Monday 4 May 2015

Book tour, guest post & review - Tricks of the Trade by Spencer Dryden

Tricks of the Trade by Spencer Dryden
Tour Dates: May 4  1

PUBLISHER:  Fireborn Publishing
RELEASE DATE: April 17, 2015
GENRE:  ContemporaryErotica
TAGS: Happy EndingMay/December
HEAT LEVEL- 3 Flames
PAIRING: Male/Female
CATEGORY: Short Story/Flash Fiction/Novelette
LENGTH: 69 pages
BOOK LINKS:


BLURB:
Twenty-something, sexually frustrated plumber, Will Last, is fascinated by an attractive age 40+ woman he sees in the plumbing fixtures isle of a big box store. When he casually strolls her way she strikes up a conversation and begs him to do some emergency plumbing repairs for her.

Mitzi Callahan soon has Will wrapped around her little finger. After showing her a plumbers trick for a quick repair, Mitzi reveals herself as a sex trainer and returns the favor by showing Will a trick or two in the bedroom.

Mitzi opens his world to the enchantment of older women and introduces him to one of her students, Lucy Park. Sparks fly between Will and Lucy while dancing at the club where they meet, but they must reach out across age and cultural barriers to find the romantic connection they both seek.

REVIEW 

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for a honest review 

Tricks of the Trade is a short erotic novella with an interesting storyline and strong characters.  This is the second book I've read by this author and I really enjoy his writing style. There are some really steamy scenes is this book that make for hot reading.  I love the fact that the heroines are older than the hero, the author does a great job of showing just how sexy older women are.

Will is a twenty something plumber who hasn't had much luck with the ladies - until he meets Mitzi in the plumbing aisle of a DIY store.  Mitzi is in her forties and has a very unusual job - she runs sex toy parties and is a sex coach.  After persuading Will to fix her leaking kitchen sink she repays the favour by teaching him some tricks to please the ladies.  Later she introduces him to Lucy and he has the chance to try out his newly learned skills.

I absolutely loved Mitzi - she's sexy, comfortable in her skin and is determined to prove that forty plus women can still have sex appeal.  Will is really quite endearing - it's nice to come across a male hero who is normal and not one hundred percent confident in his bedroom skills.  Lucy is sweet too, she really blossoms under Mitzi's tutelage.  There are some fun, humorous moments too - I loved the scenes at the nightclub, especially Will's friend's reaction to Lucy's attempt at getting his attention.

If you are a fan of erotic fiction, especially those featuring older women having fun, then I am sure you will enjoy this quick read.  I'd love there to be a sequel to this book to see what the future holds for Will.   I give Tricks of the Trade four out of five stars.


AUTHOR BIO

Spencer Dryden is a new writer, but an old guy on the threshold of draining any reserves left in Medicare and Social Security.
In real life he is a handyman, an at-home dad, inventor and web videographer living a quiet life in the frozen tundra of Minnesota (USA).
Like all writers he has a cat but they don't get along well. He can be found at the usual writer hangouts:

GUEST POST 

Are Handymen Sexy?
I'm not the best looking guy in the world but when your toilet is leaking, when a light switch isn't working, or a faucet is dripping I'm the guy you wish was your neighbor or your brother-in-law.
Hi I'm Spencer Dryden out promoting my latest story, "Tricks of the Trade" published by Fireborn Publishing. It's another of my tradesman tales. I write about tradesmen because in real life I am a handyman. 
I wasn't very handy when my wife and were first married. My dad wasn't the least bit handy nor was anyone else in our circle of family and friends. My evolution from unskilled klutz to Homo Habilis Rex (Handyman King) began in my forties.
My wife and I shared a dream of owning a turn of the century Victorian home. I don't know where that desire came from. Delusions of grandeur from a by-gone era, I guess. As they say, be careful what you wish for. Our wish came true. We jumped on an opportunity to buy one from a shirt-tail relative who had grown too frail to live alone any longer. Problem was that aunt Norma hadn't done anything to the house in nearly forty years. Someone had installed a bathroom where the kitchen pantry used to be and it was a disaster. But I was young(er) and full of optimism and maybe a little blind to how much work is involved in renovating an old house. This was in the early 90's, the heyday of Bob Villa. He made it look so easy.
Luckily for me, my partner in failed business ventures was an experienced rehabber. He loved Victorian houses, having rehabbed several himself, he was delighted to hear that I had come into one. He loaded up his tools and drove all the way across country to help me get started restoring mine. (Small aside: That's real friendship.)
In the course of a one week apprenticeship with a master, I got the handyman bug. At forty-one I realized I should have been a plumber or electrician rather than the white collar misfit I had become. As I got better, I got bolder. Our house became a showplace for friends and family. My wife bragged about my skills incessantly, which was a much needed ego boost at a time when my white collar career was crumbling. (Guys: Do your wives brag about anything you do?)
Two children later and down to one income—hers—we put the Victorian dream up for sale before it became the Victorian nightmare. We'd lived the dream, but it was time to move on. My handyman skills paid handsome dividends in this life change. The real estate market was very hot at that time. The only way we could afford to live in the community we had chosen was to buy a house in need of work. But we knew going in that I could fix or upgrade anything that was lacking at the time of closing. Over the years we have owned the little rambler we bought in 1991, I have made tens of thousands of dollars of repairs and upgrades knocking out a wall to put in a sliding glass door and deck, completely remodeling the bathroom twice and the kitchen once, and made numerous plumbing and electrical upgrades. Under our motto "living large on less" we paid off the last of the mortgage last year.
Maybe handyman skills aren't sexy, but in the transition from dating to mating to home ownership, they have made a big impact on the quality of our lives. I don't know how we could have been a one income family without my skills. I'm not the best looking guy in the world but when your toilet is leaking, when a light switch isn't working, or a faucet is dripping I'm the guy you wish was your neighbor or your brother-in-law.

Unfortunately there seems to be a decline in interest in DIY among young men. I went searching the web for the definitive measurement and found it is a wide spread lament,but devoid of good attitude/ behavioral research. But it doesn't mean it's not true. As a handyman for hire, I'm at the big box store every day, it's tradesmen and old guys like me who are in the hardware and tool sections. My story, "Tricks of the Trade" begins when a young plumber sees an attractive older woman in the plumbing isle of the big box store. He goes down the isle for a look and ends up getting swept into her orbit.

As my kids got older, my skills turned into a perfect means of part time self-employment. It's hard for men my age (65) to find good paying part time jobs. I have more work than I want and make far more per hour as a handyman than I ever made as a white collar professional. Sure inflation has a factor in the math, but it's more a matter of how many hours I put in as a white collar professional earning my dismal salary.
In the interim the real estate market has gone from ridiculously high to frightening low and nowappears to be recovering. What's not happening for young people though is any recovery in earning power. Despite the housing recovery, there will always be bargains in real estate among homes needing work. Even if you can't tackle the major stuff, acquiring a few tools and working on a few skills can make a big difference in your family budget. Toilet and sink repairs are my most common jobs. Both are surprisingly easy with the right tools and a can-do attitude. "Tricks of the Trade" describes a plumbing repair that I have done many times and features a little work aid called a backsavr that is an everyday tool for me.
In our suburban community it costs over a hundred dollars to get a plumber out to your house for routine repairs. At that rate, tools get paid for in one job, if you can do it yourself. The ego boostis a big bonus. As much as women have come to embrace many new roles and skills it's hard to get a woman to put her hands on a dirty sewer pipe. My wife brags that she gets to sleep with her handyman. It's a good gig, really. And no, in fifteen years of doing handyman work I have never been seduced they way my male characters are.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

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FACEBOOK PARTY:

May 16th 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm eastern time
IndiGo Marketing is throwing a party to celebrate Spencer Dryden's new release "Tricks of the Trade" and he's invited some friends to join him! Lots of fun, frivolity and giveaways!


1 comment:

  1. Julie:
    Thanks for hosting me today. You've really captured the essence of the things I was trying to convey in this story. Hope your followers will pick up a copy.

    ReplyDelete