Welcome guest author Edward Kendrick

I'd like to welcome guest author Edward Kendrick to my blog today.  Let's find out more about him and his book "Weekends."

Edward Kendrick’s ‘Weekends’ blog hop

Thank you so much for having me here today, Lily. I think I should begin by answering your questions.

1-How long have you been writing?

     I began writing, for a fan-fic loop, about ten years ago. Then I started my own group with two friends for anyone who wanted to post stories, no matter the genre or heat level. Finally, sort of kicking and screaming, I submitted a story to GA Hauser. She published it in ‘Julian’ and that was the beginning of my ‘career’. I submitted to Silver Publishing in 2010 and my first book, ‘Everyone’s Man’ was published in 2011.

2-What is your favorite genre to write?

     Well I primarily write M/M so I guess you could consider it my favorite genre. Within that, I prefer to do mysteries and/or detective stories.

3-What are you working on now?

     I have a germ of an idea for a story about Charlie, a secondary character in ‘Forbidden Fruit’. Whether anything comes of it, time will tell.

4-When you start a new story do you begin with character or plot?

     That’s sort of 50/50 but usually it’s the plot. The ‘what if…’ thing and taking it from there.

5- Tell us about your latest/upcoming release, what inspired it?

     ‘Weekends’ is the story of a middle-aged man, resigned to living alone. He meets a young, twenty-three year old, photographer who wants to photograph him. From there things slowly develop between the two men. It’s a May-December romance and was inspired by a ‘can I actually write one, from my perspective as an older person’ idea. So I gave it a shot. The result is ‘Weekends’ which comes out on July 21^st.

* * * * * * * * * *

And now for some blatant promotion. You knew that was coming. –grinning-

Coming, July 21^st.

https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/coming-soon-c-2/products_id/877/

Blurb:

Marcus Hampton is a staid forty-year-old bookkeeper and a confirmed bachelor. When Demitri Costas, a young photographer, asks if he can take some pictures of Marcus, the older man is surprised but reluctantly agrees.

Demitri becomes infatuated with Marcus, despite the fact he believes the man is straight and married.

Slowly they become friends until each realizes the other is gay, at which point Marcus begins to pull away, certain he is too old for Demitri.

It will take everything within Demitri's power to convince Marcus he's wrong. If he can, and he is determined he will, one way or another, they just might find a future together.

Excerpt:

The Weekend Before Thanksgiving

Marcus stretched, checking the time before getting back to what he was doing. His fingers flew across the keyboard, his eyes following the scrolling information on the screen in front of him. It was all rote. Add this, subtract that, make certain part one equaled part two when he'd finished. He was sometimes tempted to move some of it to his own account just to see if he'd get away with it, but he was too honest to even try.

Honest as the day is long, and today seems very long.

He checked the time again.

Why the hell do I care? It's not like I've got anywhere to go other than home.

Running a hand over his short, graying blond hair, he sighed.

I'm a creature of habit and boring as hell, the stereotypical bookkeeper.

An hour later he jumped when someone tapped his shoulder.

"Hey, you planning on spending the weekend here?" one of his coworkers asked.

"Not if I can help it," Marcus told him with a small smile. He closed out the spreadsheet he'd been working on, shut down the file, and logged off. Grabbing his coat from the hook on one wall of his cubicle, he made it to the elevator just in time for the doors to close in his face.

He shook his head, pressed the 'down' button and waited, thinking, The perfect end to a perfect day, week, month, lifetime, then snorted softly. Not.

* * * *

Marcus arrived at his small house on the outskirts of the city to be greeted by a very petulant "Meow" from Daisy. She looked up at him and, her full fluffy tail standing straight up, stalked to the kitchen. When he joined her, she looked disdainfully at her empty food bowl then glared at him.

"Okay, sorry," he told her. Opening the cupboard he took out a can of her favorite cat food, popped the top off and spooned it into her bowl.

"Now for my supper," he muttered, checking the refrigerator to see what was available, if anything.

Leftover lasagna or second-day stew, decisions, decisions.

The stew won out so he dumped it into a pan, set it on the stove to heat, and grabbed a beer before going to turn on the TV. The news was wrapping up, the weather report said it would be cold and snowy for the next few days, and his favorite team had just lost their best player to an injury.

So much for making the end of my day any better than the rest of it.

The smell of something burning had him rushing back to the kitchen. The stew was boiling over, the hot liquid hitting the burner. He rescued it, dumped the stew into a bowl and set the pan in the sink to soak with the hope he'd be able to scrape the burned residue off the bottom eventually.

As he sat down to eat he felt something soft brush his leg and seconds later Daisy had jumped up onto the other chair. She watched him avidly; meowing piteously as if she hadn't just eaten a whole bowl of her own food.

"I'm such a sucker for a pair of golden eyes," he grumbled, setting a small sliver of meat in front of her. She batted at it, sniffed it and then delicately ate it before looking at him beseechingly.

The game continued through the rest of his meal. When the bowl was empty he got up to take it to the sink, at which point Daisy knew she'd had all she was going to get and jumped down, walking sedately into the living room.

Marcus got there a few minutes later to find her curled up in her corner of the sofa grooming herself. He sat down at the other end, picked up the remote and flicked through the TV channels until he found something which might be worth watching.

* * * *

Halfway across the city Demitri Costas slammed his book shut, startling his roommate.

"Problems?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, no, I have no clue, which is actually the problem," Demitri replied. "I'm never going to understand this."

"Then drop the class. You still can, you know."

"And face the wrath of my father? Umm, no."

"Damn it, Mitri, you're twenty-three. It's time you got out from under his thumb."

"He's footing the bill."

"Do you really want to be an engineer?"

Demitri shot him a disgusted look. "What do you think?"

"I know you don't, so drop the class. Hell, drop out of school completely. You're too talented to spend your life slaving away for him." Jack pointed to the photos which lined one wall of their living room. "Any one of those, sold to a gallery, could pay half the rent and then some and you know it."

Demitri scrubbed a hand through his dark, curly hair. "You keep saying that but…" He shook his head.

"But nothing. So help me if you don't do it, I will. Lacey knows several gallery owners, she can steer us to the right one."

A glance at the book he'd been studying made Demitri wonder if Jack had a point. "All right, I guess I can at least try. Find out from her which one would be the best and I'll see what happens."

Jack grinned. "They'll love them, you'll become rich and famous, and I'll be able to say 'I knew him when'."

"That or 'Yeah, he's the fool who though he could make it' as you and your friends pass by me while I'm panhandling on a street corner," Demitri replied with a laugh.

"Not going to happen, Mitri. So, when do you want to do this?"

"As soon as possible before I lose my nerve."

"I'll call her and we'll go tomorrow."

* * * * * * * * * *

Blog:

http://edwardkendrick.blogspot.com/

http://edwardkendrick.multiply.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/edward.kendrick.5

Google+

https://plus.google.com/u/0/115527711406227698357/about

Email:

edward.kendrick002@yahoo.com

I’m also holding two contests as part of my ‘Weekends’ blog hop which is part and parcel of my being July’s Featured Author at Silver Publishing. One is on my blog - http://edwardkendrick.blogspot.com/

The other one shows up on the blogs of those wonderful people who are hosting my blog hop tour. Today, obviously, that person is Lily.

My newest release ‘Weekends’, is a story which takes place over several holiday weekends. What is your favorite holiday, and why? On each one of the blogs, one commenter will be chosen at random to win an ARC of ‘Weekends’. Please be certain to leave an email address so you can be contacted if you win.

The list of hop addresses where you can find me and also enter the contests:

Monday, July 9^th – Lily Sawyer – http://lilysawyerbooks.blogspot.com/

Wed. July 11^th – Cheri Noel - http://talesfromthewritingcave.blogspot.com

Thurs, July 12^th – Cheyenne Meadows - http://cheyennemeadows.blogspot.com/

Friday, July 13^th – AJ Jarrett - http://ajjarrett29.blogspot.com

Sunday July 15^th – RJ Scott - http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Tues. July 17^th – Angel Martinez - http://www.freewebs.com/angelwrites/apps/blog/

Wed. July 18^th – Freddy MacKay - http://freddymackay.blogspot.com

Thurs. July 19^th – Amara’s Place (Cheri Noel) - http://amaras-place.blogspot.com/

Again, thank you very much for having me here. – E.