Fiction Furbaby: Meet Tom from The Eyes of Bast by Lisabet Sarai @LisabetSarai @RobsRescues #RLFblog #Pets #Contest

When Shaina discovers a beautiful black tom in her feral cat trap, she has no idea the feline is a shape shifter and her fated mate. In Lisabet Sarai’s paranormal erotic romance The Eyes of Bast, an apparently ordinary woman battles a centuries-old sorceress to save the cursed creature she loves.

Lisabet, welcome to Romance Lives Forever. I’m Kayelle Allen, author and owner of this blog. Happy to have you here! We support all furbabies, real life or fictional. We want to know all about your Fiction Furbaby, but first, please tell us about The Eyes of Bast.

The Eyes of Bast by Lisabet Sarai

Genre Paranormal erotic romance
Book heat level (based on movie ratings): NC-17

Trust your heart. Follow your dreams.

When instinct tells Shaina to visit the feral cat trap she’s set in Central Park, she listens to that inner voice. She discovers she’s caged a magnificent black tom, but the cat inexplicably vanishes after she tends to his wounds. Seeking the missing feline, Shaina encounters instead a handsome stranger whose slightest touch sets her body on fire. As the day dawns after a night of ferocious passion, her mysterious lover is forced back into his true shape—the tomcat she rescued.

Born a cat, Tom was transformed into an unwilling shape shifter by a sorceress who craved a human plaything to satisfy her perverse lusts. Centuries old and irresistibly powerful, Delphine Montserrat will stop at nothing to find her runaway familiar. Shaina vows to do whatever is necessary to defeat the vicious but seductive witch and save the man she believes is her soul mate—even though it might mean losing him forever.

Meet Tom from The Eyes of Bast

Full name: Tom
Nickname: Tom
Gender: Male
Species: Feline
Physical description: Tom is an all-black mature male cat, sleek and muscular, with hypnotic green eyes.

Relationship to main character: In his human form, Tom is Shaina’s lover and soul-mate.

Relationship to the villain/antagonist: Powerful witch Delphine Montserrat laid a shape-shifting spell upon Tom when he was young, in order to bind him to her as her familiar and to use him as an outlet for her perverse lusts.

Where this furbaby came from: Tom was born to a stray mother in coastal Maine. He was captured by Delphine when he was about six months old.

What inspired you to create this character?

To start with, I’m a confirmed ailurophile. I can’t imagine living without cats. But I’d never actually written a story with a cat as a main character. Meanwhile, I wanted to create a paranormal romance with a different sort of story line from what is typical.

Tom borrows some of his characteristics from the (mostly) black male cat Samson who currently lives with me although Tom is considerably more ferocious. Samson is a bit of a moosh cat, very sweet and affectionate. Physically, though, they have the same sort of grace and power.

What does the main character think about this furbaby?

Shaina is an animal lover who volunteers for a New York animal shelter. In her spare time, she works to capture and neuter feral cats. So she truly cares for the cat she discovers in her trap, especially when she sees that he’s wounded. Even though animals are not allowed in her building, she brings him back to her small apartment and carries him up five flights of stairs to tend to his injury.

By the time she realizes that Tom is more than just a stray feline, she has already fallen in love with his human persona. She commits herself to helping him free himself from the clutches of Delphine Montserrat, even though she understands she may be risking her love and in fact her life.

What does the villain/antagonist think about this furbaby?

Sorceress Delphine Montserrat believes that she owns Tom. After all, in a sense she created him. At the same time, some of her magical power comes from his presence. Thus, she’s determined to reclaim him as her own and vows to punish him for escaping.

What does this furbaby eat?

When he’s in cat form, he eats cat food. (Shaina keeps a supply in her apartment just in case even though she’s not allowed to have pets.) When he’s in human form, at one point in the story, he eats buffalo chicken wings!

What is this furbaby’s natural habitat?

Tom is a New England cat. He grew up by the ocean, sleeping under the piers or overturned boats, and no doubt eating scraps thrown out by the fisherman.

What does this furbaby add to the story?

Well, since Tom is actually the hero, the story wouldn’t exist without him, LOL.

What about this furbaby will readers like, and why?

In his cat form, Tom is gorgeous (as only a cat can be!), intelligent and independent. He’s very friendly and affectionate to Shaina, despite being an apparent feral.

In his human form, he’s strong, handsome and devastatingly sexy. In addition, he’s a tragic character, ensnared in evil through no fault of his own.

What triggers the shift from human to animal?

Tom is human at night and normally a cat during the day.

How does the shifting process happen?

When he’s touched by morning sunlight, Tom will shift from human to animal.

How does the human character think and feel about the animal side?

As a human, he retains quite a few of his animal characteristics. He has never fully embraced life as a man.

How does the animal character think and feel about the human side?

We don’t know, since the novella is written from Shaina’s perspective. Indeed, she wonders how much he remembers about being human when he’s in cat form.

About Samson

This post is called Fiction Furbaby, but perhaps your own pet does not have fur. If you have a pet that has fins, wings, scales, or other features, please tell us about them here.

I actually have two cats at the moment, but as noted above, many of Tom’s attributes are modeled after my male cat Samson. He’s about eight now; since he was a rescue cat, we don’t know exactly how old he was when we adopted him. Unlike Tom, he’s not one hundred percent black; he has white whiskers, a white spot under his chin and under one arm, and one white toe. Also, his eyes are gold rather than green like Tom’s.

Samson is sleek and athletic. He’s a “high places” cat. He loves jumping up on top of our kitchen cabinets or other tall furniture. I don’t think I’ve ever had a cat with a sweeter personality. He loves to cuddle, and sleeps with me almost every night.

On the other hand, he does have his idiosyncrasies. Due to his early upbringing, he doesn’t always use the cat litter. And for some reason he likes to munch on plastic bags!

What do your pets do when you are writing?

Sometimes Samson will sit on my lap while I write. He’s very skilled at being unobtrusive, unlike our female cat Delilah, who always wants attention.

Much of the time, though, they’re both sacked out on the living room furniture or on one of the chairs pushed under the dining room table.

What’s the most unusual pet you ever had?

When I was in high school, I had a white mouse as a pet. Unfortunately, mice are pretty fragile. As I recall, he didn’t last long; one day I found him dead in his cage. We always had cats as well, so it’s possible the mouse died of fright!

Where did you find your pet?

We adopted Samson from a veterinary clinic that had rescued him from the street. We already had Delilah and were looking for another cat to serve as her companion and stop her from being so aggressive. The vet attendant opened the cage where Samson was kept. The cat stepped out, put his front paws on my chest and gazed up at me with his gorgeous golden eyes. I was hooked!

Where to buy The Eyes of Bast

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4LVYDLH
Barnes and Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-eyes-of-bast-lisabet-sarai/1121761796?ean=2940166056207
Apple Books https://books.apple.com/us/book/x/id6448929321
Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-eyes-of-bast-2
Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1390042
Add on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/150375804-the-eyes-of-bast

Contest

You could win a $25 bookstore gift certificate. To enter, just complete a short survey. (Only four questions!)
https://forms.gle/TFvmc9ZegEn4RuJr5
If you’re a member of my VIP email list, your entry will count twice! Not a member? Join here:
https://btn.ymlp.com/xgjjhmhugmgh

Lisabet Sarai Social Media

Lisabet Sarai became addicted to words at an early age. She began reading when she was four. She wrote her first story at five years old and her first poem at seven. Since then, she has penned plays, tutorials, scholarly articles, marketing brochures, software specifications, self-help books, press releases, a five-hundred page dissertation, and lots of erotica and erotic romance – over one hundred titles, and counting, in nearly every sub-genre—paranormal, scifi, ménage, BDSM, GLBT, and more. Regardless of the genre, every one of her stories illustrates her motto: Imagination is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
Website https://www.lisabetsarai.com
Blog https://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com
Twitter https://www.twitter.com/LisabetSarai
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/lisabetsarai/beyond-romance-blog-posts/
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/83387.Lisabet_Sarai
BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lisabet-sarai
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/author/lisabetsarai
Get to know Lisabet Sarai better by signing up for her email list: https://btn.ymlp.com/xgjjhmhugmgh

Shout out to Rob’s Rescues – founded by a 9-year-old animal activist

Rob’s Rescues is a non-profit organization in Georgia helping people in need care for and feed their pets. It was founded in 2014 by a then nine-year-old boy. Rob’s Rescues is dedicated to collecting pet food for people in need to reduce shelter surrenders, and to advocating for the adoption of shelter pets. Rob writes monthly articles advocating for shelter animals in the Around About Local Media magazine publications. His column was first published in 2014. He also has pet food collection sites for people in need in the community and interviews amazing people. His interviews appear online once they are published in his column.
Rob volunteers for Pet Buddies Food Pantry, the Cherokee County Animal Shelter and Cobb County Animal Control and collects pet food for these organizations and the communities they serve. He also wants to bring attention to smaller, rural shelters. Mostly he wants to get kids to be Rob’s Rangers to teach kids that they can help shelter animals. Rob has also talked to kids in a classroom setting.
Rob’s Rescues is a Non-Profit Corporation and all donations are tax deductible.
Website http://www.robsrescues.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/robsrescues/
Twitter https://twitter.com/RobsRescues

Shout out to The Mountain Lion Foundation

The mission of MLF (https://mountainlion.org) is to help ensure the survival of the American mountain lion (also known as cougars, pumas or panthers). Their work includes teaching people how to co-exist with mountain lions, fighting legislation (e.g. related to hunting or trapping) that jeopardizes mountain lions, conducting research into mountain lion distribution and behavior, and generally raising public awareness about lions. Mountain lions are both a key indicator of a healthy environment, and a factor in maintaining such an environment. As an apex predator, mountain lions function as ecological engineers, meaning they help keep entire ecosystems functioning properly. Lions reduce the time deer and elk spend browsing along streams, which helps protect our waterways from both droughts and flooding. Furthermore, mountain lion carrion provides food sources for countless wildlife species, helping maintain biodiversity and keeping ecosystems intact and resilient to change.

Romance Lives Forever Blog (RLFblog) is closed as of Dec 1, 2023. Comments prior to 2021 have been deleted. This site will remain online until July 2025.