Werecats and the American Civil War

Introduction
I am J.M. Snyder, author of gay erotic/romantic fiction. I began self-publishing with iUniverse in 2002 and while I still enjoy the amount of control I retain when publishing my own books (which I do infrequently through Lulu Press), I now work with Amber Allure, Aspen Mountain, and Torquere Presses. My short fiction has appeared online at Ruthie's Club, Tit-Elation, and Amazon Shorts, as well as in anthologies released by Aspen Mountain Press, Cleis Press, and Alyson Books.

I will keep this post at the top of the page while I'm chatting here. Scroll down to read the latest entries!

Between States
Today I'd like to talk a bit about my e-book series, Between States, which is about shapeshifters. Currently there are two stories available in the series: Under a Confederate Moon and Beneath a Yankee Sky, both published by Amber Allure Press.

If the titles of the first two don't clue you in, the stories are set during the American Civil War. Caleb Chilson is a soldier in the Confederate army (for those who may not know, that means he fights for the South). Brance Brenneman is a Union soldier, fighting for the North. Once a month for a few days while the moon is full, they shift into bobcats and spend their nights hunting in the woods. By morning, they return to human form and rejoin their respective armies.

In the first book, Under a Confederate Moon, told from Caleb's point of view, the two meet in shifted form. Brance is wounded, and Caleb has never met another like himself. After assisting the older bobcat with his injury, Caleb refuses to leave him, though when morning comes, he realizes they fight on opposing sides. When he returns to his unit, Caleb is brought before his commanding officer on charges of desertion. To save himself, he blurts out the location of the Yankee camp. Fighting ensues, and Caleb must decide what matters more to him ~ the war raging between humans or the undeniable attraction he feels for a fellow shifter.

In the second book, Beneath a Yankee Sky, readers get an inside look at the elusive Brance. The son of an Amish preacher, Brance knew the simple life on a Pennsylvanian farm wasn't for him and he left home at an early age. By the time this story opens, he and Caleb have deserted the War Between the States, choosing to forge their own path together. However, trappers in the woods threaten their safety, and when the hunters see the two shift into bobcat form, Brance knows they're in trouble. A cleverly placed trap snares Caleb, and Brance must fight to protect the life ~ and the man ~ he's come to love.

Coming up
Later this fall, a third story will be released, entitled A More Perfect Union, and in early January 2009, a paperback collection of all three stories will be available, entitled Between States. Both will be published by Amber Allure Press.

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts, and thank you, Jeanne, for having me here today! I'll post two excerpts later in the day, one from each book in the Between States series, and will be giving away a copy of both e-books to one lucky winner who comments on any of my entries.

JM Snyder :: Why Bobcats?

Why bobcats?
The most common question I get about my Between States series is, why bobcats? My tongue-in-cheek response is, why not?

The first thought that comes to mind when you say 'shapeshifter' is werewolf and, in my opinion, they're just a little overdone. I've written the obligatory werewolf story myself (it's entitled "One of Us" and appears in my short story collection, Shorts), but when I first came up with the idea for the Between States stories, I wanted something different. Something that would stand out. The first story was written with the original intention of submitting it to shifter anthology (which I decided against, in the end), and I knew every other story in the slush pile would be werewolves. I needed something all my own.

To be honest, I'm not much of a dog person and have never been "into" wolves. I have, however, always been owned by at least one cat (at the moment, two very spoiled kitties take care of me, Jelly and Jono, who have shared my life for the past twelve years). I know feline behavior intimately ~ I'm the first person called whenever a cat expert is needed among my family and friends. I know the way they act, the way they play, the way they move ... I know their purr, their meow, their walk. The flick of their tail when they're pissed, the flattening of their ears when they're mad, the head bump and rub when they're pleased.

In short, I know cats. And if I wanted my characters to feel real to the reader, in both human and shifted form, then I would need to play on my strengths and write what I know. You always hear that, "Write what you know," from writing instructors and books and magazines, and I've heard a lot of argument from people who write spec fic (fantasy, sci-fi, horror) who say they can't write what they know because magic doesn't exist, or elves aren't real, or vampires are only works of fiction. Maybe so, but there are elements you do know, which you can write about with authority, and which will make your writing stronger and your story believable. In my case, here, I wrote about cats.

I picked bobcats for several reasons. One, they're felines, of course. Two, they're very prevalent in the United States, specifically in the woods of the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, where these stories take place. They're also known as lynxes, FYI. And finally, a full-grown bobcat can be large enough to shift back into a human.

This last point was very important to me. Some authors of shapeshifting fiction don't think about the logistics of shifting. A human has a certain amount of body mass which just doesn't disappear if/when they shift into another form. Or rather, wouldn't, assuming this were something that could really happen. All the bones, the muscles, the sheer weight of a human male has to go somewhere, don't you think? To me, a bobcat solved that problem nicely, being a creature which could conceivably contain that body mass without looking grotesquely over-sized for its species.

Maybe I'm too anal in my approach, but even with spec fic, I like it to ring true.

Kayelle's Tales of the Chosen - Jawk

Some of you are wondering why the series was called Tales of the Chosen. Here's what Chosen means:

CHOSEN

Called to serve

Honored to protect

Obedient to the vow

Safeguards of the truth

Enablers of life

Neutralizers of threats

They protect immortals who must sometimes move suddenly, even during the middle of the night. Unknown to some of the immortal Sempervians, the Chosen keep Chronicles which are handed down, generation after generation, sometimes male to female, and vice versa. When needed, the info on their Sempervian is appended to the end of another Chosen's set of Chronicles. One Chosen usually serves one immortal -- but not always.

Laura Givens also did this cover - and there's a story behind it. For a high def picture, go the file section of my yahoo group, Romance Lives Forever. You can download it and see every detail.

For example, Jawk is in the foreground wearing a tux and has a white towel across his arm. This scene takes place on his second day at Batchelors, a hip gay nightclub in the Top Tier section of Tarth City. He's the first Kin they've ever hired. Feline, with claws hidden beneath human nails, he also has a Kin nose, a fairly cat-like mouth and cat's ears. His pupils are vertical slits and the various movements of his ears give away emotions. Straight back means trouble, forward is curiosity, and drooping sideways means shame or embarrassment. One forward, one back is like a human raising one eyebrow. Their ears move individually and Kin can also speak to each other (esp females) without humans hearing them. It's handy for warriors on hunts, but since 99% of all warriors are female, few males ever learn the trick.

In the background, Luc Saint-Cyr is seated at a booth and Wulf (in the purple) is leaning against him, trying to soothe Luc's jealousy over his time with others. They've been together 5 years, and he trusts Wulf, but Luc's jealousy is dividing them more and more. On the other hand, it's not uncommon for Luc to bring home a third male to pleasure Wulf while Luc watches. He then likes to punish him for enjoying it -- it's one of their kinky sex games. Jawk will be visiting with them after work tonight.

In the far background, there is a veiled man. Who is he? Remember the burka-like "veil" all Betters were required to wear in Alitus?
Just who he is will be the subject of quite a bit of research on the part of Empress Destoiya, who sets Alitus on the path of helping Luc find out where Wulf is spending his free time. As the newly appointed Minister of Imperial Intelligence, Alitus has access to idBot security cams all over the city, and his fond remembrances of meeting Wulf tempt him to take full advantage.

Who is watching who do what? Luc is watching Wulf, Alitus is watching Wulf, and Jawk is watching Luc. But for whom? Each man has his own agenda.
Do any of them coincide? Here's the blurb:

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Jawk, Tales of the Chosen
Pleasure. Trust. Possession. Is a betrayal of the heart forever?

Jawk Brighton works at Batchelors, a hip restaurant/club in the Top Tier district of Tarth City, where he meets the immortal Luc Saint-Cyr. When Luc offers Jawk a deal too good to pass up, one night showing him and his Chosen, Wulf Gabriel, a good time in exchange for eight times his usual pay, Jawk takes it. All three have secret agendas. The question is, will Jawk's keep him in Luc and Wulf’s shared bed, or tear apart the alliance of the immortal and his Chosen -- forever?

Content: M/M sex, M/M/M sex, voyeurism, multiple partners, alien sex, more M/M sex - and a heated and softly padded dungeon floor for those "tender" moments...

Kayelle's Tales of the Chosen - Alitus

Alitus, Tales of the Chosen
Passion. Addiction. Loyalty. Can true love bare its heart forever?

Alitus Vivaldi is a Better, an enhanced human. He moves from the Conqueror's favorite pleasure slave to her personal assistant by learning the key to her heart is passion, love, and loyalty. When political upheaval forces the Conqueror to strip her favorite of his freedom and rights, Alitus forsakes his identity and pride, surrendering himself to his darkest fears. But will what he becomes save the Tarthian Empire and its Conqueror, or rock them both to their crumbling core?

===

In some ways, this is my favorite Chosen book. Luc is featured in books 1 and 3, and only has a small part in this one, but Alitus touches on so many secrets that it's almost impossible to understand the rest of the series without this one. Although it is rated as GLBT, there is one very minor lesbian scene, and a few scenes of the two immortal women (Rheyn Destoiya, the Empress - pictured, and Erryq, another immortal who is a shapechanger) sharing the beautiful blond Alitus. He's more than up for the task, but before this point, he has only been Rheyn's lover.

Protecting him when his parents were killed in a security operation gone bad, she came across the older teen being held down by several of her hulking Praetorian guards, about to be raped. She bid Alitus come to her and helped him gather his ripped clothing around him, covering him with her own cape. She then went out to speak to the near-rioting crowd and vowed that none of her troops who mistreated residents of the world would go unpunished. She forced all 5 Praetorian to their knees and summarily shot them in rapid succession. It quelled the riots immediately.

Alitus, she sent off to be educated properly in another of her strongholds, and when he turned 18 had him brought to her. She seduced him and he has been her favorite ever since. However, because he is a Better, a generation of genetically enhanced humans, his pheromones affect her. Those outside her protective circle of loyal Praetorian and cabinet call him Destoiya's Dog. His loyalty is abosolute. So is his love for her. There is no artifice in Alitus. He doesn't serve in order to gain. His nobility and loyalty endear him to her.

However, changes in the empire are bringing out the fear of Betters - whose pheromones can kill without a touch. The empress succumbs to the wishes of her Parliament and orders all Betters to be veiled in a burka-like garment to prevent their pheromones from escaping. Pride set aside, Alitus obeys, but not without making it public that he hopes to see a day when true freedom will be granted to all citizens once again.

The Empress considers whether to make him her Chosen, something she has avoided for four hundred years (since her previous one died protecting her). To qualify, the leader of the Sempervian immortals decrees he must pass a test, facing his most intimate fear. He must have sex with a male.

The empress trusts Luc, her dearest friend and fellow immortal, and Luc's Chosen, Wulf, is presented with the task. Will Alitus balk, submit, or embrace the sexual act in a way none of the Sempervians ever foresaw?

For excerpts, buy links, and a better image (full size), go to my books section.

When I return from an appt later this afternoon, I'll post the last trilogy info, and give you a sneek peek of the manuscript I just submitted elsewhere (and was asked for a full just yesterday).

I'll aso have a free gift for everyone who posts a comment to any of these blogs! The only requirement is to post, and then email me.

Off to the appt - Thanks Jeanne. Hugs! See you all in a few hours.

Guest Blogger - Kayelle Allen

Jeanne has sweetly invited me to post on her blog -- I immediately accepted, since she's so faithful to come and hang on my Yahoo group, Romance Lives Forever. She suggested I tell you a bit about my Tales of Chosen series, which is GLBT Romance.

Someone asked me last night if I had to assign a rating for this series, what would it be. I said R for the sex, and X for the really good sex. In other words, Rx - just what the doctor ordered.

First up is Wulf - This is an interracial love story in more ways than one. The gorgeous deep brown color of Luc's skin appeals to Wulf on many levels - and because Luc is immortal, Wulf has known him since he was a child. Wulf's father was Luc's "Chosen" a human whom Luc trusted with as many of his secrets as he could. If an immortal (they call themselves Sempervians) had to flee because humans discovered what he was, his Chosen would let another Chosen in his new area know what to expect and what his particular needs might be. Wulf is the sixth generation of his family to serve as Luc's Chosen. Only rarely are the Chosen lovers -- most often they are companions and trusted friends. But Luc has fallen deeply in love with Wulf, and wants to win his heart and make him not only his Chosen, but also his lover.

However, the story doesn't start out with the two men already in a relationship. Two decades of bad blood separated them. Wulf's father was killed twenty years before, when Wulf was ten, and he has blamed Luc ever since. How they overcome that barrier - Luc's guilt at not being able to protect them, and Wulf's for knowing deep in his heart that it was not Luc's fault yet blaming him anyway in anger -- that is the true romance of the story.

The cover is by Laura Givens, who ended up being a character in the last book of the series. More on that later.

Here's more info on Wulf. Excerpts and buy links are available on my site. You'll also find much larger pictures of the cover so you can see more detail.

Wulf, Tales of the Chosen

Lust. Power. Forgiveness. Can a romance live forever?

To survive, superstar Wulf Gabriel must depend on the one man he swore he would never trust again - the most powerful and feared man in the empire - the Harbinger. Saving Wulf is simple; gaining his trust will take reaching into the Harbinger's own dark past and facing a truth he's avoided since the night Wulf's father died. Because of him...

This book was nominated for 2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Award