I love having new to me authors on my blog and I am thrilled to have author AC Katt here today. Don't forget to enter the giveaway at the end of the post as you could win the first FOUR e-books in the series. Contest closes on May 28th and the tour is sponsored by Pride Promotions.
Now let's chat with the author....
What started your interest in writing? My initial interest was the thrill of
creating something from nothing. I loved taking characters and making them
interact, to see what they’d get up to. It was also kind of a cathartic thing
to do—taking my stress out on fictional people, instead of on real life people.
If zombies attacked what kind of
supplies would you want? Machete. Lots
of guns and ammo. Souped up Hummer. Food and water. Woody Harrelson.
If you could sit down with any author
dead or alive who would it be? Stephen
King. I imagine that he’s a fascinating person to talk to.
Do you keep a notebook near your for
when new ideas pop into your head? Yup.
I always have a notebook in my purse, and I have a notepad by my bed. Plus,
smartphones have those nifty little note apps.
If you write a series do you reread your
previous books before you begin the new one? Usually I will skim the previous ones, but I don’t have time for a full
reread. Most of my series books are standalones, but I do like to remind myself
of previous events, and especially of minor incidents or characters who could
be used again in the new book.
Is there anything you wish to say to
your readers? THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK
YOU THANK YOU. You guys are amazing.
For readers who haven't tried your books
yet, how do you think your editor or loyal readers would describe your books? I’ve seen my books described as “comfort
food” before, and I think that’s a pretty accurate description. I write small
town stories about small town people, and no matter how bad things get, there
is always a happily ever after.
I’m always looking for book
recommendations. What books have you been reading? Would you recommend them? These past few weeks, I’ve discovered
author Lynn Kelling and her books. Arctic Absolution, and it’s prequel Caged
Jaye, were both amazing reads. Then I got sucked into her Twin Ties series,
which isn’t something I ever imagined I’d read, let alone love, but it’s all in
the writing. I’d absolutely recommend these books, but heed the warnings. Seriously.
They aren’t for everyone.
How often does your muse distract you
from day to day minutiae? All the time.
When I’m on a writing roll, I’m lucky to remember to feed myself, never mind
check the mail or clean the little box. Plus, it’s a good distraction from the
drama in my family life.
Book
two in the All Saints series, Say It Right, comes out September 16th,
and book three in early 2017.
My
second debut series this year, Body Rocks (Off Beat #1) releases June 28th.
Book two, Steady Stroke, also in September. Book three, Hot Licks, February
2017.
Not
scheduled, but planned: self-publishing Fractured Hymns, a standalone,
kind-of-spin-off from Cost of Repairs; a third novella in the Prodigal series;
Cole/Jeremy #3 is also in the works.
Series: Werewolves of Manhattan
Book: Five
Publisher: MLR Press
Cover
Artist: Lex Valentine
Release
Date: May 20, 2016
Blurb:
Alexei
Davidoff suffered three years in a Russian labor camp where he was tortured and
defiled daily. Alexei knows suffering on an intimate basis. He’s rescued by
Armand and Etienne members of the North American Council of werewolves. His
household came with him from Russia and all of them are worried that Alexei
will go back and challenge both the government and the Russian First.
Then early
one morning Alexei goes jogging in Central Park in an effort to get back his strength
to fight the Russian First. He finds a prostitute on a park bench covered in
newspaper and not moving. Bearing in mind his recent ordeal Alexei decides to
help the boy. He lifts up the newspaper and finds a needle hanging out of his
arm. The boy is dying of an overdose and he’s Alexei’s Mate.
Pages or Words: 64,118
Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, Gay Fiction,
M/M Romance, Paranormal, Romance, Wolf Shifters
Excerpt:
Moscow,
February
Four years ago
Ominous
dark gray clouds rolled in. Snow came down as small ice pellets that cut like
glass shards on the skin. They swirled around the mourners as they stood over
the twin coffins. A northeast wind blew over the loup garou cemetery outside of
Moscow. It cut through the thickest coats and scarves. Alexei Davidoff shivered
in his beaver coat and hat. His Enforcers lowered the bodies of his former
Chief Beta and his Beta’s Mate into the ground. Newly joined, they were dead
for the crime of being gay and holding hands in a public square in Moscow.
“This
cannot stand. There has to be an answer to this, someone has to stand up
against these thugs.” Alexei moved his platinum hair off his face. His navy
blue eyes flashed both anguish and resolve.
“The
perpetrators were human, one of the government’s army of gay bashers, Alpha.
There is nothing we can do. We cannot harm a human, and the government gives us
no recourse to law.” The Beta shook his head.
“When
is the next protest?” Alexei paced across the icy ground in front of the
graves.
“Tomorrow
at noon, in the square,” Vasily Yudin, Alexei’s new Chief Beta said
reluctantly.
“I
will be there.” Alexei watched Vasily’s expression. His body folded in on
itself in resignation. Alexei knew Vasily realized it was useless to argue. He
saw that his Alpha had made up his mind. Alexei could tell his Betas were
scheming to mitigate the damage.
“We’ll
go with you, Alpha.” Vasily gestured to Grigory and the six Enforcers in the
funeral party.
“No,
I will go alone.” Alexei clenched his fists and set his jaw in defiance.
“Alpha,
it’s dangerous. We can’t let you go alone. If the FSB picks you up, there is no
guarantee that the council will be able to negotiate your release. Please, both
Grigory and I think you should let us and the Enforcers go with you, or you
should stay at home. The FSB under the current president is worse than the KGB
that preceded them. Peter and Sasha wouldn’t have wanted you to put yourself in
danger. There is no helping them now.”
“I
cannot let this go unanswered, Vasily. The man who did this wasn’t even
arrested despite the fact that I reported the assault. I must protest to the
authorities. We have an obligation to try to right this wrong. He was one of
mine, one of my household, my personal staff. I am responsible.”
“But,
Alpha, we can’t let you go alone into a dangerous situation,” Grigory
persisted. “We would be shirking our duty as your Betas if we let you go
alone.”
Alexei
Ivanovich Davidoff straightened his spine and spat. “I will lose no one else to
the government. As your Alpha, I am ordering you to stay away.”
“Alpha,”
Vasily got on his knees in supplication.
Alexei
put up his hand to silence his Beta. “I will hear no more of this. I will lead
the demonstration tomorrow.”
Vasily
and Grigory hung their heads in defeat.
* * *
March
Three Years Later
“I
don’t think I can make it,” Alexei said as he attempted to walk out the front
gate of the gulag to the waiting car.
“Let
Grigory and I help to hold you up.” Vasily and Grigory each put an arm under
one of his shoulders and half-walked, half-carried him to the car.
They
strapped him in the back and Grigory spent the twelve hours it took to get to
the dacha trying to hold his Alpha up so he wouldn’t fall where he sat.
When
Vasily and Grigory finally got him into the dacha, Vasily’s mouth hung open in
shock when he took off his Alpha’s coat. Their six foot six, two-hundred-pound
Alpha weighed less than one hundred forty pounds.
“What
did they do to you?” Vasily asked, tears pouring down his face.
“I
was caged most of the time I spent in the gulag. They tortured, beat, and
defiled me daily, all because I’m gay and dared to report Sasha’s and Peter’s
deaths, and point to who was responsible.”
“They
call it prison now, Alpha.”
Alexei sighed wearily, “In modern Russia, they
call it a prison. But I’ve been alive long enough to remember Stalin,
Khrushchev, and Brezhnev’s slave labor camps. They can change the name but it’s
still the gulag to me.”
“Alpha,
you need to make the change. It will erase your scars and after you’ve changed
a number of times, your injuries. It will take a while. Your injuries are
severe.” Grigory helped Alexei into a roughhewn chair.
“I
can’t change. I don’t have the strength.” Alexei put his head in his hands.
“Katya,
Boris, something to eat for the Alpha, right away.” Katya ran to the kitchen
and brought back some borscht.
“Finish
this, Alpha. You have to eat constantly so your stomach can extend again.”
Grigory
and Vasily knelt in front of their Alpha. Vasily spoke, “We’ve been pleading
with the First for three years. The council finally negotiated your early
release on the condition that you emigrate once you recover. We took the
liberty of contacting Alpha Daurensbourg, from Saskatchewan and the Central
US…”
“I
am aware of Etienne Daurensbourg. He is a friend.”
“The
council arranged for your emigration and that of your household. Alpha
Daurensbourg will receive you in New York and already purchased a seven-floor
townhouse and nine two-bedroom apartments for our people in New York City.
Grigory, I, and our Enforcers will emigrate with you along with Boris and
Katya.”
“But
I have no funds, and you have families here. There I will no longer be an
Alpha. I won’t be able to care for you.”
“You
are our Alpha,” Vasily said with a stubbornness he had not shown to Alexei
before. Alexei narrowed his eyes.
Alexei
didn’t fight the emigration, only their participation. Vasily continued,
“That’s the beauty of this course of action. Alpha La Farge, who was the North
America’s Second, is no longer an Alpha. He is an Omega scrubbing Siberian
toilets and can’t make the change. They sent him here eighteen months ago to
die in disgrace for kidnapping The Alpha Mate. You have blood right to his
territory in Colorado. Alpha La Marche has it now. I know he finds the packs
fractious because he has no blood tie and they want one of their own. I’ve made
inquiries. He’ll give it to you and you can become Second in North America.”
“I
don’t want to be Second, Third, or Fourth for that matter. I can’t save the
world. I learned that lesson the hard way. I will see my old friend Etienne
Daurensbourg and maybe he can help me find a place to go. I have no funds…”
“Excuse
me for the interruption, Alpha, but you do,” Vasily said with some
satisfaction.
“As your factotum, Boris
handled your funds. He put all of your accounts overseas as soon as the
government started its campaign against homosexuals, only leaving enough rubles
in Russia for operating expenses. As soon as they arrested you, he liquidated
the rest of your investments and wired the funds to our London banker who in
turn, had them sent them to The North American Alpha for safekeeping. Alpha La
Marche reinvested everything. The American Stock Market has done very well. You
are worth ten times what you were before and it’s all protected from the
Russian government.”
“We
bought first-class tickets to New York flying Air France on a nonstop flight to
JFK where Alpha Daurensbourg will meet our party. Alpha Daurensbourg would have
sent his jet, but the Russian government refused entry. However, Alpha
Daurensbourg obtained green cards for the whole household. It’s all arranged
for as soon as you are able to travel,” Grigory added.
It
took until November for Alexei to regain his health and put on enough weight to
have the strength to make the change that would take away the scars from the
constant whippings. He still had some internal bruising that would only go away
with time. Alexei needed rest, food, and a place to recover. But, even many
transformations couldn’t take away the psychological damage the gulag caused,
the malaise of the soul. For that, Vasily thought his Alpha needed a miracle.
As soon as Alexei could bring out his wolf, Vasily and Grigory had their Alpha
and his party on a plane to America. It was right before Yule.
* * *
At
Alpha Daurensbourg’s urging, Armand La Marche, the Chief Alpha of North
America, gave Alpha Alexei Ivanovich Davidoff the territory of Colorado and a
seat as Fifth on the Loup Garou Council of North America.
“You
were Second in Russia, Fifth is an insult,” Vasily complained.
“No,
it’s not. I’m grateful. I’m tired of tilting at Russian windmills. I need time
to gather my strength and clear my mind. I have a place waiting for me at Garou
as the officer in charge of Research and Development once I’ve fully regained
my health.”
“You’re
entitled to…” Grigory sputtered.
“I’m
entitled to nothing. I was born in Russia. My mother was a citizen of the
United States. She never filed for American citizenship for me when I was born.
It was too long ago. I’d have to forge papers and with my accent, they would
know I’m Russian which in the current climate, is not a good thing. I have a
green card. I can become an American. For once, I’m going to be able to do the
job I trained for. I have degrees in three kinds of sciences. Research and
Development is where I belong.” Alexei sighed. “I don’t want anything else.”
“Your
status…”
“If
you are upset about the reduction in my status, go work for the new Russian
Second.” Alexei’s face turned hard.
Vasily
bowed his head in supplication baring his neck. “No, Alpha, we’re yours.
Whatever you decide to do, we will go with you. I just wanted you to have
options.”
“I’m
taking an option. I’ll be Fifth and grateful for the consideration. I’ll leave
the politics to Armand. Obviously, he’s better at it than we are. Although
there has been some resentment, miraculously gay bashing is now a hate crime in
the United States, against federal law, and gay marriage has become legal.”
Tour
Dates & Stops:
Parker
Williams, Divine Magazine, Bayou
Book Junkie, Making
It Happen, Open Skye Book Reviews, 3
Chicks After Dark, Dawn’s
Reading Nook, The
Jena Wade, Ogitchida Book Blog, Nephy
Hart,
BFD
Book Blog, V's
Reads, Outrageous Heroes, Wicked
Faerie's Tales and Reviews, Molly
Lolly, Oh My Shelves, Happily
Ever Chapter, Alpha Book Club, Scattered
Thoughts & Rogue Words, Velvet
Panic, MM Good
Book Reviews, Gay
Media Reviews
Meet the author:
AC Katt was born in New York City’s Greenwich Village. She
remembers sitting at the fountain in Washington Square Park listening to folk
music while they passed the hat. At nine, her parents dragged her to New
Jersey where she grew up, married and raised four children and became a
voracious reader of romantic fiction. At one time she owned over two thousand
novels, until she and her husband took themselves and the cat to New Mexico for
their health and its great beauty.
Now, most of AC’s books are electronic (although she still keeps
six bookcases of hardcovers), so she never has to give away another book. AC is
a late bloomer, however, she claims to have found her niche writing LGBT
romance.
She hangs out at ACKatt.com and ackattsjournal.com; where she
keeps her blog. To get snippets of new
releases and Works in Progress subscribe to AC Katt’s Kattery by sending an
e-mail to mlhansel@gmail.com.
Where to find the author:
Twitter: @ackatt
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ackatt/
Website: www.ackatt.com
Blog: www.ackattsjournal.com
Goodreads
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2893673.A_C_Katt
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