All That Bleeds released last week and I can only recommend you all give it a try. Kimberly has come up with a fresh new world with some interesting characters and I am looking forward to book two when it comes out.
So I invited Kimberly to Amberkatze's Book Blog to talk about her new baby so you can all get a better look at what All That Bleeds is all about. Make sure you read till the end because Kimberly is very generously giving away FIVE copies of her new book!
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Amber - Welcome back to Amberkatze's Book Blog! It is great to have you here as a guest again! Could you start things off by telling us a little about your new book, ALL THAT BLEEDS?
Kimberly – Thanks so much for having me. It’s always wonderful to visit here!
Merrick, the love interest in ALL THAT BLEEDS has a very dark background. It’s impossible to intimidate him and for most people, it’s impossible to get close to him. When he meets Alissa he’s a syndicate enforcer who’s sent to kill a demon. Since they should never have met, their relationship grows in secret. He sends her gifts. She writes him letters. They’re star-crossed lovers with no apparent hope of ever really being together. But when she’s abducted and lands on his side of the wall that separates them, their romance begins. The fact that she’s in danger creates an opening for the “wrong man” to become the right one.
Amber - Where did you get the idea for ALL THAT BLEEDS? Did the idea just come to you? Or do you have a muse to help you?
Kimberly – A lot of things probably contributed. Some characters that I wrote about when I was a teenager inspired me to create Merrick and Alissa. I don’t have a live muse. It would be great if I did! I tend to think there’s a muse who lives in my subconscious. She helps me dig up the plot twists that I can never plan ahead of time.
Amber - Except for the obvious, it hasn't really been done before...Why Muses?
Kimberly – As a writer, I’ve always been interested in where creativity comes from and what influences our ideas. I’ve also always loved stories from Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology as well as various legends. At some point when I was thinking about writing a darker series, I flipped through a lot of my reference books including one on mythology. It occurred to me that modern muses might make interesting characters.
Kimberly – It’s a pristine community in the Rocky Mountains that was founded by a group of muse descendants when they realized that their supernatural powers of inspiration were more potent when they were in close proximity. Because members of the “fallen” crave the muses’ blood, a wall is erected around the Etherlin and an elite security force is assembled to guard the Etherlin muses.
Amber - Alissa is obviously very pretty. Which famous person would you say she resembles?
Kimberly – There’s a Dutch model named Doutzen Kroes who comes to mind. She was the example I sent with the character description to the publisher when they were preparing to talk to the cover artist.
Amber - What kind of research did you do for ALL THAT BLEEDS? Anything interesting or was it totally boring?
I think my favorite research was on cocktails. Part of Merrick’s backstory is that his first job was as a bartender, and when the story opens he’s living in a penthouse apartment in the same building that houses his club, Crimson. I wanted his world to be very stylized and cool. And because he’s smooth, I pictured him mixing Alissa a distinctive drink.
While doing that research, I ended up on the website of a popular men’s magazine. It had a ton of colorful descriptions and historical anecdotes about various cocktails. The drink I had Merrick make Alissa is called a Maiden’s Prayer. The site also hypothesized that Hemingway invented the Scotch Lime, which is what I have Merrick drink.
Amber - A new book means new names. How do you pick the names for your characters? Do they have any special meanings?
Kimberly – I don’t spend as much time considering name meanings as many writers. I do use baby-naming websites to troll for character names, but I care more about how a name sounds and whether it feels right for the character than the actual historical meaning.
Amber – A lot of authors have 'soundtracks' for their books. Is there any music that influenced this book?
More interesting was the music research I did while writing the second Etherlin novel, ALL THAT FALLS. I watched YouTube videos of great violin and guitar players. Have you ever seen David Garrett? He’s a gorgeous and extremely talented German violinist. He plays things like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on violin. I recommend checking out his rock symphonies.
I also read some nonfiction works about Eddie Van Halen, George Gershwin and his contemporaries, and Kurt Cobain. Music and dance are important parts of ALL THAT FALLS and doing the research was so interesting since that’s not a world I knew much about.
Amber – Will ALL THAT BLEEDS turn into a series or is it just a one off?
Kimberly – So far there are three stories in the Etherlin series:
TIED WITH A BOW Holiday Anthology – 11/1/11
“First Light” Novella (Etherlin #0.5 – Prequel to the novels)
“First Light”
ALL THAT BLEEDS (Etherlin #1) – January 3, 2012
He’s the darkness she can’t resist…
In a glittering community in the Colorado Rockies called the Etherlin, the descendants of the ancient muses live behind a wall that separates them from the world and the dangerous creatures who crave them.
Alissa North is inspiration made flesh, so she should never have met Merrick, a deadly half-vampire enforcer, but when they do meet, the connection is instantaneous, and an illicit flirtation is born. He sends her secret gifts. She writes him secret letters.
The long-distance friendship was never supposed to go any farther. But when she is kidnapped and thrown briefly into his world, everything changes. Now Alissa realizes he’s the only person she can trust, and Merrick finds he’ll do anything to protect her, even risk his life by crossing the wall.
As both worlds close in on them, Alissa knows that getting caught with Merrick could cost her everything she’s ever cared about, but giving him up proves harder than she ever imagined…
ALL THAT FALLS (Etherlin #2) - Scheduled for June 2012
(The blurb and an excerpt will be available on my website soon.)
Amber - What are you listening to and watching lately? Is there any music or other media that influences your writing?
I recently watched the first season of Justified, which I enjoyed a ton. In the opening scene, Timothy Olyphant’s character reminded me (in the way he stares people down) of Merrick. All great writing, even if it’s well outside my genre, inspires me.
Amber - If you could be any famous person, alive or dead, who would you be? And why?
Kimberly – Wow, I’m not sure I want to go there. I’m just getting the hang of living my own life.
Amber - Are you working on anything else at the moment? Will Tammy Jo be coming back any time soon?
Kimberly – I just turned ALL THAT FALLS in to my publisher. My plan has been to do a Southern Witch novella next and to release it electronically as soon as it’s polished so that fans of that series don’t have to wait two years to see Tammy’s next adventure. I’m hoping to have the novella finished in time for a spring 2012 release, but that will depend on my schedule. Any of my readers who want to be sure that they don’t miss a release should sign up for my newsletter at my website. That’s the way that I announce new releases.
Amber - Thank you so much for being on the blog! I hope you will come by again sometime!
Kimberly – It was great! Thanks so much for having me. And I never like to come empty-handed, so if people visit the comments and tell me either (a) what their favorite cocktail is or (b) who their favorite dead author is and why, they’ll be entered to win a copy of ALL THAT BLEEDS. 5 commenters will win.
Southern Witch Series
#1 - Would-Be Witch
#2 - Barely Bewitched
#3 - Halfway Hexed
Etherlin Series
#0.5 - First Light
#1 - All That Bleeds
#2 - All That Falls
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Contest Time
Yes you read correctly! Kimberly is giving away five copies of All That Bleeds!! That means there will be five winners this week!
How To Enter
Answer one of Kimberly's questions to be entered. Answer both for an extra entry!
No Answer = No Entry
'Please enter me' posts will NOT be counted as an entry
Earn more entries for each link you place about this contest on the net. You can post on Facebook, Twitter & MySpace but make sure you add links here for me to confirm your entries! However please do not make individual postings for each entry. Please post all your entries in one post.
Advertise Amberkatze's Book Blog on your site and get an extra entry for this and every other contest!
You can also earn extra entries by emailing your friends about the contest. Just make sure you send a copy of your email or receipt to me at Amberkatzes_book_blog at gmx dot net.
Make sure you post your links here so I can confirm your entries.
Keep the contests going by using the Bookdepository.com and Amazon.com links/Banners below and around the site.
The contest will stay open until Saturday 15th of January 2012 4pm CET and the winner will be picked by a randomizer. Entrants should check back to see if they have won. I do not hunt down winners and will pick new winners for any prizes not claimed within 7 days.
