Characters who
badger for a sequel
Julie, thank you very much for
having me on your blog again! I'm excited to share my new release The
Caveman and the Devil, with you and your readers. Dreamspinner Press
published it on May 1st.
The Caveman and the Devil is an m/m contemporary romance story. The main
characters are Paul Myers (POV) and Noah Collins. They're both zookeepers at
the Philadelphia Zoo and became a couple a year ago.
When I first invented the characters
of Paul and Noah, I didn't know how much I'd come to care for them. Their first
story, Cuddling Up, dealt with Paul and Noah becoming a couple and was
written for Dreamspinner's submission call for the Animal Magnetism
anthology. I sent my submission very early with not much hope of Dreamspinner
accepting it but they did. Hurray! :)
I would have posted the story on my
blog if they hadn't accepted it, simply because I like the dynamic between Paul
and Noah so much. Paul is a very down-to-earth character while Noah is
high-strung and sometimes on the bratty side of the spectrum. I should probably
also mention that there's an age difference of eleven years between them.
After the anthology came out, I
thought I would be done with Paul and Noah but they badgered me for another
story and I was only too happy to comply. I love how easy they are to write as
much as I enjoy the differences in their personalities. Paul is very practical
and adjusts to some of Noah's quirks without hesitation or feeling strange.
Noah is only to happy to let Paul deal with things he doesn't like but at the
same time he makes sure Paul knows he's the most important person to him.
Paul is a big man and uses his body
mass and muscles to manhandle Noah sometimes. He's always conscious of his
strength and would never do anything to hurt Noah but he's not above picking
Noah up if he deems it necessary. Noah loves Paul's caveman attitude and is
never intimidated by him. He enjoys that he can trust Paul to carry him if his
legs suddenly turned to jelly. Even though Noah is physically smaller than
Paul, he always holds his own verbally.
Noah teases Paul whenever he gets
the chance, which has brought the nickname “devil” on. Paul teases right back
and I hope readers get a sense of how much fun they have and how much they love
each other in:
This is a
continuation of Paul and Noah's story “Cuddling Up”, which is included in
Dreamspinner's Animal Magnetism Anthology.
Buy links:
Blurb:
The animals at the Philadelphia Zoo
brought zookeepers Paul and Noah together, but now they might tear them apart.
When a bloodthirsty lioness stalks her cubs, Noah charges into her enclosure
without regard for his own safety. Luckily, a coworker catches his mistake and
saves the day. It’s not the first time Noah’s rushed in on impulse, and he
still carries scars from the last time.
Paul can’t pretend nothing happened. Frustrated, he tries to comfort Noah, but he can’t get past his anger. As head keeper of the big cats, Paul must report the incident and figure out how to keep his reckless lover safe. Somehow, he has to make Noah see that his carelessness could cost him his job or his life—and maybe Paul too.
Excerpt
from Chapter Three:
Once inside the bathroom, I
inspected my reflection in the mirror. I looked exhausted, but also ready to
pop a vessel. Since the sight wasn't all that inviting, I turned away. I hadn’t
even opened the first button of my shirt when the bathroom door opened. It was
all I could do not to snap at Noah. Was it too much to ask to have some alone
time so I could calm down? I hoped he'd get the hint if I didn’t stop with my
task at hand.
Noah, being Noah, either didn't
understand the silent treatment or ignored it. If I would bet, I'd put my money
on the second option. He walked around me until he stood in front of me and,
since I didn't trust my voice, I chose to glower at him.
“Hey, Caveman, are you mad at me?”
“Me?” I asked, feigning surprise.
“Whatever gave you that impression?”
“You are mad.” He wrinkled
his nose as his searching gaze flitted over my face. He was clearly puzzled by
my behavior. “Why?”
“Why? Why? Seriously? You’re
seriously asking why I’m mad at you?”
“Yes, dear almighty Caveman, I’m
seriously asking why you’re mad at me! I didn’t do anything wrong!”
Utterly baffled, I forgot all about
what I was doing or what I had intended to do. I stared down at Noah, my lover,
the man I’ve loved for almost a year now. Incredulous, I croaked, “You didn’t
do anything wrong today? Is that right?”
The light bulb slowly went on for
Noah. Of course, he immediately lunged into defense mode. “I just wanted to get
the cubs out of there!”
“You went into Kiara’s compartment
without waiting for the inner door to be locked! She had just killed two of her
cubs and was in the process of killing the other two!”
“She had walked into the other
compartment!” Noah protested.
“But the separating door wasn’t
closed yet!” I shouted, eventually losing the fight with my emotions.
“He locked the door right after I
was inside.”
“Yes, and she came back and jumped
against it, roaring. What if Trent hadn’t managed to lure her away?”
“But he did. Don’t be such a
nitpicker all the time.”
I could hardly breathe. The memory
of Noah crouching in Kiara’s compartment, cooing at the two surviving cubs in
the middle of a bloodbath, raised the hairs on my arms again. Nausea rolled
through me, sweeping me up. It could have been over today.
Chris
T. Kat
Chris T. Kat lives in the middle of
Europe, where she shares a house with her husband of many years and their two
children. She stumbled upon the M/M genre by luck and was swiftly drawn into
it. She divides her time between work, her family—which includes chasing after
escaping horses and lugging around huge instruments such as a harp—and writing.
She enjoys a variety of genres, such as mystery/suspense, paranormal, and
romance. If there's any spare time, she happily reads for hours, listens to
audiobooks or does cross stitch.
Links:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/christi_kat
GoodReads:http://www.goodreads.com/ChrisTKat
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ChrisTKat
DSP author page: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=605
Julie,
ReplyDeletethanks for having me!