Thursday, August 30, 2018

Ponderings on a hot summer evening

August 31, 2018

Being that honesty is the best policy, I must confess I think I have a favorite book that I wrote. Maybe admitting that isn't a good idea, but there it is. It's difficult not to have a special fondness for the story that came together seamlessly. 

Or the first contest winner.
Or the first award winner.
Or the first best seller. 
Or the first five-thousand dollar earner. 
Or the first book in a series.
Or the first book to get fan mail.

Yep. A writer can't help but have a special fondness for the stories they wrestle out of the air and onto the page. 

As far as actually saying which book it is, the truth is each book is a favorite for a different reason. A well-developed character, a cool plot twist, a great sex scene, a fantastic and memorable line of dialogue. 

And sometimes it's digging into the archives and finding a half-written manuscript that makes the author sit back in amazement that they wrote it. 

We writers are a strange lot, especially on a hot August evening when we should be writing instead of pondering the inner workings of our own mind. 

Or sleeping. 


KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com

Monday, August 20, 2018

A fresh coat of paint

August 20, 2018

Every summer I dip into my "home & garden" fund for a project. Big, small, or a little bit of both, it's good to keep up with things around the house. This summer a lot of projects got waylaid when the spousal unit had a health issue to work through. He was off his feet for about six weeks but he seems to be healed now. 

Two weeks ago, his brother came up from Florida for a visit and RC put Brother Bob to work. Bob installed a new bathroom counter and faucet for us. He did a great job and I'm sorry it took me until this weekend to take advantage of his help. This weekend I gave the walls and ceiling a fresh coat of paint and installed the new backsplash. I even changed the light fixture with my own two little hands! (Too bad I didn't get better photos. I seem to have tilted my phone.)

Now the old vanity needs a fresh coat of paint and the trim mouldings are getting a new color. It may be another two weeks until I get a free day to do that, but it's fine. With age comes patience for some things. Wielding a paintbrush is one of them. 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks

**Check out the newest release, Please Use the Door, on my website.**



Wednesday, August 15, 2018

New! Please Use the Door by KC Kendricks

August 15, 2018
**Updated 4/2/21 - the MidWeek blog hop has been discontinued.**

Welcome to this week's MidWeek Tease! Today I'm happy to announce the release of Please Use the Door. It's loaded at the various vendors and should be available now or later today at iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Amazon.  Check out my website for the links. I'll update there first. www.kckendricks.com. And be sure to check out all the MidWeek Tease participating blogs at http://midweektease.blogspot.com .  Our host Angelica Dawson works hard to keep the bloghop going! 

Now here's a tease from Please Use the Door (a ghostly romance). Enjoy!

_*_*_*_
Tanner shivered as cool air moved around him. What was going on? Could someone actually hide in his house? He corrected himself. Could this Bodhi really hide in his house?

He’d spoken to Bodhi. He had. It wasn’t part of the dream. It had happened before the dream. Man, he must have been out of his mind not to call the cops, but he’d checked the house and everything was locked from the inside.

Which meant Bodhi had a very secure place to hide and he had to discover the whereabouts of said hide. Was Bodhi the reason he’d gotten the house so cheap? Had he managed to scare off previous owners? If so, it ended here and now. It was time to get serious.

“Okay, Bodhi. Come out here and talk to me. We need to settle something.”
Tanner spun around so fast he almost spilled his coffee as Bodhi spoke from behind him.

“Good morning, Tanner. What do you wish to discuss?”

He didn’t look threatening, but Tanner didn’t want to provoke him. And how…“How’d you get in here, anyway? You’re sneaking in and out somehow. This is my house. You need to show me your little hidey-hole, and I need to seal it up. You need to find another place to live.”

Bodhi shook his head. “That won’t be possible. This is my house.”

“Yeah, yeah. You built it eighteen-ninety whatever. You need a better lie, friend, because the tax records say it was nineteen-o-five. Now vacate the premises before I call the police.”

“It was Eighteen-ninety-nine and I should know. You don’t understand, Tanner. Not yet. But you will. Give me a chance to explain. You might find we get along tolerably well.” He cocked his head to the right. “You’re a very attractive man. We might get along more than simply ‘tolerably’.”

“I’m not about to give you squatter’s rights. I’m asking you…” Tanner stopped abruptly as in the corner of his vision the delivery truck pulled into the driveway. “Shit. Don’t you move.”

He hustled out the front door to direct the driver around to the back. The driver and his helper quickly unloaded, unpacked and placed Tanner’s new refrigerator, stove and dishwasher. He joked with them they’d be back in a few days with a washer and dryer. They laughed and told him they’d bring their laundry along so he could test out the equipment.

He took the good-natured humor for just that – verbal fun. His mind was already forming new arguments to move Bodhi out of the house. As soon as the delivery truck pulled out onto the street, he went back into the living room and stared at the empty space, his hands on his hips.


Now where the fuck had Bodhi gone?

_*_*_*_

ABOUT Please Use the Door:


Tanner Reddick learned the hard way a man needs his own place to call home – one that is legally his. The last guy set his belongings on the curb and Tanner vows it will never happen again. It’s time for him to be in charge. Embarking on the next phase of his life, Tanner buys a fixer-upper bungalow and gets to work. He’s looking forward to living on his own for a while. His interest in his boss, Alex Crewes, could change that.

It’s moving day and Tanner notices a few things about the house, things his friends disavow knowledge of. The porch is swept and the breakers on. Then Tanner smells a hint of Bay Rum cologne, which no one he knows uses. When unseen hands paint a few rooms in the house, he has to face the facts - he’s not really alone.

Bodhi introduces himself and welcomes the newest resident in the house he built a century ago. This one Bodhi likes, and he’s determined he and Tanner will coexist in harmony. Maybe they can even be friends. And if he’s lucky, maybe a little more – unless Tanner’s deepening relationship with Alex throws a wrench into his plans.  


Please Use the Door by KC Kendricks
Available iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and KOBO



KC Kendricks



Saturday, August 11, 2018

A log cabin she-shed sounds good

August 11, 2018

August marks the anniversary of my move "home" thirty-seven years ago. Back in the day, I'd married and moved several miles away. I found living in a town a miserable experience and was looking for a building lot in the country. My grandparents would have none of me spending thousands of dollars on a piece of property. They handed me the deed to three acres they owned behind their house and I gratefully came home. I've been here ever since. 


I like my little house in the woods, but every so often I wish I'd done things differently all those years ago. My heart longs for a log cabin. It would have been perfect in my woods, surrounded by trees. I gravitate toward the dog trot style with its central breezeway. 

Of course, being a bit older now, I wonder if having to go back and forth through the breezeway at night when it's snowing would be fun. I'd need some well-insulated sliding barn doors to be comfortable. 

Maybe I'd be better off with a small log cabin She-Shed. If I had one of those to help ease me into the next phase of my life (retirement), it might alleviate some of the stress already happening between me and the spousal unit. He's not looking forward to losing his autonomy. I'm not looking forward to having him underfoot all day long. A nice little retreat with Internet out in the "west forty" may be just the thing to give us the space we need. 

That's definitely food for thought. 

 KC Kendricks

Life through the eyes of Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com


Wednesday, August 1, 2018

MidWeek Tease - Highway Nights by KC Kendricks

August 1, 2018

**updated 4/1/21 - the MidWeek Tease blog hop is no longer operational**

Welcome to my corner of the MidWeek Tease! This week I'm highlighting Highway Nights, a story best categorized as romantic suspense. Be sure to check out all of the participants this week by using the linky list at the end of this post. 

Here is a snip from Highway Nights. Enjoy!
_*_*_*_*_*_


Oliver grinned and stopped in front of him. “Happy to see me?”

Garrett glanced down. “As happy as you appear to be. Can a guy get a soda to go in this joint?”

Oliver shook his head. “I’ve better at the house. Let me tell Shirl and Billy not to call me unless it’s an emergency.” He disappeared into the kitchen and sauntered back out in less than thirty seconds. Oliver motioned at the front entrance. “Let’s go.”

Garrett turned and held the door open for Oliver. “What constitutes an emergency?”

“Someone is bleeding, choking, or keels over all the way to the floor.” He placed his hand on the small of Garrett’s back and guided him around the corner of the building.

Garrett leaned closer to the warmth of Oliver’s body. “Not fire?”

“That’s what the firemen are for. Call ‘em. Besides, I like firemen. Don’t you?”

“Sure. Big, burly men turn me on.” Garrett stroked Oliver’s well-formed bicep. Oliver laughed softly and backed Garrett against the rear wall of the diner, out of sight from the clientele and staff.

“To each, their own.”

Garrett grasped Oliver’s hips and yanked him against him. He held him there and soaked up the heat from Oliver’s body. The corner of his mouth quirked in a small smile.

“So, am I going to have to beg you to kiss me again?”

Oliver ran his thumb over Garrett’s lower lip. He swallowed, the muscles in his throat moving. “Garrett. Be sure you want this. Don’t lead me on then tell me to stop.”

“I came for this, Oliver.”

Something dark and unsettled sparked in Oliver’s eyes. “Don’t get too attached to me, either, boy.”

“I’m horny. I want to fuck you, not marry you.”

Oliver leaned in, his breath warm on Garrett’s moist lips. In the back of his mind, Garrett registered surprise at Oliver’s reticence but he’d ponder it later. He shifted forward and touched his lips to Oliver’s.

Need burst through him, a siren song in his blood that built as Oliver’s tongue licked his in a bold stroke. The larger man pressed his body to the sun-warmed bricks, pinning him, his pelvis grinding against Garrett’s in a mock taking. Garrett thrust his tongue into the heat of Oliver’s mouth. Back and forth they tested, well matched, as the world spun behind his closed eyes. Suddenly breathless, Garrett tore his lips from Oliver’s. Oliver rested his forehead to his, breathing hard.

“You should go home, Garrett.”

“I don’t think so. Why are you afraid of me?” He ran his fingers through Oliver’s short hair.

Oliver brushed a kiss to his lips. “I’m too old for someone in his twenties, Garrett.”

“I’m going to surprise you. I’m thirty-two.” He laughed as the man’s eyebrows shot up. “Told you I was older than I look.”

Oliver’s eyes darkened. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am, but I still feel like a dirty old pervert chasing chickens.” He levered off the wall, grabbed Garrett’s hand, and pulled him along the flagstone path to the bungalow-style house.

Garrett fell into step beside him and slipped their linked hands behind Oliver’s back. There was one sure way he knew to find out Oliver’s age—give him a little dig.

“You can’t be that old. What are you? Fifty?”

“Fifty! No, smart-ass, I’m forty-four. Happy to know that?” Oliver eased his hand free as they climbed the steps to the wide veranda. He pulled keys out of his pocket and unlocked the front door. “I should spank you for that.”

Garrett stepped into the foyer and patted his butt. “A spanking might be fun sometime...”
_*_*_*_*_*_*_

ABOUT HIGHWAY NIGHTS
Contemporary gay romance/suspense

Garrett Webb has a five-point plan for starting his own business. To keep it on track, he takes a second job and settles into the evening delivery run between Owensville and Mt. Franklin. The solitude of being on the road clears his head and enables him to chart a better future for himself. When a foggy night sends him to the safety of The Downshift Diner and its owner, Oliver Sanderson, that future takes an unforeseen turn.

Oliver Sanderson enjoys a quiet life along the lonely stretch of highway that’s home to his diner. The road brings all manner of interesting souls to his door. When Garrett Webb steps out of the fog seeking shelter, his openness and honesty draws Oliver’s interest. He’s ready to take the next step but needs to be cautious. Trouble is coming to the diner, and Oliver wants Garrett clear of it.  

Good intentions can’t hold out against their budding attraction. Garrett makes the diner a regular stop during his nightly run, and the men get better acquainted. But Garrett’s past isn’t done with him. In a single heart-stopping moment, Garrett is forced into a decision that risks Oliver’s life – one that could forever end their highway nights.


HIGHWAY NIGHTS
Available at:






4 Hearts from The Romance Studio: The sex scenes are good and steamy, these two really like each other. An unforeseen occurrence adds to the drama and kicks it up a notch. Highway Nights is a nicely paced story with a satisfying ending.  

 KC Kendricks

Life through the eyes of Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com