Will
Belegon & Alessia Brio
Buddy the Beerman had got to be one of
the greatest regular visitors to the Rambler's Inn. Mainly
because he delivers the beer, but also because every now and
then he starts chatting to some of our guests, such as Will
Belegon and Alessia Brio...
If you have an alias or pen name, what is it?
Will: I've used Belegon as an alias for
twenty years. The addition of Will to it was to make it
realistic for publishing and because it's both easy for me and a
nod to my "old school" influences. Really old school.
Alessia: Um, it's Alessia Brio. You
didn't think that was my real name, did you? Unlike Will, my nom
de plume didn't come into existence until very recently-until
after I received "the call" from Phaze. Alessia is an
Italian name derived from the Greek verb alexéin meaning
"to defend/protect" and Brio relates to the Italian
musical term con brio meaning "with
spirit/brilliance." (I suppose that would make my middle
name "con," wouldn't it? *grin*) My heritage is 50%
Mediterranean, so I thought it appropriate-and I love its
meaning.
Tell us about yourself?
Alessia: I am a figment of the
imagination of a woman with a raging libido, a creative mind,
and an aging body. I'm young and sexy even on the days when she
feels like a wart hog. I'm passionate, irreverent, smart, and
occasionally funny. Oh, and *blush* I'm humble, too.
Okay, being serious for a couple
sentences: I'm a work-from-home mom and a very outspoken
crusader for the civil/human rights of people with disabilities.
A lifetime ago, I was a computer geek for the U.S. Dept. of
Defense, but I escaped the office environment and never want to
go back. (I have a problem with authority, y'see.)
Will: Whereas I'm actively looking to
get back into an office environment! I'm one of those guys who
proves the old adage about never knowing just what lurks beneath
the suit and tie of the conservative businessman. I look
conservative, and my day job certainly reinforces that. However,
beneath the corporate uniform a not quite reformed teenage rebel
still tilts at windmills.
I took a look in the mirror a couple
years ago and wondered who that guy staring back was. Since then
I've dropped 40 pounds, started writing again for the first time
since the 80s, and made a wonderful group of new friends who
encourage me to push the limits of my imagination.
Anything special the readers should know about you?
Alessia: Honey, there's nothing about
me that's NOT special. (Did I mention being humble-and modest,
too?) Now, whether or not the readers should know about it is
another story entirely. A girl's gotta have some secrets, after
all. If you ply Will with drink, he just might tell you some of
them.
Will: I'm not sure which of her secrets
she thinks I'll spill, but I appreciate the effort she's showing
to get me free drinks. Special? The best word to describe me is
eclectic. I've always considered myself someone who was
competent at many things and expert at none. So I'm comfortable
in a very diverse set of environments.
How long have you been writing?
Will: About three years now. I had told
stories for a long time, making up bedtime tales and even
spinning a long narrative for an ex-girlfriend that I now
desperately wish I had written down. I used to write poetry in
high school and college and worked on the school papers. I
finally tried my hand at writing fiction and discovered that the
few people I showed it to wanted more. This is the result.
Alessia: Since about 2nd grade, I
think. What? You mean, like, writing fiction? Oh, um…since the
late summer of 2003. That's when the fantasies swirling around
in my head reached critical mass and demanded freedom. Until
then, I just wrote scathing editorials and kick-ass essays. (I
still write those, too.)
Where do you typically find your inspiration?
Alessia: It usually stems from a random
conversation. A word or turn of phrase will strike my fancy, and
it blossoms into a story line. Sometimes I'll build a story
around a sexual scenario, but I usually let the characters have
free reign to build their own heat. (I hear voices, too. Did I
tell mention that?)
Our collaborations have had their
genesis in themed contests until recently. We just started on
the sequel to Artistically Inclined, entitled Bound for Success.
It's the first of our joint efforts that has not been the result
of such.
Will: I've also had some pretty random
starting points, but mine are usually visual. I've had stories
spring out of a look from a pretty girl, a scene from a movie,
or just wondering what the story was behind a photograph. One of
the ways Alessia and I make such a great team is that her
influences tend to be more about smells, sounds, or sensations,
and mine tend to be about light, shadow, and color. I think it
adds to the depth of our writing. She reads something of mine
and fills in the senses that I have unwittingly ignored and vice
versa.
What genre do you write in? Do you cross over to other genres?
Is it harder or easier to stay in one genre or to move back and
forth?
Alessia: I'd say, aside from the
obvious erotic elements, our stuff is pretty diverse. Wouldn't
you, Will? I mean, we've each done historical, paranormal,
contemporary, and romance. My muse (a fickle bitch) tells me
what to write. I just write it-and leave it to the publisher to
label it.
Will: Our settings and plot lines have
multiple elements and genres. One thing I do think we have
managed to capture very well as a team is the everyday humor of
life. Our characters do a lot of bantering back and forth and
teasing each other, just as Alessia and I do. So even though our
writings may run from the paranormal to the political, the humor
is always as great a presence as the eroticism. I think that
will always be true. Even if we tone down our sexual focus to
put something more mainstream out there, it will always have a
smoldering undertone.
Who has influenced you in your writing?
Will: Many of my influences are almost
stereotypically classical. I consider Shakespeare a huge
influence, for example. People tend to think of him as the
establishment, but at the time he was writing he was as close to
the edge of respectability as Hunter S. Thompson ever was.
Tolkien influenced me by providing so much depth to his world.
As far as erotica, my strongest influences have been modern.
Gwen Masters immediately springs to mind, as does Anne Rice.
Alessia: My colleagues. I'm not talkin'
about the mega-successful authors or the literary genii. I'm
talkin' about my peers. We learn from one another. Will, for
example, is a remarkable influence on capturing the minutiae of
a moment in breathtaking detail.
What books do you have out? And do you have something new
coming out? Where can they be purchased?
Alessia: Well, we're here pimping our
new release (which I'll let Will tell you about). My earlier
publications include Erotique and fine flickering hungers. (Yes,
it's supposed to be lower case.) Both were released in the fall
of 2005 by Phaze. Erotique is a short story, while fine
flickering hungers is a single-author anthology consisting of 8
short stories and 8 poems. Both have received glowing reviews.
Will: Our first published collaboration
is currently available from Phaze. The title is Switch, which
references the unexpected and unexplainable result of an
electrical storm and some electric exploration on the part of
our two main characters. The story started out as a scenario
idea and then took off when Alessia suggested using Bruce &
Mandy from her Erotique. I already loved the relationship
between the characters and when she made the suggestion, things
started rolling. We also have Artistically Inclined coming out
soon from Venus Press. Switch is available as a Phaze HeatSheet
at http://www.phaze.com
and Artistically Inclined will be at http://www.VenusPress.com
.
Are you doing any sinning or appearances soon?
Alessia: Well, I do the
"sinning" part every day. In fact, it's a priority in
my life. *wink* As for the appearances, I'll be in Bethesda
(Maryland) on June 3rd with a few other Phaze authors for a
reading and book signing at the South Beach Restaurant from
12:30pm to 5:30pm.
Will: It's nice to see that Alessia is
as willing to tease you about Freudian typos as she is to do it
to me. I had to develop a thick skin after sending off a few
late night ramblings. The hard part about appearances or
signings for us is that we live at opposite ends of the country.
We may have an opportunity to get together at the Happy Ending
Lounge in NYC on August 11th for a Phaze reading and signing.
Alessia will definitely be there, but my participation is still
pending due to the travel involved. I live in San Diego, so you
can't get much further away and still be in the continental U.S.
I'd say it's about a 75% probability right now.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Will: Michael Jordan is credited with
saying that you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. To relate
it to the sport I was the best at, I would say you can't hit a
home run with the bat on your shoulder. But I'm also very well
aware that it is a nerve wracking step to submit for
publication. So I would say that the first step is to show
someone, anyone at all. Your husband, your best girlfriend, a
poker buddy, I don't care. I received some incredible advice
from Alessia and fellow professionals like Gwen Masters after
telling them I wrote as well as read. Sure, I've had to smile
through a few I-told-you-so's. Believe me though, it was worth
it.
Alessia: I know quite a few very
talented and prolific "aspiring" writers who, for one
reason or another, are hesitant to submit their work to a
publisher. My advice to them is simple: SUBMIT! It ain't gonna
get published if you don't. To the not-so-inhibited, I say:
Write every day! No exceptions. No excuses. Bottom line: If it's
worth having, it's worth working for.
Do you have a website or a blog?
Alessia: I'm all over the 'Net. I have
a site ( www.alessiabrio.com
), an author blog ( http://alessiabrio.blogspot.com
), and various accounts on MySpace, LiveJournal, Xanga,
Yahoo!360, TagWorld, BlogLegion … you name it. *blush* The
ancillary accounts are largely inactive and simply direct
visitors to my main sites. I created them because if someone is
searching for me, I want them to find me. The publishers expect
us to pimp-I mean, promote-ourselves, so I'm giving it the ol'
college try.
Will & I also maintain a blog for
our collaborative works. It's named after the novella we
recently contracted with Venus Press: http://artistically-inclined.blogspot.com
Will: In addition to the joint blog, I
have my own at http://willbelegon.blogspot.com
, and I also have a Yahoo! group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/willbelegon
. I have a MySpace account, but to be honest, I rarely pay much
attention to it. The Blogspot and Yahoo! group get much more of
my time.
Do you prefer for your fans to mail or email you?
Will: I'm an admitted feedback slut. It
was my desire to learn more about what I was reading that did
much to fuel my first attempts at writing, kind of like the kid
that picks up a guitar to play along with the radio and then
becomes a rock star. So please, if anybody out there has any
comments or questions I would love to hear from you. The easiest
way to reach me is by signing up for my group or emailing me at willbelegon@yahoo.com
Alessia: I absolutely love hearing from
readers (and other authors and, most especially, publishers
wanting to buy my work). I can't bring myself to use the word
"fan," though. I definitely prefer e-mail, and my
address is Alessia@EroticAnthology.com
Other than being a writer, did you ever picture yourself doing
anything else?
Alessia: Actually, it's being a writer
that I never pictured. And a poet? Pffft! (That's a VERY recent
fetish.) I still wanna be an architect when I grow up.
Will: That's one place Alessia and I
differ. I've considered myself a poet, if a poor one, for over
twenty years. As far as other things, my overactive imagination
has created daydreams of being everything from character actor
to musician to professional athlete.
If you had time off to do whatever you like, what would you do?
Alessia: Research, of course. *grin* An
author can never do enough research. I know, I know! It's an
incredible sacrifice to travel to exotic locations, to field
test all those toys and positions and scenarios-but, hey,
someone's gotta do it. Anything for my art…
Will: I'd become a professional
student. History, art, science. Everything except math. I've
balanced enough checkbooks to last a lifetime. The travel thing
appeals to me, too. I'd love to walk the streets of London or
Paris or Rome and just think about all the people that have done
it before me.
Is there a favorite author you haven't met that you'd like to?
Alessia: There are a whole bunch of 'em
- many as yet unpublished. You can find 'em all on the
Literotica Author's Hangout (forum) - which is where I got my
start writing erotica and poetry & where I met Will. Oh, and
add Gwen Masters to that list. She's a dynamite writer and one
helluva supportive colleague.
Will: Gwen is on my list, too. She
first took me under her wing two years ago, but every time we
have thought we were going to be able to finally meet for that
fabled cup of coffee, something has gone wrong. After the
incredible camaraderie I've experienced in meeting some of the
Author's Hangout writers, I would always jump at a chance to
meet more of that fantastic group. One man I have met briefly
that I would like to have more time with is fantasy author
George R.R. Martin. His bravery in letting a story take him
where it will is amazing.
Many
thanks to Will and Alessia for speaking with Buddy!
