Hello, and happy days! Things are ticking over and trucking along in my world.

I hope all is well with you in whatever part of the world you’re reading in.

This week on the blog we have M.A Church!

Author Bio

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 exploring the latest M/M novel to hit the market or watching her beloved Steelers. That’s if she’s not 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 children.

She is a member Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

M. A.’s Quirky Questions

Holly: What’s your drink of choice?

MICHELLE: Up until recently, I would’ve said Coke. Unfortunately, I found out I was diabetic recently, so I’ve cut soda almost completely out. Now I drink a lot of water. Boring, right, lol? Occasionally, I like to walk on the wild side and add a flavor packet to it. Beware—I’m dangerous. *giggle*

Holly: If you could be any animal what would it be and why?

MICHELLE: Okay first, keep in mind I mainly write paranormal. So, if I’m going to be an animal, of course I’m going to be a shifter—and I’d be a feline shifter, a serval. These cats are native to Africa. There’s a creator on TikTok I follow who has one (Chloe the Serval). They really are beautiful animals.

Holly: Tell me something hardly anyone knows about you.

MICHELLE: When I was five, I was buried alive in a mudslide. Yup, no kidding. My childhood home was located in the Crowley’s Ridge area. (The ridge is basically rolling hills.) After heavy rains, the hill behind our house slid.

My dad was in the front of the house. I was in the back with my mom. The mud hit, slamming Mom and me against a wall, and I ended up completely submerged. She’d heard the rumbling, had grabbed my hand, and had started to run.

Thankfully, she still had a hold of me when the mud hit. This happened at night, and the lights were out too. Dad broke a door down to get to us, dug me out first, and then administered CPR. Then he got Mom out. We’d barely made it out the front door before the entire back of the house collapsed into the basement from the second slide.

I have a plaque in my den from where my dad was given an award for saving my life. So yeah, I survived a mudslide. The funny thing is, I’m not afraid of rain or storms. I *am* afraid of the dark.

Holly: Tell me about a unique or quirky habit of yours.

MICHELLE: *whispers* I put ketchup on my macaroni and cheese. But then, I pretty much put ketchup on everything. Heh, I’ve freaked more than one person out at lunch. The expression on their faces always cracks me up.

Holly: What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?

MICHELLE: Imagination. We’re storytellers, so we have to be able to create something from nothing more than a spark. The mechanics? There are people to help with that.

Holly: Let’s talk to your characters for a minute – what’s it like to work for such a demanding writer?

Dale, from The Harvest: “Michelle isn’t demanding at all! In my book, she pretty much handed me the reins and said go for it… and I did, lol. There were some mumblings from her, especially considering some of the stunts Keyno pulled–”

Keyno: “Hey!”

Dale: “Look, furball, you know it’s true.”

Keyno mumbles.

Michelle nods.

“With what she had to put up with? Yeah. She mumbled. Tah’Narians, man. Can’t live with them, can’t yank their tails, you know? Anyway, I’m sure all her other characters would agree with me. She’s very easy to work with.”

Michelle: “Aw, thank you, Dale. I appreciate that.”

Holly: How many books have you written, and which is your favorite?

MICHELLE: I have seventy-two titles out, and I’d have to say that The Harvest series is my favorite. That set of books was written right after my mom passed away, and I’ve said on more than one occasion that writing those books kept me sane during one of the worst times in my life. Dale and the gang have a very special place in my heart.

My second favorite would be Kage from the Daemons of San DeLain series. While Dale might be my favorite, there is something about Kage’s character that really speaks to me. He’s not afraid to make the hard choices, but he’s also compassionate.

Will he kill? Of course. Threatened one of his people or a loved one, and he’ll drop you off the side of a skyscraper. But he’ll also help those in need, including his ex, who he didn’t part ways with amicably. With Dale, what you see is what you get. With Kage, he very much lives his life in the gray area.

Chasing Shadows

Blurb:

The monster: They say I am powerful. They say I am the darkness. They say I instill fear in the minds and hearts of many.

They’re right.

I am powerful. I am the darkness. I should be feared. Then I heard his cries and everything changed. Power can be tempered. There’s safety in the darkness. And the monster isn’t always the one under the bed.

Now only the heart and mind of one human interests me. He is mine. I wait, watching over him until the time is right to claim what belongs to me.

Austin: Do you believe there are monsters under the bed? I do. I don’t just believe; I know for a fact they exist. I’ve met one. Sort of. Okay, I haven’t actually seen the monster, I’ve only spoken to it.

Kind of hard to see much of anything when you’re hiding under the covers while waiting on your father to beat your ass. The monster saved me. Literally. He says I’m his, and he’s waiting for the right time to claim me.

Someone tell him to hurry the hell up.

~Chasing Shadows, book 1 in the Daemons of San DeLain series

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Print: https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Shadows-Daemons-San-DeLain/dp/B0BD2BK1MJ

Excerpt

“Should have stayed home,” Austin muttered, walking faster. Why the hell had he parked so far in the back? Driving home in what promised to be a doozy of a storm was going to be such fun.

It didn’t rain in San DeLain often because their climate usually wasn’t unstable enough to produce a thunderstorm. But when things did line up perfectly, it was a massive pain in the ass.

Great. Just great. This was all the monster’s fault. If only he could get his monster to—Austin abruptly came to a stop as two men stepped out from behind a beat-up white van. There was no one out here but him and these two guys. And they were between Austin and his car.

“Mr. Berkshire, I’m afraid I’m really going to need an answer to that question I asked you earlier. This thing that you saw, what does it look like?”

Make that three guys and him. Austin swung around to stare at the man who he’d left sitting at a table in the bar. He’d followed him? But why? Austin didn’t know anything.

That was the whole point of this meeting. At least, it had been for Austin. It apparently wasn’t for the other guy. Shit. He’d been played. The asshole did know something. That excited Austin. Now he had to get the dude to talk.

“Is your name even Tom?” Austin asked instead.

“Of course not. Only amateurs give their real names.”

Austin cringed. He just got called out over giving his real first and last name. But his face was well-known—it was plastered on the back of his books—so he wasn’t sure it mattered.

He didn’t like this. Not only was he outnumbered, he hadn’t told anybody what he was doing tonight. Not that there was anybody to tell.

“Like I said, I don’t know what he looks like. I’ve never really seen him.”

“Call it here.”

“How in the hell am I supposed to do that? It’s not like he gave me his cell phone number.” No way was he telling them he did actually have a way. Austin gestured at the men behind him. “And what’s up with that? What’s going on?”

“I say we take him. Bet it’ll come running then,” one of the men said from behind Austin.

“Why would you think that?” Maybe he could make them think he was only curious. “You act like I have some kind of relationship with him. I only wanted to know what the thing is. That’s all.”

“Bullshit,” Tom said. “We’ve kept an eye on you ever since your father started screaming about the monster who threatened him.”

Shit.

“You do have some kind of sick relationship with it. The fact you aren’t scared says a lot. And you aren’t,” Tom said. He eased a dagger out from behind his back. “You never asked how to get rid of it.”

Double shit. No, he hadn’t because that wasn’t what he wanted. Unfortunately, he never stopped to think how that looked.

And what was up with that dagger? He’d never seen anything like it. The blade was black, but it didn’t look like any metal he’d ever seen. Hell, he wasn’t sure it was metal. And what were those knobby things on the end of it?

Austin debated fighting the guy for the weapon—he was trained—but taking on three grown ass men wouldn’t be easy. Instead he slapped a hand to his chest and gasped loudly.

“Damn, man, I thought that was understood!” Maybe it was a bit overdone, but it accomplished what Austin wanted. He discreetly rubbed the pendant he wore around his neck then dropped his hand.

The arrowhead-shaped pendant had appeared on his dresser on his thirteenth birthday thanks to an asshole at the prep school Austin attended. The other boy liked to pick on Austin.

After his monster had seen the bruises, he was furious because he hadn’t been there to help Austin when Austin needed it. Learning how to fight was the result of the bullying, which was a good thing. He had a blackbelt now.

But the damn creature had nearly drowned in guilt. The necklace showed up soon thereafter. Rubbing it somehow summoned his monster. He wasn’t sure what type of stone it was, but his research hinted it was obsidian.

Only problem was that there seemed to be a black swirling mass inside the stone, and nothing he’d found explained that. It was as creepy as it was fascinating.

To this day Austin didn’t know what his monster did to that boy, but the kid was pulled from school. It was believed he had a psychotic break. Something having to do with seeing a monster. Kind of like Austin’s old man.

Imagine that. Did he feel bad about that kid? Nope. Not at all. Call him heartless, he didn’t care. One less bully in the world.

“I won’t ask you again to call it.”

The two men from behind closed in on Austin. Things were about to get ugly. These guys were a threat to him and his monster. And he had summoned him into this trap, dammit.

“Did you miss the part where I said I don’t have a—hey!” Austin yelled as one of the men grabbed his arm.

“Get him into the van!”

Fuck that. If he got in that vehicle, he’d probably disappear. Fear raced through him. Why were they kidnapping him? Who were these guys? Maybe this wasn’t about the monster. Austin was rich, after all.

“Let go of—”

The lights in the parking lot flickered. Everyone froze. Before Austin’s eyes, shadows reached for them. He blinked, unable to comprehend what he saw. Shadows didn’t move on their own.

A low, menacing growl floated out of the darkness as mist rolled across the asphalt.