Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Battle Stations by Chris T. Kat - Blog Tour with Author Q&A and Giveaway



Author Name: Chris T. Kat
Book Name: Battle Stations
Series: Alliances
Book: Two
True series – should be read in order
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Anne Cain

Release Date: October 12, 2015

Blurb: 

The fight to eradicate the Tash’Ba breeding stations continues, with spunky Commander Berit Turner and his Nadisc mate, Tom, in the thick of things. Sometimes it seems as though they’ll never locate and destroy them all. And there’s always the fear that the Tash’Ba have something else, something worse—if that’s even possible—lurking ahead.

As if things aren’t bad enough, Berit’s less than stellar past is threatening to bite him in the ass, and they’ve received alarming new information. The Tash’Ba Queen needs to use Earth as a place to hatch the egg of her successor. And if what she says is true, the new Queen will be even more voracious and cruel than her predecessor.

Berit, along with his team—Tom, Carson, Niyara, and Fleur—must do everything in their power to stop her. If they fail, Earth will be lost forever.

Pages or Words: 200 pages

Categories: M/M Romance, Science Fiction

Excerpt:

Veering to the left, I allowed myself a quick glance over my shoulder. Not that I saw any chance of the elgoth having lost interest in me, because those fucking beasts never lost interest once they’d set their sights on prey, but sometimes a new prey might attract them more, which I’d have welcomed right then.
My lungs burned and my leg muscles smarted like hell from running like a rabbit through thick brushes and overgrown ferns. I even zigzagged around. Too bad I couldn’t find a rabbit’s hole to hide in.
I had no idea where Tom, Carson, and the rest of the team were, either.
We’d been separated before—it happened when gigantic Tash’Ba war beasts decided we looked good enough to eat—but I’ve never liked it. No, scratch that. Every time it happened, it put the fear of God in me. A gust of warm breath, mingled with some spittle, sprayed my neck. I squeaked and swerved to the right, vaulting over a stunted tree trunk. Seconds later, wood splinters sped past my head, and I lost my footing on the vibrating ground.
I sprawled facedown in the mud, panic sending bolts of confusing messages through my body. Maybe… maybe if I kept completely still, the elgoth wouldn’t touch me? The first time I’d made the acquaintance of one of these towering forty-foot-tall creatures, Tom had instructed me not to move, because they wouldn’t be able to locate us.
It had worked on Ligador and a couple of other breeding stations, but last time a team member tried this approach, the elgoth had roared and ripped him apart. All Tash’Ba war beasts seemed to be altering their tactics, making them even more unpredictable than before.
The mud around me sloshed, almost causing me to inhale some of it. I suppressed the urge to cough and kept my mouth shut as tight as I’d ever done, even though a whimper threatened to spill over my lips any second.
Another gust of foul breath struck my neck. My hair stood on end, my muscles locked in some kind of rigid stupor. That was it. I’d end my life as a morsel for an elgoth.
A blast echoed from the south, and the beast’s breath vanished from my neck. Gunfire followed the blast, and voices filtered through my terrified haze. They’d run right into the elgoth if I didn’t warn them. But… if I moved, or raised my voice, the elgoth would bite my head off. Literally.


Buy the book:



Q & A with author Chris T. Kat


Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Chris T. Kat author of Battle Stations (Alliances, Book 2).
Hi Chris, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.


     1)      Do you pay attention to literary criticism? If so, how do you handle it?

That depends on the person criticizing. There are some reviewers I’ve gotten to know and I value their opinion. These are usually people who write well-thought out reviews without personally attacking an author if the book isn’t what they expected. Most reviewers point out what they liked and what didn’t work for them. If I read those reviews, I try to understand their POV, and often they’re right in their criticism. I do my best to keep the critic in mind and work on my writing. However, I’ll never change my voice just because someone didn’t like the way a story turned out.


      2)     How do you come up with your titles?

Ah, titles, they’re a pain in the ass… Well, at least they are for me. Usually, I write the story, and for me to find it on the computer, it simply receives a letter, or it’s titled after the main character’s name. Awesome, huh? lol
While I write the story, I have some vague ideas for titles and scribble them down. That means the main point of the story has become crystal clear for me, so it’s easier to give the story a title. Sometimes, like in A Purrfect Match, it’s a bit of a word play. Mostly, though, I try to give my books a short title that shows the main obstacle / plot.
As a side-note: Battle Stations was supposed to be titled Final Battle but there’s another book with that title listed at DsP, so they asked me if I could change the title. Of course I drew a total blank and asked my editor, Erika Orrick for help. Her husband was actually the one who came up with Battle Stations. J


      3)     What new authors have grasped your interest?

The last book by a completely new author was Family of Lies by Sam Argent—I really, really loved that book!
I love Liv Olteano’s works and wish she’d write faster. ;-) I haven’t read a lot of books by new authors lately, though some authors are new to me. There are for example KJ Charles and Jordan L. Hawk.


      4)     What is the hardest part about writing?

 This will sound odd, but the hardest part about writing is finding time to write. I can only  write on the weekends, so my time is very limited. The weekends are also for our family, to  play with the kids, or make trips, or spend time in our garden. Sometimes I don’t write for  weeks—especially in the summer months—because there’s so much other stuff I like to do.
 When I have time to write, the hardest thing is to stop on Sunday and then re-start the next  Saturday. I always have to find my way back into the story and the flow of things. Once I’m  back into everything, I have to stop again already!
 Though lately it was impossible for me to find time for writing at all…


       5)     Name your four most important food groups.

Hmm, now that’s difficult. Since I got diagnosed with diabetes, my eating habits have changed, so my most important food groups include vegetables, meat (even though I’m not really a meat-lover) and eggs, bread, and most importantly—cake! Yes, I know that cake isn’t a food group, but I love it, so there. ;-)





Meet Chris T. Kat:

Chris T. Kat lives in the middle of Europe, where she shares a house with her husband of many years and their two children. She stumbled upon the M/M genre by luck and was swiftly drawn into it. She divides her time between work, her family—which includes chasing after escaping horses and lugging around huge instruments such as a harp—and writing. She enjoys a variety of genres, such as mystery/suspense, paranormal, and romance. If there's any spare time, she happily reads for hours, listens to audiobooks or does cross stitch.
Where to find Chris T. Kat:



Tour Dates & Stops:


Rafflecopter Prize: Two print copies of ‘Breeding Stations’

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