What is a Chuchunya? By Marilyn Barr

 When I decided to jump from vampire romance to monster romance, I wanted to start with a cryptid hero. I love reading Kraken, Headless Horseman, and Naga monster romances, but I wasn’t ready to stray too far from the humanoid body-shape…especially since I wanted to raise my spice level to match those popular monster romances on Kindle Unlimited. And don’t get me started on the spider romances. Not Spiderman (although a lady with such spidery-powers stars in a 2023 new release of mine, shh…) but a straight-up spider alien as the hero (If you haven’t read The Spider’s Mate trilogy by Tiffany Roberts, I highly recommend it.)

Of the most renowned cryptids (Bigfoot, Yeti, and Mothman), the Yeti seemed most fitting with my interests. I‘m often teased about my love of winter by my Kentucky friends who freak out when a few flakes fall. Bigfoot and Mothman have very specific legends, which I’m vaguely familiar with from my Appalachian Mountain roots. My plan is to research these characters more when I sign books at the 2023 Rebels & Readers event in Huntington, VW in October of 2023, and write books starring them in later 2023 or 2024.

It would seem I had one choice but to write about the Yeti…until I started researching and found abominable snow monster myths around the world. If you read The Spy Who Loved My Russian Tea Cakes and baked my mother-in-law’s Russian Tea Cake Cookies with the recipe inside (found here - https://www.amazon.com/Loved-Russian-Cakes-Christmas-Cookies-ebook/dp/B09GXDFRWG), you suspect I may have an obsession with my half-Russian husband. To make my monster hero as handsome as possible, making him a Russian Chuchunya was a no-brainer. My heroine needs to travel to Siberia.

A Chuchunya is a primitive cryptid who raids the nomadic people’s camps on the cold, Siberian tundra according to legend. They are giant humanoids, covered with white, ivory, grey, or black fur with glowing blue eyes. There are no myths as to their dwellings, diet, or language capabilities. Where would someone live to endure the harsh northern Siberian climate without building materials? What if their need for concealment meant no collapsible yurts carried in migration on reindeer sleds? I found my answer in the Cold War chapters in history books. Called the dyla khraneniya, Siberians build a network of storage tunnels and caves under the permafrost (https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/features/inside-the-amazing-permafrost-ice-tunnels-built-by-exiled-german-genius-in-cold-war/). 

Add a hot spring or two, and you have the perfect spot to kindle a frozen romance. The more I read about the colored mineral deposits (https://siberiantimes.com/ecology/others/features/is-this-the-most-magical-cave-in-the-world/) and ice crystal formations, the more I fell in love with the idea of living beneath the ice—which my husband promptly vetoed.

I love world-building through culture, so I researched the cultures living in Northern Siberia. As expected, most of the large rituals follow Russian Orthodox traditions. For the Chuchunya, they would follow many of the ancient customs before the integration of the Russian Church with Christianity. This would make sense if the Chuchunya were an ancient offshoot of Homo sapiens who once migrated with the reindeer herding tribes, native to the area. Being loosely connected to the Evenki and Nenet tribes, would also reduce the language barrier between my monster man and modern heroine. If she spoke textbook Russian as an American and he spoke the Evenki dialect without knowledge of the modern world, they would be able to understand half of what the other said. I also found many videos on these tribes to acclimate myself to their daily activities which would mirror those of my Chuchunya clan.

Almost ready to write, there was one more monstrous problem. I write Insta-lust. Why would a modern heroine sign up to live primitively under the ice? Easy, she’s an anthropologist with an Australopithecus obsession. What about him? I didn’t want him to fall head-over-heels just because she’s human. What’s in it for him? In my Strawberry Shifters series, there is a bonding between fated mates which selects the animal of their shifted form. What type of fated bond would a non-shifting Chuchunya need?

Dushevnayasvyaz. (Say that three times fast.) In Russian, dusha loosely means “soul.” Svyaz loosely means “bond,” so the soul bond in Cuddling My Chuchunya is literally soul-bond-bond or dushevnayasvyaz. Contrary to the rumors my husband is spreading, I didn’t invent terms so I could include a glossary at the end of my books (although writing a glossary-worthy fantasy book is on my bucket list, so he’s not telling a total fib.) I wanted to write that instant connection you have when you meet your soulmate, like the one I have with my half-Russian gossip-spreader.

What other attributes does the dushevnayasvyaz give our Chuchunya hero? Find out when you meet Artyom with Dr. Vera in Siberia in Cuddling My Chuchunya. releasing today on Kindle Unlimited for the one-day price of $0.99 cents (regularly $3.99). https://www.amazon.com/Cuddling-My-Chuchunya-Monster-Snuggling-ebook/dp/B0BLCZ7BT7

Here’s the book blurb to find out more:

Her obsession stands before her, not as an extinct Australopithecus, but as a living chuchunya…an abominable snow monster who promises a lifetime of devotion in hiding…

Dr. Vera Thompson

I am one reindeer sleigh ride away from academic notoriety and the corpse excavation which will catapult my career from junior anthropology fellow to tenured professor. Crossing the Siberian tundra is not for the faint of heart but with modern technology like a GPS, cell phone signal, and all-climate winter gear, I’ll reach the suspected Australopithecus body unearthed by the melting permafrost. One more day of dodging methane gas pockets under the ice and my life will change forever…

Artyom

The hairless ones swarmed around my brother’s body like flies from the southern land. Tradition dictates his next of kin perform his last rites, so I follow the erratic driving of the hairless ones from a foreign land. If these invaders discover my chuchunya clan, I fear we are too few to defend our territory under the ice. I don’t understand why the sled driver throws his passenger into a ground popper, but the cruel deed activates my coupling (dushevnayasvyaz) instincts to heat my body to an inferno…the first sign of a soul bond…

Stuck between loyalty to his clan’s secrecy and his biology, will Artyom trade injured Vera for Denis’s body? Will Vera choose modern conveniences in Ohio or stay in Siberia with the chuchunya who promises to cherish her? In such an unforgiving landscape, will Artyom prove his dushevnayasvyaz by pushing her toward an easier life, even if her leaving breaks both their hearts?

Trigger Warnings: This book is for adults with cursing characters, mild violence, and steamy romantic scenes between a consenting human and a monster. To survive while isolated in Siberia, they must eat whatever food is available—whether it is a reindeer companion or not.

Celebrate the release day of Cuddling My Chuchunya with Dr. Vera & Artyom the Snow Monster, on Kindle Unlimited or for the release day special price of $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Cuddling-My-Chuchunya-Monster-Snuggling-ebook/dp/B0BLCZ7BT7).