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🌟 Please join me in welcoming authors Autumn Breeze and Ashley Chamblee to Stories That Make You Smile! They’re here today celebrating the release of their wonderful new urban fantasy, Eight Lives. They’ve generously provided an excerpt and giveaway, and they both sat down to answer a few pressing questions (wasn’t that fabulous of them?). So pull up a chair to find out Autumn’s most useless talent, what advice Ashlee would give to newbie writers, and much more! 🌟
Eight Lives by Autumn Breeze and Ashley Chamblee
Two Hearts. One Curse. Zero Time.
Series: Match Made in Hell (book #1)
Cover Artist: Raven Brooks
Release Date: May 20, 2019
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Pairing / Genre(s) / Keyword(s): M/M Urban Fantasy Romance, Friends to Lovers, Roommates to Lovers
Blurb
Two Hearts. One Curse. Zero Time.
A century ago, a spiteful witch cursed Edmund.
Ever since then, he has lived as an immortal house cat—short one life.
Anselm is a mildly depressed vampire with a soft spot for the feline he calls friend.
They live together as equals, companions for eternity—or so they hope.
But their lives take a dark turn when the witch who cursed Edmund long ago dies.
And suddenly, he is human again.
In a race against time’s cruel hand, Anselm and Edmund must make a decision.
Do they find a dark witch and re-enact the curse that plagued Edmund so they can be together for an eternity? Or . . . does Edmund give up forever as a cat to be with Anselm for now as a man?
Excerpt
I clenched my jaw. If this stranger had hurt Edmund, there would be hell to pay.
My immortal cat, as irritating as he could be sometimes, was my best friend. We’d been a pair since the beginning of the twentieth century and . . . in reality, he was all I had.
Everything changed but not Edmund. Nor me.
He was a cursed cat, once a young man in the prime of his life. I was the vampire he called friend.
“Edmund,” I called, dropping the bags I held. The fresh fish and blood I’d bought cascaded to the floor. Some of the packets burst open, but I didn’t care about the mess the blood would make or the smell that would linger for days; I cared about my best friend. “Edmund?!”
The stranger turned; his sharp gaze followed me though he was rooted to the spot.
I rushed through the living room, heading deeper into my home, knowing that if my heart still beat, it would be pounding against my chest like a sledgehammer.
Where was Edmund? Why wasn’t he answering?
Hunting through the rooms, I checked in all of Edmund’s favorite hiding spots—on top of the bookshelf, on my side of the bed, behind my pillow, in the perfect patch of moonlight that streamed through the bay windows in my office—but Edmund was nowhere to be found.
He was missing, gone, disappeared.
“Where is he?!” I demanded as I raged into the living room and caught the stranger by the throat. My fingers tightened as my anger—my fear—tainted the air, sending the thick stench of decay curling around us. The strange young man’s lips parted, opening and closing like a fish out of water as he grasped my wrist and fought for breath. “If you hurt him—” I couldn’t even finish the thought, much less the sentence.
The very idea of not having Edmund, of being without him . . .
I shook the man impatiently. “Where is he?!” I bellowed, shaking the boy.
He appeared desperate as he clutched my wrist and tugged on my arm, attempting to remove my hold, but my grasp was absolute as my fingers tightened around his neck.
Panic danced across his face. His wide eyes shined, a familiar neon blue that I knew.
My lips parted. “Edmund?”
I loosened my hold. It wasn’t possible. Edmund was . . .
The man I held by the neck trembled in my grasp, one minute a man, and in the next, thick black fur sprouted out of his transformed body.
“Y . . . You choked me,” he gasped as I gathered him close.
“You turned into a-a-a man!” I pulled him away from my chest, inspecting him as I did so.
How was this possible? He was cursed by a witch to live the rest of his life, or at least nine lives—eight now that he’d died once—as a cat. Right now, the fluffy black thing I peered down at looked like my housecat, but seconds ago . . .
☆ Author Interview ☆
Autumn Breeze
Welcome, and thank you for stopping by! Tell us a little about yourself and your writing goals.
👋 Hello! My name is Autumn.
And, I doubt anyone really cares that I am twenty-seven, married, a mother to one son, proud pet owner of an obese hamster named Hannibal and overweight boxer, lab mixed named Bristol.
But, some fun facts about me that you might find interesting.
I have Dermatophagia, which means I eat the flesh around my fingers like a starved cannibal. I have been working for about five years to curb the habit. My thumb currently looks like a zombie gnawed on it.
I know a little ASL—mostly the alphabet—and my mom uses it to say horrible things about people to me when we are in public. One day, a member of the deaf community is going to be real shocked by our behavior.
I have a combined total of 70K followers on Wattpad. One of my most popular stories has ten million reads. I don’t know how. It’s horrible. I was young and stupid. I’m a much better writer now. But, I am still learning so if you see me make a mistake look away quickly, or come tell me about it because I need to know where I mess up to know how to improve.
I currently have three books on market now. Loving Anna, Grim Life and After The I Do: Meeting at The Fault Line #1. I am also currently working on book #2 in the Meeting at The Fault Line series. And, by working on, I mean I chewed my thumb to hell because WHY WON’T THESE CHARACTERS DO AS I WANT THEM TOO.
Congratulations on your new release. Please tell us a little bit about it. What’s your favorite aspect or part of the story? Do you have a favorite character? Who/Why?
Thank you! Eight Lives is book #1 in the Match Made in Hell series being published by my co-writer Ashley Chamblee and I.
To put it very simply Eight Lives is about Edmund, a immortal cursed cat who turns back into a man when the witch who cursed him dies and Anselm, the depressed vampire who has looked after him for the past hundred years falling in love and having to decide between forever as friends or for now as lovers.
My favorite aspect of the story is the relationship between Anselm and Edmund. They really are the best of friends trying to do what is best for the other person, even at the price of their own happiness.
And, my favorite character is Edmund because he was cute and squashy and adorable and I wrote as Anselm so I need to properly love my character counterpart.
Tell us about something you learned while writing and/or researching this story.
I learned the Great Fire of London took place in 1666 and started in baker Thomas Farriner’s (or Farynor) house on September 2. There were only six verified deaths but that fact has been challenge because the deaths of the poor and middle class weren’t recorded. And the fire burned so hot some of the remains could have been cremated. The temperature reached something like 1200 ℃.
Also, Thomas lived on Pudding Lane.
And, I don’t know why I find that funny but I do.
How long did it take to write this book?
It took Ashley and I about a week and a half, I think to write Eight Lives.
We collaborate very quickly together.
What did you edit out of this book?
So . . . there was this really steamy blow job at the end of the book that was all kinds of great but . . . it had to go because it didn’t fit in with the plot of the story or the heat level we were looking for. I wish we had been able to keep it but . . . maybe I will pop it up on my blog or website so readers can check out a little “extra” moment between Anselm and Edmund
How do you select the names of your characters?
Selecting names when I am collaborating with someone is vastly different than doing it on my own. For one, when I’m deciding on my name alone no one is around to tell me if my name is stupid. And, I don’t get to tell anyone their name is stupid.
But, just for the record Linus is a stupid name for a cat-man.
And, I can’t have character named Osmond if there is a character named Edmund.
Describe your book in one tweet!
“He was a cursed cat—short one life and I was the vampire he called friend.”
Twitter and I are not friends. I’m bad at the whole tweeting thing.
Don’t judge me.
Do you put together a playlist and/or soundtrack for your books (or for particular scenes from your books)?
Actually, we are working on a playlist!
I’m still working on some of the songs but thus far we have . . .
1. The Middle – Zedd.
2. Say You Won’t Let Go – James Arthur
3. Carry You – Ruelle, Fleurie
What is your writing Kryptonite?
My ten year old. He loves to talk to me and I never want to make him feel like what he has to say isn’t important so I tend to give him my full attention when he wants to have a conversation which can really cut into my writing time.
Also, I have a dog and she thinks she’s a lap dog when in fact she is 85lbs of “I can’t breath; someone help,” so when she climbs into my lap for loves, I’m done writing until she decides it’s time to stop suffocating me.
What’s your most useless talent?
I can tie a cherry stem with my tongue.
☆ Author Interview ☆
Ashley Chamblee
Welcome, and thank you for stopping by! Tell us a little about yourself and your writing goals.
Hi, my names Ashley. At the moment I work with special need adults. I started writing forever ago but I actually got serious about my writing in 2011 when I joined the site Wattpad and started posting my work for all to see. As for my writing goals at the moment I’m just trying to self publish a few books and get my name out there in the world. I’m hoping that this book, Eight Lives, that I’ve co-authored with Autumn Breeze will be the start to that.
Are you a planner or a pantser? How much do you know about your story before you start writing? How often does your plan change? Why does this work best for you?
I’m anything but a planner. It’s not my style at all. The only thing I knew about Eight Lives before it started to flow out was the two main characters names Edmund and Anselm. I can’t really say that the plan changes as I write because normally there is none. I think with the style and the way I am it works best because I just let the story kind of tell itself then go back and fine tune the rough edges.
Do deadlines motivate you or block you? How do you deal with them?
Deadlines are a serious block for me. Once you tell me I have to have something done by a date I will do everything but that thing until it’s the eleventh hour and I’m getting yelled at to finish my work. I supposed the only way I deal with it is by getting yelled at until I finish what I’ve started. Mostly it’s Autumn yelling at me to edit my Edmund chapters. Or even do the interviews for Eight Lives’ blog tour.
Do you schedule a certain amount of time for writing each day/week, or do you just work it in when you can? Would you like to change this, or does your current method work well for you?
As you might know Eight Lives is written with my co-author Autumn Breeze. So mostly we write together everyday but we do work around each other schedules. I have two jobs so we get a lot of writing down in the small window of time I have between my day job and my night job. Or we wait for the weekend and lock ourselves away so we can get some chapters out. I think this method works for us or at least for me because of my busy schedule.
What are your favorite genres when it comes to your own pleasure reading? Do you prefer to read ebooks or print?
I love fantasy books, horror, paranormal, and lately I’ve been getting thrillers/mystery though they aren’t always my favorite. I lean towards a lot of these genres because that’s what I write in. As for what I prefer to read it’s print. I can’t sit still and read ebooks. If I’m looking at a screen I’m just going to start doing other things and not reading at all. Funny enough that Eight Lives is more of a fantasy romance story.
Does writing energize or exhaust you?
I think it depends what I’m writing. Some books are exciting so and you just breeze through them. Others are more complex and emotional and that takes it toll. Eight Lives was one of the books I really enjoyed writing. Once we got started the story just flowed out and I really like what we got in the end.
If you could tell your younger writing-self anything, what would it be?
Just because you have an idea doesn’t mean it has to all go into the same story.
What advice would you give to newbie writers?
Write for yourself. If you’re writing a book thinking you want it to be popular or sell well. Or even get reads on a site like Wattpad you’re never going to enjoy the writing and you’ll probably end up hating the book you worked on. So write what you like. Write when you feel like. And even if it’s bad keep writing. You’ll get better with practice.
Meet the Authors
Autumn Breeze is a bestselling LGBT+ author, and current Radish Content Provider. She is also the winner of a 2015 Watty Award, a former Wattpad Star, with more than 70K followers on Wattpad who was featured in Cosmo in 2017 “My Lessons with the Sexy Dance Instructor.” In 2017 she worked as a Freelance Writer for 20th Century Fox on, “A Cure for Wellness: Seeking A Cure.”
Blog/Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Wattpad | Wattpad
Ashley Chamblee is a bestselling author with 10+ years of experience who specializes in writing horror, fantasy, paranormal, and romance with LGBT themes. Currently, she has 35K+ followers on her combined Wattpad accounts EzraWinn and HonestDying. When Ashley isn’t writing she is either working with special needs adults, playing video games, reading or spending time with friends and family.
Blood Prize, her bestselling novel is available on Amazon.
Giveaway
Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for a chance to win one of five ebook copies of After the I Do: Meeting at the Fault Line #1
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