The
Making of an Alien
I was very excited when we started writing Be My
Alien for two reasons: one, I was getting to write with my friend, M.A. Church,
and two, we were going to write about aliens! And since she had written about
aliens in the Nighttime series (which I’d read) as well as the Harvest series
(which I hadn’t yet), we decided I should write the alien and she’d write the
earthling.
Yes! I was very excited! But where to begin? In
M.A.’s Nighttime books, the alien has dreads/tentacles that can take on a life
of their own, and is somewhat reptilian appearance. So I knew I had to go into
a different direction. And since I happen to be a catlover, it seemed very
natural that my alien should have some... well... feline qualities, let us say.
I needed a name for him, of course. At the time, I
was watching Top Chef, and one of the chefs had definitely caught my fancy. His
name was Fabio Viviani. He’s so cute! And the way he says “burger” as “boorger”
is adorable! But I digress. I elongated his name a little bit and came up with
Fabrintazo, thinking his nickname would be a derivative of Fabio. But things
don’t work out the way you thought, and he informed me he preferred Taz, so Taz
he became.
Taz just sort of developed as I wrote him. In the
first book, he’s on a date with Vorlod, a fellow student at the university he
attends on his home planet of Trygos. He’s been wanting to go out with Vorlod
forever, but had no luck, until suddenly out of the blue, Vorlod invites him to
Earth! Taz gets dumped there by Vorlod, who was only using him, because he is a
trusting, innocent soul, very naïve. And now very lost and alone on Earth.
Taz has stripes, but they only become noticeable
when he is aroused. Same for his tale. It wasn’t until after I’d developed him
and we were writing the first book, Be My Alien, that I actually got to read
The Harvest. And I was amazed to learn that M.A.’s alien, Keyno, has very
catlike qualities himself! Great minds think alike is all I can say, although
the similarities are more superficial than actual. I still think it’s funny I
came up with a cat alien all on my own and wasn’t influenced by hers lol.
In Be My Human, the major part of the conflict
belongs to Reed, but of course, Taz is in the thick of things. I hope you enjoy
reading about them both, and thanks for having me on your blog. If you were
going to create an alien, how would he or she look? I’d love to know!
Blurb:
Reed and Taz are still adjusting to their new lives together
when a medical emergency sends them flying down to Florida on short notice. Not
quite the way Reed pictured introducing Taz to his family. Reed’s sister, Rene,
welcomes the outgoing Taz with open arms, and the kittenish alien charms Reed’s
parents.
But someone isn’t quite so enamored of Reed’s boyfriend—his
homophobic older brother Jacob seems determined to be as unpleasant as
possible, and he’s making their visit very uncomfortable. The sudden appearance
of Reed’s controlling ex releases a flood of insecurity and bad memories.
Reed begins to doubt himself, and his ability to love and be
loved in return. When strange items begin appearing as if out of nowhere, he
wonders if he’s being stalked, or is he just paranoid? What can Taz do to prove
to Reed that he’s more than enough man for this alien?
Excerpt:
They’d
been living together for a month now, ever since the fateful day Taz had
literally fallen on Reed at the Empire State Building. One of the first things
Reed had done after the adorable alien had moved in with him was buy Taz a cell
phone, then teach him how to use it. Even though Taz was from another planet,
one that was much more advanced than Earth, he was unfamiliar with Earth’s
comparatively primitive technology. Reed swore after Taz had been kidnapped by
the creature he’d dubbed the Evil Alien, he’d always have a way to call for
help, thus the phone. That first week after they’d been reunited, Taz had
talked Reed into letting him stay home alone while Reed worked at the boutique.
Bad idea. Very bad idea. Taz had called Reed around lunchtime, nearly in tears.
When
Reed arrived home, he’d been greeted with a nightmare of a mess. Even before he
got to his apartment, he could hear the TV blasting in the living room. Which
was bad enough, but Taz had somehow figured out how to turn the surround sound
on. When Reed opened the door, the noise nearly blew him out of his shoes. It
was like sitting in the front row at a movie theater. That, it turned out, was
the easiest problem to rectify. Reed had shut the TV off, then looked around
the apartment, stunned and slightly horrified.
He’d
forgotten about Taz’s natural curiosity. What a mistake that was, and the proof
of his error in judgment was spread out all over the kitchen. Flour had been
strewn across the floor, a few eggs lay broken on the counter, every covered
container in the refrigerator had been taken out and opened… then tasted. Taz
had found the blender, dumped some sort of liquid in and turned it on, without
putting the top on the machine. There was unrecognizable goo all over the
counters, the cabinets, the floors. Plus, Taz had found the sugar. From the
looks of it, he’d eaten half the bag.
And that
was just the kitchen.
The
bathroom had been thoroughly explored as well, as evidenced by the streams of
shredded toilet paper spread throughout the place, toothpaste smeared all over
the counters in minty globules, and so on.
What was
that old saying about curiosity killing the cat?
Meet the Authors:
Julie Lynn Hayes was reading at the age of two and writing by the age of
nine and always wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Two marriages, five
children, and more than forty years later, that is still her dream. She blames
her younger daughters for introducing her to yaoi and the world of M/M love, a
world which has captured her imagination and her heart and fueled her writing
in ways she'd never dreamed of before. She especially loves stories of two men
finding true love and happiness in one another's arms and is a great believer
in the happily ever after. She lives in St. Louis with her daughter Sarah and
her cat Ramesses, loves books and movies, and hopes to be a world traveler some
day. She enjoys crafts, such as crocheting and cross stitch, knitting and
needlepoint, and loves to cook. While working a temporary day job, she
continues to write her books and stories and reviews, which she posts in
various places on the internet. Her family thinks she is a bit off, but she
doesn't mind. Marching to the beat of one's own drummer is a good thing, after
all. Her published works can be found at
Dreamspinner Press, Wayward Ink Publishing Amber Quill Press, MuseitUp
Publishing, Torquere Press, and eXtasy Books. She has also begun to
self-publish and is an editor at Wayward Ink and MuseitUp.
You can find her on her blog at http://julielynnhayes.blogspot.com, and you can contact her at tothemax.wolf@gmail.com.
My
links:
When not writing, she’s exploring the
latest M/M novel to hit the market, watching her beloved Steelers, or sitting
glued to HGTV. That’s if she’s not on the back porch tending to the demanding
wildlife around the pond in the backyard. The ducks are very outspoken. She’s married to her high school sweetheart, and
they have two children.
She was a finalist in the Rainbow awards for 2013.
My Links:
Thanks for having us!
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My pleasure!
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