Today I am so pleased to welcome M.D. Grimm to Joyfully Jay. M.D. has come to talk to us about her latest release, Red Sun. She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

Good day lovely readers! Thank you for joining me. I am M.D. Grimm and I am here to promote my newest release, “Red Sun.” This is the latest entry in The Shifter Chronicles. I am overjoyed and relieved to finally release a new book in this series. It’s been a long time coming. 2021 was quite a successful and productive year for me. I succeeded in re-releasing all books previously published with a former publishing house after much tweaking and revising. Now I can work on all brand new projects! “Red Sun” is only the first and considering how much I love it, I have a good feeling about the rest.

So… Raphael. Sweet, sweet Raphael. He’s gone through quite the transformation since I first envisioned the series and knew I wanted to write about an “unusual” wolf shifter. And the changes I made to him, in turn, changed the story. For the better. He started out as an older man haunted by the beast within him and became a young man struggling to find his identity. I think this might be the closest to a “coming of age” story that I’ve written so far. That wasn’t intentional but considering the structure of the story, it was a natural fit.

Raphael is a sheltered man of nineteen, unaware that he’s a shifter, and convinced that he’s possessed by a demon since that’s what his father believes. And his father is his entire world. I ended up making “Red Sun” a bit of an opposite story from book 2, “Love is a Whirlwind.” The bull shifter Ryan, aka Whirlwind, knows what he is and about his world because his father stuck around long enough to educate him. But there was no greater connection between the two. In stark contrast, Raphael and his father have a very close relationship because Raphael’s mother died when he was young, and his father raised him as a single parent. Neither Raphael nor his father know about shapeshifters, and Raphael suffers from that lack of knowledge, which is where Ahmes comes in. Just as Caleb from “Love is a Whirlwind,” needed to show Ryan how to be a human and live in a human world, Ahmes needed to show Raphael how to be a shifter.

However, there are aspects to how their shifting manifests that sets Ryan and Raphael apart. Ryan was born as a bull and grew up animalistic, though he does look like a normal bull. Raphael doesn’t look like a normal wolf when he shifts. I don’t want to give too much away, but suffice to say, he’s unique in a number of ways and throughout the book he must reconcile what he once believed with all that he learns along the way.

One of the best things about writing this book is reuniting with a few favorite couples from previous books. Since Raphael and Ahmes make their way toward Haven, Montana, a town founded by shifters for shifters, I get to once again revisit Xavier and Josh (Healing Minds) and Jack and Travis (Blind Devotion). It was a bit of a tight-rope balance between introducing them to new readers, and to keep the momentum of their growth going for readers who are familiar with them. But, ultimately, it was Raphael and Ahmes’s story, and the focus remained on them.

It didn’t escape my notice that due to the structure and conflict in “Red Sun,” it could easily be a metaphor for the trials of LGBTQIA youth. Raphael is, indeed, gay, and the struggle with his shifting adds to the greater context of understanding and accepting every aspect of who and what he is. And not letting anyone make him ashamed of the man he is. I was happy to journey with him and see him grow and rise to every challenge thrown at him. He ultimately finds love and acceptance and a community that embraces him. And isn’t that what we all want?

The Shifter Chronicles 1-14 (plus short story sequels) are available for purchase at Amazon (also in print!) and Smashwords. I have a newsletter that I send out monthly with all the goodies you can expect in the future. That’s the best way to find out about my current and future projects. Also, you can check out the first three chapters of “Red Sun” on my blog if you’re curious and unsure if you want to commit!

For fans of The Stones of Power series, book 8, “Sapphire: Home and Abroad” is due out in June 2022. Keep your eyes peeled for that! I’m also working diligently on the third book in Saga of the Bold People, “Resistance.”

I am booked (pun intended) solid this year, working on the next shifter book, the next stones book, a couple single titles, and the next On Wings Saga book. Wish me luck!

More information on my catalog can be found at my website.

I hope you stay safe and healthy, and may dragons guard your dreams,

M.D. Grimm

Blurb

Raphael is no ordinary wolf shifter.

Raphael knows he must be possessed by a demon. What else could explain the aggression, the physical, beastly transformations? To protect himself and others, his father locks him away. But when Raphael is nineteen, the demon gains full control and breaks free. Now Raphael is scared and desperate on the streets of El Paso, Texas, convinced he’s cursed. Then a stray cat enters his life and everything changes.

Ahmes is a cat shifter and knows there’s something off about the young shifter he’s encountered. It soon becomes apparent that the young man doesn’t know what he is, and Ahmes is determined to help and care for him. But gaining the trust of not only the fearsome wolf but the scared young man will take all his persistence.

Friendship, and the potential for more, grows between them as they travel to Haven, Montana—a town founded by shifters, for shifters, and home to a specialized counseling center, one that can help Raphael understand and accept who and what he truly is.

If that wasn’t enough, on their trail is the last person either expected—Gregor Whitefield, the commander of the Knights of the Dawn, which is an organization bent on the eradication of shapeshifters. Gregor enjoys the thrill of the hunt, determined to collect the unique blood that is crucial to Arcas’s great plan.

Raphael’s blood.

Buy Links:

• Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BC5FCMM/
• Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1096447

Bio

M.D. Grimm decided to become an author in the second grade (kind of young to make life decisions, but whatever) and nothing has changed since then (well, plenty of things, actually, but not that!). Thankfully, she has indulgent parents who let her dream, but also made sure she understood she’d need a steady job to pay the bills (they never let her forget it!).

After graduating from the University of Oregon and majoring in English (let’s be honest: useless degree, what else was she going to do with it?), she started on her writing career and couldn’t be happier.

Working by day and writing by night (or any spare time she can carve out), she enjoys embarking on romantic quests and daring adventures (living vicariously, you could say) and creating characters that always triumph against the villain (or else what’s the point?), finding their soul mate in the process.

• Author Website: https://www.mdgrimmwrites.com
• Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001710645622
• Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4574220.M_D_Grimm
• Author Liminal Fiction (LimFic.com): https://www.limfic.com/mbm-book-author/m-d-grimm/
• Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/m-d-grimm/
• Author Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/M.D.-Grimm/e/B00I0KZMY6/

Giveaway

M.D. is giving away a $10 Amazon gift card with this tour:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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