A warm welcome to our next featured author in our GRL Blog Tour: M.A Church

M.A talks to us about her series and also brought with her a giveaway for our readers

Welcome M.A 🙂

Hi everyone! I’m M.A. Church, and I’m so happy to be here at Love Bytes for the GRL Featured Blog Tour. Thank you for hosting me!

I primarily write paranormal and scifi m/m romances, although lately I have dabbled with contemporaries. But sci-fi and paranormal are my first loves. One of the series I’m most asked about is the Fur, Fangs, and Felines. I’m asked why. What possessed me to write about normal, everyday house cats? Well, normal is nothing more than an illusion, and my werecats are very grateful for it too!

While I love the big and sexy shifters like werewolves, I wanted to do something that revolved around the felines. I’d done a story about a cougar shifter, so I wanted something a little different this time. I based the series on my cat, Kitty-Kitty, and my love of cats. Thus my version of werecats—but they’re much larger than the normal house housecats. My werecats aren’t as big as werecougars, but they are the size of Savannahs, which are pretty big hybrids. Unlike Savannahs, my werecats don’t all have the same coloration.

I mentioned my cat, Kitty-Kitty. He’s a six-year-old gray male cat. And yes, his name is Kitty-Kitty. Original, huh? *laugh* Several years ago on Halloween night, he showed up in our garage. I love cats, but I’m allergic. The plan was for him to stay in the garage. I refused to name him because I knew what would happen if I did. I knew I’d get attached.

Yeah, lol. Within two weeks the hubby had sneaked him into the house… and that was the end of that, lol. Kitty had stuck as a name, and he’d taken over. Since that time, he’s become my writing buddy. He likes to lie next to me while I’m working… and yes, I got attached. And that’s how he became the muse for this series.

Trouble Comes in Threes, book #1, actually originated from a prompt having to do with New Year’s Eve. Kirk, a struggling mechanic trying to make ends meet, is at home celebrating on his own. Little did he know how his life would change with the arrival of two unusual kitties. The cats, Dolf and Tal, are shifters, and Kirk is their mate. What I found most challenging about this was keeping up with three men. Rooting around in one guy’s psyche is hard enough, but three can be a real challenge, especially when all of them are so different and have definite opinions. The main thing I had trouble with was keeping up with whose head I was in. But while I found it challenging, it was necessary to the story. The point of the threesome was the balance they each brought to the relationship.

Behind the Eight Ball, book #2, had some scenes that came from Kitty-Kitty. In fact, how I started the story is based on a picture of him hiding in a bush, lol. Eight Ball is about Heller. The character was difficult to write because of who Heller basically is—narcissistic. Heller’s a lot like an onion. Peeling the layers of his personality back can result in tears, but at his core he’s a good guy hiding a tragedy that accounts for a lot of his behavior. His mate is Lawson, who’s more than capable of dealing with Heller’s quirks.

Eight ball also has some very strong secondary characters. Lawson’s best friend is Marshell Foles. While Lawson isn’t a paranormal, Marshell is. He’s a Vetala—a type of snake-like paranormal who doesn’t shift. They appear human until they attack, at which point they reveal strong, sharp fangs and blue, snake-like eyes. Their venomous bite paralyzes their victims.

Marshell and his sister, Janelle, are strong-willed, powerful, and dominant. Although with people they care for, they’re loving and protective. Marshell and Janelle figure prominently in this book and through the rest of the series.

The next book in the series, It Takes Two to Tango, will release toward the end of September. This book is about Remi, another beta from the series. His personality is easy-going and funny, but he’s actually one of the strongest betas. Remi jokes a lot, but he’s dependable. Loyal. He’s also addicted to T-shirts with funny sayings on them. Those shirts of his are almost legendary, lol. Of all the betas, Remi would’ve been perfectly happy with a human mate. Of course that isn’t who his goddess gifts him with. *grin* So far the mates have all been human, but that’s about to change in book three. This mate has alpha-like qualities and an attitude to match, lol.

I’m working on At Sixes and Sevens, which is Aidric’s book. His mate is introduced at the end of Tango, but I don’t want to go into who it is and ruin the surprise. I will say Aidric’s mate isn’t human, and I can promise you, no one in the clowder saw this coming. *grin* I’m really going to shake up my werecats with this pairing. Aidric’s going to have a hard choice to make because of it too.

After Aidric’s book, there’s only one more left in the series, and that’ll be Brier’s book. If nothing changes, I plan for the mate to be another werecat this time… but hey, this is me we’re talking about, so nothing’s ever as simple as it appears!

Eden Winters asked M.A Church a question in her GRL blog post:

You have quite a few series books, but standalones as well. Which do you prefer writing, and has a standalone ever spawned an unintended series?”

Of the two, I really prefer series books. The few times I’ve tried to do standalones, I’ve struggled because secondary characters started clamoring for their own books LOL. Because of this I go into a new book with plans to turn it into a series. *laugh* In fact, I have a series that’s going to wrap up soon, and I’m debating a spinoff series from it. I have a tendency to get attached to the world and characters, so leaving them can be hard. On the other hand, being that immersed in a world can lead to burnout, which actually happened with The Harvest series. That’s one of the reasons I only write one book per year in that particular series.

 

Now it’s my turn! I have a question for fellow author Hans Hirschi, to be answered in an upcoming post: How did you acquire the title The Queen of Unconventional Happy Endings?

I hope to see everyone at GRL!

M.A. Church is a true Southern belle who spent many years in the elementary education sector. Now she spends her days lost in fantasy worlds, arguing with hardheaded aliens on far-off planets, herding her numerous shifters, or trying to tempt her country boys away from their fishing poles. It’s a full time job, but hey, someone’s gotta do it!

When not writing, she’s on the back porch tending to the demanding wildlife around the pond in the backyard. The ducks are very outspoken. She’s married to her high school sweetheart, and they have two grown children.

She was a finalist in the 2013 Rainbow Awards, runner up in the 2015 Rainbow Awards, and is a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Author Links:

Blog * Twitter * Facebook * The Harvest FB fan page * Goodreads * Amazon * E-mail*

Trouble Comes in Threes

#1 in the Fur, Fangs, and Felines series

Blurb:

A snowstorm in the South—on New Year’s Eve—is a perfect recipe for a catastrophe. After two soul-crushing bad breaks, Kirk’s waiting for disaster number three to strike when, naturally, two stray cats arrive on his doorstep during the storm and decide to make themselves at home. Tenderhearted Kirk lets them stay even though there’s something decidedly odd about his overly friendly felines.  Out of the punishing weather and full of tuna, Dolf and Tal are happy to be snug in Kirk’s house. But then their human goes outside for firewood and suffers a nasty fall that leaves him unconscious. Now the two cats have no choice but to reveal themselves.  Kirk wakes up to find the two kitties are actually Dolf and Tal. They’re cat shifters—and his destined mates. Being part of a feline threesome is enough for Kirk to grapple with, but soon he learns they come from a clowder that doesn’t believe humans and shifters should mix. Kirk knew those two cats would be trouble. Little does he know the real trouble lies ahead.

Buy link:

Dreamspinner Press

ARe

Amazon

Behind the Eight Ball

#2 in the Fur, Fangs, and Felines series

Blurb:

A cool morning, a yard full of birds, and a Kitty on a Mission. What More Could a Werecat Want? Beta Heller Wirth Has It All, except a Mate — a Shifter Mate, That Is. The last thing he wants is one of those dangerous humans who kill without remorse. Heller knows about that firsthand. So what does the goddess Bast do? She gives Heller exactly what he does not want—a human: business owner Lawson Dupre.

Lawson hasn’t a clue what just happened in his car detail shop. One minute a cute client is about to pass out, then he perks up and starts flirting. Next thing, he runs out the door like the hounds of hell are after him. Learning that Heller is a werecat doesn’t freak out Lawson. He happens to be one of those rare humans who knows paranormals exists. He even lives with one. Watch the fur fly as Heller and Lawson battle hurt feelings, misguided beliefs, and a power shift in Heller’s clowder.

Buy Links:

Dreamspinner

Amazon

ARe

It Takes Two to Tango

#3 in the Fur, Fangs, and Felines series

Blurb:

Can two very different men find the love they need to survive?

Remi Ginn’s an easygoing werecat with a love of snarky T-shirts who would be perfectly happy with a human mate. Is that what the goddess Bast gives him? Of course not. Instead she gifts him with Marshell, a Vetala: a snakelike nonshifter who drinks blood to survive. A man who’s just as toppy as Remi—and even more powerful than the West Falls Clowder’s Alpha and heir apparent.

While Remi decides whether he can handle the fates’ choice, hunters attack Marshell. In an explosion of passion, Remi and Marshell mate and Remi declares Marshell his. Now they have to figure out how to make their relationship work as they dance around each other.

The clowder is in turmoil, and Remi’s acceptance of Marshell rocks the very foundation of the insular group. The consequences will be far-reaching. And if that isn’t problem enough, the situation with the hunters is far from resolved… as the appearance of an Alpha werewolf proves.

Release Date: September 26th from Dreamspinner Press

 

M.A is offering an Ecopy of book 1 in the Fur, Fangs, and Felines series to one Lucky winner