Guest Post: Chat with Dale & Keyno of "The Harvest" by M.A Church

The Harvest: Taken - by M.A. Church Available at Storm Moon Press, All Romance eBooks, and Amazon!

Blurb: In the year 2050, humanity finds out they are indeed not alone.

Massive space ships appear without warning above the capital cities of all major nations. The planet Tah'Nar is dying. Chemical warfare has reduced the once-intersexed warrior race to sterility. They need fresh DNA in order to reproduce and have an idea for a harvesting program... and so they turn to Earth.

Earth governments negotiate a lottery, and Dale Michael assumes he's safe since he's under the Harvest age limit. How wrong he is. He's illegally harvested and claimed by Tah'Narian starship captain Keyno Shou. From the moment Keyno sees Dale, he knows he must claim the spirited human male for his own. What he doesn't expect is a spitfire with a mind of his own—and a deadly disease that will require a risky procedure to cure.

Hey everyone! My name is M.A. Church and I'd like to introduce you to the Tah'Narians, a novel about an alien species that took me over a year to write. Keyno, one of the main characters, is a spaceship captain. Dale, my human, will be the one Keyno takes as his mate. Sounds simple, right? Oh, believe me, this love story is anything but simple.

I'm going to let Dale and Keyno tell you their story. I think they can do it better than I can?

* * * * *

Dale: Well hey, everyone. My name is Dale Michaels, and I was harvested illegally by my loving mate.

Keyno: Dammit, Dale... Gods, nothing like just jumping right into the middle of it.

Dale: Oh by the way, I guess you could say "Dammit, Dale" is my nickname. Keyno tends to say it a lot.

Keyno: Huh, I wonder why.

Dale: *snort* We're so not going there. Anyway, back to what I was saying. In a nutshell, the Tah'Narians came to Earth, told its leaders they needed DNA, and set up a program to basically 'harvest' males as mates. A lotto was set up and numbers were drawn. I wasn't supposed to be part of the harvest; I was under the age limit that had been set. But it seems my mate had other ideas.

Keyno:*cringe* I've told you why I did what I did, why we do what we do. And you know my feelings on this. I wish...

Dale: *reaches over and pats Keyno* I know, babe. I can't help it if it took me a while to understand. What your kind did was wrong. *slashes hand through air* I know your species was dying. I get that, and get how that would make a race desperate. But keep in mind, you guys brought it on yourselves.

Keyno: We did. Attacking the Onfre was the stupidest thing the old king of our race ever did. We paid horribly and dragged many other species into our troubles.

Dale: Yes, you guys did. The people out there need to know you guys aren't as bad as you first seem. They'll see. But, this harvest was different. Things happened that changed history. Out of your offer to help the Onfre captain, you met Captain Ti of the Onfre. Look what came form that... all the things that came from that.

Keyno: True. *laugh* And Colt. Don't forget Colt.

Dale: Believe me, that's hard to do. He's... something else, and still makes my hair stand on end. But Colt wasn't the only person to be changed by what the Tah'Narians did. I found Chad again, met John... A whole race learned the true meaning of peace, too.

Keyno: All I did was offer Ti help when he was attacked. You offered friendship with a simple meal. You, my mate, made the difference and still are. You are my world, and I love you.

Dale: *rubs Keyno's pointed ear* You overgrown alley cat, I love you, too, even if I did want to tie your tail in knots in the beginning.

Excerpt

Once our meal was over we returned to our cabin so I could study more. Keyno had reports he needed to read. I didn't want to think how... homey this was. I settled on the couch and pulled the gadget on. Half way through the hour session, I pulled it off and rubbed my eyes.

Keyno looked up from the small desk. A hologram image was in front of him. He waved his hand and the image disappeared. "What's wrong? You're pale."

"My head's hurting, and I'm slightly nauseous." I patted my belly, trying to settle the grumbling down. "Is that a common side effect of this thing?"

"No. No one has ever complained about that before." Keyno frowned at me. "Maybe I should call our Chief Medical Officer, Tanlor Kere."

I opened my mouth to tell him not to worry about it when I was seized by a horrible stomach cramp. The pain in my head worsened, blindsiding me. "Keyno? Ah, shit, I feel like I'm going to—"

"Gods, you're green, Dale. Hold on." Keyno hurried around the desk and helped me to the bed. He wet a washcloth, and the coolness did help settle my stomach some. Keyno buzzed their doctor, and seconds later he arrived with a portakit.

"Hello, Dale. I'm Doc. Remember meeting me earlier while you ate? I'm going to look you over and see what the problem is. All right? I won't hurt you."

I did remember him. "Hey, Doc." I lay on the bed, being very still. The less I moved, the better.

He ran tests on me, his face carefully blank. Finally, he injected me with something to help with the pain. With a warm smile, he stepped away and motioned Keyno to follow him. Keyno and Doc stood outside the door, talking for several minutes before Keyno returned. Swear to God, were all doctors the same?

Moments later, Keyno returned to the bedside. "Tanlor—whom we call Doc— requested that you stay in bed for the next twenty-four hours. What he injected you with will stop the pain and nausea soon."

"What's going on?" I whimpered as the pain stabbed at me again and then slowly faded.

"Do you remember the conversation that you had with Chad earlier?" Keyno sighed. "Remember when he told you that you were injected with our DNA?"

"Yeah," I moaned as a bolt of nausea swept through me. "How did you know what we talked about?"

"I asked him to speak to you about certain things that you needed to know." Keyno gently settled on the bed.

"Am I having a reaction?" I gritted my teeth as my stomach cramped up again. When the hell was that stuff going to take effect?

"No!" Keyno gasped loudly. "No, you're fine. This just wasn't expected to happen quite so fast."

"What wasn't expected to happen so fast?" I was now more worried about why he was avoiding giving me a straight answer.

Author Bio:

M.A. Church lives in the southern United States and spent many years in the elementary education sector. She is married to her high school sweetheart and they have two children. Her hobbies are gardening, walking, attending flea markets, watching professional football, racing, and spending time with her family on the lake.

But her most beloved hobby is reading. From an early age, she can remember hunting for books at the library. Later nonhuman and science fiction genres captured her attention and drew her into the worlds the authors had created. But always at the back of her mind was the thought that one day, when the kids were older and she had more time, she would write a book.

By sheer chance she stumbled across a gay male romance story on the web and was hooked. A new world opened up and she fell in love. Thus the journey started. When not writing or researching, she enjoys reading the latest erotic and mainstream romance novels. She can be found on her blog, Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads!