Tanya Chris's Blog, page 5

Coming Soon: Impossibly Fond

Impossibly Fond is now available for pre-order. It will be released on September 22nd. $2.99 to buy or eligible for KU.

When a hostile leprechaun forces an inept wizard to flub the spell he’s casting on a mini-giant, the result can only be… fondness? Waltham has accidentally spelled Ian into liking him, and now his hostage/windfall, aka Mindy, insists he fix it before she’ll turn over the pot of gold she rightfully owes him.

Waltham’s figure is as stringy as his hair and his words are as sharp as his nose. He’s a selfish, greedy fledgling wizard with a ratty hat and a worse attitude. There’s no way someone as handsome and kindhearted as Ian would like him without magic in play. But as the three reluctant companions set out on a quest to assemble the ingredients for an anti-spell, a different kind of magic happens. Ian’s unflagging belief that Waltham is worthy of love makes Waltham begin to wish it were true.

There are grasshopper gonads to be collected, moonbeam crystals to be harvested, kitten tears to be wrung, and somewhere, at the end of the rainbow, a pot of gold to be collected. But if Waltham can overcome his upbringing and mend his ways, then maybe—once the spell has been lifted—something real will remain.

A Tale of Two Tails

In Impossibly Fond, Waltham accidentally acquires a cat, which I think is the best way to acquire one—by accident. My partner and I have had two cats, both given to us by Providence.

The first story is sad but touching. My friend Lisa got leukemia as a result of treatment for breast cancer. She had to have a bone marrow transplant, which meant being in the hospital for a solid month. Everyone in her family was either allergic to cats or already had too many, so I agreed to watch Fred for her, and my partner graciously didn’t kick up a fuss about the fact that I’d offered without discussing it with him first.

Fred had never met a human he didn’t love. Within a minute of someone walking in the door, he’d be sitting on their lap demanding pats. We used to joke he’d be a good guard kitty because he would keep any potential burglars trapped until we got home. He wasn’t much trouble to have around, which was a good thing because it turned out that even after Lisa was released from the hospital, she wasn’t allowed to have a cat for a full year.

By the time that year was nearly up—I think she made it to the ten month mark—we were pretty attached to Fred and not looking forward to giving him back, though we could tell he missed Lisa. Sometimes he’d walk around the house meowing into empty rooms, which we were sure was him looking for her. And we knew how much she missed him, so we were resigned to returning him. Then she got lymphoma, which is a form of cancer that preys on people whose immune systems are compromised, and died really quickly and unexpectedly.

Lisa’s parents wrote to say how glad they were Fred had a home, and suddenly we owned a cat instead of just renting one. Not having to let go of Fred was the silver lining to the dark cloud that was the loss of my friend. We enjoyed five years of him butting his head up against our hands demanding to be petted before he too died of lymphoma. This time the silver lining was that we could imagine Lisa and Fred reunited in Heaven being very glad to see each other.

People started asking us almost immediately if we were going to get another cat, and we felt like the answers was yes. But not yet. Fred had been unplanned and very much Fred. He couldn’t be replaced, and we didn’t know how to do it—how to be sure we would love our next cat as much as we’d loved him.

Then one day someone retweeeted a tweet onto my timeline from a stranger who had been taking care of a cat living in his backyard for years. He couldn’t bring it into his own home because he had other cats who didn’t get along with it, but he was hoping to find an indoor home for it. He lived seven hours away, and it was the end of October. I wasn’t sure about driving seven hours each way to pick up a cat when there were obviously plenty of cats looking for homes much closer by, and I certainly couldn’t waste a whole day on cat pickup in November. November meant Nano. So I bookmarked the tweet and promised myself I’d revisit the idea in December.

Well, December eventually came—Nano does end every year, even when it feels like it won’t—and I somehow remembered that bookmarked tweet. The cat was still unadopted and the guy trying to find it a home agreed to meet me halfway, and that’s how Sammy came to live with us. He’s very different from Fred, but there’s no question Providence sent us another winner. He loves living here, and we love having him. Even as I type this, he’s curled up near me, getting one of his twenty hours of sleep for the day.

Waltham’s acquisition of a cat in Impossibly Fond is likewise unplanned but comes out just as good in the end. Maybe all cat adoptions come out good in the end. We do love our furry little friends, don’t we?

Giveaway: The List

Blaine has lousy luck with men, which is why henceforth all prospects will be vetted against The List. He’s on a mission to find the man who meets every criteria on it, and his best friend and roommate, Denny, is there to cheer him on, to guide and protect him on his important journey. But where is his true love? If only Blaine could see what’s right in front of his eyes.

Grab it free at this link until September 28th : The List

New giveaway: The List

I’m part of a Friends-to-Lovers ProlificWorks giveaway with a brand new story. Grab it at this link: This List and then check out all the stories at this link: M/M Friends to Lovers Giveaway

Blaine has lousy luck with men, which is why henceforth all prospects will be vetted against The List. He’s on a mission to find the man who meets every criteria on it, and his best friend and roommate, Denny, is there to cheer him on, to guide and protect him on his important journey. But where is his true love? If only Blaine could see what’s right in front of his eyes.

Road Trip Playlist

Here’s a playlist to accompany Braxton and Craig on their cross-country journey, compiled with help from my friends on FB. I was too old to know some of the songs they recommended, so these are mostly classics.

Take It Easy by The Eagles – I didn’t become an Eagles fan until their reunion tour. There was a VH1 special and I fell in love, got the reunion album, and learned all their songs. This is both a favorite and a great one to start our journey.

Life Is A Highway by Tom Cochrane – There’s definitely some all-night-long riding going on in this book, if you get my drift

I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers – This was a great rec. It’s so reflective of Craig’s attitude at the end of the book.

Get Out the Map by The Indigo Girls – I’m so unhip my mother had to introduce me to The Indigo Girls, but this song about loving hard while you’re young and laying your finger down anywhere on the map seems like a suitable one for Craig and Braxton.

Walk On The Ocean by Todd The Wet Sprocket – I’ll bet Braxton wishes he could walk on the ocean after that dunking he takes in the river.

Sissy That Walk by RuPaul – While neither Braxton or Craig would identify as femme, I think they’d love this anthem that can apply to any of us. We’ve gotta go out there and be who we are, regardless of what anyone else thinks of it.

Runnin’ Down a Dream by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – There’s a scene in #20DaysToLA where Craig is singing along to the playlist he’s putting together where I totally imagine him channeling Tom Petty. If you’re going to sing badly, he’s the guy to do it with.

Turn the Page by Bob Seger – One of the more melancholy suggestions but I’ve always gotten an LGBTQ vibe off this song from the parts where he talks about people looking at him and making comments. He’s being othered for the length of his hair, I guess, but when Craig and Braxton roll up to the clothing-optional spa, they get the sense they’re being othered for their sexuality.

Livin’ On a Prayer by Bon Jovi – When Braxton and Craig are halfway across the country, they’re still nowhere – both in terms of getting to LA and in terms of their relationship. It’s a good reminder that we can’t quit before the miracle happens, as we say in recovery.

America by Simon and Garfunkel – This is one of Simon & Garfunkel’s more obscure hits but I can’t think of a more suitable one. On a long road trip, the beautiful is interspersed with the mundane, and the high moments are separated by plenty of tedious ones. I tried to capture a bit of both the highs and the lows in this book, so ride along with Braxton and Craig in #20DaysToLA. Now you know what to play as they go.

Now Available: #20DaysToLA

#20DaysToLA is a fun, low-angst road trip book. On sale now for $2.99 and eligible for KU.

Braxton has a plan. To fly out to LA where he has an apartment and a coveted entry level job waiting for him. To build a life filled with the security and stability he never had as a kid. To find a husband who’s a lot like him: steady, smart, responsible, and capable of making good choices. To leave Connecticut and everything in it behind him, including his mother, her revolving door of suitors, and his straight ex-stepbrother.

Craig has a plan. To convince Braxton to drive out to LA with him. To see every last sight along the way, no matter how weird or expensive or out of the way. To have one last hurrah before embarking on the adult life he’s in no way ready for. And maybe to act on the bisexuality he’s kept to himself so far.

Whose plan wins? Is twenty days enough to make it from Connecticut to LA and from ex-stepbrothers to friends to happily-ever-after? Will Braxton’s stuffed bear, Mr. Lovey, find a real-life bear friend? Find out in this slow burn, friends to lovers, opposites attract, bi awakening, road trip romance in which there’s ONLY ONE BED.

New free story: Horndog Says Woof

After Kyle and Roland meet at the dog park, wine on the deck and an upstairs romp might lead to something more. But only if Roland and Snowball can change their horndog ways.

Horndog Says Woof is an M/M contemporary story free on my site or download with the password that comes in my newsletter.

Recommended Road Trips

In #20DaysToLA, Braxton and Craig visit some places I’ve never been, but I’ve been to a few they didn’t get to. Here are some of my favorite outdoor destinations that didn’t make it into the book. Note that all these locations are currently affected by COVID-19 closures, so check before you go.

Joshua Tree National Park
Me and some friends on my first trip to J-Tree

Joshua Tree National Park is a surreal place, with Joshua trees, weird rock formations, and more climbers per square mile than any other national park. No surprise it was frequently used as a filming location by the original Star Trek. It feels alien.

In Aiming High, Flynn reminisces about his first climbing trip there.

One of his friends made a vegetarian Thanksgiving feast over a two-burner gas stove, and they ate by headlamp, a fire crackling in front of them and the sky overhead teeming with stars—more stars than Flynn had known existed, as though he’d landed on an entirely different planet.

Someone handed him a beer, and he had a few swallows. Then someone passed him a joint, and he took a few hits off that too, until the buzz and the stars and the laughter got to be too much. He wandered away from the fire, turning off his headlamp to let the moon guide him until he reached an outcrop of rock, full of shadowed nooks and crevices, just begging to be explored. He laid himself out on the ground below it, stared up at that star-filled sky, and knew he was home.

This was very much my experience (write what you know FTW!). J-Tree, as climbers call it, was also one of my first outdoor climbing trips and it occurred over Thanksgiving break. One of my friends made us a vegetarian feast, and after dinner I wandered away from the campfire to take a moment of private connection, just like Flynn. But you don’t have to be a rock climber to appreciate this beautiful desert landscape.

Yellowstone National Park
Not snow. This is what they call a bacteria mat.

In #20DaysToLA, Braxton and Craig try to convince some bison along the side of the road in North Dakota to come closer—without success.

If you want to see bison, Yellowstone National Park is the place to do it. In fact, you’ll see so many bison, aka buffaloes, you might get tired of them. They have a tendency to walk right in the middle of the road, further slowing traffic that’s already hideously congested. Still, they really are magnificent (and big). Just don’t get out of the car to try to touch one. People die that way.

The other thing they have a lot of in Yellowstone is bacteria mats, which is the technical term for a big, stinky, weirdly colored field of mud. There’s a lot of freaky stuff going on beneath the surface of Yellowstone, and it bubbles out of these mats as well as spurting out of the geysers the park is best known for. You have to have some patience to see a geyser. Old Faithful can be counted on to erupt on schedule, but most of them are a gamble—hang out and hope. It makes the occasional payoff all the more rewarding.

Yosemite

Yosemite vs. Yellowstone. Even I get the names confused. Yellowstone is in Wyoming, and there’s no climbing there. Yosemite is in California and is home to some of the most magnificent rock on earth, including the famous El Capitan which was recently featured in the documentary The Dawn Wall and which Flynn and Spencer are on at the end of Aiming High.

Me (3 yo) and my brother at Yosemite

There are two questions people commonly ask me when they find out I’m a rock climber:

1) Have you ever fallen? The answer to that is yes. Climbers fall all the time. That’s why we have ropes.

2) Have you ever climbed El Cap? The answer to that is also yes. Sort of. El Cap is huge, and there are many, many ways to get to the top. There are also climbs you can do that only go partway up. I’ve done one of those climbs. So it would be more correct to say that I’ve climbed on El Cap.

If you’re hoping for a bear encounter—like Braxton sort of is and sort of isn’t in #20DaysToLA—you can’t do better than Tuolumne Meadows, the higher altitude section of the park. Pitch your tent there, and you’ll be surrounded by them, but don’t worry—they only want your Doritos.

Antelope Canyon
Looking up from the bottom of Antelope Canyon

You’ve seen pictures of this slot canyon, though you may not know it by name. Antelope Canyon is a narrow, winding hallway of stone, several stories high. You climb down ladders into the bottom of it and walk on sand that could’ve come from a beach in the Bahamas while the light turns the rock above you red and orange and purple.

If you’re doing the southwest canyon tour, schedule a trip to Antelope Canyon. It’s between Bryce and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, not far out of the way at all, but you do need to schedule your visit, because you can only explore Antelope Canyon on a tour, and tours sell out early.

The farther ahead you plan, the better a time slot you can get so the canyon will have maximum light filtering down into it. We went at a non-optimal time, but it was still magnificent. The tours are operated by the tribe that owns the land, and we were treated to a traditional dance while we waited for ours.

Mount Rainier
Me and my partner in front of Mt. Rainier in 2015

I was born in the Seattle area and have traveled back there regularly throughout my life, which means the sight of Mount Rainier looming unexpectedly large on the horizon is a familiar one, though it never gets old. I’ve only made it to the park itself twice—once as a teenager, when I was unimpressed, and once as an adult, when I had more appreciation.

I’ve got friends who’ve climbed Mt. Rainier, which is a multi-day journey requiring mountaineering skills, but I’ve only hiked around the more accessible spots. A few hours of hiking will get you up to snow, even in the summer, and the meadows around the base are gorgeous when the wildflowers are out. FYI, if you’re ever trying to figure out how to spell Rainier, it’s spelled like rain-i-er, because it is.

In #20DaysToLA, Braxton and Craig buy a U.S. Park Pass, which gets you into any national park, monument, or conservation area for a year. When my partner and I recently made a tour of the southwest, we bought one, and it easily paid for itself (note that Antelope Canyon isn’t part of the U.S. park system, though it’s unquestionably worth the money). If you’re planning a road trip, definitely consider picking up one of these passes at the first ranger station you hit.

Drive safe!

Coming Soon: #20DaysToLA

#20DaysToLA is a fun, low-angst road trip book which will release on August 18th. On sale now for $2.99 and eligible for KU.

Braxton has a plan. To fly out to LA where he has an apartment and a coveted entry level job waiting for him. To build a life filled with the security and stability he never had as a kid. To find a husband who’s a lot like him: steady, smart, responsible, and capable of making good choices. To leave Connecticut and everything in it behind him, including his mother, her revolving door of suitors, and his straight ex-stepbrother.

Craig has a plan. To convince Braxton to drive out to LA with him. To see every last sight along the way, no matter how weird or expensive or out of the way. To have one last hurrah before embarking on the adult life he’s in no way ready for. And maybe to act on the bisexuality he’s kept to himself so far.

Whose plan wins? Is twenty days enough to make it from Connecticut to LA and from ex-stepbrothers to friends to happily-ever-after? Will Braxton’s stuffed bear, Mr. Lovey, find a real-life bear friend? Find out in this slow burn, friends to lovers, opposites attract, bi awakening, road trip romance in which there’s ONLY ONE BED.

Beyond Hockey

We M/M readers love our ice hockey, but did you know there’s a wide world of sports beyond hockey? I wrote a book about one of them! Aiming High features rock climbing, which is one of my own personal hobbies. I’ve managed to work climbing into several books, but Aiming High focuses on professional climbers competing at the Olympics.

Are you interested in sports romances that go beyond hockey? Here are a few I’ve read and liked, from the major sports to more obscure ones.

Football

The Rainbow Clause by Beth Bolden features a bisexual quarterback and a gay reporter. The quarterback and his agent have planned ahead. There’s a pre-negotiated clause in his contract for when he decides to come out, and Colin is ready to activate it, which is how he ends up talking to Nick. I enjoyed that this book wasn’t focused on fear of coming out or being outed, that it starts with Colin deciding to come out and that he already knows his team will support him, at least officially.

Soccer (the other football)

The Glasgow Lads by Avery Cockburn is a four books series set in Scotland revolving around a soccer team. The team isn’t a professional one—these guys all have day jobs—but it’s the one LGBT team in an otherwise straight league, and they take their soccer really seriously. All the books in the series are enjoyable, but I especially liked the second one that takes place during the Scottish referendum for independence. I was briefly in Scotland during that period and got to hear firsthand how various people felt about the referendum, so it was really interesting to watch it play out in Playing to Win. The soccer parts are well done throughout the series, and all the pairings are smoking hot.

Rowing

The Boys of Bellamy by Ruthie Luhnow is another series, this one about a college rowing team. My favorite of the series is about Andy and Drew—two guys with the same name. Their relationship starts with them in college but it’s secret and temporary. It picks up again when they run into each other years later. These two were fun side characters during the other books, so it was great to see them get their HEA. Throughout the series, rowing gets balanced with non-rowing, something any student athlete can relate to.

Fencing

The Master Will Appear by LA Witt is both a book about an obscure sport and a BDSM story. Since I enjoy BDSM, this was a no-brainer for me to pick up, and I wasn’t disappointed. I’m no fencing expert, but the book had the ring of authenticity, and the BDSM aspect was likewise very well done. I guess I also have a thing for Russians, so if you’re looking for a hot, confident Russian who’s a master in more than one way, you’ll want to read this book.

Water Polo

Lane Hayes has a whole series of college athlete romances, but I particularly enjoyed Out in the Deep, both because it covered a less-common sport and because the enemies-to-lovers vibe was so delicious. Make no mistake though, these enemies turn into lovers pretty quickly. Then it’s a question of who’s coming out and when. Water polo seems like a seriously violent sport! I had no idea.

Baseball

All right, there’s not a lot of baseball playing in Benched by Misha Horne, but it’s a great M/M spanking read in which an arrogant athlete gets his comeuppance, first from his coach and then from one of his teammates. And there’s a little baseball in there too, including a superhot scene with a jockstrap. The book isn’t currently for sale, but I assume it’ll come back in time, so add it to your TBR for now.

And so many more

I also enjoy reading books in which the main characters engage in a sport or fitness activity just for the fun of it. From runners to hikers to yogis to weight lifters, there are so many ways for us to stay fit and active. And there are so many books we can read about athletes, including us weekend warriors.

And then there’s hockey, which I also love reading about. So let’s hear it for diversity!