Archive for Always Ready
New book….
In case you were interested in getting Always Ready as a single release, it’s available now at all 3rd party sellers. 🙂 This one was in the Semper Fidelis anthology.
New Covers…
I’ve had these covers for a while and have just forgotten to share them here. Sorry about that, but here you go.
The first is from the Semper Fidelis anthology which will be out in February from Totally Bound. It features stories about Marines, Navy and Coast Guard soldiers. 🙂
This second cover is for my story, Always Ready, when it comes out as a single release. Not sure of the date on that. But I do love this cover. My story features a Coast Guard rescue diver and a Bering Sea crab fisherman. 🙂 (And I’ll admit to watching way too many episodes of Deadliest Catch…lmao)
And this third cover goes to my Tarot/Fortune PAX story, Deserves to be Adored. This one will be out probably in February at Amber Allure. When I get more info on it, I’ll let you know. 🙂
I do believe that’s all I have to share with you at the moment.
I want to thank all of you for reading my books and my blog throughout 2014. I wouldn’t be able to do what I love without your support. There’s going to be just as much fun and excitement in 2015, with some sequels coming out that you’ve been waiting impatiently for. lol
Trailing Air, Book 4 in the Preternatural series (Rover’s story) will be out in the spring. I’ll be writing Edward’s story as well this year. He’ll finally get his own happy ending and I hope you all love that. Though his story will be either the second or third book in a new series I’m writing, but it is a spin-off from the Home series. So you’ll be seeing some favorite characters/couples again. And meeting some new characters as well. 🙂
I hope you all had a safe and happy New Year’s.
Wednesday’s Work in Progress…
I know this is usually the day I post the current story I’m working on, but I’m working on a Tiffany story at the moment, so I don’t really have anything new to show you. I do love all the suggestions everyone is giving me for the next blog story. Still not sure what I’m going to pick, but I’ll figure it out in the next day or two. And I’ll start it next week…I’m pretty sure I will.
Good news. My Coast Guard story, Always Ready, is being contracted by TEB for one of their military anthologies. The antho is tentatively titled Always Faithful and will feature stories from the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard. It’ll be out sometime in 2014. There’ll be another antho titled Stand at Attention which will feature stories about men in the Army. 🙂 So that’s awesome news. My story will be released in the antho first, then as a stand alone later on. Also, the antho will be out in print. Woot!
I’m kind of thinking that Always Ready will be the first in a series of books I’m sort of calling Unheralded Heroes. At least one main character in each story will be a member of the military, but they’ll have a job or a position that doesn’t get much attention. Like Dean, my Coast Guard rescue swimmer. I plan on doing a pararescue jumper, who serves in the Air Force. They’re the guys who go in to rescue downed pilots or special ops guys who need to be brought out. 🙂 I have an idea for a third book, but I haven’t totally decided on which branch of the military my one guy will be from and exactly what his job will be. 🙂 We’ll have to see how it goes.
Well, I hope you all have a great Wednesday…and I’ll keep an eye on the comments about the new blog story. See which one seems to get more support. 🙂
Monday…Monday….
Great news! Always Ready is done and submitted. Now just comes the waiting part to see if they want it for their anthology or not. If not, I’ll either publish it with them as a stand-alone or see about sending it somewhere else. 🙂 I’m not worried about it. My guys will find a home somewhere…lol
So my M/F pen name has a website now. www.tiffanyaaron.com Please stop by and check it out, even if you don’t read M/F stories any more. 🙂  I plan on posting on that blog Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I don’t have time to post there any more than that…lol. Posting every weekday here, and trying to write takes up a lot of time.
Now I have to start on Fallen: New York, my 5th book in the Fallen series. It’s M/F….so if you want to know more about it, you can stop by Tiffany’s site. But I need to have it done by August 1st, so I’ll be writing like crazy on that. But I’ll also be working on Blindsided, the 4th book in the International Sports series, and Remove the Space Between Us (whose title will probably be shortened when I sub it…lol), the 1st book in my Rags to Riches series. That one is almost halfway done and needs to be turned in by Sept 1st.
I have books scheduled out through December of 2014 with Total e-Bound. Alternating TA and Tiffany books, but I’m sure there’ll be other stories snuck in around the main ones. Plus I’ll have books coming out at MLR Press and Amber Allure when I can. 🙂
I think I’m going to be wrapping Hearts on the Line up this week. Then I’ll work on adding more to it before I submit it to Amber Allure. Hearts is long enough, it’ll be released in print as well so that’s a bonus. I decided I’ll do that since it’s already been out in installments here. If I get a chance to write another serial for Total E-bound, it’ll be new and not something I’ve posted on my blog before.
Well, I have a lot of stuff to do, so I have to get cracking. Hope you all have a marvelous Monday.
Wednesday’s Work in Progress….
Well..I’m still working on Always Ready this week, plus a M/F story for my other pen name. I’m not sure if you’d want to read an excerpt from that or not.  Of course, as soon as I get some last things to my web mistress for my Tiffany site, I’ll be posting Wednesday’s WIPs there for my M/F stuff, and if you’re inclined, you could run over there to check it out. 🙂 But for now, I really don’t have anything to post for you today. I don’t want to give away too much on Always Ready…lol. It’s only a short story. Don’t want to share all the good parts before it comes out…lol
But things are rolling along on all three stories that I’m working on…Blindsided (with Devon Rhodes), Always Ready, and Fallen: New York. I want all three of them done by the end of July. We’ll see how well that goes…lol.
I hope you all have a great Wednesday.
Already the second week in July…
I can’t believe we’re already into the second week of July. Where the heck did the first week go? I was crazy busy the last four days, but now I really have to buckle down and get some writing done. Too many stories and not enough time…lol
Still finishing up edits on New Orleans for my Tiffany Aaron pen name. Working on finishing up Always Ready and Blindsided. Also, have to start working on New York, the 5th Fallen book. 🙂 Once all those are done, I can start other stories. And yes, I do plan on continuing the Preternatural series. Rover’s story is on my list to be worked on hopefully in August. 🙂 Then I have three shorter stories planned for that series as well.
I should probably get to working. I hope you all have a marvelous Monday.
Wednesday Work in Progress…
I thought I’d give you another peek at Always Ready, my Coast Guard/crab fisherman story. 🙂 I’m finally getting to the exciting part…and that’s not the sex…lol.  Hopefully it’ll be done by the weekend. Enjoy!
Always Ready copyright c. 2013 T.A. Chase
Excerpt-
“Yes, I did. I heard about the call you guys got last week. I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”
Dean shifted, moving a little closer to Phil. “There was nothing we could do. He’d been in the water for too long. I hate jumping into the water, only to lift a body out of it.”
Phil hugged Dean tightly. “I know, love, and you haven’t slept a wink since then, have you?”
“I keep seeing his face. I hate that part of the job, yet I wouldn’t do anything else for all the money in the world.”
“I know.”
He felt the same way about crab fishing. Being out on the deck of a crab boat was one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, but he loved it. The freezing temperatures, the lurking danger just waiting for a chance to bite him in the ass thrilled him almost as much as getting fucked by Dean did. Yet before he met Dean, Phil would’ve said that his job was the most exciting thing in his life.
“Why don’t you sleep for a little while?”
Dean didn’t reply, but Phil felt the way his breathing had slowed and deepened, clueing Phil in on the fact that Dean had fallen asleep. Phil wasn’t worried though. When Dean woke up in the middle of the night, reaching to take him again, Phil would spread his legs for him, and enjoy every minute of lost sleep.
They had all weekend to fuck and talk. Phil hadn’t wanted to bring up the unsuccessful rescue attempt, but he also didn’t want Dean to think Phil didn’t care or didn’t pay attention to what was going on in Dean’s life. They didn’t get to see each other every day like most couples, and Dean rarely talked about his missions: good or bad.
Phil had figured out that it was just Dean’s way. The man never bragged about his job, and how he went into harm’s way every mission to save another human’s life. Dean didn’t see himself as a hero. He was simply a man doing something he was good at, nothing more and nothing less.
Most Coasties didn’t think of themselves as heroes, but there wasn’t a crabber in Alaska who wouldn’t buy one of them a drink if they ran into a Coastie at a bar. Phil had run into his share of arrogant rescue swimmers who thought they could conquer the Bering Sea. All of them had come to learn the harsh truth about that area of water.
She could be never be tamed or broken to man’s will, not by any paltry human, no matter how smart or strong.
As Phil listened to Dean breathe, he thought about the only female he would ever love. To most, the Bering Sea was simply a body of water, separating North America from Russia. But to those who lived along her shores and made their living upon her water, she was a glorious female with all the nurturing aspects of a mother and the capriciousness of a tease.
Actually, the Bering Sea was a raging bitch, and no man could predict what she was going to do day-to-day, much less minute-by-minute. Phil had grown up on a crab boat, and had spent most of his life out on the sea. He’d seen the sun rise over water as smooth as a piece of blue glass, and that same sun would set on a hurricane with winds pushing the ice against hulls as if it was hell bent on crumbling the steel like paper.
Boats were overturned during storms like that, and the Coasties were the only people around to fly into the howling winds to find the men left floating in the freezing water. Sometimes when Dean jumped into that soul-chilling liquid, he got there in time and they would wench the survivor up to the helicopter in a harness.
Other times, they were too late to save anyone. Sometimes, the men who went into the water from their boats never climbed out of it. Their bodies never returned to their families, and those were the ones that haunted Dean while he slept. Phil knew that only because of one night they’d spent together in Juneau.
They’d fallen asleep after some mind-blowing sex, then Phil had been awakened by Dean’s mumbling and thrashing around the bed. He’d reached out to shake Dean awake, but then he’d heard Dean whisper, “I couldn’t save him.”
A cod fishing boat had sunk off the coast a few days before they’d met up in Juneau, and Dean had gone on that mission. The word had gone through the fleets of crabbers and fishermen that three men were lost. The Coasties had saved the other two, but the three men hadn’t had time to put on their immersion suits before hitting the water. And even during the summer, the Bering Sea was cold, so going into it was a death sentence if not rescued soon enough.
Dean’s comment said while he was still asleep made Phil understand that each man lost haunted Dean. His lover rarely celebrated the ones he saved. Phil asked him once how many successful rescues he had. Dean had shook his head and said he only counted the ones lost.
Start of July….
Here’s the cover for Part Two of Every Shattered Dream. There is a difference between this one and the first cover. When you see them all together in a row, you’ll understand what the difference is. 🙂
I can’t believe today is the first of July. Where did the first six months of the year go?  lol I’m not sure if I want the next six months to fly by as fast. Crazy. 🙂
So today, I have three sets of edits and four interviews to do, plus start my next Fallen book, New York (Tiffany Aaron), finish up Always Ready, and do the next installment of Hearts for tomorrow. I’m hoping I can get them done today, but we’ll have to see…lol. I want the interviews done, Fallen started, and Hearts done by the time I go to bed tonight.
I hope you all have a great Monday. 🙂
Stealing Life is available again….
For those of you who haven’t read Stealing Life yet, it’s available again at Total e-Bound. Click here to check it out. 🙂 If you have already read it, don’t feel obligated to pick this version up. I didn’t really change much in it and I didn’t add anything, so you could read the old version and still be fine. 🙂 Though this version will be coming out in print at some point in the fall, I believe. Yay!  lol
Next to come out will be Chasing the King of the Mountains co-written with Devon Rhodes. It’ll be out next week on the 5th. It’s available now for immediate download and a discount if you’re a member of TEB’s VIP program, which I’m pretty sure just means you have to sign up for their newsletter…lol.
And this is the cover for Part One of Every Shattered Dream, my serial coming out at TEB. Part One comes out on August 23rd, and it’ll be free, though I actually think it’ll be .99 cents at Amazon for some reason only Amazon knows…lol. Click here to check it out. But if you download it from TEB, it’s free. The other four parts will be coming out every two weeks or so. Â I used the songs Riding With Private Malone by David Ball, and Dress Blues by Jason Isbell as inspiration for this story. Â I’m really hoping you like it. To be honest, it’s been on my to be written list for a long time, and when the opportunity came up to write the serial, I thought Dream would work out perfectly for it.
Also, for those of you who might still read M/F stories, my paranormal story, Fallen:Detroit, under my other pen name, Tiffany Aaron, is coming out August 23rd as well. Click here to check it out. It’s just on the coming soon page, not up for pre-order or anything like that yet. 🙂 I hope if you do read M/F, you give my Tiffany stories a try…lol. If you don’t read M/F stories anymore, that’s all right. I won’t force you to buy my M/F books…lmao.
So that seems to be all the news I have today. I’m working on Final Line Edits for the other four parts of Every Shattered Dream, and I’m working on Always Ready, my coast guard/crab fisherman story. Plus I’m also working on Blindsided, which is the 4th book in our International Sports series. This one takes place in Australia…yay!…lol. That’s what my busy weekend looks like.
I hope you all have a great weekend.
Wednesday’s Work in Progress…
Okay…so I finished Dream Part five yesterday. Yay! Now I can get working on my coast guard story, Always Ready. I know I shared a snippet of it with you a while ago, but I’m really hoping to get it finished by the end of the week. We’ll have to see how that goes. Also, I have to work on Blindsided, the 4th book in our Sports series. 🙂
Instead I thought I’d share a snippet from a story titled Lyva’s Chance. It’s the first in a four book series that I’m trying to find the time to write…lol. Goodness knows when that will be. 🙂 It takes place in a world where vampyres and lycans are known to exist, plus there are other things in the world worse than those two species. 🙂 Now I wrote this a while ago, so when I get around to finishing it, I’ll have to go back through and clean it up.
Lyva’s Chance copyright c. 2013 T.A. Chase
Excerpt:
The half-breed growled and maybe that small act of defiance in the face of certain death made me do what I did. Maybe it was because I saw a little of myself in the outcast. More than likely it was because I was fucking tired of listening to them piss and moan about what was happening. They were going to take their anger out on a weakened creature.
Pushing away from the wall, I placed myself between Oliver and the injured wolf. The Alpha bared his teeth at me and snarled. I didn’t posture or try to act tough. I stood calm and solid on my feet. I didn’t invite an attack, but I wasn’t going to back down if one came my way.
“This is why they’ve herded us into camps. This is why they think they’re better than us. We prove our animal nature each time we turn on our own. If you wish to kill, you must wait until he heals.”
“Who are you to stand between an Alpha and his prey,” Oliver growled.
“I’m no one.”
I wasn’t going to tell them the truth. Whirling, I scooped the breed over my shoulder and stalked from the building. The speed of my departure must have shocked them because no one came after us. I carried the younger lycan through the camp, keeping to the shadows. The guards never bothered me. I used my power to conceal our presence from them.
I made it to my den without incident. My den was a cave in the side of the mountain that created a natural barrier for the camp. I guess the mortals figured none of us would try to climb the sheer rock face. They were right about that but there were caves with tunnels winding through the mountains leading out of the camp to freedom. I’d investigated them all. Escape routes were planned for when I needed to leave.
I laid the breed down on my bed. As I stripped what was left of his clothes off, I called to my sister.
“Larissa, I can feel you. Come and help me.”
The kid groaned as I eased a piece of fabric from a deep wound.
“What lost cause have you decided to champion now, dear brother?” Larissa’s pale hand dropped on my shoulder.
“Draw some water and purify it. There is a spring in the cave behind this one. Go through that tunnel.” I gestured with my head towards the back of my den. While I gave her orders, I catalogued his wounds.
Most lycan healed quickly, but it was possible the young man’s half-mortal blood slowed the healing process. Larissa knelt beside me with a bowl of water and some towels.
“Can you start washing the blood off? I need to see if there is any internal damage.”
Larissa nodded. Surprise jolted through me. My sister wasn’t shallow or unfeeling, but she was fastidious. She didn’t like getting her hands dirty.
I caught the gaze of the injured man. His green eyes were hazy with pain. Yet I could see he understood what was going on.
“I must enter your body to see if there is any damage internally. Unless you can tell me,” I explained.
A slight negative move of his head told me he couldn’t. Placing my hands on his chest, I closed my eyes. I hated healing. Leaving my body and entering another scared me on a deep level. A level I’d never told anyone about. I feared I would never return to my own body.
I sank into the bone and flesh of the lycan beneath my hands. Racing through his body, I found bruises and tears, but no life threatening damage. A darkness hung over the part I called the soul. I didn’t see that part of people very often when I healed them. None of the injuries were ones I felt the need to heal. Time would take care of them all. I pulled away slowly, leaving just a little energy behind to help his body.
Opening my eyes, I saw his widen. Mine must have been glowing. Larissa finished cleaning his body as I started to bandage his wounds. His gaze slid from me to my sister. A gasp burst from his lips and he cringed away.
“She won’t hurt you.” I put a hand on his shoulder. “Sleep and heal.”
Sending a little more energy into him, I pushed him to rest.
There wasn’t much fight left in him. With a soft whimper, he fell asleep. I motioned for Larissa to follow me as I moved closer to the front of the den.
“What happened to him, brother?” Larissa sank with effortless grace to sit beside me. I hunkered down and stared out into the darkened camp.
“The mortal guards caught him and roughened him up. They dropped him at the building where the Alphas were meeting. Oliver was going to finish the job and kill him. He’s a half-breed. Mortal father and lycan mother. It seems neither side wants him.” Nothing moved in the waning hours of the night.
The mortal guards feared the dark. Stranger creatures than lycan haunted the shadows. Turning to look at Larissa, I acknowledged that I was one of those creatures.
Larissa was my half-sister if anyone wanted to get technical. I was a half-breed. Only my mother was vampyre and my father was lycan. Larissa’s mother fell in love with my father and somehow God allowed their union to bear fruit.
Larissa’s pale eyes studied me. “Are you sympathizing with him?”
I didn’t want to answer her. “How did you get in here?”
“You’re dodging the question. There are no walls capable of keeping me out just as these walls can’t keep you in. I’ve never understood why you choose to stay here with these animals.” Larissa waved an elegant hand towards a slinking shadow.
My eyesight was far keener than a normal lycan. The shadow sharpened into a mortal guard making his way from where some of the females lived. I shook my head. Danger can drive a man to do things he might not otherwise do. Time would show the guard what messing with the lycan females could do to a human.
“Who is the animal?”
“Stop. Both are animals. They kill their weak and destroy any who are different.” Anger burned in her eyes.
“Vampyres do the same, Larissa. Every species on this planet feed off pain and weakness.” I sighed.
It was an old argument we had. Larissa grew up in our mother’s Enclave where those who were different were welcomed. Freaks were given the chance to flourish. I applauded their openness and ability to love. I grew up in my father’s world. The lycan scorned differences. The strongest always ruled and the weak swallowed their pride or died.
Weakness never found a place in me and I could never swallow my pride. Outcast and lone wolf, I lived as I chose. When I got lonely, I’d head for my mother’s home. There was always someone willing to spend time with a surly wolf.
“I stay here because I know something important is going to happen. All my visions tell me I need to be here.” I flexed my hand. The bones had knitted back together after the guards broke it, but it still ached on nights like this. The pain served as a barometer for the tension in the camp.
“Do you stay because of him?” She gestured to the sleeping form behind me.
Shrugging, I admitted, “I don’t know, sister dear. I have never seen his face in my visions. I’ll know soon enough. When the geas holding me here releases, I’ll leave.”
“Good. Mother and your father are worried about you. Have you fed tonight?” Larissa stood.
I gained my feet as well. “Tell Mother and Father I’m fine. My reason for being here will be over soon and I’ll join you at the Enclave.” I hugged her. “I ate earlier.”
“Not that rotten crap the mortals give the others?” Worry crept into her voice.
“No, I left the camp. I brought down a deer. Good thing I did. The boy won’t be able to stomach the shit they give us.” I pointed to the back where the tunnel to the larger cave was. “I keep it back there in case the guards come while I’m gone.”
Dawn painted the sky the faintest pink. “You should go.”
Larissa smiled. “Watch your back, brother. I think it’s a dangerous game you play. If you need anything, you know how to find me.” She brushed a kiss over my cheek and disappeared.
As the sun peeked over the horizons, I set my safe guards. I’d be warned if someone approached the den. I checked my guest. He seemed to be sleeping deeply so I covered him with my blankets.
Stepping back, I let the change take me over. Settling into my wolf form was like coming home. I was most myself as an animal. I curled up between the cot and den opening. If someone managed to get past my traps, they wouldn’t be able to get past me.
Sleep was a long time coming for me.