Enjoying a vacation at home

It’s a familiar question: “What are you going to do on your vacation?”

Do? Do? Why must I DO anything on my vacations? Okay, it’s fun to do things and we all need fun. But some of us need sleep, too. And for some of us, just being away from the day job is all we really need.

We’re the ones who love being home, love sitting on the patio with a cup of coffee in the morning quiet. We think taking an afternoon nap is a better treat than ice cream. (That’s stretching it a bit, but you get my point.)

I’m on vacation this week, and I confess just being home is what I’ve craved since my last vacation. I typically work the day job forty-five hours a week, and being home is a luxury.

Searching for something I haven’t blogged on this morning turned up an article from 2011 that seemed appropriate to today. It fit right in to my plan for the day: blog, walk, nap. I’ll share it again and then find my sneakers to take a walk through the woods.
* * *


From April, 2011

Rewind, Relax, Renew

When I was growing up, a walk to the pond was a family affair, and most of us came home with wet shoes and paws. You have to cross three different creeks to get there - and cross them again to get home. Being young and nimble, I usually managed to make the leaps. Dad never landed in the water, but being six- foot-two he had the advantage of longer legs than the rest of us.

The pond is a magical place for me, a place of renewal. You might look at the picture and shrug, but you can’t smell the spicy tang of the woods, or hear the smallest twig snap as a deer comes in to drink. The picture doesn’t let you see the flash of silver as one of the little sunnies swims into a too shallow spot and has to flap his way back to deeper water.

Walks to the pond are almost solitary events these days. The dog goes with me, but the woods walkers in the family have been reduced to one – me. Mom can’t do the distance now, which is worrisome in that it reminds me she’s not so young anymore. My partner completed the walk once, by willpower alone, but while chemotherapy saved his life, it left him no longer strong enough to walk such a distance and we both know it. My grandparent’s are gone, and my cousins married girls that practice mall walking. It’s all part of a bigger wheel turning and it’s okay.

Take time for yourself in all your endeavors. Discover what it is that gives you space to breathe and learn to use is as the life tool it is. Don’t shortchange yourself by living with your nose unceasingly pressed to your personal grindstone. It will strip you away, layer-by-layer, and leave you wondering what the heck happened to the days of your life. Without downtime, it’s easy to forget why you love doing what you do.

Rewind, relax, renew. You really are worth it.
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KC Kendricks

Changes to SER and SMR

May 27, 2012

One of my great-grandmothers was a Dunker. On her kitchen wall she had a piece of embroidery she’d completed as girl in the late 1890’s. The frame was chipped and beaten, and the cloth yellowed, and I suspect it had been on her wall for at least half a century. Looking back, I‘m sure only the embroidery floss held the cloth together. The verses she’d carefully added were from the King James Version of Ecclesiastes 3.

To everything there is a season. If I know anything in my life, it’s those six words are Truth.

A time to begin and a time to end, and the time has come to shut down Saturday Evening Romance and Saturday Morning Reviews to open posting. Like everything in life, those two blogs have run their course. I was happy to open them and offer a place for fellow authors to post excerpts and brag about good reviews. I hope someone else will start similar blogs and offer me the chance to join in.

Note to that person: I assure you I can read and I WILL follow the posted rules.

It is MY failing that I get so annoyed when writers prove they can’t read. It’s MY shortcoming that I lack patience when published writers don’t understand the meaning of “excerpts only” or “reviews only.” It’s a flaw in MY character that I believe rules and boundaries enable all of us to get along together in the same space.

A time to keep and a time to cast away. I’m not going to delete the blogs at this point. Those who followed the rules will be able to continue to post. Those whom I had to go behind and “clean up” posts will no longer be able to contribute. I hate to have to do it, but it’s time to reduce the stress in my life.

To everyone who participated at Saturday Evening Romance and Saturday Morning Reviews - my thanks.
KC

Leather Jackets by KC Kendricks - just released!

May 20, 2012


It seems like forever since I had a new book come out instead of just since February. Or was it March? Oh, how the time gets away! Anyway, I'm very happy to announce the release of Leather Jackets (although Blogger conspired to keep the news for itself today by making posting almost impossible).

Leather Jackets is the sixth, and possibly last, of The Men of Marionille series.

I won't say it is the last because Bond, James Bond is correct. Never say never. -KC


LEATHER JACKETS 
Book six of the Men of Marionville series
Contemporary gay romance available now 
Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and other online book sellers. 

INTRO:


Wynn held the hip-length coat for me as I slipped my arms into the sleeves, then he let the weight of it come to rest on my shoulders. The jacket was light, but incredibly warm. I flipped open the left side to check the lining.

“Don’t bother. You’d have to cut the cloth to see what the insulating layer is.”

I stretched my arms out in front of my chest. The jacket moved with me, giving just enough to remain comfortable.

“This is a nice jacket. I see why you liked. Does he make bombers?”

Wynn reached in the closet and pulled out a black bomber complete with silver studs and chains. He caressed a front panel. “This is so you, Jude. Take it.”

For a moment, I was tempted. “I can’t accept this. It’s hand-stitched so I’m sure it was expensive.”

“Nine large. But take it. Call it a signing bonus.”

“Wynn, I don’t know the first thing about modeling. You need a professional, or better yet, model this yourself. Your fans will go wild.”

His fingers trailed down my leather-clad arm until they found mine. He hesitated, then stroked his thumb over my knuckles. His voice was so low I had to strain to hear it.

“I knew you were here. I came back to Marionville to find you, Jude.”


EXCERPT

...“C’mon on over here.” He lifted his arm, and I nestled in against him like I did it every day of my life. “Jude, where do you want to go from here?”

I could play coy—something neither of us had ever liked—or I could be upfront with him. I chose the latter.
“Wherever you’re sleeping, I’m sleeping, and you know it. Now we can try to find a bar where the clientele won’t mob you, or we can find a nice quiet—private—place and say some things that need to be said to each other.”

He grinned at me. “Damn, Mary, you should be out of breath after all that.”

I growled and turned on him. “Don’t. Call. Me. Mary!”

Wynn held up his hand in mock surrender and it was the opening I needed. I dug my fingers into his ribs. He yelped and twitched, and the next thing I knew, we were rolling around on the floor of the limo, choking with shared laughter.

We rolled left, and I rose over him. Wynn’s long legs wrapped around my waist, squeezing me. I feigned defeat so he’d release me. The ploy worked for about a second and a half and then I was on my back looking up at him. The smile faded from his face and his hand cupped the back of my head.

“I’ve thought about you so much, Jude. I was wrong not to find you years ago.”

It would do no good to argue. Too many years had gone by for either of us to resurrect blame. Nothing would be gained and all the steps we’d taken in the last day would be erased. I didn’t want that. He’d only be here for such a short time. I had to make the most of every moment.

“Maybe, Wynn, but perhaps not. You had things you had to do. I had things I wanted to do.”

“Having you with me would have made it all sweeter.” He lowered his mouth to mine.

I was startled by the gentle poignancy of his kiss. For a split second, he laid himself bare for me, then I opened my lips and invited him in. The change in him was swift. A deep groan rumbled in his chest. His pelvis flexed to mine. My balls drew up as my cock swelled, eager for his touch, for the wet swipe of his tongue. 

Wynn’s lips trailed fire down my neck and along my jawline. My heart pounded as the skin on my back and buttocks prickled. Deep inside, small muscles twitched with anticipation of something I couldn’t be sure would happen. I hooked my foot around the back of his knees and rolled us against the other seat. We ended up on our sides facing each other.

“Damn, it’s tight quarters in here.”

Wynn’s big hand clamped onto my ass and squeezed. “We had to promise no sex in the limo to keep our driver happy. But he turns a blind eye to the occasional little grope-and-pant session.” His cool hand dipped under the waistband of my pants and his long fingers wrapped around my hard shaft and moved in short strokes. I rested my forehead to his.

“Oh, God. Every time I jerk off, I think of your hand.” I cupped his balls through his slacks.

He kissed me again, his tongue teasing mine and sending my pulse skyrocketing. “Do you want to get off now?”

I pressed forward, pinning his hand between our lower bodies and stopping his subtle movements. “No. Stop. After all this time, I don’t want to you to jerk me off in the damn limo and get your driver upset.”
Wynn gave my cock a last easy squeeze and pulled his hand out of my pants.

“We need to go to your place. If any of the local paparazzi has figured out where I’m staying, they might spot us sneaking into the parking garage at the hotel.”

I rimmed his ear as I murmured my agreement. He reached out a long arm, smacked the intercom button, told his driver to head to my place and put his arm around me. Wynn paused, his lips scant millimeters from mine.

“It’ll be okay, Jude. You’ll see...”

LEATHER JACKETS 
Book six of the Men of Marionville series
Contemporary gay romance available now 
Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and other online book sellers. 

KC Kendricks website at: http://www.kckendricks.com
blog: http://www.kckendricks.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kckendricks
mailing list at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/betweenthekeys