Reviews for I'll Be Home For Christmas
4.5 Stars "One gets an excellent sense of how, during their years apart, both Benedict and Destry have held torches for the other... The word picture of the bleak Wyoming landscape in winter was perfect. It provided for a magnificent backdrop, echoing in some ways Destry and Benedict's situation... This is one of the most realistic plots it's been my pleasure to read in a long time..." -- British Bull Dog, Rainbow Reviews
Visit Adrianna Dane's web site
Read an excerpt from I'll Be Home For Christmas
About Adrianna Dane
Adrianna Dane has been putting pen to paper since the age of ten. She currently resides in the state of Washington and has been a member of Romance Writers of America and EPIC for the last several years.
The first defining love story Adrianna read back in junior high school was "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte, and that set her on the road to her long standing love affair with the romance genre. Her inspiration in writing often can be found by listening to song lyrics and reading poetry by such poets as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edgar Allen Poe, and Ranier Maria Rilke. But finding inspiration for her stories truly has no boundaries for Adrianna.
"Esmerelda's Secret" released by Amber Quill Press in June of 2004 was Adrianna's first book, and with that story and her subsequent books has firmly established herself as a voice within the sensual/erotic romance genre.
Adrianna always looks forward to hearing from her readers and she may be contacted at adriannadane@gmail.com. Find out more about her current releases as well as planned future releases and book signings by checking for updates at her website (www.adriannadane.com) periodically.
Don't forget to sign up for her newsletter, Torrid Tidbits, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AdriannaDane-TorridTidbitsNewsletter.
Also by Adrianna Dane:
An extensive backlist of titles. http://www.adriannadane.com/releaseorderthumbnails.html
An Interview with Adrianna Dane
By Holly Hewson for The Romance Studio
HH: Adrianna, thank you for talking with us at TRS. Please tell us about your latest release, I'll Be Home For Christmas.AD: Thanks so much for having me, Holly. It's always a pleasure to spend time with the folks at TRS.
I'll Be Home For Christmas which is published with Loose Id, is a reunion romance between two cowboys with the backdrop of a harsh Wyoming winter. Destrie and Benedict have not had an easy time of it.
Benedict, a rancher, is firmly grounded in his Wyoming home and responsibility to family -- to his heritage. He is bound to a town and a family who are intolerant of who he loves and the way he loves. His father is a very forceful personality even after death. Some might think it would be an easy thing to have Benedict turn his back on a family and community who does not understand him in order to be with the man he loves, but that's not an easy decision for Benedict to make. He is torn because he is a man of honor and he cares, maybe too much. But he can't simply walk away from his responsibility.
Destrie, a sniper in the Army, is almost a total opposite to Benedict -- he was orphaned at an early age and thus feels rootless and disconnected. His mother's last words to him were not to forget who he is and who his parents were. Destrie is half Indian, half Hispanic and ends up being raised by a Caucasian couple--a loving couple who works on the Webster Ranch. As unattached as he feels to the community, there is something he sees and connects with in Benedict who he develops a friendship with and soon ocmes to loves and respect.
Benedict loves the wildness, the risk-taking, and what he sees as the freedom Destrie has; Destrie is drawn to the strength of Benedict's commitment to family and community -- even if sometimes it seems misplaced. And the moments they share are sizzling.
But the freedoms of youth are soon destroyed when Benedict and Destrie are attacked one night by a group of ruffians. And it changes everything. Destrie is forced to leave town, and Benedict stays. Many of their choices--and their painful separations -- stem from the respect and love they have for each other -- and for their family heritage and roots. And from the fact that cowboys don't whine; they'll do what needs doing, no matter how much it hurts or the personal cost paid. There are a great many secrets that come to light when these two men are reunited. Not the least of which involves reigniting the love they have for each other, which is hot enough to melt the fierce Wyoming frost.
HH: Lovers in youth who've carried a torch for one another despite the many obstacles that separate them. Where did you get the idea for their sizzling story? AD: I love reunion romances. In youth everything is so fervent and immediate and we are all indestructible at that age. Years pass, changes occur, life happens, we see things differently. What happens when a love like that simmers unquenched for so many years? What happens when these two men face what is in their past and what has occurred in the years apart?
HH: What do you like best about Destrie and how do you relate to him? AD: Destrie wants to connect, he's a fighter, his emotions are buried, and now having been in the Army, he's learned to control his feelings and actions -- or rather to hide them -- deep. But that fire is buried there right below the surface. I have a son who spent four years in the Army, I watched a change like that take place. Military service changes a man, and I tried to bring some of that change to Destrie's personality.
HH: What do you like about Benedict and why might he be perfect for him? AD: Benedict is about connection with home and community. He's the foundation, he's the stable rock to which they all cling. He's a man of principle. He's the quiet one. And this is some of what draws Destrie to him. Destrie finds peace when he is with Benedict. It's only with Benedict he feels a certain sense of balance.
HH: What sort of research did you do for this work? AD: I always do a lot of research--I compile a lot of information. Nonfiction books on rodeos and cowboys and the country these men grew up in. The past, the present. Men and emotion and psychology. And frankly, I always loved watching westerns.
I lived for ten years in Montana. Currently, my daughter and her husband live in Montana near his family. I have a brother-in-law who lives in Wyoming. A son in the Army. And just before finishing this story I ended up taking a short trip to Utah. So I know the land -- it's beautiful and breathtaking and rugged. And in winter in contrast to the barrenness of the land, there's the gorgeous, molten sunsets that just take your breath away. I worked In Billings on the eighteenth floor of a building and around five or five-thirty I'd stop and look out the window and the sky was just filled with this hot orange-red color like looking at a bed of hot coals, sometimes lying in the midst of dark clouds -- a backdrop to the Beartooth mountains rising high and covered with snow. An artist's dream. You can't not want to write about strong characters living in an environment like that.
HH: What else do you have in store for lucky readers?
AD: Wow, I've taken a departure from the west and really the whole planet, and I just recently finished a gender-mated erotic fantasy/scifi novel. It's sitting on my floor waiting to be edited before submitting. I also have a menage novella sitting on top of the gender-blended novel that wants editing. February will see the release of my hetero short stort fairy tale titled The Forever Heart which will be published by the Amber Heat imprint of Amber Quill Press. And I'm currently in the middle of writing a werewolf menage story. So a lot going on right now.
HH: What do you enjoy about writing? AD: I enjoy the process of creation, I'm passionate about the story-telling. I love to shape a story once it's been drafted--it's where the depth really occurs. I attended a scifi convention this past November and sat in on one particular panel where one of the authors talked about the aspect of editing and she called it layering the story. And that's exactly right. I'm not really an outline gal--my process is more organic I guess--the story lives through the writing process, not the outlining process. For me outlining seems slightly distanced from the emotion of the story--so most of my energy goes into the story itself. Well, I start with a simple outline, but I sure don't plot it all out. and this is how I learn about the characters. I love the surprises they reveal as they "live" in the story creation process.
HH: What do you consider a really satisfying writing day? AD: Six hours of writing. No interruptions. Be it good words or bad. They can always be fixed. Characters that talk to you--when their words and actions rush at you so fast you can hardly get them down on paper. Thank goodness I'm a very fast typist.
We had the power go out a couple of weeks ago. I woke up, grabbed a notebook and wrote by hurricane lamplight. Three thousand words later...the power came back on.
HH: What do you personally enjoy reading? AD: Now that's a hard one. I read pretty much everything and anything. It just depends on my mood. Recently I finished reading three books in a series by Melissa Marr. Her faeries are awesome! "Wicked Lovely" I think is the first book in that series. Of course, I started with the second book and then had to go get the first one.
I'm also reading a nonfiction book titled "Scientist, Soldier, Statesman, Spy" by G. I. Brown. I've picked this up because I think he's a bit like one of my heroes in my current novel and I want to get a sense of his personality.
In my office I am surrounded by books. I don't often read fiction when I'm writing and right now I'm writing a lot.
HH: What would you most like to accomplish this year? AD: In 2009 I was rather distracted. I got lots of stories started, lots of research accomplished, but not much submitted. I lost my muse and good friend, Mikala, in October of 2009. Mikala was a rescue dog and my companion, particularly during my writing sessions when she would lie in my office as I wrote. I knew it wasn't going to be long as she was older and I spent a lot of time worrying about her last year. I still miss her. But we have a new addition to the family, Marley, and she makes us smile. She was the reason for the trip to Utah--and that's a whole other story. I think my husband realized he missed her more than he thought he would--he had no problem with the quick weekend trip to Utah. Marley has rather different personality than Mikala, but I think they would have gotten along.
This year I'm off on a real tangent as far as writing goes. I'm thankful to my friends at Servants of the Muse for always being there to hold my hand. If there's one thing I can recommend to writers, it's to find a group like this this and hold on tight. Friends are what help us to make it through -- and writing friends understand the strangeness of a writer's mind which isn't always the most logical nor reality based. If January is anything to go by, it's going to be a good year for writing. And the stories are my passion so that makes it an exciting year in 2010, I hope.
HH: My condolences for the loss of Mikala and congratulations on your new friend, Marley. Thank you.
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