AMA - You Ask, Bethany Answers!

Hey, loves!

We’re back for another AMA where you ask me questions, and I do my very best to answer them.

If you have a question for me, please drop it in HERE.

Onto the q’s for the week:

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1. Now that Lucia and Renzo is completed just wondering what is the Marcellos connection with The League or is it just Lucian?

I thought it was made pretty clear that The League caters to the criminal world by training assassins and auctioning them off to people who have deep enough pockets and the means to use them?

If not, it’s in Contempt, so you can read that info again. She’s all there.

The Marcellos are the strongest, biggest, and most powerful criminal family in North America in my world where they exist – been consistently steady on that throughout the entire world. So yeah, of course they would know about these auctions, and have a personal invitation to attend, should they have a need for an assassin.

Besides that, you’ll find out more of Lucian’s connection to The League in Corrado.

2. Can we see more of Haven/Andino's or John/Siena's married life with their kids?

Sounds like outtakes, and I have a form for that. *winks*

3. Hi will you be coming out Maya and Kolya story?

Hi there.

My two books for that series are written. The series will publish when the other books written by someone else are also finished.

4. I saw you taking a lot of dibs at authors who don't do their research very well. And i'm with you on that. I mean of course it's fiction, so each one has their own world in their head. But in your books, the mafia you write is pretty much fantasy also. First of all, all of them are always so considerate and with so much philosophy in their head. And secondly, in mafia they don't marry outsiders. Ever. Especially in Cosa Nostra. And as an italian i'm telling you that saying La Familia is just as correct as saying La Famiglia. And let's talk about the russian guns series. I live in new york. Trust me they are nothing like you made them to be. Just for the record they run prostitution. So why do you are always so offensive towards authors who create their own mafia when you do the same? I'm not saying it's a bad thing that you do but why do you accuse others of doing it?
Isabella, New York

(I posted this response on my FB a month ago, but since it was intended for the AMA, it is still included just in case any one missed it, because I am in fact, that petty to post it again)

LOL, hi, “Isabella” from New York.

I wouldn’t usually respond to this kind of thing because what’s the point? Chances are you’re just some reader from another author who saw a comment I made on twitter or facebook, got mad, shared it with a superfan, and here you are in my AMA form with your attitude. As though it makes a difference to my life, sales, writing, or fans. I assure you it doesn’t, and if anything, my readers enjoy when I respond to these kinds of things because they absolutely know what is about to come your way.

But I’m feeling in a mood today, so we’ll play.

First, just because. I’m aware what I write is fantasy – I don’t need you telling me what I write. It comes out of my head, not yours. Otherwise, you’d have better things to do than be in my AMA form with your attitude, right?

Second – la familia is Spanish. La famiglia is Italian. They’re not the same, they cannot be used interchangeably even if they mean the same thing, because one is SPANISH, and one is ITALIAN, and when you write Italians, you’re not writing people who speak Spanish. Please have a seat.

Third – not sure when my people aren’t considerate or philosophical. Did you just need to use big words in your remarks to me so that it detracted from the fact you didn’t capitalize “New York” the first time around or “Italian” for that matter? See, now I'm getting a little petty, so let me rein it in.

Fourth – they do marry outsiders. In fact, in the 80s and early 90s, it was common for men to marry good Catholic girls with no connections to the mob from their families because they wouldn’t “know” or have any idea about them. But please, tell me about the research you haven’t done – I have all the time in the world today.

Fifth – I have never said they don’t run prostitution, and have show cased different forms of human trafficking in my books. What is your point, and why are you even here with this right now?

Now, I’ve made comments ‘cause yeah, it’s fucking annoying to see an author can’t even use Italian when they’re writing Italians. Instead, they’re lazy and use Spanish as though it’s interchangeable, and we all know, or those who actually know the difference … are aware it’s not the same. All your comments here taught me is you’re probably not even a superfan, you’re some author that got up in your feelz about me saying you shouldn’t be lazy. And if you’d like to prove me otherwise, you are more than welcome to shoot me a message because anymore of your comments in my AMA form will be quickly deleted. I have better things to do than respond to butthurt authors who don’t like to be told they’re too lazy to research or respect the culture they’re writing.

And now I’ve got fuck all else to say to you, so please feel free to fuck right off into your fucking hole somewhere, unless you’d like to come have a real conversation with me. Find me on Facebook – don't worry, I will post this on my Facebook as well as my blog when it comes time for its AMA. Tweet me – I’m @bethanykris. DM me on Insta, @bethany.kris. Otherwise, I don’t got time for you. And as it is, I’ve wasted enough as it is. Hope you liked your five seconds of fame – bet this is about as big as you’ve felt in a while, huh?

To everyone else - Everyone writes mafia differently, and whatever variation of organized crime they might write. Me saying “authors, there’s a difference between familia and familiga, because one isn’t Italian” is not the same as me saying, “Do not ever read this author, they are trash.” Because I have never done that to my readers on social media, and I won’t.

I’ve never hidden the fact that Russian Guns was so far from accurate it wasn’t even funny, but what I did was fall in love with a man, and wrote the book the way I saw it. I didn’t care about researching Russians I didn’t understand like I did Cosa Nostra. You know what I didn’t do, though? Interchange Albanian for Russian words. Or disrespect the culture of Jewish Russians. Because those are two different things. And if someone doesn’t want to read Anton and Viviana because they aren’t accurate to the Bratva, you don’t have to. London Miller has a great Bratva series that is accurate as fuck, and I love it, it’s my very favorite. JM Darhower has some great Italians, and they're pretty accurate. Guess who also doesn't use Spanish for her Italian? Oh, and JL Lora, love her cartel run by women, read it.

I don’t hide the fact I don’t read a lot of mafia romance, and the authors I do read, I love them because their research is so on point that I don’t feel like I have to get lost when reading wondering why they didn’t write it more realistic to what we know about certain groups. It’s my personal choice, the same way I don’t like to read incest romance because it’s “edgy” or whatever else. I don’t like certain stuff, neither do you. I am allowed to say what I do and do not like. Because unlike a lot of authors, I can do it without calling out specific authors by name. I know, that's hard for the ones who feed off drama like it's their nightly bottle of wine.

So, here's your daily reminder not to come for me unless you wanna have a real chat.

And hey, authors … familia and famiglia, princesa, and principessa, they’re not interchangeable for Italians. Because one IS NOT ITALIAN.

Sorry if that hurts your feelings.


Research your fucking books.