Seasonal is a Relative Term By Marilyn Barr

 

I love all things pumpkin. Nothing says fall like the orange gourd roasted with warm spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. Fall in Kentucky starts between September 21^st and 23^rd, depending on lunar cycles and moon placements but our pumpkins don’t mature until later. While the average pumpkin reaches ripeness between the end of August and the end of October in the USA, our growing season has shifted later with climate change. It is not uncommon for kids to play outside in short-sleeved shirts and shorts in December. Last year my pumpkins didn’t turn orange until the week before Halloween. I wasn’t worried because historically Jack-o-lanterns were carved from turnips, potatoes, and apples.

(My garden's pumpkin on Halloween 2023)

However, I am dismayed to report that the national coffee chains in my area don’t serve pumpkin-spiced lattes after Halloween. The official coffee house pumpkin season goes from August 1^st to October 31^st…when the bulk of USA’s pumpkins aren’t mature. Growing up, November was pumpkin spice season because we needed to process all the innards from the jack-o-lanterns. Why else serve pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving? With the rush to be the first to serve pumpkin treats, we have shifted the autumnal season into our hottest season. When the weather is consistently in the high nineties Fahrenheit, there’s no way I’d savor a steamy pumpkin coffee. Would you?

Don’t get me started on the Peppermint Mochas, Holiday carols, and Christmas trees in retail stores today. Bah Humbug, until December, please!

Enter the Book Fair here 

Well, if you can’t beat them…join them. Introducing the Monsters and Mistletoe Book Fair (cue off-key Jingle Bells) where your favorite winter, holiday, and Christmas monster romances bring the heat…before you turn on your furnace for the season. My snow monsters will take you on Arctic adventures, months before a flake falls in Kentucky to set the winter wonderland ambiance…as your leaves fall from the trees.

Featured in the Monsters & Mistletoes Book Fair is Betrothed to the Yeti: A Monster Brides Romance.

Here is an excerpt of this Cinderella-retelling set on the icy moon of Enceladus…

“I crept closer than I intended,” I whisper in a husky voice that I’ve never used. “I’m too short to reach the bottom and…I don’t know how to keep my face above the water’s surface.”

          “I think you found where you are meant to be,” he replies. “Don’t you agree?

          “What are you asking of me?” I search his face for clues, but his eyes are too alien to read. Each emotion flits across his features too fast. It’s like traveling to a foreign village where the customs and dialect hold you in a silent, intangible prison.

            “Stay,” he pleads. “Be my partner. Let me provide for you. Allow me to learn more about humans from you. Be the center of my world and the object of my endless fascination.”

            “You want to learn from me? I know goats, cheese, starvation, and cold…endless cold. How can I repay you? The warmth alone is worth more than what I can teach you.”

Betrothed to the Yeti is available on Kindle Unlimited in eBook form as well as in paperback form at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Or you can visit the Monsters & Mistletoe Book Fair! Ho, Ho, Ho!

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).

Doomed to be Monster Fudgers by Marilyn Barr

Like it, love it, hate it, or struggle to understand it…but monster romance and monster erotica are taking BookTok by storm. Hashtags like #monsterlovers, #monsterfudgers, and #monsterromance have millions to billions of videos made by authors, readers, and fanatics. This new subgenre of fantasy and paranormal romance is led by the Queen of Alien Romance, Ruby Dixon. Her Ice Planet Barbarian book series was first released in 2015 and changed the way romance readers felt about men with horns and tails…or did she? Below I have listed my top 7 warning signs that we were destined to be fated mates to heroes with scales, horns, tails, furry pecs, skull heads, tree limb embraces, and alien peens.

1. Swamp Thing – Abby Arcane first appeared in the Swamp Thing comic book in the 1970s. In comics and movies of this era, monsters kidnapping females due to unrequited love was a popular theme. Some of my favorite vintage monsters who did this are King Kong, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the Mummy. Abby Arcane not only lives in the swamp willingly but also falls in love with the monster after failed relationships with the scientists trying to kill him. They have a unique “wedding” in the comic series and hybrid children.

Doing my best Swamp Thing impersonation with my favorite Swamp Thing Comic Cover

2. Planet of the Apes—Whether I refer to the television series of the 1970s, the 2001 film remake, or the early 2010s spin-off trilogy, Planet of the Apes leads the way in Cryptid romances. In this movie franchise, the cryptids are the technologically advanced species, and the humans are the primitive species. Ari, the scientist and Leo Davidson’s love interest, has extinct Australopithecus facial features but the technological skills of a futuristic humanoid. While the pair share a steamy on-screen kiss, they do not end with a happily ever after.

Smash or Pass? Planet of the Apes

3. Star Trek—The goal of the creators of Star Trek was to create a future where all races lived in harmony, but they didn’t stop at human races. What alien princess didn’t share a kiss with Captain Kurk when he was played by William Shatner? While most of the Star Trek alien love interests were humans with a different language, there were a few monster romances. Fans loved watching Jadzia and Worf fall in love despite her being a human and he a Klingon. Not even the language barrier was enough to stop the power of intergalactic love.

4. Thundercats—I loved this 1980s Saturday morning cartoon where cat-like people were superheroes. Gang leader Lion-o shared steamy kisses with Cheetara before she ditched him for Tygra. After rewatching the episodes where Cheetara helps Tygra practice with his whip as an adult, I don’t blame her for choosing the gravelly-voiced tiger hybrid over the goodie-two-shoes Lion-O. However, Lion-O soon rebounds and marries WilyKit. This is a large age-gap pairing since she’s obviously a child when she joins the Thundercats under Lion-O’s leadership. Ah hem…

5. Beast from Beauty and the Beast—Whenever I say I’m writing a “monster romance,” I’m asked if it’s “like Beauty and the Beast” from the 1990s movie by Disney. This one slipped under the censors’ noses because ultimately, Belle breaks the spell and lives happily ever after with a human prince. However, they missed one vital part of the curse. Beast couldn’t tell Belle that he was a cursed prince. This means Belle was ready to commit her life to him in Beast form. Yeah, that romantic ballroom dancing scene takes on a whole new meaning when…

We didn't stand a chance... Characters from Disney + 

6. Gargoyles (Disney TV show)—Around the same time as Beauty and the Beast was hitting the big screen. Disney was inspiring monster romances on the small screen too. Gargoyles was an “after-school cartoon” favorite in my house while I was growing up in the 1990s. These monsters protect modern-day New York City just like they protected Scotland in their past. While ColdStone and ColdFire are a gargoyle-to-gargoyle pairing, many of the beloved couples are gargoyle to human. Who could forget Brooklyn with Abby or Broadway with Angela? Rewatching this cartoon on Disney+ as an adult made me wonder if my parents knew what I was watching after school…and why they were surprised when I chose to write first shifter romance and then…

Could I be part of the gang with this TikTok filter?

7. Shifter Romance in paranormal romance—Starting with The Wolfman and maturing to Sam in The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, the shifter romance genre exploded in the early 2000s. Some of my favorites are written by Lora Leigh, Christine Warren, Kat Kinney, Elisha Bugg, and Christine Feehan. I even added to the genre with my Strawberry Shifters contemporary paranormal romance series and Dance to a Wylder Beat a bear-shifter western. From hummingbirds to donuts, dinosaurs to pets, and balloon animals to zoo animals, it seems everything you can think of has been written into a shifter romance where the main character spends half their time as a human and the other half as ‘other.’ Some shifters can change completely into an animal form such as those in the Strawberry shifters while others live as hybrids like in Thundercats or Lora Leigh’s shifter romance.

Find the Strawberry Shifters on Amazon here.

And so here we are, pushing the envelope of romance once again. Just like The Beast, these monsters find love without a human transformation. My latest book, Cuddling My Chuchunya (preorder for 99 cents here), is about a Siberian Snow Monster who finds that the anthropologist he rescues is a lady looking for a monster like him. Dr. Vera Thompson grew up obsessed with the extinct Australopithecus humanoids from our past but never thought she would have the chance to speak to a cryptid like those in her books…

Are you ready to travel to ice caves under the Siberian permafrost?

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?

Cuddling my Chuchunya will release on 1/13/2023 so preorder your copy for 99c here - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BLCZ7BT7/