Birthday Bash Day 18 - Belinda McBride

I’m a huge sci-fi, space opera fan, so when I was first introduced to An Uncommon Whore, I fell in love with Belinda’s world. AUW is still one of my all time top 10, and I’m begging (nagging) Belinda for a fourth book set in this universe. Anyways, I fell in love with her stories, and I know you will too, so please help me welcome Belinda McBride!




The Most Memorable Birthday

To be honest, I’ve had a lot of birthdays, most not so memorable, some were just outstanding. Years ago, I made a pact with myself. That year, everyone pretty much forgot my big day. My kids, my mother…they all forgot. I went to the grocery store and bought myself a cake. That year, I promised myself that even if everyone forgot, my birthday would always be special.

Over the years, I’ve made sure to do something fun or special when that day came around. One year my dog Logan qualified for Westminster Kennel Club’s big show, so though it was early, I celebrated my birthday in Manhattan with my dog. Other years I went to conventions, one in New Orleans, another in Colonial Williamsburg. And one year I went to Alaska and was a volunteer handler for a dog team at the Iditarod.

The most memorable birthday was also dog related, and it set the bar for the years to come. In 1996, I had a litter of Siberian Husky puppies. In fact, it was the first litter I ever bred, and produced Logan, who was a dog of my heart. When the puppies were tiny, I was contacted by a trainer from a company called Birds, Animals Unlimited. They were looking for a Siberian Husky pup to play a small role in a movie called “The Adventures of Mowgli and Baloo.” So when the pups were about 10 weeks old, a trainer showed up and evaluated them, and then contracted Keema and Rose.

In March, the trainer picked them up and transported them to his home in Southern California, and then I traveled down for the actual shoot. We spent two days on location; an old movie lot up in the mountains. I remember laughing at the young star of the movie. His name was Brandon Baker, and every time I saw him, he was surrounded by a massive entourage. He had a parent, a tutor, make-up people, costuming people, an assistant…they all scooted around in golf carts.

Then I realize that my puppies had a similar entourage. They had a trainer, a vet, the owner of the animal company, a humane society representative and me…the breeder. And their feet never touched the ground. Everywhere they went, the puppies walked on drop cloths covered with sanitized dirt.

Our shoot was pretty typical. We had call at seven in the morning, then sat and waited all day till the director was ready for our shot. In the meantime, I was fairly free to explore the set, which was teeming with animals. There was a bear, wolves, wolf hybrids, chimps and a tiger. As they moved animals from place to place, everyone on the set had to stop what they were doing and remain very still so the tiger didn’t fixate on anyone. I was impressed by the fact that no one ever forgot these were wild animals that must be respected. I was even more impressed by the extreme care taken of my puppies, and of all the animals they were filming.

When the animal trainers found out it was my birthday, they took me to lunch at a nice little Italian place, then we went shopping. In all, it was such a fun weekend! I got to see behind the scenes of a film that was heavily dependent on animals and their trainers.  It was just a little movie and went straight to video, but gave me a pretty good idea of how the industry works. Since that time, I’ve helped located dogs for a couple more commercials and films, but this was the only project where I was able to be on set and still is such a fun memory! One of the best birthdays ever!

Author Bio:

Belinda is an award-winning, top selling author of erotic romance, speculative fiction and LGBTQ romance. She lives in far Northern California with her family and a pack of Siberian Huskies. 

A graduate of CSU Chico, she managed to attend the notorious party school without once getting drunk, arrested or appearing in a "Girls Gone Wild" video. Her main focus of study was classical and archival history, cultural anthropology and

theatre arts.

After several years in the workforce. Belinda purchased a laptop computer and from there, knew that her childhood dream of being an author would come to life. 

Belinda's books are available at all the typical distributors as well as on the publisher's homepages.

Website     |     Blog