Rating: 4.25🌈
I was looking for something short to read to keep my morning procrastinating streak going and found it in How to Keep an Author (Alive) by A.J. Sherwood.
Justus LeGrange, a 250 year old South African vampire, uses the Vampire Agency for Mortal Professions in Nashville, looking for a job that will help with the hot housing market.
What he got was a weird assignment for author JD Cooper, who apparently can’t keep any help. But it has a hefty salary and own apartment. So he’s in.
Told entirely from Justus’ POV, the reader is immediately engaged with this funny situation from the minute the door opens and we meet JD Cooper just as Justus does.
“….if I hadn’t been warned ahead of time that Cooper had the personal skills of a squirrel at a rave when it came to hygiene. It wasn’t that he smelled bad, he just looked like he’d dressed in the dark. With one hand tied behind his back. While fighting off ninjas. A sweatshirt dwarfed him, its sleeves ratty around the edges, pajamas pants threatened to fall off slender hips, and he was wearing mismatched slippers. One of which was a pink duck.”
— How to Keep an Author (Alive) by AJ Sherwood
With that meeting, we’re off on a lively romantic comedy! It’s only 49 pages or so but totally delightful.
As Justus rights the messy , unorganized dump of a mansion JD ‘s writing zone has turned his life into, they get to know each other. Learn to love each other.
There’s so much promise here in their relationship that I couldn’t help but wish for a longer story but as it is, it works out so well in the end. Short but sweet.
I’m definitely recommending it! For love and laughter! A great way to spend some time procrastinating away!
https://www.goodreads.com › showHow to Keep an Author (Alive) – Goodreads
Synopsis:
The old days of vampires slinking sexily through the night are definitely a thing of the past. Now, vampires hold day jobs like everyone else, and Justus is no exception. The funny thing about living forever is that you still somehow have laundry and bills to deal with.
Enter stage left: JD Cooper, Justus’s new employer. Supposedly, the man is a writing raconteur, known to craft a mean mystery. His skills excel on paper, but suck in reality because he’s one step away from hoarder level. Justus takes the job as his housekeeper, expecting eccentricity.
Which he gets. And so much more.
Tags:
Vampires with day jobs, Justus has it rough, Cooper is a walking disaster, how self-indulgent should I make this, the answer is very, bite kink, book hoarding, this is the least angsty thing I’ve written all year, smother tested, editor approved
(This was a short story originally published in the Working Stiffs anthology. With the anthology no longer published, I’ve chosen to re-release it as a 10k short.)
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 