Diverse Reader: TC Talks: I Write CYOA Books... Here's Why and Things... #Giveaway

Monday, April 2, 2018

TC Talks: I Write CYOA Books... Here's Why and Things... #Giveaway

I Write CYOA Books... Here's Why and Things...

So, it’s happened.

I’ve got nothing.

Not a thing.

Not a tangent to go on. Not an opinion to provide. Not an issue to resolve. Nothing.

I’m a twenty-five-year-old gay with nothing to say (which usually only happens when there’s a cock in my mouth… which I can neither deny nor confirm)

…

The last time my hosting gig went this bad, the guy excused himself to the bathroom and climbed out my window (true story).

…

You’re still reading this? Well, I guess I’m going to have to come up with something then, aren’t I? After all, like anyone who has ever had the luxury of entering my hot cross buns will tell you – I’m very resourceful.

*clears throat* Hello, and welcome to this week’s TC talks – the bi-monthly feature where you can grab yourself a cup of coffee and pick up that syrup-slathered waffle while reading some too. As you may have guessed, there’s no pressing issues I feel I can weigh in on this week – no, it’s not you, it’s me. I had a late night, I’ve had a bit to drink – this happens to every blogger sometimes, right?

So, since I have nothing else to talk about (and I’ve somehow managed to talk about not talking about anything for several paragraphs now), I’m going to shamelessly pimp myself out (ahh, to be 17 again) and tell you ALL about my new release.

Some of you may know this, but I am an avid video game player. In fact, my entire relationship with my fiancé was born from a love of gaming. And, in a lot of the games I play, they push this idea of “player choice” – will you save the town but condemn the forest? Will you watch it burn and claim a reward? You know, pleasant choices.

CYOA (choose your own adventure) books have been about for a while. I remember reading some in school as a kid and I remember my friend reading a mature-fantasy cyoa in high school. However, it wasn’t until I played a video game a few years back (Dragon Age: Inquisition – brilliant, go play it) in which it gave you two gay love interests to pursue that the spark for an adult MM cyoa was formed in my very small, fried chicken obsessed brain.

And thus, Iudicium (that’s a I not an L) was born. HOWEVER, Iudicium was pulled from the same place my previous releases (Seeing Red, Omega Moon, Warlock Academy, insert-more-shameless-pimping here) was. In fact, it was pulled from a darker place – like, go past the sadism shelf, take a left at laughing-at-adults-who-fall-over and right by the laugh-at-children-when-they-fall-over door, you will find Iudicum.

It’s dark, it’s high-fantasy, it’s horror and your choices can kill you. It was my first CYOA but I realized that it’s MM non-con, fantasy-thriller setting might’ve been the final brush stroke in this mid-20’s now angst-less mind.

That’s where Campus Life came in.

Campus Life is a rom-com, 4^th-wall-breaking, sex-crazed frenzy of an adventure. It puts you in the role of the somewhat witty Joe Smith who has but one goal – get laid. It lets you pursue a number of men (aka tropes) such as: The gay for you roommate, The hot doctor, The nerdy twink and a polyamorous professor.

4 men. 15 endings. Nearing at 100k in total and a fucking effort to write. Seriously, if I had a soul, I think a piece of it might’ve been stolen by this book.

It’s available on KU, or, y’know, costs about the same as a cup of coffee. So, if you’re in the mood for something light, fluffy and as playful as me with a straight guy when I’m trying to find any excuse to touch him, then you might consider giving it a shot?

What’s next for me, you ask? WELL, I’m now working on a contemp I’m not yet ready to talk about AND on another CYOA (light, fluffy, 4^th wall breaking and all that which made Campus Life what it is) called Hexbrook Academy. It’s going to be a rom-com fantasy set in a magical institution for fledgling warlocks where the frat houses are covens and the “wands” aren’t the only things making magic. It’s going to have TWO “playable” characters for you to follow, each with their own unique (and some shared) plotlines and dozens of choices, which will lead to dozens of endings.

Okay – I think we’re done. And like I say to my sexual health doctor, “I’ll see you in two weeks with something new.”

P.S. While I’m here, I’m sure you know that Jaclyn Osborn just released a YA gay fiction novel called Reaching Avery? And that the one and only master of this domain, Davidson King just released Hug It Out? And that Nicholas Bella just released Theoden? And that Aimee Nicole Walker just released Nobody’s Prince Charming? And that EM Denning just released What He Hides?

But you know all that, right?