When the witch who's been plaguing Parker's life discovers the newfound attraction between Parker and Amara, she
takes out her anger on the town. Can the supernaturals of Maggie's Grove accept Amara and band together in time to
withstand the assaults of the enraged witch?
Visit Dana Marie Bell's web site
Read excerpts from Blood of the Maple
About Dana Marie Bell Dana Marie Bell wrote her first short story when she was thirteen years old.
She attended the High School for Creative and Performing Arts for creative writing, where freedom of expression was the order of the day. When her parents moved out of the city and placed her in a Catholic high school for her senior year she tried desperately to get away, but the nuns held fast, and she graduated with honors despite herself. She's now a best selling author with Samhain Publishing and Carina Press and has consistently earned top reviews from RT BOOKreviews and other reviewers.
Dana has lived primarily in the Northeast with a brief stint on the US Virgin Island of St. Croix. She lives with her soul-mate and husband Dusty, their two maniacal children, an evil ice-cream stealing cat and a bull terrier that thinks it’s a Pekinese. She's been heard to describe herself as "vertically challenged" and "a lapsed brunette." Dana also suffers from osteoarthritis,
and can be seen walking with a cane or tooling around in her mobility scooter. Her condition was the inspiration for Belle's hip injury in Steel Beauty.
You can learn more about Dana at:
http://www.danamariebell.com
http://danamariebell.blogspot.com
Also by Dana Marie Bell:
The Halle Pumas
The Wallflower
Sweet Dreams
Cat of a Different Color
Steel Beauty
Only In My Dreams
The Gray Court
Dare to Believe
Noble Blood
True Destiny
Very Much Alive
Eye of the Beholder
Halle Shifters
Bear Necessities
Coming soon:
Finding Forgiveness (Poconos Pack 1)
Artistic Visions (The Gray Court 3)
An Interview with the Dana Marie Bell
By Holly Hewson for The Romance Studio
HH: Dana, thank you for talking with us at TRS. Your featured book is Blood of the Maple and it's about a vampire on the run, the girl he can't resist, and a witch out for revenge. Where did you get the idea for this amazing story?
DMB: Wow. Way to make me expose my inner nerd! I got the idea from a friend of mine, in a roundabout way. When I was in college, my future husband and I played roleplaying games (like Dungeons and Dragons). Well, my friend RC was constantly ditching the game Dusty ran to be with his girlfriend. Dusty, frustrated, decided an evil witch bent on revenge would kidnap RC's character, thus forcing the rest of the party into a daring rescue. When we finally found him (and RC finally showed up for a game) he'd been cursed with unearthly, lust-inspiring beauty and the inability to eat anything except green leafy bread.
Fast forward I'm not telling you years, and we're laughing with RC about it over mudslides. I'd been toying with a vampire novel idea, when BAM! I decided the only thing he could drink was green, leafy blood. But who has green, leafy blood? Why, a dryad of course! Thus, Blood of the Maple was born.
HH: What do you like about Parker and why will readers find him irresistible? DMB: Parker has a unique sense of self, partly because of his curse, partly because of his best friend, Greg. He doesn't mind laughing at himself, a quality I find endearing in just about anyone. So many people take themselves too seriously, but Parker has fun with his existence.
HH: What do you like best about Amara and why might she be perfect for him? DMB: Amara is so lost at first it's hard not to feel sympathy for her, but despite that she's got a strong sense of humor and has managed to build a unique circle of friends that welcomes Parker without question. She's fiesty, vulnerable and strong all at the same time, and Parker is captivated from the moment he meets her. She's more than capable of holding her own against him.
HH: What sort of research did you do for this story? DMB: Plants! I have a black thumb, so of COURSE I wrrote a story about a dryad. I had to research things like Norwegian maple trees, what color birch bark is, and what kind of plants grow in the mountians of Maryland. It was interesting, but I don't think I'll be planting a garden any time soon. I'm not sure how many times you can kill a rhododendron before the plant police haul you away.
HH: What else do you have in the works? DMB: I'm working on the next Halle Shifter novel, Cynful, and toying with a space cowboy/smuggler/OH GOD I LOVE MALCOML REYNOLDS! idea I've had floating around in my head for about a year now. So far I haven't gotten far into either, but I'm working on it!
HH: What is your ultimate goal as a writer? DMB: To tell as many stories as I can to as many people as I can. I love what I do, and even if nobody wants to read my books I'd probably still be writing them and inflicting them on my friends and family.
HH: What do you enjoy most about the writing itself? DMB: Letting the story unfold under my fingers. It's like watching a movie you have partial control over. Sometimes I have no clue what's about to pop out of my character's mouth, and my husband is left wondering why I'm cackling like a hyena.
HH: What advice would you give to aspiring writers today? DMB: Butt in chair, fingers on keyboard, START TYPING. Seriously. Even if it's crap, that crap will get you going and soon enough it won't be quite so crappy.
HH: What are you reading right now? DMB: I just finished With Abandon by JL Langley. I don't know whether to love Aubrey or kick him in the shins really, really hard, then love him. Maybe both.
HH: Any fun plans for the summer? DMB: I'm taking the kids to Disney World! God, I love that place. I can't walk nearly as much as I used to, but mobility scooters are a wonderful thing.
HH: Thank you!
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