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, A Priest, a Plague, and a Prophecy. 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, “A Priest, a Plague, and a Prophecy.” This is a single title involving a sweet man who enjoys food, plants, and books, and the manly (secretly sweet) orc warrior who falls in love with him. I am thrilled to finally publish this story. This is a sweet, low(er)-angst, no-sexy-times-but-lots-of-snuggles, sort of story. Elias is ace but wants romance, and Gurrkk is just the orc to give that to him!

As with many of my stories, this one was also simmering in the back of my mind for several years. I honestly don’t know how long but “several” seems accurate enough. I had a couple scenes rolling around without any firm foundation for them. I knew I wanted an orc, and I knew I wanted a sweet man to capture his attention. But how the story and the characters evolved took them far away from their original versions. I don’t even know if they had names or not. Elias and Gurrkk certainly came later when I finally settled down to write the darn thing.

As fate would have it, I wrote it the summer before the dreaded virus really ramped up and smacked us in the face. I finished it that winter, I think. So there I was, with a completed book, that had “plague” in the title. Ugh. So I shelved it. I just didn’t feel it was appropriate, and I feared people would think I was capitalizing off the suffering of others. Despite my story’s plague being a very small, off-screen footnote that only catapults certain events, I just felt more comfortable sitting on it. I only pulled it out and dusted it off when we got the vaccine and things seemed to settle down a bit. Now I just really want folks to know that this has nothing to do with the dreaded virus and everything to do with sweet snuggles and romantic friendships.

I enjoyed subverting expectations by not making Gurrkk a sex-crazed beast (though no shade to stories that follow that aspect… I happen to like such beasts at times, ahem), and instead make him a bit of a cinnamon roll center with an intimidating shell. He can throw down, no question, but he’d much rather laugh, eat, and play. As for Elias, well, he just wants a quiet life with his books, his plants, and plenty of food. He’s a sweet soul that wishes harm on no one. Not the likeliest candidate for an orc’s mate, but there you have it.

The rest of the characters came organically. Elias’s siblings, Gurrkk’s clan, the antagonist of the story, sort of sprang up and morphed and solidified during revisions and edits. I’m really proud of how it turned out. It was my chance to dip my toe into sweet and not be so dark all the time! I also pushed myself to look for humor and expand on it. I love books with wit and bite that make me laugh aloud but I’ve yet to find that in myself to present on paper. I think I’m getting a bit better, mostly due to my DnD friend group since adlibbing is the name of the game, and it’s always “yes… and?” I’m hoping to keep that up for even my darker books, since humor is one of the best ways to fight against despair and to remind yourself that you are human.

I am currently working hard on the final draft of the next The Shifter Chronicles. This will be book 16 (!), and will revisit the couple from book two, Love is a Whirlwind. This one is Blood of the Whirlwind, and I hope to have it ready for a January 2024 release.

As for this year, I have book 9 of The Stones of Power, Jade: First and Last available for preorder, due out in July 2023, and the first book in my Sisters of Song duology, titled Song of Flames will hopefully be ready by October. Flames will be a mmf involving two dragon mates and the woman thief who steals their hearts (instead of their treasure).

More information on my catalog can be found at my website. (Make sure to sign up for my newsletter!)

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

M.D. Grimm

Blurb

“Orcs are the answer but what is the question?”

Elias is a priest at the Temple of the Divine Sibyl. When he becomes lost in the woods after his brother’s hunting party abandons him, it’s just his luck that he’d stumble upon an angry orc caught in a trap. Unable to stomach the suffering of others, Elias throws self-preservation to the wind and frees the orc. Then Gurrkk—that’s a name?—ends up leading him to safety.

Gurrkk finds himself rather smitten by the sweet, awkward human. He’s always been fascinated with his people’s sworn enemy, and now he has a life debt to fulfill to maintain his honor.

Hiding an orc among the temple’s crypts wouldn’t have been Elias’s first choice but Gurrkk is stubborn about leaving. As they learn each other’s languages and spend more time together, Elias realizes they’ve become friends… and maybe more. And when the dying sibyl gives her last prophecy, Elias knows it wasn’t chance that brought them together, it was the gods.

But why?

This is a sweet, ace romance, so no sexy times, but plenty of snuggles and cuddles!

• Universal Buy Link: https://www.mdgrimmwrites.com/stand-alone-anthologies
• Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/125879300-a-priest-a-plague-and-a-prophecy
• Liminal Fiction (LimFic.com) Link: https://www.limfic.com/book/a-priest-a-plague-and-a-prophecy/
• QueeRomance Ink Link: https://www.queeromanceink.com/book/a-priest-a-plague-and-a-prophecy/

Bio

M.D. Grimm has wanted to write stories since 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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