A final sprint…

 …down the Love is an Open Road…well…road 😀 My first draft is done and about 50k long. Right now I’m editing the whole thing before I send it off to the beta reader.

I had such a blast writing about my guys, Djimon and Kei. What’s more, some of the secondary characters stole my heart and they’re pushing me to write their stories, too. Characters and their damn haughtiness 😀 Guess they’ll eventually get what they demand. They always do. After all, without them, I wouldn’t be able to write my stories.

Here’s a tiny teaser–previously posted in the M/M Romance group–so you can get a feel for the story. As I mentioned before, it’s a very funny shifter story with the main characters being an ostrich (Dji) and a cheetah (Kei).

TEASER:

“I left my flock several years ago. My father gave me an ultimatum I wasn’t happy about, so I packed my stuff and left. I’ve never locked back,” Dji said, not overly keen on sharing his own story. However, it was only fair. Most mates didn’t hide secrets from each other. What’s more, sharing tidbits about his life with Kei wasn’t nearly as painful as he’d thought.

“Was it the gay thing?” Kei whispered, gently patting Dji’s hands where they rested on his mate’s flat belly.

“It was part of it. The concept of male-male mating is not foreign to ostriches. My father is the alpha of the flock though. He wanted me to be is successor and chose some females as mates.”

“What do you mean, some?” Kei inquired, turning to the side so they could look into each other’s eyes. His voice sounded strained, full of barely contained…temper.

Dji swallowed and silently cursed himself. With his dumb comment, he’d jumped head first into a den of rattle snakes. Clearing his throat multiple times, he shrugged his shoulder in an attempt to appear nonchalant. “Lots of ostriches are polygamous. The males have some kind of harem, with one female acting as main hen and the others as…secondary hens.”

Kei gasped, shock clearly written on his cute face. “Polygamous?? Does that mean you have other mates out there? I’m not the only one?” Well, shit. Okay, so there wasn’t anything nonchalant about having to explain polygamy to one’s mate. A possessive, snarling mate, whose claws were, right now, digging through the thick fabric of his jeans.

“No, love!” Dji hurried to explain. “You’re the only one, I swear. The harem thing only applies for those whose true mates are ostriches, too. At least, I’ve never heard of a harem of mixed races. Plus, I’d feel it if the bond were incomplete. It’s not. I knew as soon as I met you that there won’t be another one for me.”

Kei’s face remained pinched and he crossed his arms in front of his lean chest. Shit, shit, shit. How could he convince his mate of his honesty?

Before he saw himself forced to go down on his knees, again, Kei snapped, “There better not be anyone else. My cat couldn’t stand it. And if you ever include another bird into our mating, I’ll allow Alan to relaunch CWF.”

“What’s CWF?” Dji asked, trepidation filling him.

“Chicken Wings Friday,” Kei said.

My cover is finished as well, I only did a few minor changes concerning the font size 🙂 It feels so good to finally hit the home stretch. Deadlines are an evil enemy, and the faster they approach, the more my mind goes “Nah, I want a nap!”

I can’t wait for June, when the first stories of this wonderful event will be published 🙂 There are a lot of awesome prompts (check them out if you’re a Goodreads member already) and I look forward to reading them!

Good morning/day/evening to all of you ❤