Spotlight: To Be a Different Someone + Guest Post

To Be a Different Someone
Sean McKissack
Genre: LGBT Coming of Age
168 pages
Purchase: Amazon

 

James Kane could be summed up in one word: loser. He silently lived as a ghost amongst his parents and he had zero friends at school…unless you count his cousin who had to defend him against the abusive Matt Tracker. When his parents divorce, James moves to Montana and stays with his grandmother, where he makes an extreme adjustment to his life-becoming a different someone named Jennifer. The transition comes with frightening issues Jennifer never thought of. After two years of recovery, she returns to her old high school to start over but she meets up with her past tormenter and gets caught in a web of secrets as she finds herself falling in love. Her conscience gets the best of her as she tries to be truthful to Matt about who she once was, but will he accept her as his girlfriend when she tells him about their past?

The story continues in three seepage books:

“It Can Only Go Up From Here”-the continuation of the narrative that deals with Jennifer and her estranged father who is now a member of the Senate in Olympia, Washington. 

“I’m On the Outside”—The original story from the vantage point of Matt Tracker, allowing us to see what happened between James and Matt in the years before and what occurred during the two year gap. 

“You Can Call Me Queen Bee”—a side story about a teenager named Monica Preston and her “coming out” during a murder trial—her brother’s.  Monica’s bother, Michael, was Jennifer’s first boyfriend and things didn’t turn out right.

Coming Soon:

It Can Only Go Up From here

 

 

Guest Post: How did To Be a Different Someone come to be?

I started writing it in 2004 as a screenplay with the title “Man! I Feel Like A Woman”, but I shortened it to FLAW. The screenplay used songs by Shania Twain to move the narrative along. I didn’t do anything with the script as I didn’t think there was a market for it and that it was missing something…twelve years later, after learning a former co-worker had one of his books published, I decided to rewrite the screenplay to focus it on Jennifer by writing it in first-person narrative, and to complete the missing two year gap in screenplay when  “James Fitzgerald Kane” vanishes and  “Jennifer Aylesea Monroe” appears in town.

I started to try and market the book and found a publisher in Torquere Press who rejected it at first, but the next day, they accepted it. They were taking a gamble on me as they were a primarily adult gay romance fiction house and here I was bringing a YA transgender story where the story is not entirely about Jennifer but the others around her. 

I had suspicions that Torquere compared my synopsis to a book that recently been published by another house: Merideth Russo’s “If I was Your Girl”  (a book I had not heard of until two weeks after my editor was working with me). I refused to read that book until after the galleries for my book, now re-titled “To Be a Different Someone (as Torquere was afraid of the negative connotation of the original title…apparently, they never heard of the song).

The book had to undergo a review by a psychologist who deals with LGTB youth. She had no issues with the book but she asked how I knew what her patients talked about. 

Unfortunately. Torquere Press fell onto some dark times right after the book was published and I never received any payments for the initial publishing but I was able to recover my rights and the rights to the cover artwork. Next, I restored the chapter titles to the Shania Twain references (I kept the new title)  and self-published it. 

About the Author:

Sean McKissack’s ability to view the world around him and find a story and truth enables him to prepare the stage in a reader’s mind for a heart-felt life cinema. Inspired by God, music and his experiences, he captures teaching and growing moments commonly found during adolescence. His writings epitomize the good and the bad in life, the joys and the pain, culminating in the coming of age and wisdom.

Sean hails from Southaven, Mississippi and he’s always thinking of new stories to write

Spotlight: Horses Heal Hearts series + Giveaway

Her Forever Love
Horses Heal Hearts Book 4
by Kimberly Beckett
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Liz Randall is coming home a champion.

Fifteen years after leaving Columbus to follow her dream of riding dressage for the United States Equestrian Team, Liz has returned with a gold medal, a determination to raise her teenage daughter, and a dream to expand her therapeutic riding practice.

Falling in love again isn’t in her plan, especially not with Jason Merrick, her first love, the boy whose heart she broke all those years ago. The man with whom she shares more than just a history.

Jason Merrick came home a hero.

An Army Ranger seriously wounded in the same attack that killed his best friend, Jason sought the familiar comfort of his hometown to recover. Now he’s ready to build something rather than destroy. What he wasn’t ready for was seeing Liz Randall–the girl who broke his heart fifteen years ago. His growing construction company needs the money remodeling Liz’s stables will bring. That’s the only reason to take the job…or so he tells himself.

The moment they see each other again, feelings that never died come rushing back. Jason knows he’ll do anything to have her. But as much as Liz wants to be his, she has a secret. A secret that, once revealed, could make him walk away from her forever.

Goodreads * Amazon

Lionel’s Leap of Faith
Horses Heal Hearts Book 3

He doesn’t know the mob has him in its cross hairs

Lionel Hayes is shocked to discover a world-class jumper among the abused horses he rehabilitates. Unfortunately, the only man with the talent to ride that horse is not only the man of Lionel’s dreams, he has also been recruited by the mob to frame him.

One fateful decision in a moment of weakness destroyed Lionel Hayes’ life as he knew it and led to the death of his longtime partner and lover. At first, he blamed his friend Michael Stafford for his misfortune and sought revenge, but through his work rehabilitating abused horse, and the trust of one special horse, he realized that he had to take responsibility for his actions, and that he and he alone should take the blame. From that day forward, Lionel vowed to restore his image and resume the career that he loved. In the process, he found the horse of a lifetime, Gideon’s Rainbow.

Monty Campbell was a rising star on the international show jumping circuit until he lost his horse to injury. Desperate for a replacement mount, and with the support of the British Equestrian Team, he leaned of Gideon’s Rainbow and knew this horse was for him. To his surprise, the horse’s owner was also a perfect match for him, although the man stubbornly refused to acknowledge it. How could Monty convince Lionel they were meant for each other and would the sinister force that sought to destroy Lionel destroy Monty as well?

Racing Toward Love
Horses Heal Hearts Book 2 

Once a hero, always a hero.

After his best friend died in his arms in Afghanistan, Ian Stafford felt broken. Then he’s compelled to save a beautiful, compassionate woman from rape at the hands of ruthless thugs, and he realizes his unique skills are needed to ensure her family’s phenomenal horse gets the chance to race like the champion he is.
Ian Stafford is a former British Special Forces soldier and Afghanistan war veteran who still has nightmares after watching his best friend cut down by a sniper in a remote village in Afghanistan. When he sees a woman in a local pub being harassed and threatened, he intervenes. During the ensuing brawl, the woman escapes, but Ian accidentally stabs one of his attackers who later dies. Ian is charged with manslaughter, and the woman who can exonerate him has disappeared.
Megan Brady and her father Daniel never imagined that the thoroughbred colt they raised from birth would grow up to be a contender for the British Triple Crown. Seabiscuit II is the last horse you might imagine as a champion if judged by looks alone. Like his namesake, Seabiscuit II is not much to look at, but has a heart as big as all outdoors, and refuses to be beaten. Unfortunately, the Irish mob has also taken notice, and has approached Megan’s brother Stephen with an offer of a bribe to purposely lose the most important race of his career. Stephen refused, and Megan has taken it upon herself to thwart the mob, but their brutal tactics nearly see her raped until Ian steps in to save her. Megan knows she must come out of hiding to exonerate Ian, but knows if she does, the mob will be there too. Meanwhile the date of the big race approaches.

Can Megan’s example of courage in the face of overwhelming odds, and the will to prevail even when the going looks tough, help Ian come to grips with his grief, and give him the courage to forgive himself and allow himself to live and love again? Will Ian be able to trust Megan with his heart?

Goodreads * Amazon

Dressage Dreaming
Horses Heal Hearts Book 1 

A once in a lifetime horse,but only one of them can have him.
 
For very different reasons, Michael Stafford and Jessica Warren need the right horse to fulfill their dreams to compete in international dressage, and the black stallion Tempest is that horse. When Tempest’s owner requires them to compete head to head for Tempest, theydiscover the tension between them is not just about the horse, but about the strong attraction neither of them can deny.

Goodreads * Amazon

Ever since she can remember, Kimberly Beckett has loved horses. She wore out 4 rocking horses before she was 5 years old, and as she got older, she read every horse story in print, from Black Beauty to My Friend Flicka. It wasn’t until she got her first job as an attorney for the federal government, however, that could afford to buy her first horse, and she hasn’t been without at least one ever since. She has been riding dressage for several years and has earned her United States Dressage Federation Bronze Medal. When she wasn’t reading about horses, she was reading romance novels, and her favorites always involve an alpha male Hero riding a magnificent horse. Kimberly has now found a way to combine her love of horses with her love of romance by writing her own version of equine-facilitated happily ever afters. She truly believes that Horses Heal Hearts. She lives in southwest Ohio, and loves practicing dressage with her own beloved equine. 

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

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$10 Amazon 

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