A warm welcome to author Chris T, Kat joining us today to talk about new release “Alpha Unit One, New York”.
Welcome Chris 🙂
Research or making up my own world?
Thanks so much to Love Bytes for having me on their blog. Dreamspinner Press published my new shapeshifter novella, Alpha Unit One, New York on July 27th.
I know that some authors strictly write in one genre, for example contemporaries. I don’t belong to that group, and I tend to be all over the place. I’ve written contemporary stories and science fiction stories, as well as all kinds of supernatural stories, though I focus on shapeshifters.
I don’t prefer one genre over the other, and what kind of book I write depends mostly on my mood. My contemporary books mostly focus on the relationship between the two main characters and often include some sort of disability. I guess this is due to my background as a Special Ed teacher because I feel that these characters are underrepresented in books, or only a small group of them is portrayed. I remember a few years ago it seemed to be chic to include a blind character, but there are so many other things people struggle with that I felt compelled to write about someone with epilepsy and someone with cerebral palsy.
I also enjoy writing any kind of supernatural story because there I can let my imagination run wild. There are no restrictions other than the ones I give myself and that’s perfect for me. I don’t mind doing the research for the contemporaries, but it takes up a lot of time. It’s easier for me when I write a disabled character, since I can fall back on almost two decades of experience.
Back to shapeshifter stories. I’ve always loved animals and doing research about any kind of animal and their characteristic has never been a chore. It’s always been fun, and nowadays I’ve got lots of books about every animal you can imagine. I simply enjoy getting to know little details and incorporating them in my stories. Building new worlds is something else I enjoy but this can get exhausting when you have to think so many things through so that everything makes sense in the end.
Alpha Unit One, New York is the first book I wrote after a long hiatus and it was great fun for me to come up with this particular group of teammates. I especially loved writing Nicky, the main character. 🙂
Buy links:
Blurb:
The cat’s out of the bag….
In a world that accepts shifters as normal and thinks nothing of human/shifter couples, baby shifters and small shifters are treated as subpar. They are not allowed into the more dangerous professions, and their mates have legal control over what they can and cannot do.
Nicholas Reed is about to challenge the established rules. At twenty-eight, Nick has just been accepted into New York’s Alpha Unit One—an elite law enforcement team, composed equally of humans and shifters, that specializes in drug crimes. It is Nick’s dream job. But if they find out what he’s hiding, his career could be destroyed.
Enter a huge complication in the form of Sam Black, an older lion shifter who is the leader of the unit… and Nick’s mate. Nick wants Sam, and he wants to keep his job, but he can’t have them both. He also can’t choose between them.
Excerpt from Chapter One:
Annoyed at my jumbled thoughts and ramblings, I tried to push everything aside and knocked at the door. A deep rumble called out, “Come in!”
For a second, my bravado faltered. What if they found out who I really was? All my hard work would be for nothing, then. No matter how good I was at my job, they’d kick me out before I could utter a single word. Guys like me weren’t supposed to become cops.
I pushed the door handle and walked inside, catching glimpses of a handful of people—mostly large people. That’s how it always was. Everyone had to be taller, bigger, meaner than me. It was like a law or something.
Oh boy, and there I went again with the rambling.
Seven pairs of eyes stared at me, waiting, assessing. After clearing my throat, I gave a small wave with the hand that still clutched the envelope.
“Hi,” I said. My voice came out soft and tentative. Screw that!
Putting more strength into my tone, I tried again. “I’m Nicholas Reed, your new colleague. I’m looking for Sam Black.”
A guy with short black hair, tinged with a few silver strands at his temples, unfolded from a chair. My nose informed me this was the guy who’d jostled me only a minute or so earlier.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! My boss was a lion shifter.
Okay, I could still do this. No stepping back, even though my inner voice screamed at me to leg it. How could I be so stupid as to want to associate with one of his kind?
Black strode toward me—or maybe I should say he swaggered—oozing self-confidence and… intoxicating pheromones. He smiled as he stretched out his hand. For a second, I got lost in his hazel eyes. All my defenses lowered at once. I wanted to rub my cheek against his in the worst way while my inner voice shrieked, filled with too many emotions for me to accurately compute.
I blinked, which effectively cleared my head. Bastard!
I knew what he was doing. He was checking to see if I’d fall for his pheromones and react so he could determine whether I was a shifter instead of a human. I ignored his hand, still held out there waiting for the obligatory shake, and sneered. “What? No conviction in the system?”
He dropped his hand and scowled. “Last guy who reeked of cologne as much as you do was no human. He fooled everyone, and he put the team in jeopardy.”
“So the guy was a shifter. What’s your problem with that?”
“Guy was a goddamn sheep, that’s my problem. First sign of trouble, he ran.” My new boss frowned suddenly. “How’d you pick up on what I was doing?”
Shit. That tiny inner voice yelled something unintelligible at me, but I’ve had years of practice ignoring it. “You sniffed the air, and let me tell you, it wasn’t subtle.”
A lanky man on my right threw a ballpoint pen onto his desk, laughing. “He’s got you there, Sam. Regarding your question about the shifter—that’s just how we roll here, kid. We don’t work with sheep or small shifters. They’re not dependable.”
“Then it’s your lucky day, since I’m simply human,” I stated, wishing I’d stop sweating so much.
Black circled me before his meaty hand landed on my neck. I stood stock-still as he swept my hair aside and whispered, “Then you won’t have a problem with me taking a whiff, right? You know, just to make sure you’re not another one of those lying idiots who could cost my team their lives.”
“Does that mean you’ve had trouble with imposters regularly?” I asked, curious even as a shiver crept down my spine. A huge beast sniffing at me tended to put the fear of God into me.
“Everyone wants to get on this team, but only a few are a good fit,” Black purred. “You’re sweating. Are you scared of what I’m going to find out, and what I’m going to do with you then?”
I had a pretty good idea what he’d do with me if he found out. “You’re sniffing at my neck, dude. Either you want to fuck me or bite me. Neither option sounds incredibly appealing.”
Chris T. Kat
Chris T. Kat stumbled upon the M/M genre by luck and was swiftly drawn into it. She divides her time between teaching, taking care of her family, reading, and sometimes writing. She enjoys a variety of genres, such as romance, paranormal, and suspense. She also buys way too many fabrics and spends a ridiculous amount of time behind her sewing machine.
Links:
blog: http://christikat.blogspot.com
e-mail: christi_kat25@yahoo.com