Morgan Brice – Kings of the Mountain

Today, I have author Morgan Brice in the interview chair. We’re discussing her latest series release Kings of the Mountain, a m/m paranormal romance.

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Hi, Morgan. It’s great to have you at my blog again. I interviewed you previously for the first release Kings of the Mountain, and this time I want to concentrate on Sins of the Father. Before we get started, can you share about the everyday you for readers who might be new to your work?

Morgan: Hi Maggie! Great to be back—thank you for having me. I’m not nearly as interesting as my characters. I work from home and write full-time. My husband Larry is also full-time in the writing process, which is how we’re able to bring out books as often as we do. We have two dogs, a Maltese and a Golden Retriever, and they supervise everything. We love to travel (which has been less than we’d like over these last few weird years), and we go to a half dozen or so reader conventions. Pretty quiet, compared to the books!

2. Now for the big question: Why make this a series?

Morgan: I like to read series, because I often feel like I barely meet a character in a stand-alone book before it’s done and I can’t get to know them better. That’s also why I enjoy writing established relationships that grow and evolve and change.

3. What is different in Sins of the Father than the first novel Kings of the Mountain?

Morgan: Dawson and Grady are together and in love, but they’re still learning how to be in a relationship. In Kings, they were finding their way back to one another after being apart and maturing. In Sins, they start to ask questions about things they had accepted about their past and find out that the answers are not what they expected. They begin to poke into family secrets and investigate the deaths of their parents—and what dangers remain.

4. Let’s speak about Dawson and Grady, the heroes from the first novel. Tell us how Dawson is different in this novel than the first one.

Morgan: Dawson came home from the Army unsure about his place in the family and with Grady. He had to reorient himself from fighting human threats in the military to his family legacy of monster hunting, and face down the dangers that threatened the people he loved. In Sins, Dawson and Grady are on solid ground with each other. Dawson has proved to himself that he can still hunt, and has gone back to helping run the family auto body business. He’s more confident in himself and his relationship with Grady, and that makes him better able to fight what comes next.

5. The same for Grady. How has he grown?

Morgan: Grady has grown up a lot. He’s done playing games and not saying what he means. He and Dawson have come a long way in learning to trust and communicate. Grady is much more secure in his relationship with Dawson because he is also much clearer about who he is and defining himself on his own terms.

6. Do you foresee another novel for the duo?

Morgan: Oh yes! I have a cover and title in mind already!

7. This novel has a witch creating havoc. Why a witch? Can you share a little about this main antagonist?

Morgan: The worst monsters are always human, or at least they were human. In this case, it’s less about magic than it is about revenge. Magic just enables the witch to do more harm than a regular human.

8. If a reader asked why they should continue with the series, what would you tell them?

Morgan: If you like regional ghost stories and lore, characters who grow as people as well as in their monster-hunting skills topped off with a lot of action and explosions, this is for you!

9. Can you share what you’re currently working on? Readers love hearing about works in progress/upcoming releases.

Morgan: I’m working on C.H.A.R.O.N., which is a sequel to Sons of Darkness in my Night Vigil series, under my Gail Z. Martin name. The characters in that series show up in a lot of my Morgan Brice books to help with research and sometimes to join the fight in person! (All my modern-day series as Gail and Morgan cross over and the characters know each other.)

10. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Morgan: I always love connecting with readers on social media or at an event, so don’t be shy about saying hello!

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Kings of the Mountain Books 1 and 2 by Morgan Brice

MM Supernatural Suspense

Fast cars, outlaw country boys, snarky werewolves, vengeful ghosts, menacing monsters, and a love that can’t be denied.

NEW RELEASE – SINS OF THE FATHER

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Title: Sins of the Fathers
Series: Kings of the Mountain, Book Two
Author: Morgan Brice
Genres: Urban fantasy, MM paranormal romance
Tropes: Hurt/comfort, friends to lovers, established relationship, evolving relationship, learning to trust, dealing with the past, dealing with family secrets.
Themes: Letting go of the past, moving on after loss, intergenerational trauma, family secrets
Publisher: Darkwind Press
Length: 62 000 words/ 213 pages
Release Date: August 28, 2022
Heat Rating: 4 flames

Reckoning with the past just might destroy Grady and Dawson’s plans for the future.

Blurb: Three deadly accidents that might have been magical murder. A dark witch with a grudge against the King family. Federal agents with supernatural abilities. And, as usual, Dawson and Grady are smack dab in the crosshairs of trouble even they can’t outrun.

When Grady King’s brother Knox is targeted by shady characters, old secrets, coverups, and lies come to light. Grady and his boyfriend Dawson begin to question what really happened when Grady’s grandparents and Dawson’s parents died. Then agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Supernatural Investigation show up pursuing a different case, only to discover that the crimes appear to be connected, with a vengeful dark witch at the center of the plot. And since monsters never sleep, Grady and Dawson are still carrying out their duty to hunt dangerous paranormal creatures, restless spirits, nefarious faeries, Civil War ghosts, creepy cryptids, and things that go bump in the night. It’s all part of the centuries-old King family mandate to protect the people of Cunanoon Mountain and Transylvania County, a mission Grady and Dawson are sworn to fulfill.

But when it looks like something is hunting the people Grady loves, it’s time to dig into the family’s painful past, uncovering dangerous details of long-ago hunts against immortal creatures who never forget—or forgive.

Can they solve the mystery and figure out who’s behind the deaths, or will they bear the deadly consequences of their hidden history? Reckoning with the past just might destroy Grady and Dawson’s plans for the future and set loose a tide of malicious magic that could sweep them all away.

Sins of the Fathers is a thrill-packed MM romance adventure full of fast cars, outlaw country boys, snarky werewolves, vengeful ghosts, menacing monsters, and a love that can’t be denied. It is book 2 in the series but can be read standalone. It does not end on a cliffhanger.

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Dawson’s heart went out to Jason, worried about his long-time partner without news of how he was doing and now afraid of being left alone.

“Lily sent us here to talk.” Grady tag teamed. “She knew you’d be upset. She also knew how much you two loved each other.”

Lily Franklin was the long-time Meals on Wheels volunteer who had delivered to Jason and Everett for many years. She’d become a good friend and was Everett’s emergency contact once Jason passed away.

A door slammed. Grady’s head snapped up, and he shot a questioning look at Dawson. Dawson reached out to take his hand, intertwining their fingers and holding their hands in the air.

“We’re like you and Everett. We understand wanting to stay together.” Dawson picked up the conversation.

The planchette trembled before beginning to move. “D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S,” Dawson said as the pointer moved.

“Dangerous to admit what you and Jason were to each other?” Grady asked.

The planchette moved to “YES.”

“It can be, but plenty of people are ‘out’ these days. Even married,” Dawson answered.

A framed photo rocked back and forth on the mantle. Dawson saw that it showed two men in their thirties decades ago on a sunny day, grinning with arms slung over each other’s shoulders.

“If Everett can’t come home, do you think you could go to him?” Grady asked.

The planchette went wild, circling “YES” over and over.

“Is there something here that means a lot to you that you could ‘travel’ with if we took it to Everett?” Dawson looked around, wondering what objects among the collections of a shared lifetime might be special enough to anchor a ghost.

A crash sounded from the back of the house. They headed toward the noise and found the door to a bedroom open and a painting on the floor in a broken frame. As soon as Dawson entered, he was shoved by invisible hands sending him stumbling toward one side of an unmade king-size bed.

He nearly fell, and when he braced himself against the edge of the mattress, he saw a leather jewelry tray on the nightstand, and in it, two silver military rings.

“These?” Dawson felt a puff of cold air in response.

“What are they?’ Grady stood in the doorway, respecting the privacy of the old man who had lived there.

“Army service rings. Vietnam, if I’m right.” Dawson picked up the rings and looked at them in the light.

“Lily said they met when Everett was a nurse at the VA hospital, and Jason came home wounded from the war,” Grady replied.

Dawson’s gaze went to a photo of a younger version of the two men standing together in uniform. They were circumspect in their pose, but Dawson imagined that he could see a slight lean, a bit less space between them than usual, and broad grins.

That could have been Grady and me if we’d been born then. I’m glad they found each other and were happy.

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Title: Kings of the Mountain
Series: Kings of the Mountain, Book One
Author: Morgan Brice
Genre/s: Urban Fantasy, MM paranormal romance
Trope/s: Hurt/comfort, mutual pining, friends-to-lovers, childhood best friends, second chance
Themes: Coming of age, forgiveness for self and others, crush maturing into love, letting go of guilt, family
Release Date: May 21, 2020
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 63 000 words/238 pages

Fast cars. Outlaw country boys. Snarky werewolves, vengeful ghosts, and menacing monsters.

Blurb: Dawson King’s family has been hunting things that go bump in the night in Transylvania County, North Carolina, since before the Revolutionary War.

Dawson was never happier than when he was racing his souped-up Mustang along winding mountain roads and hunting monsters with his best friend, Grady. Then Grady fell in love with him, which should have been perfect since Dawson had already fallen hard for Grady.

But Grady was only seventeen, and Dawson feared that sooner or later, Grady would realize his feelings were just a first crush, and then he’d be gone, leaving Dawson devastated. They both needed space to figure things out. So Dawson joined the army, while Grady stayed on the mountain.

Four years later, Dawson is coming home. He’s more sure than ever Grady is his forever love, and they’ve both agreed to begin this new aspect of their relationship as soon as Dawson gets back.

Then Grady’s father is killed in a werewolf hunt gone wrong. Grady is devastated, and he’s throwing mixed signals about moving forward. Dawson knows he needs to hold off on this new thing between them until Grady has time to grieve. But monsters never sleep, and one hunt after another throws Dawson and Grady into constant danger, while tension and unresolved feelings ripple between them.

Making it even harder, Dawson’s got a secret. He’s dreamed of death omens—which point to something stalking Grady. Can Dawson figure out who’s trying to kill Grady, save his life, and win back his heart?

Plenty of mutual pining, hurt/comfort, spooky chills, sexy thrills, and a very happy ending. The Kings of the Mountain is the first novel in the series. It is a MM romance intended for readers 18 years of age and older. It’s the first book in the series.

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The longer they spent time on the road and on hunts together, the more Dawson felt a powerful attraction to Grady. He’d always been fond of the younger man, but Dawson found himself admiring the person Grady was growing into. Grady deserved to find the right guy—if that’s what he wanted—who could make him happy. And as much as Dawson wished fervently that could be him, he knew he couldn’t take the chance that Grady might feel pressured or obligated to respond if Dawson made any advances.

Not to mention how Grady’s mother had always carried on about how awful it was to marry a “cousin,” something that she claimed no one in her family had ever done. She’d made her position loud and clear while she was married to Aaron, which had not endeared her to the rest of the community. Such marriages were legal in North Carolina, and not uncommon in the rural areas.

The fact that Grady wasn’t a cousin by blood probably wouldn’t matter to Camille. But what if Grady had accepted his mother’s bias? Maybe Dawson had imagined the flirtation, or worse, projected his own feelings onto the other man. So Dawson took the edge off with hookups and out-of-town one-night stands, very aware that he tended to choose partners with a resemblance to Grady.

Until he couldn’t stand it any longer.

That’s when Dawson enlisted.

Once they were on the main highway, Dawson turned to watch Colt’s profile.

“So…what happened with Uncle Denny and Grady?”

Colt’s grip on the steering wheel tightened, and the tic in his jaw told Dawson that the other man didn’t want to have this conversation. “They’re both alive. But a hunt went wrong a week ago, and Grady isn’t dealing with it very well.”

A week, Dawson thought. That was when he’d stopped getting emails from Grady. He had tried to convince himself the silence was due to any number of impersonal reasons, but Dawson knew in his gut something wasn’t right. His responses from Uncle Denny had gotten short and less frequent around the same time.

Was this what his nightmare had been warning him about?

“Could you be a little clearer?” Dawson knew Colt could read the warning in his tone.

“Grady got hurt. Aaron was killed. Grady’s not dealing well with it. Uncle Denny didn’t want to leave Grady alone. So they sent me.”

Dawson’s head swam. Uncle Aaron, dead? That’s hard to even imagine. He was always so full of life. And Grady—it’s got to be bad if he couldn’t come. Oh, God. I almost lost him. Plus there’s something Colt isn’t saying, something even worse. Because if Uncle Aaron died on a hunt, then Grady had to have been right there when it happened. That’s bad, really bad. No one should see their parent die, especially not like that.

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Morgan Brice is the romance pen name of bestselling author Gail Z. Martin. Morgan writes urban fantasy male/male paranormal romance, with plenty of action, adventure and supernatural thrills to go with the happily ever after. Gail writes epic fantasy and urban fantasy, and together with co-author hubby Larry N. Martin, steampunk and comedic horror, all of which have less romance, more explosions. Characters from her Gail books make frequent appearances in secondary roles in her Morgan books, and vice versa.

On the rare occasions Morgan isn’t writing, she’s either reading, cooking, or spoiling two very pampered dogs.

Series include Witchbane, Badlands, Treasure Trail, Kings of the Mountain and Fox Hollow. Watch for more in these series, plus new series coming soon!