Blog Tour ~ The Wasteland Kings by Jaimie N. Schock ~ Excerpt | Giveaway
Afternoon all!
A big welcome to the Blog Tour for The Wasteland Kings by Jaimie N. Schock!! So excited to be part of this tour! We got survival. We got LGBT. We got romance. We got scifi/dystopia! Oh yes!
For today’s post I got a ton of fun things for you all! You can join a giveaway. Read an excerpt. And of course I got author/book information!
Let’s get this tour on the road!
Publishing Company: JMS Books
Primary Plot Arc: Speculative Fiction
Pairings: There are three romantic pairings in the book, all of which are MM. I would say it is half romance, half sci-fi.
Main Genre(s): Romance, Science Fiction
Sub-Genres: Cyberpunk, survival, dystopian, queer
Word Count: 68,025
LGBTQ+ Identities (if applicable): Bi, gay, and non-binary
Keywords/Categories: robots, wasteland, future, futuristic, androids, cyborgs, body modification, queer sex, MM, MM romance, romance subplot, gay romance, love and lost, queer love, cyberpunk, dystopian, survival, sci-fi, science fiction, new release, announcement
Tropes: HFN
Is This Part of a Series?: NoBook Blurb:
Hacker Bast has it all: a cushy condo, a sexy boyfriend, and a place among the wealthy elite. When his past catches up with him, he flees into the dreary and dangerous wastelands between domed cities. There, he meets Delphi, who saves him, and Galeron, who runs a small town. He is anything but safe, however, as robotic “dogs” roam the countryside, looking for people to kill, and humans can be just as deadly.
As Bast settles in to life in the town, he develops a controversial relationship with Galeron. They fall in love, but all is not well in their world. Can the two of them survive and reach the happy ending they long for, or will the wastelands take everything they hold dear?
Warnings: Guns, death, child death, violence, animal death, suicide, drug use, nazis.

Buy here:Books2Read
About the author:
Jaimie N. Schock is an author, editor, and journalist with nearly two decades of professional experience. She has been published in newspapers and magazines and has released nine fiction novels.
She is married and living in Northern Virginia. Though she have an extensive career, she is disabled with PTSD and chronic illness. Schock tries to incorporate her life experiences into the fictional pieces she writes while delivering complex and diverse characters. Her pronouns are she/her, and she is proudly a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.



Excerpt
They traveled for days in close quarters, stopping only for necessities like food, sleep, and bathroom breaks. They bickered a lot and had loud arguments. Most of the time, it had to do with which way they should go.
Gabriel used the old GPS in the van and road signs to navigate eastward. When they wove their way through the mountains, the group trusted him. Once they were out in the open, however, every new road was challenged, especially by Nathan.
“This one is too broken,” he said. “It’ll damage the car.”
“They’re all like this, Nathan.”
“Just find a better road.”
“I’m doing my best here. Do you want to navigate?”
“Maybe I should.”
Christiana broke up this particular argument. “Gabriel’s doing a fine job, and I’m the one driving, so shut the fuck up. When it’s your turn to drive, you can comment all you want.”
Nathan whined. “It should be a group effort.”
“Well, it isn’t.”
“Fine.” He folded his arms across his chest and looked out the window.
Arguments about how much food should be eaten were also commonplace. They didn’t consider themselves friends of one another, only colleagues. Gabriel tried to be a mediator whenever they started fighting. He knew they wouldn’t last long if they couldn’t work together.
Eventually, they ran out of things to hate each other about.
They made it as far as Montana when a particularly large crack in the asphalt damaged the underside of their van and popped a tire. Cole knew the most about vehicles. After putting on the spare, he said their van would only last a former state or two before the whole thing stopped working.
Tension rose among all of them. Nathan stayed quiet for much of the trip. When he did talk, he expressed concern for the vehicle and what they would do if and when it stopped working. “I don’t know how we’ll manage to survive without the van,” he said. “We’re far away from pretty much everything.”
Gabriel sighed. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Their vehicle lasted longer than they expected.
When the van rolled to a stop, they found the battery leaking onto the gravel below. They knew of no way to fix it.
The rest of the trip would need to be on foot. They didn’t have enough supplies to make it to the east coast, nor did they have enough to make it back.
With most of the group members upset, and some refusing to keep going, Gabriel tried to motivate them.
“We have no choice but to continue traveling,” he said as Bethany took a seat on a log.
“Travel where?!” Bethany sobbed. Her voice was partially muffled by her hands, which covered her face. Her blonde hair looked knotted and messy. They couldn’t spare any of the water to use for personal hygiene.
“We stick to the plan. The only thing that’s changed is we’ll have to walk.”
“I can’t walk that far. I’m not athletic. I don’t play any sports. I don’t even go to the gym.”
Gabriel walked over to her and crouched down to her level. “We’ll die if we stay here. We can scavenge for other supplies along the way, but we have to try.”
Christiana joined them, digging at a can of children’s pasta and sauce. She offered the remnants to Bethany, who reluctantly took it. Christiana gripped her by the shoulder. “C’mon. I’ll carry your share of the supplies. That way, all you have to do is walk.”
She sniffed. “We’re going to die.”
“No, we’re not. We’ve made it this far. We can do it.”
“If you say so,” she said finally.
An hour or so passed as they got all the supplies out of the van. Jeremy removed the GPS so that it could continue to help them navigate. With Gabriel in the lead, the group started wandering down the highway. He hoped they would reach the old Illinois border in a day or two.
