Friday 14 October 2011

GUEST POST BY MAYRA CALVANI



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:




The Cat Cellar and Other Stories https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95031
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!

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much for sharing with us today, I look forward to reading Embraced by the Shadows.

    ReplyDelete