Tanya Chris's Blog, page 6

Happy Birthday to Better Off

Better Off has had three titles, and it’s only a year old. The working title was Shameless, because the book was inspired by a Billy Joel song by that name (though I prefer the Garth Brooks cover). I’m not allowed to quote song lyrics, but basically it’s a song about a proud man being so in love with someone he’ll do anything to keep them.

I love the idea of being that hopelessly smitten, so I wanted to write a book about it. Mac, like the guy singing Shameless, is a strong man who’s never felt powerless before, but he’s powerless in the face of how much he wants Hailey, willing to change fundamental aspects of his philosophy, his personality, and his way of living in order to have what he now knows he wants most.

Some people dismiss it as instalove. Others see it as Hailey being abusive, despite Hailey never asking Mac to change in any way other than to educate himself a little. But can’t we ever have that kind of passion? Can’t someone inspire us to be better just for their sake? I think so.

Back to the title.

Shameless might’ve been my inspiration, but it wasn’t a great title for the book. My editor asked me to come up with another one, which was agonizing. Usually, my books are born with titles. I had no idea how to retrofit one. I brainstormed keywords, my friends threw out suggestions, I asked everyone I could think of, and someone came up with the idea of Him Improvement— a pun that ties into the revitalization theme central to the book. Regardless of who first suggested Him Improvement (it might’ve been me), it was a universally popular choice. Everyone loved it. Except me.

I’d finally come up with the right title, which was Better Off. Better Off works on a few levels. Mac being better off financially is a huge part of the story, and Mac is trying to improve Ball’s End, to make it better off. The kicker is that it’s Mac who ends up being better off.

But everyone preferred Him Improvement, including my editor. Since this was my first trad-published book, I decided to go with expert opinion. Catchy is better than accurate. Marketable is better than meaningful. But one of the benefits of being indie is I can do whatever the fuck I want, even if I lose money over it, which is why when I got the rights back to Him Improvement, I put it through one more name change. I like being indie. I might not be raking in the big bucks, but my books and I are better off.

Now available: Aiming High

Aiming High is now available for $2.99 and on Kindle Unlimited. Release date: July 14th.

What they want most may be the one thing out of their reach.

Canadian rock climber Spencer Woolery has been training for the Olympics since before climbing was an Olympic sport. Dedication, determination, and strict adherence to a rigorous training regimen have gotten him to the summer games, but are they enough to elevate him to the podium? He’ll do whatever it takes to give himself the best shot, unlike American Flynn Loren, a.k.a. Flyin’ Flynn, who seems to succeed without making any effort at all.

Flynn loves climbing, but he hates being a professional climber. He’d rather be climbing real rock—outside in the sun having fun with his friends—than stuck indoors sweating over times and points and strategies. And he’d rather win Spencer’s heart than a medal, but that prize continues to elude him.

Against the backdrop of Olympic Village in Tokyo, Flynn and Spencer compete against each other and eighteen other men to see who’ll take home a medal and who’ll win something even greater than gold.

Note: this book takes place in an alternative universe where the Tokyo Olympics happened in the summer of 2020 as planned.

Add to your Goodreads TBR

New free story: Tribute, a Dalin & Thoros epilogue

Tribute, a Dalin and Thoros (from Trained) epilogue is now available free to read on my site.

It’s Princess Atalanta’s birthday, and Thoros makes Dalin into the perfect gift by sewing him into predicament bondage using corset piercings. But he didn’t intend to actually give Dalin to Atalanta.

Stay Human, My Friends

Maybe 15 years ago, a climber died—murdered by his girlfriend with an ice ax—and I made a joke about it in an online climbing forum. “I wonder what he did to deserve it,” I wrote, because ha ha men suck sometimes. A friend of mine politely called me out on it, said he expected better from me and pointed out that the victim’s friends and family might be reading my joke.

I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t take his admonishment to heart. Instead, I doubled down by quoting lyrics from the musical Chicago (“He had it coming”). My friend stopped speaking to me, and I resented him for it. I thought he was being a priss who couldn’t take a joke. It took another five years, the loss of my friend nagging at me all the while, his judgement bouncing around in my head, before I matured enough to understand how wrong I’d been.

Leaving aside the dubious humor of that song from Chicago, or the whole thoroughly incorrect idea that it’s less tragic when men are killed by their partners than women, my friend’s point about my joke being seen by the victim’s loved ones was extremely relevant. The climbing forum was a public place, and climbing is a small pond. The possibility wasn’t hypothetical. Almost certainly, people who knew the victim read my joke suggesting he deserved to be murdered.

When I finally recognized how wrong I was, I reached out to my friend and apologized, acknowledging that he’d been right to call me out. As a result, we were able to become friends again.

Yesterday, my cousin died in a hit and run accident that has become political. Social media is full of people making jokes and comments about them, even going so far as to say “good” to news of their death, definitely saying they deserved to die and not even as a joke. My inappropriate behavior fifteen years ago has become commonplace since then. If a person is on “the other side” then they’re fair game for any kind of awful remark. It’s okay to call a woman fat or ugly or old. It’s okay to laugh at someone for needing a ramp or being incontinent. It’s okay even to say “good” when told of their death.

I’m grateful I repented of my bad behavior before this became personal to me, that I can say I know better not just because I’m on the other end of it now, that I restored my humanity ten years ago when I owned up to and apologized for my awful, harmful joke. And I want to urge all of you to wake up to this truth too. If you wouldn’t say it to someone’s relatives at their funeral, then don’t say it online. Because you are saying it to their relatives. They read it. They see it. And if you wouldn’t make fun of a friend for one of their physical characteristics, then don’t make fun of strangers for those same characteristics online. Because you are making fun of your friends. They read it. They see it.

Now, I’m not preaching to “the other side,” because they don’t give a fuck what I think. And I’m not preaching to Russian bots or trolls who get their kicks out of causing emotional pain. I’m preaching to you, my friends, the people who might listen to me. Because our side does it too. And when we do, we hurt ourselves more than our supposed enemies, because this kind of behavior erodes our humanity.

Other people are human beings, even the people doing things I really, really don’t like. When I treat them as if they’re not human beings, the one who becomes less human is me. I’m not saying principles can’t be debated or that public figures with shameful pasts can’t have those pasts called out, but before you say something online, consider whether you’d say it to your target’s grieving grandparents. Before you insult someone, consider which of your friends and family are included in your insult.

I can’t erase the pain I caused to that murdered climber’s loved ones fifteen years ago. I can only try to make amends by stopping others before they do something similar. Stay human, my friends.

 

Coming Soon: Aiming High

Aiming High is now available for pre-order at $2.99. Will be eligible for Kindle Unlimited. Release date: July 14th.

What they want most may be the one thing out of their reach.

Canadian rock climber Spencer Woolery has been training for the Olympics since before climbing was an Olympic sport. Dedication, determination, and strict adherence to a rigorous training regimen have gotten him to the summer games, but are they enough to elevate him to the podium? He’ll do whatever it takes to give himself the best shot, unlike American Flynn Loren, a.k.a. Flyin’ Flynn, who seems to succeed without making any effort at all.

Flynn loves climbing, but he hates being a professional climber. He’d rather be climbing real rock—outside in the sun having fun with his friends—than stuck indoors sweating over times and points and strategies. And he’d rather win Spencer’s heart than a medal, but that prize continues to elude him.

Against the backdrop of Olympic Village in Tokyo, Flynn and Spencer compete against each other and eighteen other men to see who’ll take home a medal and who’ll win something even greater than gold.

Note: this book takes place in an alternative universe where the Tokyo Olympics happened in the summer of 2020 as planned.

Add to your Goodreads TBR

Happy Birthday to Aftermath

When I started writing Aftercare, it was only supposed to be a standalone. Syed was on trial for murdering his submissive boyfriend while his brother and his defense attorney fell in love and worked out their own power exchange relationship. When Aftercare ended with Syed’s acquittal and Aayan and Garrett’s engagement, I figured we were done. Happy ever after achieved!

But readers asked for more. They were glad to see Syed acquitted, but they also wanted to see justice served. If Syed didn’t murder Jamie, then who did? And yeah, I’d dropped a hint in book 1 about Syed and Dashiell. Dashiell had the hots for Syed, and with some time for Syed to heal, sparks might fly.

I’m what they call a pantser, meaning I don’t know what’s going to happen until I write it, so I started book 2 without intending to do anything except solve Jamie’s murder and give Syed and Dashiell the happy ending they deserved. Two books would be enough. The Denir brothers would both be settled, and since there wasn’t a third Denir brother, I’d be done. No book 3.

By the time I’d finished writing Aftershock, I knew I had a book 3 in me. But would readers want to see Casey, who was one of—though by no means the worst—villains redeemed? Apparently yes. Feedback poured in, and it all said the same thing. Readers wanted a third book, and they wanted it to be about Casey.

I try to avoid writing traumatic stories about being gay. Since I’m not gay myself, they’re not my stories to tell. Instead I write stories in which the world is just a little bit better than it actually is, where gay men are more likely to find acceptance and love than rejection and hate, where the characters are comfortable in their own skins, at least as far as their sexuality is concerned.

So writing Casey was new territory for me. His internalized homophobia drives his character, and his externalized homophobia has had serious results that can’t be shrugged away. I knew some readers wouldn’t be able to stomach him, which was why I gave a strong content warning. His level of internalized homophobia could be triggering or might be a subject a gay person doesn’t want to read about from a straight author, which is fair and every person’s right to decide for themselves.

But I’ve got to say that I’m proud of the work. I felt so strongly for Casey as I was writing him. I’ve never been as glad to give someone a happy ending—a happy ending I believe he deserves, despite his past mistakes. He’s been deeply, deeply wounded, and in Aftermath, he gets beautifully healed.

And after three books, the series was definitely done. Unless…

Now available: Hooked by the Bell

Hooked by the Bell, a enemies-to-lovers romcom short story featuring a serious case of mistaken identity, is now available for only 99¢ or read with Kindle Unlimited.

The Feldings and Le Croixs have been neighbors for three generations and enemies for just as long. Now it’s Matt and Harper’s turn to carry on the family feud through a series of escalating pranks that’s sure to get one of them arrested or killed.

When a costume party hookup reveals they might like each other as much as they hate each other, will Matt and Harper continue to fight, or will a case of mistaken identity turn out not to be a mistake at all? Find out in this friends-to-enemies-to-lovers romcom about two men who are ready to go down fighting.

This novellette was previously published in the anthology Fighting Chances.

Now available: Better Off

Better Off is a reprint of Him Improvement with a new cover and title, so if you’ve already read about Mac and Hailey, there’s nothing new here. But if you were waiting for it to be in KU, here it is. It’s also for sale at $2.99 instead of $5.99 or whatever Dreamspinner had it priced at.

Only one thing stands in the way of millionaire Gregory MacPherson’s project to revitalize the gritty neighborhood of Ball’s End: a run-down used bookstore. Since none of Mac’s employees seem to be able to get Hailey’s Comic out of the building Mac needs to tear down, he decides to take matters into his own hands. He expects to have it all under control, just like he has everything under control. What he doesn’t expect is to fall hard and fast for the store’s owner—the colorful, willowy, and unexpectedly male, Hailey.

Hailey refuses to give up his lease, no matter how many incentives Mac dangles in front of him, but when it comes to consummating their mutual attraction, he’s a lot more flexible. Soon Mac is finding it as hard to pry himself out of Hailey’s bed as it is to pry Hailey out of the building. With time winding down and no other options, he does the unthinkable.

Mac is trying to improve Ball’s End. Hailey thinks it’s Mac who could stand to be improved. But with a few compromises, they might all end up Better Off.

New free story: Detour, a Will & Adam epilogue

Detour, a Will and Adam epilogue about social distancing, is now available free to read on my site.

Maybe it’s instalove, maybe it’s NRE

One of the criticisms often thrown at the Romance genre is that it portrays “instalove.” In other words, the characters fall in love too fast, too easily. Instalove can be a whole plot—see fated mates. It can be a writing mistake—a lack of tension or internal stakes. But it can also be an unjust accusation. Sometimes critics cry instalove when what they really mean is instalust or NRE.

NRE stands for New Relationship Energy, and it describes that head-over-heels, you’re-the-most-important-thing-in-the-world feeling that I imagine many of us are familiar with. NRE doesn’t have the depth and commitment of love. In some ways, it’s the antithesis of love. If a couple is going to last, they need to make the transition from NRE, where spending every minute cooing and billing seems like a reasonable option, to a more mundane, everyday existence. But in other ways, it’s what we imagine love to be—all-consuming, all-important, and certain.

I was introduced to the term NRE by the poly community. For monogamous couples, NRE plays an important biological role in bonding. We’re too besotted with our new partner to notice their flaws until we’re good and stuck with them. But in open poly arrangements, NRE can be a mine field—relegating existing relationships to the back burner while the sparks fly high in the new one. By the time NRE has died out in the new relationship, the previous relationship may have died from neglect. Which is why NRE is a topic openly discussed in the poly community. Someone entering into a new relationship has to be careful not to starve out their old one, and their existing partners need to have patience, realizing the NRE is temporary.

But poly or not, NRE is common, and so is instalust. Some people are demisexual or asexual, but allosexuals often have an immediate interest in getting naked with an attractive person of the right gender, whether acted on or only fantasized about. Instalust isn’t a plot hole, nor is it unlikely that instalust could lead to a period of NRE. And although fated mates aren’t a real thing, they’re a valid plot device in an omegaverse world. Authors still have to keep some kind of tension in the relationship, whether through external factors trying to pull the couple apart or internal factors that seem likely to doom the relationship before it can transition to a real HEA, but none of that is instalove.

I try to show NRE becoming something more solid in my books—how the characters go from sexual attraction to obsession to a committed relationship built on trust and shared goals—but I don’t write a lot of slow burn. For the most part, my guys jump into bed with each other pretty darn fast. Maybe because I always did that myself! I’m hugely susceptible to NRE, and there are definitely a few times I got burned by it.

How about you? Where do you fall on the instalove/NRE scale, and what do you like to see in a story?