Hi peeps, we have Diana Copland visiting us again today with her upcoming release David, Renewed, we have a fantastic guest post and a great new excerpt and there’s still time to enter Diana’s brilliant giveaway on the cover reveal post, so check out the post and then leave a comment on the cover reveal post to enter the giveaway! <3 ~Pixie~
David, Renewed
Diana Copland
When interior designer David Snyder buys a beautiful century-old house in eastern Washington, he is reeling with heartbreak and looking for somewhere to put down roots. Unfortunately his new home comes with a laundry list of problems: electrical, plumbing, heating… things David knows nothing about. When his mother offers him the business card of a local handyman, David pictures an overweight, balding man in his fifties. But Jackson Henry couldn’t be further from that stereotype.
Dark-haired, muscular, and handsome, Jackson left a large construction firm in Seattle to take care of his sick mother. However, his hometown still has an active “good old boy” network, and finding employment in construction is almost impossible for an openly gay man. Determined to persevere, Jackson takes odd jobs as a handyman. He’s exactly what David needs—in more ways than one.
David isn’t ready for his attraction to Jackson, not considering the way his last relationship ended. But as the two men get to know each other, it becomes clear that the heart often knows best, and it rewards those willing to listen.
Diana Copland!
Hi!
I’m so excited to be here at MM Good Book Reviews! My Cover reveal for David, Renewed was here, and it was such an honor!
Today, I thought I’d give you a little peak into my main character, David, and what the inspiration for him was.
David, Renewed was actually born from my failed attempt to write a short story. You see, I’d gone through a bit of a dry spell with my writing. There was a lot going on in my real life that sort of eclipsed my desire to write and sent my muse on an extended vacation overseas. Someplace where he could cruise good looking men while enjoying an adult beverage with a tiny umbrella in it.
But I digress; David, Renewed started out as a short story. The problem is I can’t write short stories. I’ve tried. I’ve tried to write short, smutty, let’s get busy stories. But my muse, when he isn’t off slutting around tropical resorts, simply isn’t built that way. He needs plot; therefore I need plot. Don’t get me wrong, I love the smut once we get there. And I admire the writer who can pull me in with a short story. But for me to really enjoy writing about a character, I need background, character development, a cast of friends, family and environment. And in this case, a hundred year old house with everything from wiring to a leaking roof to plumbing issues. It was supposed to be a short story about a blue collar guy, and it ended up being an 82,000 word book about an interior decorator who isn’t blue collar at all and who just got out of a relationship with a partner who cheated on him. Clearly, the problem is I’m long winded.
David Snyder was born of something else, too. On my Facebook feed, I kept seeing comments, ordinarily from the wonderful guys who read in our genre, that they never read a book where the Main Character wasn’t a typical cover model. They were always ripped and hung like a horse, and not all men were built that way. I wasn’t able to get those comments out of my mind. I believe fiction is an opportunity for us to write and read about idealized men in idealized relationships. But what about a guy who’s just… a guy?
David, for me, is that guy. He’s slender and pale and near-sighted. Contacts make his eyes hurt, so he wears glasses instead. He’s good at what he does, (he’s an interior decorator for a firm that specializes in corporate jobs like hotels and large office buildings) and he’s good with his money but he isn’t a millionaire. He is also of the firm conviction that looks wise, he’s nothing special. He stays trim because he eats carefully, but there are no ripped abs or bulging biceps on David; he has an office job. He drives a Toyota. He’s been in a committed relationship for five years, and he was pretty sure he knew right where his life was headed.
He was wrong. In the course of a month, everything he believed about his future flies out the window. He loses his dad, his handsome lover and the stylized condo he called home. He’s right at the point where he’s purchased a hundred year old house on a whim, desperate for a place to call his own, when he calls a handyman recommended by his mother. That’s how he meets Jackson Henry. And his life will never be the same.
I hope you enjoy David, Renewed. It includes some of my favorite characters who’ve ever popped, full of personality and sass, into my head. And to those who’ve asked if there is a sequel? You’ll hear it here first: yes, this is the first in a series. I hope. I’m half way through book two as I write this. The men of Delta Restoration, Renovation and Design will be back.
I hope that makes you as happy as it makes me!
Cheers!
Diana Copland
Excerpt
DAVID SNYDER didn’t think he could take much more.
On a whim born of desperation, he’d purchased the cute, craftsman-style house on the street where he grew up, but if one more thing went wrong, he was ready to pour gasoline around the foundation and light a match.
The little old lady he bought the house from seemed so sincere. During his initial walk-through, David was charmed by the original hardwood floors and the built-in cabinets around the fireplace in the living room. He could imagine sitting near a roaring fire in a comfortable chair, reading a book, and sipping a cup of hot tea on a cold night. The homey image appealed to him, especially now, when everything had been ripped out from under him. He was lost and hurt and had no business buying a house.
He’d thought the worst he would have to contend with was some truly hideous floral wallpaper in one of the bedrooms and a blue tile floor in the bathroom. He’d even looked forward to tearing it all out, painting the walls, and refinishing the beautiful hardwood trim around the doors and windows. He would be a weekend contractor, he decided, as amusing as his friends would find that.
He agreed to a thirty-day escrow because he couldn’t stand living in a hotel even one more day. The condo he’d purchased with Trevor was certainly no longer an option. Every time David thought of the high-end condo on the river, he saw his partner of five years leaning back in their black leather sofa, a blissful expression on his face as he was being blown by a young guy with a mop of thick blond hair and broad shoulders like a swimmer. He’d never forget the sight of his lover’s cock in someone else’s mouth. When Trevor spotted him standing just inside their front door, the flush on his cheeks spread down his neck and he scrambled to push the blond’s head from his lap and to do up his fly.
“You’re supposed to be in Seattle.”
“It was canceled.”
“But—”
David walked away.
He’d come home to surprise Trevor; he was supposedly home with a cold, and David had planned to make him soup, fluff his pillows. The fluff Trevor was experiencing had nothing to do with pillows, and he was surprised all right.
David had been so glad the trip was canceled, feeling the need to be home with his lover anyway. David’s beloved dad had died the month before, and Trevor felt a bit neglected while David dealt with his family obligations. He’d wanted to try to make it up to him; the idea that Trevor would cheat on him then, when he was already so raw, made bile hit the back of David’s throat.
“What are you doing?” Trevor came to stand in the doorway, hands on his narrow hips. David didn’t answer. “David.” He took two steps into the room and reached for him, but the glare David sent his way stopped Trevor cold.
“Don’t touch me.” David’s voice was trembling, but his resolve was clear.
Trevor looked hurt. “You know I wouldn’t, not that way.”
But David didn’t know it. There had been bruises on his wrist once, the back of his neck another time. Hiding them with long sleeves and a turtleneck had felt like lying to his friends and family. And Trevor’s last boyfriend had cornered David in a men’s room not long after they got together, and told him Trevor had “a tendency to get physical” when things didn’t go his way. He’d never hit him, but even after five years, his anger scared David.
“Just… back away, Trevor. I mean it.”
Trevor reluctantly took a step back, crossing his arms over his chest. “Jesus, David. It didn’t mean anything.”
“It didn’t mean anything?” His voice came low and raw. “It certainly looked like it meant something.”
“It was just a blow job. Christ, you always overreact.”
Swamped in hurt, David continued to cram his belongings into the bag. He’d always wondered what someone who looked like Trevor saw in him. He was an effeminate nerd with carefully combed blond hair and rectangular designer glasses that mostly hid his green eyes. His body was nothing to write home about either. He’d maintained his youthful thinness, but even a concentrated six-month stint at a gym had failed to add muscles, and so he gave up. When drop-dead gorgeous Trevor first hit on him in a bar, he thought it was a joke. The man was all black hair and large brown eyes, with broad shoulders and narrow hips, and David couldn’t imagine what he saw in him of all people. But Trevor was persistent, David was flattered and thrilled, and they’d been together for five years. He’d been willing to overlook the occasional rages because Trevor was always so apologetic afterward. He thought they were on the same page about fidelity after all that time too. He even planned to propose at Christmas, just three months away; the platinum band he knew would look elegant on Trevor’s long, slender finger was already on hold at the jeweler.
David turned away, took as deep a breath as the constriction around his chest would allow, and resumed his packing. He was no longer frantic but methodical, placing his clothes in his suitcase with care, afraid if he started to throw things again he might fly apart in a million pieces. Despite Trevor’s protests and halfhearted apologies, David moved out that afternoon and into an Embassy Suites near his downtown office. Two nights on the stiff sheets, listening to people wander up and down the halls at all hours, convinced him he had to do something else quickly.
David had been extremely careful with money during his seven years climbing the corporate ladder at A.F. Interiors. He advanced to an executive-level position, and his hard-earned savings were comfortably into five figures. Trevor even teased that he had the hardest time parting with a dollar of anyone he’d ever known. Then in one impulsive afternoon, David tossed his common sense in the garbage and completely ignored all the advice columns that cautioned not to make big decisions after a traumatic life event. He saw the charming house for sale just down the block and across the street from his mother’s, and something inside of him simply said, “Mine.”
Now it was his all right.
About Diana
Diana Copland began writing in the seventh grade, when she shamelessly combined elements of Jane Eyre and Dark Shadows to produce an overwrought Gothic tale that earned her an A- in creative writing, thanks entirely to the generosity of her teacher.
She wrote for pure enjoyment for the next three decades before discovering LiveJournal and a wonderful group of supportive writers, who after gifting her with a “Best New Author” Award encouraged her to try her hand at original gay fiction.
Born and raised in southern California, Diana moved to the Pacific Northwest after losing a beloved spouse to AIDS in 1995.
She lives in eastern Washington with four obnoxious cats, near her two wonderful adult children.
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