Brad Vance’s Apollo’s Curse

Today I am excited to bring you an interview with the wonderful Brad Vance. His new book Apollo’s Cure is out now. I haven’t had the chance to read it yet but it sounds so good. It’s got some mythical elements to them and I’ve always loved mythology. After the interview you can read about the book as well. There’s also a great excerpt that I know will make you want to read it. At the very bottom is a giveaway for e-copies of the book (there’s TEN copies being given away so be sure to enter!).

Amanda C. Stone: So glad to have you here today Brad. Was it hard to have your character be a writer? Having to write about writing?
Brad Vance: No, it’s not hard – in fact, it’s almost too easy to “write what you know.” The hard part was remembering that “Dane” isn’t me, that I shouldn’t just transcribe myself into the story. I really liked writing about writing – when I was growing up as a wannabe writer, I wished someone had told me how the sausage was *really* made! So it was a pleasure for me to talk about the business and everything I’ve learned in it. And it was loads of fun to show Dane creating, for example, that Jason and Lisa story – the way you start a story, backtrack, get stuck, figure out what happens next, suddenly change your mind about things, the whole process.
ACS: I can imagine how hard it was not to make Dane into you. Did you set out to use people from mythology or did it just happen on its own?
BV: Paul was always Apollo, from the start. But I didn’t really intend for the people on the island of Kryptos to have mythological names. They just suddenly…did! Once I used Cassiopeia as the innkeeper’s name, and then gave her a daughter, well, the daughter just had to be named Andromeda. And once that was done, I thought, well, I have to give them all mythological names now! Especially since I’m creating my own mythology for this island, including the “stories within the story” that Dane writes for the natives. So you have Father Hercules and Perseus and all the rest of the cast on the island.
ACS: It’s kind of fun to see how the characters are like the people from mythology and how they’re different. Which God, Goddess or creature is your favorite from ancient mythology?
BV: Apollo, definitely. He has so many different facets or incarnations, as the “sun god,” the leader of the Muses, the ideal athlete, the god of the Oracle. All mythologies have some kind of sun god, but he’s the most complex.
ACS: Apollo was always one of the cool ones when I was young. You are now an ancient God. What are you the God of?
BV: Wow, you gotta pick Zeus, right? Then you’re the God of everything! Okay, that’s cheating. If I were being selfish, I would want to be one of the sexy gods, like Apollo or Mercury, or a god of pleasure like Dionysus. If I were being unselfish, I would want to be Athena, and stick some wisdom in the ears of the people in this world who need it the most – mostly politicians.
ACS: Sadly I’m not sure if even Athena can give them enough wisdom to be useful. If you could have one of the nine muses visit you for one day, which one, and what would you do with the muse?
Well, of course I’m grateful to the Muses I’ve had in my writing, but at this point in my life, I’d love a visit from Euterpe, whose domain is Song. I had musical ambitions but I never followed through on them, not even as a hobby. I’ve tried to learn to play guitar a few times, but it got hard, or I got bored with practicing the same thing over and over, and I gave up, I guess. I would love her to smack me on the side of the head and reorganize those thoughts so I could apply myself to that now.
ACS: I’d love a visit from Euterpe as well. Once she visits we’ll have to start a band in her name! Thanks so much for joining me Brad. It was fun having you here. Now read all about the book.

Blurb:
All Dane Gale ever wanted was to be a successful writer. After a few sessions with his new friends Rose and Sherry at a romance book club, well, the more romances they read, the more they’re convinced they can do better. And do they ever! They join their creative forces to become “Pamela Clarice,” self-published romance novelist. When they look for a cover model for their first book, Dane sees the photos that will change his life.

Paul Musegetes is the world’s most popular romance cover model, and the most secretive. Dane soon finds himself obsessed with this supernaturally handsome man, and when he meets Paul at the Romance Writers’ Ball on the Summer Solstice, he and Paul connect for one night of passion…

After that night, Dane’s a writing machine. He can’t stop writing romances, and every story he touches turns to gold. But he also finds that he can’t write anything but romances. And soon he’s spending every waking moment of every day writing another after another…

Then Dane finds out that this Midas touch has a heavy price. After the next Summer Solstice, he’ll never write again. Not a romance, not a serious novel. Nothing. Not even a grocery list. And that leaves him with only one option – find Paul, and get him to break the curse. But before he can do that, he’ll have to track down Paul’s equally mysterious photographer, Jackson da Vinci…

Excerpt:
It wasn’t hard to find Paul again.  And to find the “other images with this model” link.  And click.  And click.  And blow up my browser window to 200%, so that when I zoomed the photos, his face, then his eyes, filled my screen.

And what surprised me was that there were not only so many images of him, but that he could be so many different men in so many different pictures, different settings – he was the tender lover with the rose, the snarling Viking, the cool guy in a band, the Miami Beach tool, the shifter/werewolf, the business man, the college kid, the gym rat, the outdoorsman, the poet, the drill sergeant, the soccer player, the swimmer…  As I looked at each picture, I was totally convinced that I was looking at the real man, that that was who he really was…until I looked at the next.

And yet, always, he was clearly recognizably himself – Paul.  It was those eyes, reminding you that he was in there, somewhere, behind the image, and you’d never know which one he really was, he was all of them, he was whoever you wanted him to be…

About Brad:
Brad Vance is a popular author of gay romances, including the best selling novel, “Given the Circumstances.” He blogs at http://bradvanceerotica.wordpress.com, and can be reached at BradVanceErotica@Gmail.com.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brad.vance.10
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/1/+BradVance/about

Buy Links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K4FXL8O/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00K4FXL8O&linkCode=as2&tag=pridepromo-20&linkId=BH5M2YAFTZMKHPIG
ARE: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-apollo039scurse-1498097-145.html?referrer=5314fed11fb4f
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apollos-Curse-Brad-Vance-ebook/dp/B00K4FXL8O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400989258&sr=8-1&keywords=apollo+curse
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/apollos-curse-brad-vance/1119431464?ean=9781499332599
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/434987

Tour Stops:
June 2: Prism Book Alliance, Dawn’s Reading Nook
June 3: Kimi-Chan
June 4: Elisa Rolle, Nephylim, Up All Night, Read All Day
June 5: Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves
June 6: MM Good Books, Jane Wallace-Knight
June 9: Parker Williams, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
June 10: Amanda C. Stone, Fallen Angel Reviews
June 11: Gay Guy Reading, Jade Crystal, My Fiction Nook, Talon SO
June 12: Love Bytes, It’s Raining Men
June 13: The Novel Approach, The Hat Party

Giveaway:
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