Author Name: Chris
T. Kat
Book Name: Battle
Stations
Series:
Alliances
Book: Two
True series –
should be read in order
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26453391-battle-stations
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’
Thank you for having me today!
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