BookEnds Talks to Bella Andre
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: May 04 2007
Bella Andre
Book: Red Hot Reunion
Publisher: Pocket
Pub date: March 2007
Agent: Jessica Faust
Before writing romance, Bella Andre got a BA in Economics at Stanford University, worked as a marketing director, and strutted hundreds of stages as a rock star. She is also a Feng Shui consultant and gives the popular workshop “Feng Shui for Writers” both online and at RWA chapter meetings. She lives in Northern California with her fabulous husband, children, and dog.
Author Web site: www.BellaAndre.com
BookEnds: Describe your book in 50 words or less.
Bella: Celebrity chef Jason Roberts isn’t the same guy he was in college, when Emma Holden turned her back on their thrilling unpredictable passion to marry a rich jock handpicked by her parents. Now, for their ten-year reunion, he’s cooked up a plan for revenge. It will begin with an appetizer of teasing, taunting foreplay . . . and conclude with heartbreak for dessert! But Jason is startled by divorcee Emma’s ardent response to his sensual advances. By the time he serves the main course—sizzling hot sex—Emma isn’t the only one hungering for more. So who’s turned the table on whom? Explicit sex.
BookEnds: What is your favorite thing about this book?
Bella: The book begins at a ten-year reunion at Stanford University in Northern California (where I went to college) then moves in Napa Valley (I lived in the wine country for ten years) for the rest of the book. I loved getting the chance to write settings that I know so intimately. Emma and Jason fall in love while exploring natural hot springs, hot air balloons, and—of course—vineyards.
BookEnds: What other authors do you find inspiration from?
Bella: Pretty much everyone! I adore other authors. Writers are, as a rule, fun, supportive, smart, tough, and emotional. Honestly, I don’t know what I would do without my girls. You can meet many of them on my group blog at www.fogcitydivas.typepad.com. The best bunch of people (and writers!) you are every likely to meet.
BookEnds: Where do you get your ideas?
Bella: The celebrity magazines that I devour on a weekly basis. No, I’m just kidding. Mostly, I think I get my ideas from what’s happening in my friends’ lives or perhaps just a “what if?” moment. For Red Hot Reunion the idea came straight from “What if two estranged lovers saw each other at a college reunion for the first time in ten years? What if they had done terrible things to hurt each other the last time they spoke? And what if they were still as in love with each other ten years later?” It was very rewarding to write such an emotional, sizzling story.
BookEnds: Why have you chosen to write in the genre in which you write?
Bella: Honestly, because I enjoy the freedom to write very emotional stories while being given free reign over the sensuality. I think that the Romantic Times reviewer put it best when she said about Red Hot Reunion: “Another sparkling book . . . filled with emotion, excellent characters, wonderfully described settings, and sizzling sex.” Plus, I really like the word “sparkling”! 😉
BookEnds: What else are you working on?
Bella: I am very excited about my next series with Pocket—The Bad Boys of Football. I’m working on the first book right now and the one thing I know for sure is that it’s going to be a very sexy, very fun book.
Feel free to ask Bella questions in the comments section. She’ll pop in during the day to answer them.
To learn more about Bella Andre, see Our Books at www.BookEnds-Inc.com.
Mmm. Sounds like a tasty read! Can you tell us a little something about what it took to get the book published? Was your editor in love with it immediately? Did you have to do many revisions? Did the title change? Any behind-the-scenes scoop would be fun to read about! Thanks!
Nyree is having trouble posting so she asked me to put this up:
Thanks for the question! RED HOT REUNION is my third book with Pocket, so the path to publication was different than my first book with them. Instead of writing a full book, I wrote three chapters and an outline. Jessica had some suggestions for ways to make the proposal stronger, so I made some changes and then she sent it off to my editor. I’d like to think my editor was in love with it immediately! 😉 She told me she really loved the reunion hook, as did everyone at Pocket. I revised the first three chapters quite heavily for my editor and then the rest was smooth sailing. The title was originally Constant Cravings, but everyone at Pocket really wanted to play up the reunion angle. Red Hot Reunion was the first new title that popped into my head and they said they loved it. As for behind the scenes scoop, um, while I went to Stanford, I never actually attended my 10 year reunion. (Will the excuse that I lived too far away work?) I do plan on attending the next one, likely with Jami Alden (who writes for Aphrodisia and Brava and was my college roommate) at my side.
I just wanted to say ‘Congratulations!’
I can’t wait to read Red Hot Reunion!
Thanks for the extra tidbits, too! Best of success!!