I am happy to welcome Naomi MacKenzie to the Book Blog today, talking about her latest release, Lodestones.
Hi! Thanks for having
me. It's great to be here!
I'm a Canadian from the
east coast, currently living in the Toronto area and pining for the sea. I've
been writing for myself since I was very young, mostly poems and short stories.
I have several novels on the go at all times, but Lodestones is my first
completed novel. It involves a large cast of high school and college-aged
characters seeking out and attending a lake party on the last weekend of
summer.
1)
Tell us something about your character’s friends.
Robin is the sort of person
who has many friends, but very few close ones. His two best friends are Charlie
Katz and Christa Ito, who are opposites in a lot of ways. Charlie is sweet and
empathetic, sometimes to a fault. He holds back his true thoughts and feelings
if there is even the slightest chance that they will hurt his friend. Christa
says what is on her mind. Even if her words might cause injury, she feels it is
more important to be direct and honest than to coddle. They are a good balance,
and Robin goes to them with problems when he needs one or the other: absolute
truth, or hugs and distractions.
2)
What is your character’s favorite
meal? Favorite dessert? Favorite snack food?
Robin has a serious sweet
tooth, and his favourite meal is crepes or pancakes, smothered in maple syrup.
He loves nearly all desserts, but especially plain white cake with chocolate
icing, which was his grandmother's specialty. He snacks on chocolate covered
raisins and Smarties, or sometimes raw almonds when he's on a health kick.
3)
What activity does your character absolutely
hate?
Jogging. He hates most
activities that lead to profuse sweating, but he would do pretty much anything
to avoid jogging.
4)
What other author’s book do you think your character would be good
in?
That's a really tough
question. I'd have to say Stephen King. Only because of Robin's love of the
horror genre. He knows all of the twists and tricks, so he'd have a good chance
of being left alive.
5)
What’s your favorite decade and why?
The 80s, God knows why. If you
asked anyone who was an adult at that time, they'd have a hundred and one
horror stories, but I was really young so none of that registered. It was all Star
Wars and Glamour Gals and She-Ra to me. Plus, the
music was good. And the hair was big.
Blurb:
On the eve of a new
school year, several groups of college students cross paths as they seek out a
secret end-of-summer lake party—including Robin and Charlie, two inseparable
friends who discover of the course of the twenty-four hours that their
relationship is something much deeper than simple friendship.
Pages or Words: 226 pages
Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, Gay
Fiction, M/M Romance, Romance, Young Adult
Excerpt:
Larry holds up the flyer to study the map Florence
drew. Barry is leaning to look at it, too, when it's ripped from between
Larry's fingers.
A greasy man in a campus security
uniform stands over them with a pinched expression. His faded nametag reads:
Ron Anderchuk. "Another one," he all but growls. "Where in heck
did you get this, boys?"
Barry tries his best to look innocent.
Which isn't all that hard, since he knows nothing.
"Found it on the ground,"
Larry lies.
"Uh-huh, uh-huh," the security
guy says. "Extra trouble for littering." He glares hard at the paper
for nearly a minute before looking back at them. "You do know parties like
this are illegal, don't ya, boys? And frowned upon by this here
establishment." He raps his knuckles on the table. "I think it best
you stick around here this weekend. That would be best, don't ya agree?"
He widens his beady eyes while he waits for their assent.
Barry looks to Larry. Seeing him
nodding, he mimics the gesture.
The security officer's answering grunt
sounds disbelieving. He mutters as he walks away; the flyer with their map is
gripped in his fist.
"What are we—"
Larry holds up his hand, stopping Barry's
question in its tracks. "Not to worry; I have a photographic memory. I've
got the map in here." He taps a fingertip against his temple.
"Even after all of that? And we do
have another problem, if Florence is to be believed."
Larry hums and strokes his chin. He
picks up Barry's tray and they walk to
the windows. The orientation officers are indeed spread across the entire
expanse outside, handing out pamphlets and organizing games of lawn bowling and
oversized croquet. The entrance to the student parking lot is completely
blocked.
Barry should throw in the towel, admit
defeat and convince Larry to do the same. And he would, if not for one thing.
The one detail that has roped him into the excitement over the lake festivities
fully and completely is Kate Zimmermann, captain of the Dicaroon Seadogs field
hockey team. Barry was looking through the school's website while Larry was
plotting behind him and he caught sight of her picture. He informed Barry that
she was one of the girls who was carrying the van's bench seat into her dorm
room and invited him to the party early that morning.
Barry is in love with Kate Zimmermann.
He has been since seeing her on the Dicaroon University website the previous
summer. Well, he's in love with the image of her and her red hair and blue eyes
and adorable freckles that are so voluminous that they connect on her face. He
has dreamed of red-haired kids calling him Daddy and hitting balls with sticks.
Possibly. And she's throwing the party, so even if Barry will never get up the
nerve to speak to her should he live for a thousand years, he has to go. For
his future dream-wife.
"Well, then," Larry says. He
sets Barry's lunch tray down on the bussing station and rubs his hands
together. "I guess we are in need of a foolproof plan."
"A stratagem," Barry says. He
feels immediately foolish for being such a huge dork.
But then Larry grins at him. "Ooh, yes, I like
that. A stratagem."
Buy the book:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1T9EI12
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/557390
Naomi MacKenzie is a writer and photographer from the eastern coast of Canada. She considers herself a Maritimer first and a Canadian second, or so she told the standardized testing people in essay form during the eleventh grade. She enjoys vegan baking, walks in the woods and, contrarily, hiding from the sun. Lodestones is her first novel.
Where to find the author:
Connect
with Naomi MacKenzie at http://naomimackenzie.com/; on Twitter at @_naomimackenzie and on Facebook at Naomi MacKenzie.
Publisher: Duet Books, the YA imprint of Interlude
Press
Cover
Artist: Cover Design by Buckeyegrrl Designs
Cover and Interior Illustrations by Abby Hellstrom
Cover and Interior Illustrations by Abby Hellstrom
Tour Dates & Stops:
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