Idlewild By Jude Sierra
Idlewild By Jude Sierra
Summary
Asher Schenck and his husband John opened their downtown gastro pub in the midst of Detroit’s revival. Now, five years after John’s sudden death, Asher is determined to pull off a revival of his own. In a last ditch attempt to bring Idlewild back to life, he fires everyone and hires a new staff. Among them is Tyler Heyward, a recent college graduate in need of funds to pay for med school. Tyler is a cheery balm on Asher’s soul, and their relationship quickly shifts from business to friendship. When they fall for each other, it is not the differences of race or class that challenge their love, but the ghosts and expectations of their respective pasts. Will they remain stuck, or move toward a life neither of them has allowed himself to dream about?
Excerpt
In one of December’s warm snaps, he’s warm enough that he can tuck his hands in his coat pockets and wander Campus Martius for a while. He stops at the ice rink and watches the ice skaters. There’s always one person, that one girl who is practicing spins and simple jumps, weaving between the inexperienced ones who laugh and fall, who play tag and enjoy each other. It starts to snow: tiny, almost invisible flakes. Between the soft lights of Christmas and the horse-drawn carriages, the too-bright light of the Hard Rock Café and Texas de Brazil signs down the Woodward corridor to the changing lights of the Renaissance Center, downtown sparkles with life.
Whenever he takes the time to explore this part of Downtown, Tyler reflects at the conflicting sadness and hope that crowd him. No one is bringing a high-end tapas and wine restaurant down Trumbull and West Grand Boulevard or into Brightmoor. Downtown is the shiny dream magazines write about, contrasting it with blight and crime statistics in worse neighborhoods of the city. No one sees the in-between or hears the stories of people working hard every day, filling spaces others deem empty.
But, businesses and restaurants sprung in Midtown, through parts of Cork Town and Mexican Town; Potter Park, a neighborhood often spoken of at Hotter than July, where people dream of making an ideal gayborhood: All of these changes make Tyler hopeful that positive change will spread and that with it, all of the stories and faces of the city will too. Wherever he goes, he sees people coming together. They farm in empty lots to turn things around. They take safety into their own hands and patrol neighborhoods; they take down blighted homes on their own. Men like Tyree Guyton, who created the Heidelburg project, taking found, everyday objects to turn dejected buildings into living art, have turned their lives and communities around. Men like Malik who are determined to make change, even if his view was so much more unbending than Tyler’s. For Tyler, this city’s story isn’t us vs. them, no matter what others might think. It’s a place with lots of hope and potential and heart in all of its spaces.
Character Bio
Thank you for considering doing biographies for your characters for us to post on Pride during your tour. If you opt to do them, we’ll also add a ‘Meet the boys of Idlewild at Pride’, to get people to come meet your guys. Should you choose to do this, feel free to answer it in your ‘author voice’ or from your character’s point of view. We want you to have fun with this. And if you’ve got some pictures that you want to put with your post, feel free!
The Basics:
(Please pick 3 – 5 questions, or as many as you’d like to answer.)
What is your character’s name? Does the character have a nickname?
Well we have Tyler Heyward and Asher Schenk. Tyler gets called Ty from time to time, but it’s not a consistent nickname. Sometimes Tyler calls Asher “Ash”, which Asher secretly loves because no one has ever done that before.
What is your character’s hair color? Eye color?
Tyler has black/brown hair and gorgeous green eyes. He’s really beautiful, with high sharp cheekbones. I have a picture of his look inspiration, although his eyes are different, a really standout green. In the book, Tyler has a wonderful, almost ephemeral beauty that’s slightly androgynous. He’s very changeable because he’s so charismatic and aware of his looks. He likes to play with some of his feminine qualities and also at time, a more masculine look. Apparently this beautiful model has served as inspiration for many authors – can you blame us? While he definitely captures some of Tyler’s qualities, he’s not a perfect match.
From the moment I conceived Asher I knew what he looked like. And this is a perfect match. Have some delicious Adam Brody:
This picture really captures what Asher looked like the first time Tyler met him. A little scruffy but sexy. A little withdrawn; weighed down even. He’s a little heavier than Adam Brody, obviously, but… trust me. Delicious. He’s got a tiny bit of grey hair at his temples (who wouldn’t, were they living his life pre- Tyler?). Although we often see a serious Asher in the book – other than what Tyler brings out in him, if you’d like to see how happy Tyler makes him, and his inherently happy nature (when he’s not crazy stressed), this is it.
You’re welcome 😀
Who are your character’s friends and family? Who does he surround herself with? Who are the people your character is closest to? Who does he wish he were closest to?
Tyler has so many friends – he makes them everywhere he goes. But while he’s good at drawing people in, he’s also very skilled at keeping his true self kind of hidden. He struggles with trusting people to love him for him, you know? Throughout the book we get to meet a cast of people – sometimes fleeting – that he is or was friends with.
Tyler is also very close to his family; they have Sunday dinners all the time and he’s very family oriented. Taking care of his sisters and living up to his potential, being a good role model and support for them – all of these were reasons that influenced his plans to become a doctor when he went to college.
I think it’s important and says a lot about both him and Malik (his ex-boyfriend) that they remain friends after they break up. Or, I should say, come to remain friends eventually. A large part of that is that Tyler understands that his family had become Malik’s, because Malik doesn’t have a family, and he does not want to take that away. They both also come to understand, as Tyler really finds himself over the course of the book, that they are better as friends. They understand each other in ways no one else does – enough to know that they aren’t a good fit. I see potential for Malik to be misunderstood in this book, but trust me. Trust Tyler if you don’t trust me. Malik is troubled in some ways, and he faces many past and present struggles. He’s far from perfect. But he’s a very good man under all of this.
Where was your character born? Where has he lived since then? Where does he call home?
Asher was born in the Metro Detroit area – Royal Oak to be exact. He grew up in West Bloomfield, a suburb of the Metro area, where he lived until he got married. He and his husband, John, lived in Royal Oak, and at the beginning of the book, Asher moves into the third floor loft of Idlewild, which is in Downtown Detroit.
Tyler was born and raised in the city of Detroit. He grew up in the house he was born in (well, not literally, you get my meaning). His mother still lives there; no matter where he goes – when he goes to college, when he moves away as an adult, it will always be home.
I really intended Detroit to be a character – a focus – in this book. Both of these men love and honor Detroit, even if they understand and know her in different ways. No matter where the future takes them, they will always live there.
(Please pick 3 – 5 questions, or as many as you’d like to answer.)
Fun & In-Depth Questions
What is in your character’s refrigerator right now? On her bedroom floor? On her nightstand? In her garbage can?
It depends on their stress levels! Asher’s kind of a slob, even if he won’t admit it. There would be containers of lots of old leftovers in his fridge, only Tyler keeps tossing them out. Asher doesn’t mind so much, only Tyler gets frustrated and throws out the Tupperware too when he goes on a cleaning tear.
Asher’s nightstand is one of the only places in the house he insists Tyler doesn’t clean. He has books piled up that Tyler has finished and wants him to read. Lotion and Chapstick and two mugs from coffee he drank earlier in the week. Also, lots of dust. But that’s mostly to drive Tyler crazy.
When your character thinks of her childhood kitchen, what smell does he associate with it? Sauerkraut? Oatmeal cookies? Paint? Why is that smell so resonant for her?
From the time he was a child, Tyler’s mother has made hot chocolate whenever he or his sisters had a problem, were hurt, or needed comfort. It smells of chocolate and spices – what she calls her secret ingredient (he’s pretty sure it involves cinnamon and nutmeg). Tyler’s sister, Gayle, hates hot chocolate, but tries her hardest to drink it when their mother makes it. He and his sisters have talked about it before, and come to the conclusion that making them hot chocolate is as much a comfort for their mother as for them. She likes to feel like she’s actively doing something to fix whatever is wrong with them – even though as they get older, problems become more complicated than scraped knees or bad grades.
Your character is doing intense spring cleaning. What is easy for her to throw out? What is difficult for her to part with? Why?
Tyler, Asher believes, is compulsively neat. Living with him is like living in a constant state of spring cleaning. He even moves the furniture once a month to vacuum and dust under it! Asher’s pretty sure he’s never lived somewhere where he moved the fridge out to clean under it before. The first time Tyler asked him to help move it, he was positive Tyler had lost his mind.
What Tyler doesn’t ever tell him is that Asher’s mess drives him crazy – the messier he is, the more inclined Tyler is to clean. Luckily, he loves it. It’s a chore sometimes, but making order of things helps de-stress him. And it’s adorable to watch Asher try to help out in bursts, because he does everything all wrong – according to Tyler’s standards – but the thought counts for a lot more than properly folded towels do. Although, really, who doesn’t know to fold towels in thirds?
About the Author
Jude Sierra first began writing poetry as a child in her home country of Brazil. Still a student of the form, she began writing long-form fiction by tackling her first National Novel Writing Month project in 2007, and in 2011 began writing in online communities, where her stories have thousands of readers. Her previous novels include Hush (2015) and What It Takes (2016), which received a Starred Review from Publishers Weekly.
Connect with the author at judesierra.com, on Twitter @judesierra and on Facebook at facebook.com/jude.sierra.
Category Fiction, Romance, LGBT, Interracial, M/M
BISAC
FIC027230 FICTION / Romance / Multicultural &
Interracial
FIC027190 FICTION / Romance / LGBT / Gay
FIC027020 FICTION / Romance / Contemporary
ISBN (Trade) 978-1-945053-07-8
ISBN (eBook) 978-1-945053-08-5
Publication Date December 1, 2016
Trim 6×9 Trade
Pages 250
Price $16.99 print/$6.99 multi-format eBook
Publisher Interlude Press
Cover Design CB Messer
Contact
Candysse Miller
Director, Marketing & Communications
cmiller@interludepress.com
Wholesale Inquiries
wholesale@interludepress.com
Subsidiary Inquiries
Jacqueline Murphy
Fine Print Literary Management
jacqueline@ neprintlit.com
Distributor
Ingram
Purchase Links
Interlude Press Web Store:
http://store.interludepress.com/collections/idlewild-by-jude-sierra
Amazon:
Barnes & Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/idlewild-jude-sierra/1123818291?ean=9781945053078
Apple IBookstore:
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Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/637143
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/idlewild-7
BOOK DEPOSITORY
http://www.bookdepository.com/IDLEWILD-Jude-Sierr/9781945053078?ref=grid-view/?a_aid=InterludePress
INDIEBOUND
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