Lust and Other Drugs (Mytho #1) by T.J. Nichols

Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Tiferet Design

Buy Links:  Dreamspinner Press | Kobo | iTunes | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to host TJ Nichols here today on tour for Lust and Other Drugs.  Welcome, TJ.

Mytho—Origins

One of the first thing people ask when a new book comes out is ‘where did the idea come from?’

It would be nice if there were an easy answer. A point in time where I could pinpoint exactly how the pieces came together. A story, for me, comes in many bits that have to be assembled without any instructions.

I think the first bit that appeared was Edra. I wanted to write a dragon shapeshifter and thought it might be fun if he had invisibility issues (he can’t control it all that well), which can make things awkward.

I wanted to set the book in the here and now, not an alternate earth like the Demonology series. But I had no idea how dragons fitted into our world so let the idea sit.

Months later I remembered reading something about the Hadron Collider and remembered all the predictions of ripping the world apart that had been made—but I still had no story at this point.

Then I went to a crime writing workshop (for no good reason besides a general interest) and thought that maybe I could add that in, maybe the love interest is a cop. And the love interest likes pretty lingerie (I don’t know why, sometimes a character insists and it’s easier and more interesting to go with it, so I did). So Jordan arrived with his pet can and lingerie.

Then it all snowballed into an idea that I could play with.

What if it wasn’t our world the Hadron Collider destroyed, but the Mytho world. The place where mythological creatures and people lived, though they had sometimes interacted with our world, thus our myths and legends. What if the Mytho world collapsed into ours and now we have werewolf and vampire and ogre refugees?

I had to make a choice here, I either wrote about the disaster, the fighting, marshal law and internment camps for mythos that would inevitably happen in such a disaster or I let all of that happen and write 10 years on when humans have grudgingly accepted that the Mythos are here to stay and cops are trying to police satyrs and mermaids and beings they know very little about. I went with the later simply because I didn’t want to write the grim fighting and death and destruction (I was writing the Demonology series at the time and this series needed to be a little lighter.

I plotted out the romance arc over several books, gave Edra and Jordan a crime to solve in each book and that was that. And that was about two years before I started writing Lust and other Drugs. All the plots and character arc sat there waiting for attention.

This sometimes happens, book ideas have to wait until I have time or the calling to write them (it’s kind of like my brain going, THIS ONE NOW and everything falls neatly into place).

The only thing I hadn’t decided on was where to set the story. I had two locations in mind Sydney, Australia (I’m an Aussie so that was the easy choice) of San Francisco. Both places have bridges and an island in the bay (both of which matter). In the end I went with SF (Which I’ve only visited once) so yay for the internet and the brilliant SFPD website.

Of course the Mytho world collapsing into ours changed a few things so any errors are clearly meant to be there and happened as part of the disaster…

About the Author

TJ Nichols is an avid runner and martial arts enthusiast who first started writing as child. Many years later while working as a civil designer, TJ decided to pick up a pen and start writing again. Having grown up reading thrillers and fantasy novels, it’s no surprise that mixing danger and magic comes so easily. Writing urban fantasy allows TJ to bring magic to the every day. TJ enjoys writing novellas and novels and has a series, Studies in Demonology, coming out with DSP Publications.

With two cats acting as supervisors, TJ has gone from designing roads to building worlds and wouldn’t have it any other way. After traveling all over the world and Australia, TJ now lives in Perth, Western Australia.

Website: www.tjnichols-author.blogspot.com

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Blurb:

Mytho: Book One

Police officer Jordan and dragon shifter Edra might have to work together, but they don’t trust each other—even if sparks do fly between them.

If anyone finds out Jordan’s a mytho sympathizer, it could kill his career. No one can know that he frequents the satyr dens and uses the drug Bliss. Another satyr overdose might not get much attention, but two dead humans? That shouldn’t be possible.

And it might not be an accident.

Edra, Mythological Services Liaison, has been covering up mytho crimes to protect the community’s reputation. With a mayoral election looming, the last thing his people need is a scandal.

To get a murderer off the streets, Jordan and Edra will be spending a lot of time together, and it won’t be easy to keep up with their deceptions… or to keep resisting each other.