Italian Weddings
and Funerals , Monks' Rooms and Working for Saucepans
by
A.J. Llewellyn
I want to thank my wonderful friend,
Mary Calmes for letting me invade her blog today to talk about my new
book, Italian Weddings and Funerals, coming to Silver Publishing this
weekend.
Yes, it's a re-release. Originally
published a few years ago, once the rights reverted to me I put it with Silver
and eagerly anticipated a wonderful cover by the divine and amazing Reese
Dante. She didn't disappoint me and I am thrilled with the new, edited version
of my vampire story.
It's the first book in a new series
called Italian Stallions. Italian
Weddings and Funerals is a catering company owned by Luca Dell'Oro, a
several hundred-year-old Italian vampire. Even though he doesn't require food,
he loves it, and though he doesn't have love, he loves that, too.
Luca throws the best weddings and
funerals in the business.
He has a quirky staff, including
Zaria, a zany woman who supplements her income as a hooker. But she's an
unusual hooker. She doesn't actually sleep with her clients. They have a breast
fetish and um, they're often broke, so she accepts payments in the form of
cookware!
I based her on a woman I once worked
with…
A lot of passion went into this
story since I am a serious foodie. I was also glad to be able to use a bit of
my obsession with monks' rooms in this tale. I happened to be visiting the City
of Ten Thousand Buddhas (don't you just
love that name?) up in Talmadge, Mendocino, CA, and was so taken by this
majestic place, that I was determined to fit it into one of my stories.
I talked to a monk there who told me
that originally a hospital built in 1889, it fast became a refuge for Catholic
priests traveling up and down California's coast and for visiting Buddhist
monks in later years. By the time those who reached the hospital made it, they
were exhausted and sometimes badly injured. For those unfamiliar with the
state's history, the priests were easy targets for the bad guys who assumed
they carried gold.
He told me that the priests were
given refuge in houses along the way where the residents allowed them to stay
long enough to recover from injuries, or the sheer energy it took to travel by
horse all that way.
Priest holes or priest hides, and
monk cells, or monk rooms, exist all over the world. Some of the fanciest, most
historic homes in England have them.
Here is a link to the most famous.
The illustrations of some of these show the hiding places to be so tiny it's
amazing a grown man could fit inside them:
Hi AJ! It so happens I live about 5 minutes from the City of 10,000 Buddhas, and we have been there several times for my son's school. There is a room that has 10,000 Buddha statues in it, hence the name. Looking forward to Italian Weddings and Funerals I missed it on the original release.
ReplyDeleteMantel Clocks - Welcome to Badash Crystal, your online retail shop for crystal candle holders, scotch decanters, paperweights, crystal stemware, glass goblets and glass cylinder vases.
ReplyDeleteI Love the new cover AJ!!! Its a Beautiful story and I can not wait to get it again and reread it!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Silver and Elaine for your comments! I am going to give you both a copy of the book! Elaine please email me so I can contact you. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAJ
ajllewellyn (at) gmail.com