I’m very excited to be here at
Decadent Delights, promoting The Valjevo
Encounter, which was released on Halloween. It’s a vampire novel, which I
think is pretty funny because I generally don’t like vampire novels. I have no
idea what possessed me to write one.
Well, actually, it started out
as a short story. Some publishing company had a call out for stories where one
of the MCs was a “macho man.” It was supposed to be 4000 words. I started
writing and hit 4000 words before the macho man even made an appearance. I
guess short stories are not my forte. J
In the original story, Tigger’s
attacker was simply a thug with a knife and Guy put him down in hand-to-hand
combat. I showed it to one of my beta readers, and she suggested I take it
paranormal. I’m glad I did. It’s fun to write about supernatural beings.
In the story, late one night,
in a dark alley, “Tigger” is attacked by a vampire. Luckily, the vampire,
Valjevo, is himself being hunted by Guy Salluci, who charges into the alley and
drops him with a special dart gun. Guy whisks Tigger away to safety, leaving
Valjevo behind to recover and hunt another day.
Guy is a vampire hunter who
works for a clandestine organization called EERIE—Encounters with Evil:
Research, Investigations, and Exterminations. He is Tigger’s
dream-man-come-to-life. He’s 6’3” of testosterone-laden muscle, with broad
shoulders, rock-hard abs, chiseled jaw, five o’clock shadow, and a mysterious
eye patch. He rides a Harley, carries weapons, wears black leather, and is an
unapologetic badass. He’s also smart and sensitive and seems to know things
that he should have no way of knowing.
In spite of his imposing,
alpha-male disposition, Guy turns out to be surprisingly gentle when he treats
the injuries Tigger sustained in his encounter with Valjevo. Tigger, a young,
beautiful, and impressionable college student, with a penchant for nerdiness,
is instantly smitten.
Guy is also attracted to Tigger
in a way he has never been attracted to anyone before. Of course, he thinks
Tigger is lovely, smart, and sweet, but there is also something deeply
instinctual about his attraction. Tigger smells divine and Guy is instantly
addicted. He struggles against his desire for the young man, thinking Tigger
deserves someone who is more stable and normal than he is.
Circumstances throw them
together in a protective custody situation and things heat up, although not
nearly as quickly as Tigger would like. Meanwhile, Valjevo has fixated on
Tigger and is hunting him.
I won’t give away the rest of
the plot, although I will let on that it has a happy ending. I think it’s
unlikely that I’ll ever write anything that doesn’t end on a positive note.
“Tigger” is an unusual name for
a main character, although during the course of the novel, encouraged by Guy,
he leaves behind his childhood nickname and starts going by his real name, Mel.
It didn’t occur to me while I was writing it that I’d have to talk about
“Tigger” in the blog tours, etc., otherwise readers will be confused. When I
read an excerpt from it at GRNW Meet-up, I warned the audience that it wasn’t
actually Winnie-the-Pooh.
The Rough Boys trilogy was such an epic story with many emotional
highs and lows, I wasn’t sure how to follow it. I wanted to write something
shorter and less dark and just get that next novel out there. The Valjevo Encounter is certainly
shorter, although not as short as I expected. And I wouldn’t classify as
“light” either, but it doesn’t deal with as many serious themes as Rough Boys. The Valjevo Encounter is somewhat
tongue-in-cheek—I didn’t take myself too seriously while I was writing it. I
hope it comes across that way rather than simply seeming cheesy.
I had a lot of fun writing The Valjevo Encounter, and although it’s
a stand-alone novel, there are a few questions, mainly about Guy’s past, that
go unanswered. I left the door wide open for a sequel. J Meanwhile I’ve been
working on a dystopia novel, which I’m posting chapter-by-chapter on my author
website, http://authorjvaughn.com.
Giveaway
I’ll give an eBook copy of The Valjevo Encounter to a randomly
selected commenter.
I’ll also give a copy to the
first person who can tell me the name of the city that is the setting for The Rough Boys trilogy.
Book Blurb
When an imposing man
dressed in black leather, riding a Harley, and sporting a mysterious eye patch
charges into an alley and saves college senior Melvin “Tigger” Jacobsen from a
creature with soulless, solid black eyes and glistening fangs, sparks begin to
fly. Too bad they may not live long enough to explore their irresistible
attraction.
Guy Salluci is a vampire hunter who works for a
highly covert organization called EERIE. He is Mel’s dream man come-to-life.
His bulging muscles and stern countenance are a sharp contrast to the gentle
care he gives the injured Mel.
Until now Mel’s biggest challenge was finding a
studly boyfriend who will put up with his terminal geekiness. When he finds
himself on the run from the vampire, Valjevo, who has targeted him for his next
meal, Guy puts him into protective custody at his hidden Mercer Island
residence. Mel finds himself falling head-over-heels for the enigmatic vampire
hunter—a man torn between his ravenous desires and the horrors of his twisted
past. But is Guy even capable of returning Mel’s affection?
When Valjevo hunts Mel down, intent on torture,
mayhem, and satisfying his vampire lust, Mel’s only hope is to be rescued by
Guy. But the vampire hunter turns out to be not entirely human and unexpectedly
vulnerable.
Publisher’s note: Contains scenes of graphic
violence, male/male sex, brief non-con, and mild BDSM.
Excerpt from The Valjevo
Encounter
Streetlights and neon signs
glowed brightly, chasing away the darkness as if trying to refute the after-midnight
hour. People spilled out bar doorways and milled up and down the street,
laughing and boisterous.
Melvin “Tigger” Jacobsen wove
back and forth on the sidewalk, trying to avoid running into other Friday night
revelers. It was a long walk home from Pioneer Square—two or three miles, he
guessed. He hoped the walk would sober him up some.
A stiff breeze blew off of
Elliot Bay, making the air smell briny. It had been a warm day, but even in
June, Seattle nights were chilly. Tigger shivered and crossed his bare arms,
almost immediately uncrossing them so he could use them for balance.
Getting drunk had seemed like a
good idea a few hours earlier. Now he wondered what he’d been thinking.
I’m over Harold—I’ve been over Harold for a long time. So why am I such
a drunken slob tonight?
Harold was his high school
crush and the only boyfriend he’d ever had. They had gotten together during
their freshman year of college, but the long-distance relationship had only
lasted a few months. He had been heartbroken when Harold had left him for the
girl who was tutoring him in math. That was more than two years ago. Harold was
still dating Becky and Tigger was finally over his hurt and anger.
Aren’t I?
Tigger was brought out of his
musings by a horn blaring. Suddenly his booze-soaked brain remembered that he’d
left Jon behind at the bar. He had spent some time looking for his friend, but
had finally left without him to escape the unwanted attention of another drunk
patron.
He will just have to get by without me for the rest of the evening.
He paused on a street corner and pulled out his phone. Struggling to focus, he
didn’t even try to compose a text message. Instead he pulled up his favorites
list and, after a few moments of squinting to make the letters quit dancing, he
managed to press the button for Jon. He started walking again as he listened to
it ring. When it went to voicemail, he hung up. He’d try again in a little
while.
The crowds thinned as Tigger
left the Pioneer Square area and soon the Seattle streets seemed deserted.
Shadows loomed, darkening alleyways and shop entrances, making it difficult to
discern depth and detail. Tigger stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk, barely
catching himself before he went down.
How many drinks did I have?
Too many.
He’d been drinking something
pink and sweet that had come adorned with a little, bright plastic jungle
animal hanging off of the rim. He still had a green tiger and a neon orange
monkey in his pocket.
Drowning your loneliness in alcohol is never a good idea, no matter how
cute the drinks, his inner voice scolded him.
Ignoring the voice, because it
really wasn’t helping any, his mind went back to the question he’d been
obsessing over for the past year: Why
can’t I find a boyfriend?
Maybe because no one wants a skinny virgin, the cynical voice in
his head suggested.
Tigger was shy, but there were
plenty of guys who liked to flirt with him. He even dated sometimes, but
nothing ever lasted beyond a third date. It’s
me. I’m too picky, he thought.
Something was always missing.
Finding a guy who made his dick hard was not a problem—actually it was usually
too much of a problem. But finding someone who made his heart flutter? That
rarely happened. When it did, the guy was never interested in anything more
than a quick fuck. Tigger refused to settle for that—not for his first time. He
and Harold had fooled around plenty, but they had never “gone all the way.”
Am I the only guy in the world who wants a relationship, or am I just
attracted to the wrong kind of guys? He’d asked himself those questions
before, too, and had decided that the answer to both was yes. Most guys his age
did not want to be tied down, and the type of guy he was attracted to—big,
muscular, dominant, and imposing—that type of guy, in particular, was not
interested in a relationship.
Tigger turned a corner and
started the long walk up a steep hill, away from the waterfront. A few minutes
later, his stomach rebelled. When he realized he was going to lose his dinner
to the street, he dodged into the nearest alley. Shadows deepened as he made
his way past the first dumpster on unsteady feet. The scent of rotting
vegetation and decaying flesh assailed his senses, making the need to expel the
contents of his stomach urgent. He put his hands against the nearest brick
wall, leaned over, and emptied his guts onto the cobblestones.
Why, oh why, did I drink so much? He felt like the worst kind of
low-life, dead drunk and barfing his guts out in an alley.
When his stomach settled, his
head felt clearer. He spat repeatedly, wishing he had some water. Finally he
gathered himself together and headed back toward the street. That’s when he
heard quick footsteps behind him. He spun around and was hit with a wave of
vertigo. Stumbling backwards, he wind-milled his arms to keep from going down.
He didn’t fall. Instead, frigid
hands grabbed him as if he weighed nothing and flung him against the wall of
the building behind him. His head slammed into the brick and his world dimmed
for a moment.
A tall figure dressed all in
black crowded him, boxing him in. He looked up, struggling to focus through the
blinding pain. He found himself staring into a pair of eyes that were
bottomless pits of utter darkness. There were no irises, only blackness.
This can’t be real. No one has eyes like that!
His chest tightened as terror gripped
him, spreading through his body in a flash, tensing every muscle down to his
toes. He felt like he had turned to stone, except his heart was slamming
painfully into his rib cage, no doubt trying to get out so it could flee.
The angular face, so close to
his, was unnaturally pale, framed with straight, black, shoulder-length hair. A
sharp, acrid smell permeated the air. He felt his eyes widen in a completely
useless defense mechanism.
Instinctively he put his hands
up to push the apparition away. I must be
hallucinating. I wonder if someone slipped a roofie into my drink.
The creature—he couldn’t
possibly be a man—grabbed his wrists with icy hands and yanked them over his
head, forcing them against the rough wall. He heard himself whimper softly. The
being’s hands were so cold they caused a chill to spread from his arms into his
core. His body began to shake uncontrollably.
The apparition’s thin lips
curled into a cruel smile as the unfathomable eyes shifted downward. Tigger
could feel his gaze travel slowly down his body as surely as if the creature
had been caressing him with his eyes, undressing him. The hairs on the back of
his neck and his arms stood on end, giving him the sensation of tiny bugs
crawling over his skin.
This can’t be happening.
He then heard a snick and saw a
switchblade his attacker’s hand, the bright steel reflecting the distant street
light.
Oh, god, this is it! He’s going to kill me now.
He felt the cool blade against
his cheek and he had to clamp down hard to stop himself from wetting his pants.
Some distant part of his mind told him that it didn’t matter—he wouldn’t be
embarrassed after he was dead.
“Such a pretty face.” The man’s
voice sounded like rustling leaves. He had an accent that Tigger had never
heard. He slid the blade down the side of Tigger’s face, not cutting him, he
was pretty sure; there was no pain. The knife slithered slowly down to his
throat, to rest against his jugular.
“It would be so easy,” the
creature rasped, sliding the blade lightly across Tigger’s neck. Tigger was so
frozen with terror he hadn’t taken a full breath for what seemed like minutes.
Now he hoped he would pass out from lack of oxygen and save himself from having
to witness his own death.
“But I have other plans for you
… yes,” the fiend rasped. “No easy death for you, my friend.”
Tigger whimpered again and it
sounded pitiful, even to himself.
“Let’s see what that tiny body
looks like.” The knife was suddenly no longer at his throat. Tigger took in a
huge gasp of air and let it out in another whimper as the creature sliced the
front of Tigger’s jeans and briefs wide open in a quick, long swipe that
continued down one pant leg to his knee. Tigger felt the cool night air rush
over his genitals.
“Well, look at that,” the
creature said. Moving the cold blade under Tigger’s balls, he used the flat of
it to lift them up and bounce them gently a few times.
A fresh wave of terror exploded
within Tigger and the world began to fade out around him. All his muscles,
which had been fully tense, suddenly went limp. He would have fallen if the
creature hadn’t still had his hands pinned against the wall over his head. He
heard himself moan softly as he sagged. Unfortunately he didn’t actually pass
out and his head started to clear immediately. He wanted to close his eyes and
pray, but some fierce part deep inside of him insisted that he pay attention so
he wouldn’t miss a chance to escape.
There won’t be an escape, his cynical mental voice told him. There is no way you can get away from a
demon. He wasn’t sure what the creature was, but Tigger was positive he
wasn’t a flesh-and-blood man.
The demon had finished playing
with his balls and moved the knife back to the top of his chest. Catching the
edge of his tight T-shirt with the blade, he sliced slowly downward, the fabric
falling open as he went. Tigger felt the sting of the knife biting into his
bare skin. Looking down, he watched in horror as the monster sliced a shallow
gash from his collarbone to his navel. Blood began to bead up in it.
The sight of the blood caused
something inside Tigger to shriek with terror. He opened his mouth, but no
sound came out. He felt as if he were in a nightmare where he couldn’t scream
or run. This can’t be real. Demons aren’t
real. I must be dreaming. But the cut on his chest began to burn with an
intensity that belied illusion. It felt all too real.
The creature’s nostrils flared
and his bottomless eyes began to glow with a faint amber light. He leaned over,
stuck out a thin tongue, and licked the blood off Tigger’s chest in a long,
slow swipe, letting out a low noise as if he was savoring something delicious.
Tigger shuddered with horror at
the demon’s touch. The monster’s tongue was as frigid as his hands, and the
noise that he made shattered something deep inside Tigger—possibly his sanity.
The scream that had been trapped within Tigger came out then, long and loud.
The creature began to laugh, a
cruel, chilling sound. But what plundered the last vestiges of Tigger’s wit was
the glimpse of the fangs he saw in the demon’s mouth. His canines were long and
sharp, and they glinted even in the meager light.
Vampire! His brain identified the creature, but his reason had
already fled and he couldn’t process what that meant.
Something in the vampire’s face
changed in that instant. He dropped Tigger’s hands and spun around. At the same
time, Tigger heard a low whistling sound that ended in a quiet thwack. The
vampire’s tall, thin body went rigid, and a heartbeat later all of the tension
evaporated from it as he collapsed, falling to the ground as if he were
suddenly boneless.
Tigger found himself sitting on
the cobblestones, his back to the wall, his knees pulled up to his chest, and
his arms wrapped defensively around them. He didn’t remember his legs giving
out on him. He was shivering violently.
The sense of relief that
enveloped him like a warm river was arrested in mid-flow as a huge shadow
materialized out of the darkness, moving toward him at a rate that was too fast
to be humanly possible.
Author Bio
Jay Vaughn lives in sunny
Seattle, a clean, progressive city that is way too expensive for a writer’s
income. Therefore, Jay holds down a full-time, computer-industry day job, but
writing is her passion. It’s a hobby-gone-wild, so much so that her teenage
kids accuse her of being an addict.
Jay carries her laptop
everywhere and can often be seen combining other favorite activities with
writing. For example, you can find Jay sitting at a small table in the back of
the gay bar around the corner from her house, drinking wine and writing. Or
waking up early while camping, dragging out the laptop, and writing. Or writing
in the truck on the way to and from concerts, ski-trips, visits to relatives
... wherever.
Jay’s favorite genres are
sci-fi, fantasy, and M/M erotic romance. She discovered M/M quite by accident
when she was writing a traditional fantasy novel, and one of her characters
ended up in an all-male prison for a bit too long. Whoops!
Find out what Jay is working on
next at http://www.authorjvaughn.com
or drop her a line at jayvaughn@live.com.
She’d love to hear from you.
Buy Links
The Valjevo Encounter is on
sale for $3.99 until November 13, when the price will go up to $4.99.
Divergent Publishing: http://www.divergentpublishing.com/?product=the-valjevo-encounter
AllRomanceebooks.com: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-thevaljevoencounter-1659021-153.html
