Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Blog Tour: Vampire Bites by Katie Salidas (Interview & Giveaway)

Today we have author Katie Salidas stopping by on her Vampire Bites blog tour with an interview and giveaway!

Katie Salidas is a Super Woman! Endowed with special powers and abilities, beyond those of mortal women, She can get the munchkin off to gymnastics, cheerleading, Girl Scouts, and swim lessons.  She can put hot food on the table for dinner while assisting with homework, baths, and bedtime… And, She still finds the time to keep the hubby happy (nudge nudge wink wink). She can do all of this and still have time to write.
And if you can believe all of those lies, there is some beautiful swamp land in Florida for sale…
Katie Salidas resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mother, wife, and author, she does try to do it all, often causing sleep deprivation and many nights passed out at the computer. Writing books is her passion, and she hopes that her passion will bring you hours of entertainment.
Visit Katie on her Website, FaceBook and Twitter!

Hi Katie, welcome to Reading Between the Wines!
Vampire Bites is a compilation of three of your previously published novellas; for those who are unfamiliar with your books, can you tell us little about them?


A lot of times ideas for stories come from asking questions.

In House of Immortal Pleasures, I ask: Can a night of good sex really heal a broken heart?
Blindfolded, and kidnapped by her friends, Daphne is whisked away to the famed, House of Immortal Pleasures, a Vampire-run Brothel in Pahrump, Nevada.
Sometimes the only way to mend a broken heart is to get back in the saddle. At least that is how Daphne's friends see it. And since Daphne isn't showing any signs of letting that happen, they take it into their own hands. With a few shots of liquid courage, a pat on the ass, and a donated gold card, Daphne is unwillingly sent to meet her creature of the night, Connor.

In Halloween Fantasies, I ask: Knowing it might very well be deadly, would you pursue your ultimate fantasy?
Touted as the sexiest party of the year, the annual Halloween Fantasy Ball is the one place a girl can let loose and succumb to her wildest fantasies.
Disguised as a sexy vampire huntress, Sasha captures the attention of Dante, a real life creature of the night. For Sasha, meeting bona fide vampire is enough to fulfill one of her life long fantasies. She's ready to go home a happy woman.
But Dante has other plans. It is after all, a night of fantasies, and he has a few of his own to share.

In Karma & Melodies, I ask:  What would you go through for a second chance at love?
Second chances at love don't come very often, even for a vampire
who has eternity.
Kendra used to spend her days organizing events for Café Enigma while daydreaming about Marcus, the sexy lead singer of Normal Paradox.
But all those dreams of becoming Mrs. Rock Star died, along with her mortality,
the moment Hector entered her life. He tricked her and seduced her into
becoming a vampire, stealing Kendra away from Marcus forever.
Ten torturous years later; however, Kendra finds a way to escape Hector and is
reunited with her lost love, Marcus. Now that she's found him she doesn't want
to let him go. But, whispered threats from Hector begin invading her dreams.
He's tracking her down, and she can feel it. He's a true monster, capable of
unspeakable horrors, and Kendra knows what he will do if he catches them.
She'll have to make a choice: stay and fight for the man she's always loved, or
protect him by leaving and keeping Marcus off of Hector's radar?

Each story answers its specific question.

What kind of readers do you think Vampire Bites would appeal to?

Lovers of paranormal romance will find the three stories very interesting. With that said, I must warn readers, there is definitely some erotic elements involved, so you’ll want to be prepared for that.

On a scale from scale from 1-5; 1 being luke warm and 5 being raging inferno, rate the heat factor of House of Immortal Pleasures, Karma & Melodies and Halloween Fantasies.

The nice thing about this anthology is it warms you up nice and slow. House of Immortal Pleasures sits right around a 3-4. Karma and Melodies keeps that fire stoked with lots of romantic angst but doesn’t go above 3. Then, when you are good and ready, Halloween Fantasies comes in at a 4-5 to finish you off nice and satisfied.

What are some of the challenges or advantages to writing novellas as opposed to a full-length novel?

I often find shorter work to be harder to write. I have a novel series that I’ve been writing for years and having the ability to spread a story out through many thousands of words, to me, is easier. I think I feel like I can take more time with it. A novella or novelette is much shorter but requires no less detail. Condensing stories down and really focusing on one single plot is more of a mental workout. Both of course are fun mediums to play in and I will continue to bounce back and forth between them as I create more stories.

Was there a character that was harder to write than others?

In Karma & Melodies, I found Marcus’s character to be particularly challenging. He is not the standard Alpha male you see in many paranormal romances. Instead he is under a spell, so to speak, being bonded to Kendra through her blood. The challenge there was to show the bond and its effect on his personality and actions without making him to weak of a character.

All of your works have one common theme, vampires! So I ask you this, why vampires and not any of the other numerous paranormal creatures? 

Why not vampires? Ok, I know, vampires are a little common right now. They go through their phases of hot and cold with the public, but I have always loved them. I can remember when I was a little girl and read The Vampire Diaries series. Oh I just loved those books. From there, I moved on to Anne Rice. Then some Tanya Huff, and on and on. I’ve always had a soft spot for those blood suckers. It just sort of worked out that every story I wrote had at least one in there. That became my niche. I write a little of everything but the one theme that ties everything together is the vampire.

What’s next for you?

I tend to teeter-totter back and forth between short works and long. Next up for me is the fourth book in my Immortalis series. But I don’t have any anticipated release date yet. The third book, Pandora’s Box was recently released and is beginning to pick up some very positive reviews.

Summary:
After a few months as a vampire, Alyssa thought she’d learned all she needed to know about the supernatural world. But her confidence is shattered by the delivery of a mysterious package – a Pandora’s Box.
Seemingly innocuous, the box is in reality an ancient prison, generated by a magic more powerful than anyone in her clan has ever known. But what manner of evil could need such force to contain it?
When the box is opened, the sinister creature within is released, and only supernatural blood will satiate its thirst. The clan soon learns how it feels when the hunter becomes the hunted.
Powerless against the ancient evil, the clan flees Las Vegas for Boston, with only a slim hope for salvation. Could Lysander’s old journals hold the key? And what if they don’t?
And how welcome will they be in a city run by a whole different kind of supernatural being?
Werewolves…

Thank you so much for stopping by Katie, it was a pleasure!

Thank you as well for having me here today! What great questions!
To all the readers out there, feel free to stop by www.katiesalidas.com There you can sample all of my work. If you like what you see, all of my novels and novellas are available in every ebook format!
Search for me on any of your favorite ebook retailer’s website.



Next stop on the tour: Books By A Mother’s Touch


~*GIVEAWAY*~
Katie is offering one digital copy of Vampire Bites to one lucky reader!
To enter, just fill out the form below!
Giveaway will end at 11:59pm on July 27th, when one winner will then be selected at random and emailed.


8 comments:

  1. That was a great interview,,and I have never heard of Katie Salidas,,and it sounds like Ive been missing out,,thinks for the giveaway,,
    Jennifer B.

    westtexasjen at gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have not read any of Katie's books but think this one of a collection of shorter stories, would give me a great idea of her writing style. Her books sound great and I love paranormals so I am definately interested in trying her books.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This sounds so good and I love vampire books my favorite! Thank you so much for the great giveaway!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just swinging by to say hi! My stop on this tour is July 15. Nice post.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you so much for the post today and the lovely giveaway opportunity. I just started reading the Immortalis series and am in luuuuv. I would love an opportunity to win this book as well and see what I think of a different story written by this wonderful author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. great interview and thank you for the giveaway!!

    ReplyDelete

Due to time constraints we may not be able to personally respond to every comment made, but we do read and appreciate them all. 📚❤️🙂

✋ RBtWBC has a zero-tolerance policy for review harassment and author bashing. Such comments will be deleted at the the blog's discretion.