Tanya Chris's Blog, page 7

Now available: Working Stiffs, an M/M vampire romance charity anthology

I’m really excited to be part of this anthology, which features 13 stories by 13 different M/M authors about vampires falling in love at work. My own story is about a truck driver. Proceeds for Working Stiffs benefit the WHO Covid-19 Response Fund and it’s $3.99 to buy or read with KU.

Not all vampires are idly rich. Some of them have day jobs. Er, night jobs.

In a world struggling to come to grips with the existence of vampires, where reactions range from excitement to fear to determined disbelief, these vampires are just trying to make ends meet. Some of them do mundane work—like waiting tables or driving a cab. Others have more prestigious careers in medicine and crime prevention. But what all their jobs have in common is people. Unpredictable, interesting, frustrating, hostile, helpless, tasty people.

Whether they’re pouring drinks, answering phones, hacking into a computer system, or serving up the perfect food/wine pairing, these working stiffs are too busy to fall in love. Or are they?

This International Workers Day, celebrate by sinking your teeth into thirteen awesome stories about vampires at work. Because even the undead have to earn a living. Proceeds benefit the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

Men Who Suck

But only in a good way!

What do we find so fascinating about vampires? The looming danger, the fact that they can either heal or kill? To me, they’re the perfect embodiment of tall, dark, and handsome—super seductors whose bite will send you into fits of ecstasy. So yeah, that’s what I like. And here are some vampire stories I’ve particularly enjoyed.

Not Dea d Yet by Jenn Burke

This is a tiny bit spoilery if you haven’t read any of this series yet, but we’re on book three already so it’s time to get with the program. Wes is a ghost. What he doesn’t know is that his formerly human, formerly ex Hudson is no longer human and maybe no longer an ex.

This book is both love story and adventure/mystery with tons of original paranormal twists, and when you’ve finished all three of the Wes/Hudson stories, you can start hungering for the spinoff series coming in 2021.

Captive by Jex Lane

We’re talking love/hate when it comes to this book, because it killed me in both good ways and bad ones. Be warned that this doesn’t qualify as a romance in that it doesn’t meet the HEA requirement (it basically destroys the HEA requirement). But it’s a heck of a story. You’ve got vampires, incubi, the whole gamut of enthralling, mythical creatures all running around sexing each other up and then frequently killing each other after.

There’s a strong love line between Matthew, the POV character, and his captor Tarrick, which I presume will eventually result in a happy ending. I have to admit I haven’t made it through all the books yet because the ending for each one makes me want to set my Kindle on fire. But if you love angst and can wait for a payoff, this series is for you.

The T inder Chronicles by Alexa Land

Everyone knows Alexa Land for her Firsts and Forevers series, but did you know she’s written vampires? This series is vampire vs. vampire hunter, so you’ve got enemies-to-lovers as well as a whole war for domination going on.

The sex scenes are super acrobatic, and Bane is your classic vampire who’s not just strong and smoking hot but really rich, whereas Tinder is a dirt-poor, fragile human, so there are great hurt/comfort scenes here too because while Tinder is trying to kill Bane, Bane really just wants to take care of Tinder.

Also, the guy on the left on the cover is really handsome. I think he might be the same guy as on my Giving Chances cover. What do you think? I know I’ve seen him around.

Handsome Death by Sara Dobie Bauer

This book is so atmospheric. I’ll admit I usually prefer my vampires to be upright citizens—-more the Twilight kind of vampire than the Dracula kind—but this book walks a great line.

Ethan has an ugly past and a not-so-sweet present, but when it comes to Tristan, he can’t be too protective and adoring. He’s a perfect representative of that “not nice, but nice to you” personality I can’t help swooning over even as I disapprove of them.

The writing is great, and the relationship is deep and captivating. If you’re looking to wallow in a stalker-level vampire romance, this is the book for you.

Working Stiffs by various authors (including me)

And of course I’m doing vampire recs today because I’ve got a short story in the new anthology, Working Stiffs. The vampires in Working Stiffs aren’t rich for the most part. They’re everyday schmoes like you and me. But they still have superhuman strength, preternatural senses, and that special sauce in their fangs that makes them extra good in bed.

In my story, Long Haul, ancient vampire Vlad finds himself the reluctant rescuer of a human ironically named Silver. When Vlad can’t shake himself free of the annoyingly bubbly young man and his deliciously bubbly blood, the two of them ride of into the sunset in Vlad’s eighteen-wheeler.

Working Stiffs is available for a limited time only, so grab your copy today or read through KU. Proceeds benefit the WHO’s COVID-19 Response Fund.

Interview with a T-Rex

Looking for something light to lift your spirits in these trying times? How about Interview with a T-Rex, my story about a shapeshifting vampire dinosaur, a goth vampire hunter named Hunter, and a paleontologist with a T-Rex fetish.

This short freebie is sure to have you laughing out loud more than one.

New free story: Omega Resolved

If you’re caught up to the end of my Omega Reimagined series with Omega Redeemed, I’ve got one more thing for you to read. Omega Resolved is a short, free story about Angel & Leo that wraps up the series. It contains spoilers for Omega Redeemed, so save this for last!

 

Now available: Omega Redeemed

Omega Redeemed is now available. $2.99 to buy/eligible for Kindle Unlimited.

Is Quoitrel really supposed to arrest the most entrancing omega he’s ever met?

As North Leland’s sheriff, Quoitrel is responsible for upholding pack laws. Laws which were enacted to protect omegas. Laws that definitely prohibit prostitution. This Eastern Pack immigrant doesn’t seem to understand that, desirable as he might be, Quoitrel can’t allow him to open a bordello. But if Daisy needs care, protection—or sex—Quoitrel would be honored to provide him with all of it.

Daisy came to Northern Pack territory to escape exactly this kind of law enforcement—the kind that harasses and impedes sex workers. If the Northern Pack grants omegas autonomy over their own bodies, doesn’t that include the right to sell them? Daisy thinks so, and some of North Leland’s ruling class agree with him, but how to convince the sexy sheriff who thinks he knows best?

As the battle to determine which of Head Alpha Marta’s two sons will succeed her comes to a head, Quoitrel is fighting another battle. He wants to claim Daisy for his own. But the more he learns about Daisy’s chosen profession, the more he realizes this is what Daisy was meant to do. And the more he wants to watch him do it.

If you’re sex-work positive, if you enjoy hot voyeurism and consensual partner sharing, if you’ve been waiting for Prince Devin to get what’s coming to him, then this final story in the Omega Reimagined series is sure to satisfy.

Omega Redeemed is a novella in the Omega Reimagined series. It can be read as part of the series or as a standalone. This is a non-MPREG omegaverse.

Content warning: this story includes on-page sex outside of the primary relationship and has a non-monogamous resolution. If you’re looking for Pretty Woman, this ain’t it!

Coming Soon: Working Stiffs, an M/M vampire romance charity anthology

I’m really excited to be part of this anthology, which features 13 stories by 13 different M/M authors about vampires falling in love at work. My own story is about a truck driver. Proceeds for this anthology benefit the WHO Covid-19 Response Fund and it’s set to release on May 1st, which is International Workers Day. $3.99 to buy or read with KU.

Not all vampires are idly rich. Some of them have day jobs. Er, night jobs.

In a world struggling to come to grips with the existence of vampires, where reactions range from excitement to fear to determined disbelief, these vampires are just trying to make ends meet. Some of them do mundane work—like waiting tables or driving a cab. Others have more prestigious careers in medicine and crime prevention. But what all their jobs have in common is people. Unpredictable, interesting, frustrating, hostile, helpless, tasty people.

Whether they’re pouring drinks, answering phones, hacking into a computer system, or serving up the perfect food/wine pairing, these working stiffs are too busy to fall in love. Or are they?

This International Workers Day, celebrate by sinking your teeth into thirteen awesome stories about vampires at work. Because even the undead have to earn a living. Proceeds benefit the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

New free story: Seek & Ye Shall Find

Alejo can see Gilbert needs a good railing, but will his straight friend allow Alejo to employ his cock as a cure? Maybe Alejo has the answer Gil’s been looking for all this time.

Author’s Note: This story was inspired by a search phrase someone used to stumble on my site. “Friend puts his cock in his ass, tells him he needs it.” Bud, whoever you are, this one’s for you.

Seek & Ye Shall Find is free to read on my site, but newsletter subscribers receive a password they can use to download files in mobi or epub format.

Happy Birthday to Forget I Told You

I’m a dedicated pantser, meaning I make my stories up as I’m writing them, but Forget I Told You is one story where I wish I knew how to work from an outline. It started as a concept in my head—the amnesia trope plus a sense of non-stop danger and action. (By the way, my other failing as an author is writing action.)

When I started, I knew Jay had amnesia and that he and Deron had been lovers in the past, but I didn’t know why Jay had amnesia—who’d done it to him or why they’d done it. That was yet to be discovered. The first third of the book, while the plot was being set up, had exactly the tone I’d been aiming for—psychological suspense with a hint of looming danger.

But it went off the rails at some point. I plowed on, because I’ve learned there’s a point in every book where I feel like abandoning it, and after I finished my first draft, I polished up a second draft. I closed my ears to the voice telling me I hadn’t done the concept justice and turned it over to my beta readers hoping they’d assauge my fears by unanimously loving it. They didn’t. Even before I’d heard back from them all, I knew I had a problem. The book was going to need a major rewrite.

I needed to throw out the second half (except for a few salvageable sex scenes) and finish the story differently. It would’ve been great if I could’ve plotted a new ending, including figuring out all the secrets that needed to be revealed, but I was still a pantser. Outlining still didn’t work for me. So I had to pants my way through a second second half, hoping this one came out better. It definitely did, but I’m still not sure I wrote the story I originally intended to write. I feel like that concept is still out there somewhere, eluding my grasp.

Between my struggles with writing action scenes and my inability to work backwards, I’m probably never going to the greatest mystery writer, but I love reading a good suspenseful romance so I’ll keep trying. My next attempt was supposed to take place on a cruise, so I don’t think I’m going to write that one, after all. But if you enjoy my bumbled attempts at suspense (like Forget I Told You and High Lonesome), drop me a line, and I’ll come up with a new idea.

Lucky or not?

In January of 2019, I was in an auditorium on a cruise ship anchored at the tip of South America. My mother and I had an excursion planned that day—a boat ride to Magdalena Island where penguins nest in large numbers. The auditorium was filled with people waiting to board their tours. Some were taking smaller, higher-speed boats than the hundred-passenger ferry we were booked on. Others were taking our exact same excursion, just at a later time.

While we waited for our group to be called, I used some of my precious internet minutes to check my email, and there, totally unexpectedly, was the email I’d been waiting for my whole life: an offer from a traditional publisher to buy one of my books. Not just any publisher—my ideal publisher, my first choice. By then, I’d self-published plenty of other books, but trad publishing was a validation I still yearned for. I’d gotten to the point of thinking it would never happen for me, but there it was. In a state of excited shock, I daydreamed about my career spiraling upward. First one book, then another. Exposure to a whole new audience. Audio books, foreign translations, professional editing and cover design.

Suddenly, a cruise employee made an announcement: due to anticipated rough seas, the smaller boat excursions were all being canceled. In addition, excursions planned for later in the day would also be canceled because conditions were expected to deteriorate. In the end, our boat was the only one that set sail for the island. We were happy our excursion was happening as planned, because rough seas had already prevented the cruise ship from docking at the Falkland Islands, which was the other stop with penguins. And I was hoping we might see a whale or some dolphins on our way to the island too.

It was a beautiful day—warm and sunny, and the seas were calm. I suffer from motion sickness under some circumstances, so I’d taken a pill that morning, and when they’d warned us about the seas being rough, I took a second one. But the seas weren’t rough at all. I stood right up at the bow of the ship where it felt like we were flying over the water. Dolphins played with us as we went—diving under the bow, racing along the stern, doing tricks for us out in the open water. And yes, there was a whale. It only breached briefly, but I saw it.

The island was dense with penguins. We got to walk right in between them, and they didn’t mind us at all. The babies were almost big enough to leave the island, but they were still fluffy and adorable. We took hundreds of pictures of thousands of penguins. How lucky was I? I’d gotten an offer on my book, and I got to see the penguins.

We re-boarded the ferry for the trip back, but before we got underway, the captain made an announcement that ended my hopes of seeing more sea life on the way back. Everyone had to stay in the cabin. The seas had come up, and it was going to be bad.

Friends, it was bad. The waves were almost as high as the boat. As we crashed into each trough, it sounded like the boat was literally cracking apart. A cabinet came loose overhead and smashed into the table I was sitting at. No one was hurt somehow, but it was a surreal addition to the hellscape we were already living in. Someone at my table threw up. Then another. Then my mother. All over the boat, people were vomiting. The crew handed out barf bags until they ran out. Then they disappeared altogether, too sick themselves to be helpful. My mother clutched an already-used vomit bag over her mouth, throwing up into it over and over. There was nothing I could do.

The pills I’d taken worked, so I didn’t get sick, but being relatively non-naseous gave me more time to wonder if we were all going to die. I was seated by the window, so I could see every up and down—the way the bow dove into those troughs as the captain intentionally steered directly into the waves. The trip out to the island had taken an hour. The trip back took three. Vomit ran down the front of my mother’s coat. Two people had to be evacuated by wheelchair.

So was I lucky or not? Only a hundred people got to see the penguins that day, and I was one of them. But I also almost died. A lot. Would I get on that boat again, knowing how it was going to come out? I don’t know. Three hours of terror vs. a lifetime of remembering penguins. I don’t know.

You probably already know the punchline to that offer for publication too. It was from Dreamspinner. The book got published, but by the time it did, Dreamspinner was in a tailspin. I could’ve made more money publishing the book myself and avoided all the agonizing over what was the ethical thing to do. But on the other hand, I’m glad I got to have those experiences at least once, to see the view from that side of the fence. So was I lucky or not?

Today I am, like most of us, isolating at home, but at least I’m not on a cruise ship! Right now, I feel lucky, but if there’s one thing I learned from that day last January, it’s that you never know. Those folks who had their excursion to Magdalena Island canceled were probably pretty annoyed at the time. And there are authors who were sad when Dreamspinner sent them a rejection letter instead of an offer. But those people were better off for their momentary disappointments, though they had no way to know it at the time.

All we can do is make the best of where we are and remember that the lucky/unlucky line is thin and constantly shifting. What may feel like bad luck today could prove your saving grace. And vice versa, unfortunately. I hope you’re keeping well wherever you are, and that somewhere along your timeline, some good luck comes your way.

Now available: Omega Replaced

Omega Replaced is an alpha/alpha novella with BDSM components. Now available for $2.99 or read with Kindle Unlimited.

Alpha Donovan is certain about one thing. His work recovering missing omegas who’ve been separated from their protectors is a service—to the alphas who hire him and to the omegas themselves. What he’s less confident about is his unconventional desire to be dominated by someone as strong as he is. No alpha is supposed to want that.

When Donovan arrives in North Leland, he expects it to be just another job. Find the omega, bring her home. Then he meets Judge Tarek, the gorgeous alpha determined to thwart his mission. Tarek disapproves of his job, but not his fantasies, which he’s ready and oh-so-able to fulfill.

Everything is backwards in this strange town. Wanting another alpha’s teeth in your neck is okay, but returning an omega to their rightful place isn’t? Donovan has a lot to learn, and if he can’t change his way of thinking fast enough, he’s going to lose what he’s never allowed himself to believe he could have.

Omega Replaced is an alpha/alpha novella with BDSM components in the Omega Reimagined series. It can be read as part of the series or as a standalone. This is a non-MPREG omegaverse.

New free story: Cape Cock Block

Leith is looking forward to a week in Cape Cod with his family and his older brother’s best friend, Shaun. With Shaun around, Leith’s going to have plenty of material to fuel his private sessions. But a change in sleeping arrangements and a single, shared bathroom make those private sessions hard to arrange. If Leith doesn’t get some alone time, he’s going to explode. Unless Shaun’s willing to help out…

Cape Cock Block is free to read on my site, but newsletter subscribers receive a password they can use to download files in mobi or epub format.