Romantic suspense author Dana Delamar explores themes of family and destiny in her Blood and Honor series of novels. As someone who was trained as a life coach, and who believes firmly that life is all about choice, it was fascinating to me to talk to Dana about the path that those in Italian mafia families must take, whether they like it or not.

Research plays a big part in Dana's books - she's been to Italy and looks forward to going back. (I hope she takes me with her!) And as she mentions, all of us authors live in fear of any kind of legal entity ever getting a hold of our browser history. Dana's will be sure to include searches about money laundering and body disposal. ;-)

You can find out more about Dana and her books on her website DanaDelamar.com. She's also on Twitter and Facebook.

Press play (above) to listen to the show, or read the transcript below. Remember you can also subscribe to the show on iTunes. And listen on Stitcher.

You can also click here to watch the interview on YouTube.

Transcript of Interview with Dana Delamar

Alexandra: Hello, mystery readers. I'm Alexandra Amor. This is It's a Mystery podcast, and I'm here today with Dana Delamar. Hi, Dana.

Dana: Hi, how are you doing Alexandra?

Alexandra: Very well, how are you?

Dana: Good.

Alexandra: Let me give our listeners a little bit of an introduction to you.

Dana Delamar is the author of "The Blood and Honor" mafia romance series which is set in Italy among the Calabrian mafia. Her first book, "Revenge", received four stars from the RT book reviews, and was a top pick at the romance reviews. And was a double finalist for best first book, and best romantic suspense in the 2013 Bookseller Best awards. Her other books in The Blood and Honor series have been multiple award nominees and winners. Dana is a voracious and an omnivorous reader everything from biographies to Booker prize winners, to mysteries, thrillers, and anything to do with vampires. She says her parents let her watch way too many hammer horror films when she was a kid.

Let's start by talking about "The Blood and Honor" series.

What drew you to writing about the mafia? I guess that's my first question.

Dana: Well, the thing was I've travelled to Italy a couple of times. And after I came back, I met a man while I was there, and a friend said to me, "Well it sounds just like a romance novel." And I thought, "Hey, why don't I just actually try to write one?"

I wrote a contemporary romance, and handed it to my sister who said, "Parts of it are really good." And so I decided to revise, and I was thinking, what if my hero is not such a good guy?

Then I thought about the mafia, and I started doing some research. And it led me to the Calabrian mafia which is also known as the Ndrangheta. And they're actually the world most powerful mafia in the world today. They control billions in assets, and they fly below the radar. They are not as well-known as say, the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia. But they are extremely powerful, and they are a definite threat.