www.marilynbrant.com

Friday, March 4, 2011

Contest Winner and DRAGON BLUES

**Note: Congrats to the winner of the t-shirt and CD: Maria Geraci! I'll get that sent out to you next week. Hope you'll enjoy both!!**

And now for an extra Friday treat -- the absolutely wonderful Edie Ramer is here, and we get to celebrate with her the recent release of her latest book, Dragon Blues!!

1. Welcome, Edie! What's the premise of DRAGON BLUES?

Marilyn, thank you for having me as your guest. And thanks for asking about the premise! Here’s the summary:

Once a dragon…

Saxophone player Noah Long shifted from dragon to human 2500 years ago, but the dragon blood still coursing through his veins has kept him healthy and virile. Now his secret is out, and the man who discovered it will do anything to make Noah’s blood his own. Noah’s only ally is martial arts expert Lila Fox, who heats up the fire in his belly…and his heart.

Twice a killer…

Lila Fox’s first kill was at age sixteen after her stepfather put her mother in a wheelchair. Fourteen years later, she kills another abuser to save a woman’s life. When the man who wants Noah’s blood kills her sister, she can’t let the death go unanswered. She teams up with the strangely compelling Noah, and discovers he’s not all man and has a few tricks of his own.

2. You've combined two fascinating elements in the creation of your hero: a saxophone player who was once a dragon. What was your inspiration for Noah?

I love my inspiration! Leonard Nimoy’s Spock from the original Star Trek TV series. He’s always been my favorite. There’s a Zen quality to his portrayal of Spock, a serenity and a wisdom that fits a former dragon.

The saxophone and Noah’s love of the blues adds a sadness to his character. I don’t know how the saxophone happened. Music shows up in several of my stories, which is odd because I don’t play an instrument and I sing off-key. (LOL, Edie! ;)

3. Your heroine, Lila, is a martial arts expert. Have you ever learned a martial art? If so, which one?

I haven’t dabbled. A member of my Milwaukee chapter, who writes as Leigh Morgan, is a fourth degree black belt in Kung Fu and has done a couple of demonstrations (with her wonderful husband playing the bad guy) for our group. She’s about 5’3 or so, but she can easily throw her much taller husband around.

When I finished the few scenes in which my heroine uses martial arts moves, Leigh was nice enough to read them and give me her thoughts.

4. What are one or two of the themes that you explored while writing this story and/or what do you hope readers will come away with after having read the book?

Change and rebirth are themes in my book, starting with the change 2500 years ago when Noah turned into a human. Lila’s life is changing, too, big-time. She’d left Nashville for southern California to start a new life, away from her troubled sister. But it wasn’t a fully lived life. Her past was keeping her heart closed. Now she’s back to Nashville to help her sister, and in the process her life is ripped apart and she’s reborn.

This also becomes an emotional rebirth for Noah. And Lila’s sister is the poster child for rebirth. Noah recognizes her in the first chapter as a woman he’d known (and thought he’d loved) 2500 years ago. She’s reincarnated and making a mess of this life, just as she’d done back then.

I hope readers will come out of it with a warm, lingering glow, already eager to read the next adventure of these two fascinating characters.

I'm sure they will, Edie :-). Thanks so, so much for being here. It was wonderful to have you -- as always! Anyone have big weekend plans? What's going on for everyone?

29 comments:

Edie Ramer said...

Marilyn, thanks so much for featuring me.

I'm on a Nano-like Tourdeforce with the book I started on Tuesday. My beginnings are normally very slow, so I plan on writing this weekend. I want to meet my goal of 50K words this month. But we are going out on for dinner with relatives on Sunday. It looks as if the weather will cooperate.

Marilyn Brant said...

Edie, I love that you're doing a Nano-like thing now. To me, November is a little too distracting... Good luck on getting to that 50k (!!) and congrats, again, on DRAGON BLUES! I'm really excited for you ;).

Pamala Knight said...

Thanks for the excellent interview with Edie, Marilyn. DRAGON BLUES is definitely on the TBR pile for me. Weekend plans include nursing a sick child (bleh!), the usual housewifery and hopefully some writing.

Hope your weekend is great!

Delle Jacobs said...

What an intriguing book, Edie!

Edie Ramer said...

Marilyn, so true about Nov., especially with Thanksgiving coming up. And I'm doing most of my gift buying in Nov.

Thanks for the good luck wishes!

Edie Ramer said...

Pamela, I hope your little one is better soon. It's as hard on the mom as the child.

Good luck getting some writing in!

Edie Ramer said...

Delle, thanks for stopping by and commenting!

Robin said...

Edie ~ huge congratulations! I'm so excited and happy for you! (And good luck with your Nanoing!)

Loved the interview, Marilyn! This weekend we've got a concert to go to! Yay! I hope you have wonderful few days!

Edie Ramer said...

Robin, thanks for the congrats and the good luck. I can't seem to get my thoughts together today. I've only written 300 words so far. That means I'll be writing into the evening.

A concert sounds like a blast! Have fun!

Marilyn Brant said...

Oh, Pamala! I'm so sorry to hear one of your kids is sick... I know how hard that is. Sigh. I'm thinking of you and sending quick-recovery vibes your way. {hug}

Delle, so glad you stopped by! Doesn't Edie's book sound cool?!

Robin, thank you and HAVE FUN at your concert! Hope you'll tell us more about it next week ;).

XO to Edie and all of you! Hope everyone who sees this will have a wonderful weekend!!

Donnell Ann Bell said...

Hi, Edie, Hi, Marilyn, what a wonderful blog!! Edie, I've downloaded Cattitude and Dead People. Soon I'll add Dragon Blues. My family is calling an intervention. They've threatened to take my Kindle away because it's just too easy to add these phenomenal stories at the touch of a button.

I've already read an earlier version of Dragon Blues and loved it. The characters and the motivation sing.

Best of luck with this wonderful series!

Marilyn Brant said...

Donnell, thank you! It's wonderful to see you here ;). And, ohhh, I'm getting very close to caving in and getting either a Kindle or a Nook... I'm a little afraid of download addiction myself, though!

Amy Atwell said...

Wow--and here I thought I'd read Edie's blurb and understood what this book was about. Thanks, Marilyn, for taking the standard author interview to another level. I love the themes Edie is weaving in, and the whole premise of a 2500 year old dragon in human form with the emotional context of Star Trek's Spock--I find all the pieces very appealing.

Edie, they always say "write what you know." Well, I'm assuming you're not a dragon (you're not, are you? ). And you've admitted to not being a martial arts expert. You don't play the saxophone. I doubt you created chaos in people's lives and I don't think you're hunting down anyone to kill them. You don't even live in Nashville! So, what was the inspiration for this book? Was it a follow up to Cattitude? Was it how the Spock character intrigued you?

Melanie said...

I like the themes of rebirth and change. Congrats on the book1

Good luck with Tour de force. I wanted to do it, but I've got too much other stuff going on this month. Maybe next time. Hope you meet your goal!!

Edie Ramer said...

Donnell, you are so sweet! And a great writer! I tore apart and put together Dragon Blues, so I hope it's meaner and leaner and better than when you read it.

Edie Ramer said...

Amy, I've read that "write what you're interested in" is sometimes better than "write what you know." Dragons are glorious and fascinating for me. For about 3 years I've had the idea of a hero who was a dragon turned into a man. Not a shifter, a real man. But I had to wait to find the right plot and heroine to fit him.

I have no idea where it came from except from my fascination for dragons. Though I was a big fan of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, so that could be it. When I was younger, I eagerly waited for the next book in the series. My favorites were the Harper Hall spin-offs, that had music and dragons. And fire birds. (I think they were fire birds. If anyone knows differently, correct me.)

I probably thought of Nashville because I love country and blues music. (It was fun to research. I read a fascinating book about Nashville and the music business--and I didn't use any of it in my book. lol)

Though I'm not into martial arts, I admire people who are. One of the best part about writing fiction is that we dwell in this fictional world we're creating. So why not do it with dragons, a kick-ass heroine and music? Or a magician/scam artist father, a jewelry designer, an unusual rabbit, and a hunky undercover detective?

Edie Ramer said...

Melanie, thanks! I have a 1000 words to write tonight. I hope I make it. I think it was Dale who wrote over 9K yesterday. Ack!

Marilyn Brant said...

Amy, I'm so glad you enjoyed the interview -- I, too, am just fascinated by Edie's book and was so curious to know more about how she came up with the idea ;).

Melanie, thanks for stopping by! I really liked those themes, too!

Edie, I have my fingers crossed that you made your goal last night!! (Dale's 9k is almost unimaginable to me -- sounds like a supernatural kind of thing, lol. ;)

Edie Ramer said...

Marilyn, Dale and I had a sprint yesterday. I wrote 300 words; she wrote 900. Altogether, she wrote over 12,000 words yesterday. Yikes!

But I did make my goal of over 2,000 words. I'm happy with it.

Elle J Rossi said...

Great post, Edie. It's always fun to learn the story behind the story!

Edie Ramer said...

Elle, good of you to stop by. I like the "story behind the story" too. Marilyn asked me some good questions.

Caryn Caldwell said...

That sounds fantastic! I definitely want to give it a read.

Edie Ramer said...

Thanks, Caryn! I hope you enjoy it.

Mary Marvella said...

This one sounds like a cool book! Can't wait to read it.

Edie Ramer said...

Mary, I hope a lot of people think it's cool. Thanks!

Marilyn Brant said...

Elle, Caryn and Mary~*waving* Thanks for stopping by to read the Q&A! Edie's book truly is a fascinating one ;).

Karen Cantwell said...

Darn! I'm a little late to this party, but I just have to say, Edie, that this story sounds so original and I just can't wait to dig in! Wonderful interview. And a really nice blog here as well, Marilyn! I love the name. :-)

Edie Ramer said...

Karen, I love the "Brant Flakes" title, too. Much better than mine, which is named "blog."

Thanks for stopping by and saying all the nice things.

Marilyn Brant said...

Karen, so glad you could visit, too!! I'm anxiously awaiting some free time to relax and enjoy Take the Monkeys and Run ;).