Giveaway, Interview & Review with Author of "BASTIAN: THE LORDS OF SATYR", Elizabteh Amber

Title: BASTIAN
Series: Book Six ~
The Lords of Satyr

By Elizabeth Amber

Publisher: Kensington
Imprint: Aphrodisia

In Stores: April 26, 2011

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Format:  Trade Paperback & eBook

Book Heat: SCORCHER

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Man-gods born to live and love forever, the Lords of Satyr are renowned for their sexual prowess…and unquenchable lust…

Call My Name

The forum excavations in Rome go on, directed by the iron-willed, charismatic Lord Bastian Satyr. Out of nowhere, a mysterious, haunting voice calls out to him…and lures him to the site of a long-vanished temple, where vestal virgins once performed rites of erotic surrender. The temple is the find of his career, but his heart is about to face the unknown…


Michaela is a pure Ephemeral. She can enter the bodies of others—and become any woman a man might wish to possess. His choice is her pleasure. And the commanding and utterly virile Bastian is the only man she desires…

Over the Edge Reviews

Questions with

Award-Winning

Paranormal Romance

Author

Elizabeth Amber

Please help me welcome one of today’s leading ladies of the erotic historical paranormal romance genre and has set the romance world off its axis with her decadently lush Lord of Satyr series Elizabeth Amber. I am so excited that she has dropped by to share more about her latest in the series, “BASTIAN: The Lords of Satyr”. So let’s jump right in and get this party started

I am obsessed with your The Lords of Satyr series. I have read every single one and have not only become a devoted fan, but completely fascinated in how you created this world. What catapulted you into writing this rich, lush, erotic world of magical beings? Why Satyrs?

Thank you for enjoying the Satyr novels, Christine! You are a sweetheart and a true champion of romance. These wealthy, sexy Satyrs, who secretly dwell in Italy, came from my imagination--an imagination fueled by Greco-Roman art history studies. In mythology, the satyr are the carnal followers of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. So it made sense to me that in the 1800s, they would live in wine and olive country—Tuscany and Rome. It also made sense that their ancient bloodline would demand that they engage in certain carnal rituals—or perish.

Congratulations on your upcoming Kensington Aphrodisia May 2011 “BASTIAN” which is your sixth book in the Lord of Satyr. Please share with us what this story is about.

 It’s a love story between Bastian--the lead archaeologist in the excavations of the Roman Forum in the 1880s--and Silvia. Silvia is a former Vestal Virgin—now an immortal Ephemeral—who seeks to trick Bastian into helping her locate a powerful, mysterious relic in the Forum ruins.

What is an Ephemeral?

 “Ephemeral” means having a short life cycle. At the tender age of six, Silvia was pressed into service as a Vestal Virgin. (Historical fact: The VVs began service to the goddess between ages six and ten. It’s also fact that during the purging of all pagan religions in the fourth century A.D., Vesta’s Temple was destroyed.)

 As the temple burns around them, Silvia and the other Virgins are transformed into immortal creatures called Ephemerals. Over the ensuing centuries, Ephemerals live by taking hosts—the bodies of the dying—usually for a month at a time. When Bastian first meets Silvia, she has just assumed the form of a young boy in order to work under him in the excavations.

The story takes place in 1881 with Lord Bastian doing an archaeological dig of The House and Temple of Vesta. I’m curious to know more about the six stones that Silvia is trying to keep Bastian from finding. What is their significance?

 It’s historically accurate that the Vestal Virgins were charged with the care and protection of mysterious relics that were believed to protect all of Rome. When Vesta’s Temple was destroyed, these relics disappeared. No one knows exactly what they were, which left me free to imagine them as powerful gemstones which lie hidden in the ruins of the Forum.

I was drawn in by the deep relationship between Michaela and Silvia, please expand on their unique friendship and how it plays a pivotal part in the story.

 Silvia never planned to love Bastian. She keeps her emotional distance, believing she cannot have him because her dearest friend Michaela is involved with him. I used the pain and joys of my own friendships to write these two women, and came close to crying over them at one point. (Can you guess when?) My bff and I have remained best buds since middle school, which is one of my joys. On the painful side--another close girl friend appropriated my boyfriend one summer while I was off at university, and married him. I truly hope the Silvia-Michaela friendship goes below the surface and feels emotionally real to readers.

I know that you have traveled to Rome on holiday and to research for your Lord of Satyr series. Would you share with us what you have found that has inspired places, characters and themes that run throughout the series?

Imagine what a bizarre, spooky sight the Roman Forum was before its large-scale excavation in the 1880s. Back then, its arches and columns were half-buried, many of their secrets hidden under sixteen to eighteen feet of accumulated dirt! Italian families used the Forum as a picnic ground, a place to stroll on a lazy afternoon, or for amateur treasure hunting. When I visited the Forum several years ago after writing Nicholas, I knew I’d use it as a setting in a satyr novel one day.

How did you come up with the ElseWorld? How difficult was it to great this enigmatic and eccentric world? What was the most difficult part of creating and entertaining the different magical cultures?

I haven’t spent much time in ElseWorld in the novels. It is populated with creatures of myth—satyrs, maenads, centaurs, the descendants of gods—all the creatures that fascinate. There are portals between the worlds that the satyrs guard. In Bastian, a new method of transport is revealed as well.

I’ve read that you’re a museum junkie. What is one of your fave museums? Why?

I’ve never met a museum I didn’t like, Christine! I’m especially fond of the Met in NYC and the Louvre in Paris. There’s a very sexy statue of a satyr ravishing a maenad in the Louvre as well as a beautiful reclining hermaphrodite.

Staying with the fanatic junkie theme I also read that you are obsessed with history and archeology. Bastian, in my opinion seems to be the uber alpha-male component of you. Did you take bits and pieces from your own life and build Bastian around it?

The Bastian bookmarks reads: “Infamous for his archaeological finds in the Roman Forum and more highly sexed than most of his kind, Bastian is admired and envied. Yet he is tortured by visions.” I agree that he’s one of my most alpha males. All that hunky satyr sex is mostly fantasy. It’s easy to write because it evolves out of the satyr character. They are inherently carnal beings, their bodies crave sex. It’s important to me that romance and sexual tension are a big part of these books. I want to fall in love with my heroes and feel the heart of my heroines race when the hero is in the room. I love my life, but it’s tame compared to what I write.

 Even though The Lords of Satyr are fictional I am on my way to being head-over heals in love with Sevin and Lucian—(I’m past the point in apologizing for my deepest, dearly devotion of Dane =) I adore the fact that Sevin and Lucian and Dane appear in this book—adoring gaze with a long sigh -- Please, please share with a sneak-peak of Sevin’s story.

Sevin has charisma. He is the sexy brother women flock to. But he’s also a survivor and a shrewd businessman. When his parents died, young Dane and Lucien went missing. Bastian was eighteen and experiencing his first and most devastating Calling, a Calling that wrenched him from his family. Sevin—a teenager at the time—was left to fend for himself. He created the Salone di Passione, an exclusive club in Rome where Satyrs and other ElseWorld beings can pursue physical pleasures away from the prying eyes of Humans. Developments at the end of BASTIAN change everything for the Satyr clan. But they also create new business opportunities for Sevin. Perhaps there’s money to be made in a club where Humans and Satyrs mingle?

 How many books do you see in this series?

 My Lords of Satyr contract with Kensington ends at book seven, which is coincidentally named SEVIN. In DANE, a fourth brother appeared—Lucien, who is the youngest brother of Bastian, Dane, and Sevin. If my publisher is up for it, I may write LUCIEN as an eighth book.

What books would you suggest for a reader who would love to learn more of Roman mythology and archeology?

I have three shelves of books about winemaking, Tuscany, Rome, mythology, sexual practices in history, and ancient customs. Included among them are Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, Catherine Johns’ Sex or Symbol, and Vinum: The Story of Roman Wine by Stuart Fleming.

What do you hope readers take away from your books?

That satisfied feeling. I want them to believe that Bastian and Silvia were meant to be together, are now deeply in love, and will live happily ever after. And I hope readers will be curious about what will happen next, in Sevin’s story.

What is the craziest thing you’ve uncovered in your research?

It was believed that the Vestal Virgins’ chastity insured the good health and wealth of Rome. (That’s crazy, in my opinion, but interesting fodder for a book.) The penalty for fornication was death. Amid great sorrowful ceremony led by ancient Roman religious leaders and citizens, a convicted Virgin would be taken on a litter to a small underground room hollowed out for her in the "Evil Field"--near the Colline Gate. There, she was essentially buried alive--left to die alone.

For the reader who has yet to read one of your erotically deliciously sensual Lords of Satyr books what is one thing you could say that might titillate them into reading between the covers?

A tall order, Christine! Let’s see: I won’t talk about the physical changes they undergo, the hermaphrodite heroine in RAINE, or the fact that the satyr are highly sexual beings when their ancient blood stirs. What’s more important is that each hero in the satyr novels has survived difficult circumstances, emerged from them worthy of love, and often finds love in an unlikely or unusual heroine. I hope readers fall in love with the satyr as I have.

Is there anything else readers who are new to the series should know?

I should note that there are two Satyr clans. They're related by ancient blood, but do not cross paths in the books, so each clans' books are very separate. The two clans are:
Tuscany 1820s: Nicholas, Raine, Lyon, Dominic
Rome 1880s: Dane, Bastian (May 2011), Sevin (2012), Lucien (2012 maybe)

What’s up next for you?

I’ve got a new series idea that my agent likes, so I’ll explore that once I finish SEVIN.

I know that right now you write award-winning erotic paranormal romance for Kensington, but I’m curious if there is a genre you would like to try your hand at. Why?

I’m always looking for a new challenge, always trying to stretch my creative legs. These days, I’m reading steampunk, YA dystopia, historical, paranormal, and nonfiction. I think some or all of those will come into play in my next series. My writing voice is fairly dark, and will stay that way.

Elizabeth, please share with desperate Lords of Satyr fanatics and fanatics-to- come where we can stalk you out in cyber world. =)

Stalk away, Christine!


http://www.elizabethamber.com/books/bastian/
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1351688841
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ElizabethAmber/

Elizabeth, my readers and I always have a fantastic time when you stop and visit with Over the Edge Reviews readers and myself. I’m so excited that Bastian: The Lords of Satyr is now available for the masses. =)

Thank you for your gracious hospitality at Over the Edge, Christine! I’m so glad you enjoyed BASTIAN! I hope your readers do as well.

~GIVEAWAY~

Celebrating the April 2011 Kensington Aphrodisia realse of "BASTIAN: The Lords of Satyr by award-winning erotic paranormal romance author Elizabeth Amber's sixth installment in her The Lords of Satyr series. Over the Edge along with Kensington Aphrodisia will be giving one lucky reader their very own copy.  To enter here are a few simple rules.

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