it was just her imagination
that placed sharp fangs amongst those flashing teeth.
Twelve years later, Alana is
surprised when she is chosen to manage a new restaurant opening in her home
city of San Juan. She has neither training nor experience to justify her
success. But La Cueva del Vampiro has the kind of ambience she adores, for
Alana has always had a penchant for horror and the dark side of life. Yet she
is also plagued with dreams of dark sensuality, dreams that take on shattering
reality when she meets the stunningly handsome, charismatic Sadash.
For Sadash is the man she saw
in the shadows so many years before...and Sadash isn't human….
You
may read the prologue and first chapter here: http://twilighttimesbooks.com/EmbracedbyShadows_ch1.html
The link to Kindle is:
Guest
post: “On the Release of My Novel, Embraced
by the Shadows”
Embraced
by the Shadows was just released this week. But
the funny thing is, I wrote the book back in the 90’s and it was previously
published with a different title and cover. So this is the new revised version
that has come out.
The release of this novel feels kind of strange,
because my writing has evolved and changed a lot during the past decade. And
I’m glad it has, of course. I want to be one of those writers who grow and
evolve with time. But it felt funny during the revision process because I
wanted to edit and modify everything! LOL. After being frustrated for quite
some time, I decided to only polish the absolute necessary and leave the
original voice and style.
So when you ask me about the inspiration for the
book, I must move back in time, not only to the 90’s but to my childhood.
Ever since my early
teens, I've always been attracted to the supernatural. I loved reading anything
having to do with ghosts, vampires and witches. At a younger age I also watched
all those old films in black and white about werewolves and mummies. Then came
Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee. I really don't know when or how it all turned
into obsessive fascination. But somehow it did. The turning point was in 1986 when
I read The Vampire Lestat, by Anne
Rice. The book took my breath away. I was writing other things at the time, but
after reading this book I knew I had to write a vampire novel. Around this time
I also watched Ford Coppola's Dracula.
The set, the music, Dracula's obsessive love for this woman... I was
spellbound. I was living in Turkey then. As soon as I moved to Belgium that
same year, I started writing the novel. That’s pretty much how Embraced by the Shadows came about!
Thank you,
Sandra, for having me on your blog today!
To celebrate the
release of my novel, I’m giving away two of my other books for free. This offer
will run until Halloween night only. Of course, I hope they’ll consider
supporting my work by purchasing a copy of Embraced
by the Shadows, but if for whatever reason they decide not to, the two free
ebooks are still theirs to download. This is my Halloween gift to them!
The FREE ebooks
I’m giving away are: Dark Lullaby and Cat Cellar and Other Stories and
they’re available in various formats on Smashwords:
I’d also like to invite readers to visit
my website at www.mayracalvani.com
and join my mailing list! Those who sign up will receive my free ebook, Reviewers Talk about Their Craft and the
first lesson from my Slippery Art of Book
Reviewing Workshop.
Happy reading
and happy Halloween!
Thank you so much for sharing with us today, I look forward to reading Embraced by the Shadows.
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