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31 May 2012
Post By: Violetta Vane
Thoughts on "Cruce de Caminos" and then a Giveaway
The blog tour is over! Riptide did a fantastic job setting it all up.
In fact, I posted this message at the Riptide group on Goodreads:
Now that Cruce de Caminos has been released, I just want to thank everyone at Riptide. When Heidi and I wrote this, we thought it was some of our strongest writing ever, and a truly amazing story. But we wondered if it would ever find an audience. It's magical, but not in any escapist sense; sexual, but not designed to be sexually exciting; horrifying, but it has no gore.It’s always a risk releasing a non-romance story to a primarily romance audience. It will, unavoidably, fail to “click” with some readers who have generously given it a chance. However, we’ve also had wonderful reactions where the story didn’t just click, it hit (in a good way). And so we’re very, very happy with it, and looking forward to the most fun stage of the blog tour: giving away stuff!
Riptide decided to take a chance on us. And, in general, to take a chance on challenging stories.
We got excellent editing, an amazing cover, great exposure. And we're on a press that holds so many of the best writers in the genre. I'm feeling very emotional about it all right now, in the best way. THANKS EVERYONE!
To recap the tour, here’s a list of all our stops. You might notice I wrote most of the posts, and that’s because Heidi was in Ireland for a while there, fighting off mad fairies (well, actually, visiting in-laws). I touched on some pretty heavy topics here and there, including racism, colonialism, religion, homophobia, boundaries in sex work, heroin addiction. I’ve included a snippet from each post below. If you’d like to go and comment and enter into the giveaway, you still have a week after the date of the last post—so until the end of Tuesday, June 5th—to do so. On June 6th, we’ll pick winners and contact.
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BOOK TOUR FOR CRUCE DE CAMINOS BY HEIDI BELLEAU & VIOLETTA VANE (GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY)
It's a natural location for our characters to use as a meeting place. Sean is a newcomer to New Orleans. He's wandered westwards from his abandoned, unhappy home in the suburbs of Florida, where nothing lasts, where everything is built out of stucco and rots away to be rebuilt next year even uglier than before. He's enchanted by New Orleans and its sense of history. It satisfies a desire deep inside him, a need he didn’t even know he had
CHARACTER SKETCH: SEAN O’HARA WITH HEIDI BELLEAU
Our particular co-writing relationship is pretty much a 50/50 split in all respects, so we share equal responsibility in creating characters and following through on that characterization. (IE, our stories aren’t like roleplaying, where one person is responsible for one character and control of the narrative is handed back and forth on that basis.) To keep things consistent, we write detailed character bios during the planning stages on every single thing we write so that we have something to refer to.
GUEST POST AND GIVEAWAY: HOW RELEVANT IS SEXUAL ORIENTATION IN SEX WORK BY VIOLETTA VANE
Getting to “gay for pay,” we have straight men who cross lines to have sex with gay men. This is, in itself, a fetish, in a way that “lesbians having sex with men” is not. Gay porn is full of this fetish. Certainly, in real life, straight men do have gay sex for money, but the fantasy is so overwhelmingly popular that much of it really is pure fantasy: gay porn stars pretending to be straight pretending to be gay for pay.
GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY WITH VIOLETTA VANE: SANTERIA
They’d grown up with the religion and continued practicing it wherever they lived (mainly, Miami). In the grocery stores, there are candles, but in the specialty shops—botánicas smelling of medicinal herbs and musky incense—you’ll find an amazing assortment of props, symbols, art... all the ritual implements of a living faith.
HEIDI BELLEAU AND VIOLETTA VANE INTERVIEW
Heidi: Our first book as co-authors is called “The Druid Stone”. We first discussed the possibility of co-writing in April 2011, and finished the novel (including rigorous edits thanks to the brilliant April L’Orange) in mid-August. Two days after submitting it, I had my baby, and just before Christmas we heard from Carina that they’d decided to publish it! To bring it all full circle, Carina is releasing it in August of this year and we couldn’t be happier.
Cruce de Caminos by Heidi Belleau & Violetta Vane - Interview
Heidi: The very first scene of the story has him unarmed and facing down a gun, and that sets the tone for the entire story. He keeps facing these insurmountable odds, these life-threatening challenges where he’s constantly overpowered by his antagonists (be they human or otherwise), and all he has in his corner is his wit and his desperation and ultimately, his body
INTERVIEW & GIVEAWAY: HEIDI BELLEAU AND VIOLETTA VANE
Heidi: “Cruce de Caminos” is erotic horror. I’ve been calling it a spooky paranormal, since as far as horror goes it’s a very much psychological and atmospheric, although there is a character who is more than he appears. It’s also a bisexual story. All of the onscreen sex is gay-for-pay, but the main character is in a heterosexual relationship. How homosexual desire fits into that space is a strange thing...
BLOG TOUR WIDE GIVEAWAY W/HEIDI BELLEAU & VIOLETTA VANE - HEROIN
He needed a meaning, a purpose, and found one in heroin. It satisfies him on a visceral level and an intellectual level. Like most of us, he has no blazing prodigal talent to provide an automatic answer to the question, “Why do I matter to the world?”. He was always an outsider—not as well-off, not as white as the people he grew up around—so he posed that question to himself more intensely than most.
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There will be three winners announced on June 6th! Each will receive:
- a free copy of “Cruce de Caminos” in their format of choosing
- “Cruce de Caminos” magnets, calendar magnets and multiple postcards mailed to them once I receive their address.
Of these three, one will also receive a special mystery New Orleans gift.
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If you’ve read “Cruce de Caminos,” you’ll have the opportunity to enter Heidi’s quiz contest to win a copy of the continuation of Sean’s story, The Druid Stone (coming from Carina in August).
Thank you for following the tour, for reading our story, for leaving your feedback, for hosting us, for everything!
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