Today I am so pleased to welcome M.D. Gregory to Joyfully Jay. M.D. has come to share an exclusive her upcoming release, A Merman’s Tail, part of the Grim & Sinister Delights collection. She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

 

Hello everyone, my name is M.D. Gregory, also known as Meg Bawden, and I’m here today to share an excerpt from my latest release, A Merman’s Tail. Based on The Little Mermaid fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, this story is a dark and twisted version with murder and kink.


Excerpt

Lyric

I stared at the object in my hand and the weird shape of it. I’d never quite seen anything like it before. Long and round at the tip with two circular objects hanging from underneath one end, I couldn’t quite understand what the people above the water used this for.

“Do you know what that is?” Pru asked, his waist length hair dancing in the water around his head. I once had hair as long as his before I sheared it off with a blade I’d found in Father’s hunting weapon vault. Now mine barely reached past my shoulders

“What?” I asked, turning the human object in my hand.

“It’s what humans use to mate.” Pru swam around me, flicking his emerald tail like he always did when he wanted to show off. His scales were prettier than mine, and they sparkled like lost treasure under the sunlight that filtered through the water.

“I don’t understand.” I stared at the human contraption and turned it around in my hands again. How did humans mate with this? It was pink and almost see-through.

“It’s a phallus!” Pru said, chuckling. He did a swirl in front of me before he swam closer and pointed at the tip of the long part. “That’s where their essence comes out. It impregnates their females.”

“Where?” I stared down at the end of it, squinting. “I don’t see any essence.”

“And this….” Pru wrapped his hands around the two round sections of the phallus, squeezing them. “This is where the essence is created.”

“How?” I turned it around in my hands again, but it seemed solid.

“What you have in your hand is fake, though. The real thing is connected to the human males. Here.” Pru patted himself just below his belly, near where his tail began. “That’s why they wear pants. So they don’t spray it everywhere and impregnate all the human women.”

“That sounds scary,” I murmured, attempting to decide whether I should drop the object or not, but it was human, and I always kept everything that I found from above in my treasure box.

“They are. Human males are very terrifying. Alas, it’s why I don’t visit the surface often. They are scary beings, Lyric. You don’t want to go up there.”

I did, though, and had since I’d found my first piece of treasure. Mother explained that it was a doll, and even though one of the legs had been ripped off and the hair was twisted and matted, it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. That was when I’d first wished I had legs, like the one the doll had, except I wanted two and not just one. I’d told Mother that, and she’d laughed and patted my head before telling me that I could never be human.

“What is this, then?” I asked, holding up the object toward my older brother. “Why do you think they have something shaped like their breeding tool?”

“I don’t know.” Pru shrugged, his green eyes glimmering in mischief. “Humans are strange.”

I shook my head. As far as I was concerned, they were interesting—a mystery I wanted to solve.

“It’s your birth date today,” Pru said, as though I wasn’t aware that I’d finally turned twenty-five summers old. “Are you going to do it?”

I knew what he was talking about, of course: the journey. When our kind turned twenty-five, we finally had the right to travel to the surface and feel the sun on our faces for the first time, breathe in the air that the humans used. We could never stay above water for long, but we were taught that as soon as our lungs hurt, it was time to return to the depths, away from the dangers that were humans. Our elders told us stories of the humans, and how they killed without mercy. They told us to always be wary of them, to hide whenever we saw them in their floating contraptions, but I’d felt anything but fear when I listened to the stories. I wanted to meet one and to understand how they lived their lives. I wanted to be one of them.

“Yes. I’m supposed to meet Grandfather at the throne room soon.”

“Now, actually,” Pru said, grinning. He’d always had such a beautiful face, with high cheekbones, sparkling eyes, and a pretty mouth. The men and women of Atlantia loved him, though not as much as they loved our other brother, Crown Prince Wily. Our eldest brother was the epitome of merfolk. He was regal in all the right ways. “Grandfather sent me to get you.”

“Oh.” I stared down at the object in my hand, the phallus, and frowned. I didn’t want to lose it, and if any other merfolk saw it, they’d throw it in the Pits: the darkest and deepest trench of the sea. They hated everything to do with humans. “I’ll take this to my treasure box, and then I’ll go.”

Pru rolled his eyes. “Why do you keep their possessions?”

“Because they are beautiful,” I murmured, running my hand down the phallus and over the circular ball shapes attached.


Blurb

Lyric waits twenty-five years to rise to the water’s surface with his father’s permission. When he finally breaches the ocean, he unexpectedly sees a most breathtaking human. A rogue wave destroys the human’s boat, and Lyric saves him, taking him to land. Since that fateful day, Lyric longs to find his human once more. He is even prepared to make a great sacrifice to finally meet him again.

Ethan Turmont comes from a family of fantasy hunters, or at least that’s what the locals call them. His father has always been adamant that mermaids exist, and he has searched the ocean for years, looking for the mythical creature that made them the laughing stock of their town. A night out in the boat leaves Ethan fatherless after a storm, but it makes him as determined as his father once was to solve the oceanic mystery. He knows a merman saved his life, once upon a time, even if his friends think he’s gone as crazy as his father.

When Ethan meets a voiceless man, there’s something familiar about him, and he’s more beautiful than any woman Ethan has admired. He’s never been attracted to a man before. Between his newfound desire for someone of the same gender, and his obsession with finding the merman who saved his life—so he can take his tail as proof—Ethan has a new view on life.

You can find the story here: mybook.to/amermanstail


Bio

Blood. Gore. Criminals. Romance.

M.D. Gregory loves it all. She believes everyone deserves to find love, even those characters with questionable motives. As an alternative pen name of M/M romance author Meg Bawden, M.D. Gregory writes bloodier romances with more violence, kink, and bad boys. Her characters are not good guys. They live for danger and thrive on pain and retribution. But even those sorts of men fall in love, right?

She writes in various genres, from contemporary to fantasy, so no matter what your dark taste craves, you’ll find it here.


Giveaway

M.D. has brought a Kindle copy of A Merman’s Tail to give away to one lucky reader. Just leave a comment at the end of the post to enter. The contest ends on Sunday, November 1st at 11:59 pm ET.


  • By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
  • Winners will be selected by random number. No purchase necessary to win. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.
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  • Winners may be announced on the blog following the contest. By entering the contest you are agreeing to allow your name to be posted and promoted as the contest winner by Joyfully Jay.
  • Prizes will be distributed following the giveaway either by Joyfully Jay or the person/organization donating the prize.
  • All book prizes are in electronic format unless otherwise specified.
  • By entering you are agreeing to hold Joyfully Jay harmless if the prize or giveaway in some way negatively impacts the winner.
  • Readers may only enter once for each contest.  Duplicate entries for the same giveaway will be ignored. In the event of technical problems with the blog during the contest, every effort will be made to extend the contest deadline to allow for additional entries.
  • Void where prohibited by law.
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