Today I am so pleased to welcome Gail Carriger to Joyfully Jay. Gail has come as part of the Coastal Magic Blog Tour. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

 

coastal magic badge 2020Hi there!

I’m so excited to post here as part of the Coastal Magic Blog Tour. Thank so much Jay for hosting us. This is my first year at Coastal Magic, and I’m really looking forward to the virtual event. I think it’s going to be be lots of fun.

So I’m offering something today that they tell you never to do, a peek at the confession near the end of my first San Andreas Shifter book, The Sumage Solution. Why? Because it’s one of my most favorite things I’ve ever written. Also, this book is kinda blue, and this was one of the best bits that didn’t have any crass language in it. (I wasn’t sure how Jay would feel about *that* kind of sample.) This book is available on most platforms, and if you want to learn how this pack first got together and how the nerdy Alpha met his merman, there’s a free short story offered via my website, Marine Biology.

In The Sumage Solution Beta werewolf Bryan is sent to register the new pack with the local government processing center and meets sumage and noted eccentric, Maximian Barker. Bryan is a massive mild mannered softy while Max is, entirely, the opposite. Sparks (and other things) fly. I hope you enjoy this sample!

Coastal Magic Convention takes place virtually February 18-21, 2021. You can find out more about the convention, as well as how you can join in for the panels and events, by checking out the site here and some of the ways you can get involved virtually here


Excerpt

Max knew exactly what Bryan needed. But those three words stuck in his throat. Too corny. Cheap by the very virtue that they were only words. His mouth was so full of his own wanting that it choked him. He feared the stupid might spill out first and ruin everything.

Finally, he said, “Talking is usually so much harder for you. But I find, with this…I find…”

Bryan shrugged. “Feelings come easier to me. I know what you are to me.

“If I asked, would you tell me why? Not show me, tell me.”

“Do you need that?” Bryan shifted under his cheek, uncomfortable with the idea, not their position in the bed.

“Yes.” Max nuzzled into that soft chest hair, listening to the brush of it against his chin. Taking comfort and giving it as he felt Bryan relax under the instinctive caress.

“Then I’d try. But I won’t be good at it.”

“Please. Tell me. Why?”

Bryan spoke, voice hesitant and shaking in the darkness. He was careful about his words, as if they were small, sharp fragments of glass to be picked up and disposed of with caution.

“Because you smell like caramel. Because you fizz on my tongue. Because all your angles are beautiful and you’ve no idea. Because you tilt your chin up when you mock me and lower your gaze when you’re pushed too far but you can’t stop the one from turning into the other. Because you stand too close and it could be a challenge to me, or a test of yourself, or just because you can’t resist my warmth. So I’m always left with fear and hope in equal measure. Because you speak before you think, but you think too much, and sometimes you stop and my world shakes with possibility. Because when I’m with you, there is always more, more, more. So much, it’s overwhelming and not enough at the same time. It’s like running and shifting and running again from perfection to pain to power to pleasure, and I could no more stop loving you than I could stop becoming a wolf. And sometimes, I wonder if this even is love or just a new state of being. As if I have a before-Max, and werewolf, and after-Max. As if a gene for being yours got turned on. And maybe I’d turn it off if I could, but this is me now. I’m yours. Why fight it just for what the world thinks we should be? I’d rather fight the world.”

“Okay,” said Max. “Okay.” His face was wet. He buried himself further into Bryan’s chest hair, the little strands sticking to his damp skin.

“Can I stop explaining now?” The deep voice was a plaintive rumble under his ear.

“Yes.”

“You believe me?”

“I do.” So much he had been given. So many more words, so awkward from a man who already had what he needed. For all Max’s imperfections had already reshaped themselves into paw prints. And Max, who spoke so much nonsense so very often, was silent when faced with the risk that was truth unsaid.

“I’m afraid.” A small truth first.

“Of the responsibility of me loving you? Max, it’s too late. You don’t control that, anyway. You never did.”


Blurb

Max needs 3 things – magic, a boyfriend, and a wolf.

Bad boy mage with an attitude problem meets a sexy werewolf with a white knight complex in this charming gay romance from a New York Times best selling author.

SUMAGE

Max fails at magic, relationships, and life. So he works as a sumage, cleaning up other mages’ messes. The job sucks and he’s in no mood to cope with redneck werewolves. Unfortunately, there’s something irresistible about the sexy muscled Beta visiting his office.

WEREWOLF

Bryan is Beta to a new pack in a new city. He’s also closeted. Except, there’s a good chance Max might be reason enough to come out, if Bryan can only get the sumage to go on a date.

Everyone knows werewolves hate mages. Bryan is determined to prove everyone wrong, even the mage himself. Sparks (and other things) fly.


Bio

Gail Carriger writes comedies of manners mixed with steampunk and urban fantasy (plus sexy queer joy as G. L. Carriger). Her books include the Parasol Protectorate, Custard Protocol, Tinkered Stars, and San Andreas Shifter series for adults, and the Finishing School series for young adults. Also nonfiction: The Heroine’s Journey: For Writers, Readers, and Fans of Pop Culture. She is published in many languages, has over a million books in print, over a dozen New York Times and USA Today bestsellers, and starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus, and Romantic Times.

Her debut made Audible’s Best list, was a Publishers Weekly Best Book, an IndieBound Notable, and a Locus Recommended Read. She has received the ALA’s Alex Award, the Prix Julia Verlanger, the Elbakin Award, the Steampunk Chronicle’s Reader’s Choice Award, and a Starburner Award. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, cephalopods, and tea.