Rose Vane's Blog: Rose's Bunch of Books

Christmas is not here yet (of course), but the end of the year is getting near, so I have decided to offer my readers a serial Christmas novella on my blog. This a is Regency romance novella and it has both a bit of Jane Austen homage and (I hope) some of Carola Dunn's classic feel to it...It will get steamier though, I promise.. This is only Part 1 - An Unexpected Gift...

And you can read it on my blog:
https://rosevane.com/a-serial-regency...

Since Halloween is approaching, I thought about a list of my favorite vampire movies. Not all of these movies are horror films as such, but, in my opinion, each of them has something that makes it special in the vampire genre.

Check out this blog:

https://rosevane.com/my-top-favorite-...

There are several representations in my book (A Deep Dark Call) that are part of Romanian culture and that my readers are invited to discover. Let’s explore some of them!

The Tree of Life

There is a tapestry featuring the Tree of Life hanging on one of the walls of my hero’s Wallachian manor...

Read the rest of the blog and see the images on

https://rosevane.com/symbols-and-repr...

1. Asimov’s Caves of Steel – A futuristic noir in a grey city…Are you kidding me? Why haven’t they done this before?! There are three books and this would be an excellent miniseries.
2. Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear – I know it’s been done before, but the 80s adaptation sucked. This is a fabulous series with immense potential for a TV show. Especially the first book. The rest are not as good but the amount of historical detail is fascinating…Prehistory meets romance…(Yes, I’ve been a fan for more than twenty years).
3. Robin Hobb’s Farseer cycle + Liveships+ Rain Wilds – The TV show could be just as good as Game of Thrones. There are many books and intertwined plots and, well, it is epic…
4. Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series – It’s a very fun, dynamic series with noir elements which could be similar to True Blood.
5. Georgette Heyer’s Regency books – Fine, so they’re doing Julia Quinn’s Bridgertons for Netflix. They did Sanditon recently, so why shouldn’t they do a Heyer anthology? Regency romance does well on TV and Heyer’s books are smart and full of vivid detail.

Many of my friends assume I’m a sort of vampire expert (…Romania, right…). I’m obviously not a vampire expert, but I am not only into paranormal romance, but also into historical linguistics.
Guys, there is indeed vampire lore in Romania (especially in the Transylvanian area). But the word vampire is not really used in Romanian lore. It’s a borrowed word we learn from foreign books and movies, not a word that we actually come across in authentic Romanian tales.
The Romanian word that you’re looking for is actually strigoi. That’s what we use in Romanian tales. Strigoi are evil spirits or the undead. In some tales, they come to the windows of unmarried women to prey upon them. Strigoi are a complex mixture - demons, zombies and blood drinkers all in one…
The word strigoi in Romanian has the same root as the word striga (Striga means to scream in Romanian). It’s a Latin word. Those of you who speak Italian will note that this is similar to strega (This means witch in Italian). No wonder – both Romanians and Italians have inherited words and myths from their common Roman ancestors.
And this brings us to the strix (plural striges) in Roman mythology. In Roman mythology this was a word for an evil spirit who could take the form of a night owl that let out bloodcurdling screeches. According to Roman authors, the strix was either a witch or a night flying demon that drank the blood of innocent victims.
So, you can see that our Romanian strigoi are quite ancient. Far more ancient than vampires…

Fine – I read and watch many things besides romance (and historical linguistics). And I occasionally indulge in B movies I first saw long ago. I’m only slightly ashamed to say I’m very fond of some of them. Here’s my Top 5 = (Guilty) Pleasures:

1. Big Trouble in Little China – Huh…I think there are many more people who actually like this. And Kurt Russell was pretty cool, way before the Tarantino films…Am I the only one who remembers Soldier or Snake Plissken?!
2. House II – The Second Story - I saw that as a kid and just loved it. I know – it now looks more than ridiculous, but I revert back to my kid self whenever I watch this.
3. The Blood of Heroes (or Salute of the Jugger) – Rutger Hauer and Joan Chen in a post-apocalyptic film I first watched many years ago in the wee hours of the morning. It’s a cool movie and Hauer is one of my all-time favourites.
4. Death Warrant – What would this list be without Jean-Claude Van Damme?
5. Highlander I– Okay. I actually think this is simply great and nothing is ever going to dissuade me. Besides, The Kurgan is one of the best villains ever.

Okay, since my WIP takes place at a vineyard and since it’s still summer, I can’t wait to taste the wine I love to drink when it’s hot outside…It’s called Cramposie – a dry white wine with green apple hints…. It’s not a fancy wine. An early twentieth-century writer likened it to that peasant girl the boyars fall in love with…And it’s rumoured that the grape variety bearing this name dates from Pre- Roman times (Who really knows?!)– the place it probably comes from was called Rusidava in Dacian/Roman times. Anyway, I’m going to have a glass right now…writing the scene I have in mind. It’ s going to be crisp, but summery and slightly tart, with definite notes of green apple…

I love short, abrupt sentences, ellipses and intense descriptions - all that's visceral, dark and deep. Here's a very short excerpt from A Deep Dark Call (Carina Press, Harlequin) - a couple of lines from my brooding hero:

Release. This was what his marriage to her was going to bring. But not only that. It would also bring forever. And, although he’d spoken it to her, it was a word that he was somewhat scared of. Forever was a treacherous word. He knew too well. He had been married before.