Can you tell readers a little bit
about yourself and what inspired you to write in this particular genre?
I believe it started with my own struggle with the forces of darkness
and light within myself. A year after writing Scarlet Ambrosia, I see the story
through a different pair of eyes. At the
core of the novel is a young man’s struggle with the forces of good and evil
within himself and the world around him.
The vampire archetype, I now realize, is a metaphor for my heart’s dream
to realize its divine nature. The
supernatural powers and ramped up energy level Devon acquires as a vampire make
him half-human and half-god, something like the mythological Greek gods. He can choose to use his new powers for good
or evil purposes.
I believe everyone has the potential to become a divinely
human being. I’ve been a ‘spiritual
seeker’ for most of my adult life.
Awakening isn’t easy, but I’ve found it’s worth the effort. What happens for Devon is happening for me in
a much subtler way without the super-human powers, but happily, minus the need
to drink human blood.
What is it about the paranormal, in
particular vampires, that fascinates you so much?
I’m fascinated by the supernatural
powers of my vampire characters. They
are very powerful beings with the capacity to dramatically impact the world
around them positively or negatively.
Please tell us about your latest
release.
My latest release is Scarlet
Ambrosia. I’m working on a sequel
because I love the characters. Scarlet
Ambrosia is the second novel I’ve published.
The first one is a humorous Science Fantasy thriller titled “Three
Days to Darkness.”
Do you have a special formula for
creating characters' names? Do you try to match a name with a certain meaning
to attributes of the character or do you search for names popular in certain
time periods or regions?
In most cases, I try to make a
character’s name reflect something about the character’s personality and
traits. I try not to make it too
obvious. At other times, a character’s
name just comes to me and I trust that the name is the right one. It’s interesting that the derivation of the
name often corresponds to a character’s traits by coincidence.
Was one of your characters more
challenging to write than another?
The antagonist of the story, Egon
Schiller, was the hardest for me to write.
This is often the case in the stories I write. There is always a tendency to make the
villain two dimensional rather than a three dimensional person with some good
traits and intentions. I feel that the
most believable villains are people who have, for one reason or another, given
in to their dark side. A good example of
this is Darth Vader.
Is there a character that you enjoyed
writing more than any of the others?
Of all the characters in the story,
I most enjoyed writing the female love interest, Mathilde de Roche. Her strength, heroism, and magnetism came
naturally as I created her and as I wrote her throughout the story. That came as a surprise. I am, after all, a guy. Like most men, I find women unfathomable in
the real world.
Do you
have a formula for developing characters? Like do you create a character sketch
or list of attributes before you start writing or do you just let the character
develop as you write?
I
participated in several online screen writing and novel writing courses offered
through the writers program at UCLA.
Professional writers taught these courses. The teachers stressed that the most
successful stories have memorable characters in them. I learned to create my characters before
writing the story using a detailed character template. I’ve found that knowing what makes my
characters “tick” helps make them more interesting and believable.
What
is the most interesting thing you have physically done for book related
research purposes?
I spent a week in Sedona, Arizona
exploring the town’s art galleries, architecture and the energy vortexes.
When did you consider yourself a
writer?
When I stumbled into my career in
marketing communications, I found writing to be the most enjoyable part of the
job.
Where can readers find you on the
web?
The best places to find me are at my
main website www.davidgittlin.com
and my blog www.davidgittlin.wordpress.com
Would you like to leave readers with
a little teaser or excerpt from the book?
Here’s a spicy excerpt from Chapter
Two:
This
woman was beyond beautiful. She was
exquisite—no signs of breast implants or a nose job and no tattoos or piercings
marred the natural beauty of her face and body.
Her creamy skin felt like the finest silk to Devon’s probing hands. He unclasped her bra. His loins tingled at the sight of her full
breasts. He caressed her erect
nipples. She moaned.
The
foreplay had started slowly with exploratory kisses and caresses. Now he could barely wait to enter her. Devon removed the last fragments of clothing
from their bodies. The smell of her
perfume, the feel of her body, and the sensation of her soft hands on his
buttocks almost made him explode prematurely.
Being
inside this woman was like nothing he had experienced before. Devon lost all sense of physical
boundaries. The sensual pleasure of
joining with Mathilde seemed to fill every cell in his body. He was only vaguely aware of moving inside
her. Their rising passion consumed him. She kept repeating something in French. His back arched. He climaxed.
The pleasure was too intense for his senses to bear. He lost consciousness.
He
woke up next to her on the bed. She
stroked his hair with one hand, propping her head up on one elbow.
Feeling
embarrassed, Devon shook his head, unable to comprehend the reason for his
lapse of consciousness.
“I’m sorry if I scared you. It’s
the first time I’ve ever passed out during sex.”
“You didn’t scare me, ma chère. It only confirms what I was afraid of.”
“Which is?”
“If we go on having sex, it will kill you.”
He
laughed nervously. Had the sex been good
enough to cause a blackout?
“I can think of worse ways to die,” he said, covering up for his
discomfort.
She
kept looking at him studiously.
“You kept whispering something to me in French. It sounded like: ‘Vous êtez celui que j'ai
choisi.’ I think that means: ‘You are
the one I chose’”
A
whisper of red colored her cheeks.
“Your French is better than you admit.”
“I don’t understand. We’ve just
met, Mathilde.”
“Don’t worry. It’s just a game I
play with myself. You remind me of
someone I once knew: a handsome, high-minded young man with a sensitive heart.”
“I’m flattered, but it sounds a little more like a fixation than an
innocent game to me.”
“Please don’t play the amateur psychologist.”
She
pushed him off the bed with a movement almost too fast to see. One second he lay facing her. The next thing he knew, he lay on his back on
the floor. Her sudden display of uncanny
strength and speed frightened him.
Clambering to a sitting position, he began to collect his clothes from
the bed.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t
thinking. I didn’t mean to alarm
you. Are you injured?”
“I’m still in one piece.”
“I actually do study martial arts, in answer to your earlier
question. Sometimes I forget my own
strength. Let me help you with your things. Are you sure I haven’t hurt you?”
He
had the impression she was lying.
“I’m fine. I just think it might
be better to leave now. Who knows what
could happen if you toss and turn in your sleep?”
“I apologize for leading you on,” Mathilde said. “I only intended to meet you in the bar and
talk with you. I thought of it as a
minor indulgence, to take my mind off things for a while. I let my curiosity about you cloud my
judgment. Then, meeting you face to
face, you had much more of an effect on me than I anticipated. I lost control of myself.”
“Is that something that happens often?”
“No,” she answered curtly. “I’m
not that shallow.”
Devon’s
thoughts and emotions spun like pinwheels.
Part of him wanted to bolt out the door and finish dressing in the
hallway. Another part, the accountant,
needed explanations; wanted to analyze and quantify Mathilde de Roche. In the end, his own curiosity coupled with
her charisma kept him rooted by the bedside.
“I’ve studied martial arts myself.
I’ve never seen anyone move as quickly as you just did.”
She
continued to regard him with a serious expression for a full minute before
responding.
“You should leave now, Devon. I
won’t be offended.”
Scarlet Ambrosia--Blood Is The Nectar of Life
David Gittlin
Genre: Paranormal Romance Thriller
Publisher: Entelligent Entertainment
Date of Publication: 4/1/2015
ISBN: 978-0-9882635-2-9
ASIN: B00PBCA0HU
Number of pages: 350
Word Count: 85,000
Cover Artist: Debi Bodett
Book Description:
How does a nice Jewish accountant tell his parents he’s become a vampire? If only that were his biggest problem.
A one night stand, an error in judgment, a wrong turn—words can barely describe the events that thrust Devon Furst into the arms of a beautiful vampire lover.
The violent aftermath of that fateful night threatens to burn Devon’s eternal life down to ashes and endangers the lives of everyone close to him.
Everything in Devon’s life changes in the span of a few hours. When he asks Mathilde de Roche one too many questions, the troubled vampiress has no choice but to offer Devon two terrible alternatives: Death or life as a vampire. For a man aged twenty-eight and in perfect health, death is not an option. Mathilde’s alluring beauty makes the decision and her vampire blood easier to swallow.
Devon must leave behind everyone and everything he holds dear to face a future full of uncertainty, and a five-hundred-year-old enemy endowed with super-human powers.
Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/nGNXhQ-pUeI
About the Author:
After a career in marketing communications, David Gittlin wrote screenplays before turning to novels. His first novel, “Three Days to Darkness,” was a recent nominee to the James Kirkwood Prize for creative writing. “Scarlet Ambrosia” is his second novel. He lives a quiet and happy life in Aventura, Florida with his wife, Bonnie.
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Thanks for hosting me.
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