Honorary LYLBTB Blogger : Lou Sylvre

June 12, 2014 by Pip

Hi! Lou Sylvre here, very happy to make a surprise guest appearance on Live Your Life Buy the Book.Before anything else, let me say thanks to Barb and Dianne for the invitation, as well as for a wonderful review of my latest Vasquez and James release, Because of Jade. In celebration of that recent release and the chance to visit here, we’re staging a giveaway—details at the end of this post.

This post is about those little things known as ‘front matter’—you know, the author’s note and suchlike. My feelings about this book are different, special in a different way from the other books in the series, and that’s all because of Jade, and of course her uncles, but also because of my own life and things I’ve learned, often the hard way. I tried to articulate a little of that special feeling in the front matter, and I want to share it with you..

First, the dedication:

Both my beautiful daughters, Lillian Grace and Kimberly Rose, are adopted. I adopted them from that system we always complain about, children who birth parents did not do right by them. They were, respectively, not quite five, and just turned two. It wasn’t easy, but I am so lucky, so full of gratitude for them. They are both grown women now, strong and responsible and still they surprise me with their beauty every day. So for me, the subject of raising an adoptive child has special meaning, and I have to say that if I loved Luki and Sonny before this, I love them ever so much more now. I hope that their story rings true for everyone that has any role in a child’s life, even that of friend or neighbor.

Second, the epigraphs:

The first one is from Mark Twain: “Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”

The second is from Marisa de los Santos: “No one is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you. And you open your eyes, look at what you’ve got, say ‘Oh, my gosh,’ and recognize that of all the balls there ever were, this is the one you should not drop.”

Lastly, as with the last four books, I wrote an Author’s Note for Because of Jade. It’s a little different, though, because I share some thoughts about the way parents and children affect each other’s lives. Here it is in its entirety:

The best part of raising a child, the most rewarding moments and days, might be described as living as lesser luminaries in the child’s orbit. In Because of Jade, Luki and Sonny face sea change in becoming, suddenly, the custodians of a small girl’s days, shedding light where she wonders, reflecting her joy, and serving as stars by which she navigates grief and fear. She, of course, teaches them at least as much about the world and each other as they teach her. Though we may think of children as a responsibility, I don’t doubt that they, in their way, take upon their small shoulders responsibility for us. It’s an equitable exchange: on one pan of the scale, loving a child; on the other, equally weighted, being a child.

We do the best we can to create security in our child’s world, and our child does the best they can to have faith in us. But the truth is, security is ephemeral at best. The events that unfold in Because of Jade may seem dramatic, but, in one way or another, attacks on good families happen in the real world far too often—not only against gay men, but against parents of every gender, sexuality, creed, and color.

That said, this story is purely fiction, and not only that, it’s a love story, a chapter in the romance of Luki Vasquez and Sonny James—two fabulous men who happened to meet one day in the pages of their first book, Loving Luki Vasquez. They’ve been married ten years in this tale, but their love remains strong, and when they fall into five-year-old Jade’s orbit, their deep love has a chance to take on a new shine. I hope with all my heart that you will enjoy this bumpy-road love story as much as I enjoyed putting it on the page.

I need a comment from you to enter the surprise giveaway here on Live Your Life Buy the Book, can be either of these:

(1) A comment on this post.
(2) A comment on Dianne’s review, which can be found HERE.

The prize is an e-book copy of Because of Jade..

About the Book

A Vasquez and James Novel

Luki Vasquez receives the news he’s still cancer free after five years, and he wants to celebrate with his whole family. He and his husband, Sonny James, take a road trip south, intending to gather at the home of his nephew Josh, Josh’s wife Ruthie, and Jade—a little girl who was still in the womb when she and her mother helped Luki beat lung cancer.

Halfway to their destination, Luki learns Josh and Ruthie have met a tragic death. The horrible news lays Luki low, but he pulls himself together in time to be the family’s rock and see to the dreaded business of tying up loose ends. The most important business is Jade, and when Luki and Sonny head home, they take Jade with them.

Luki and Sonny must combat self-doubt and fear and help each other learn to parent an unexpected child—and they must also nourish the love that has kept them whole for the past ten years. A relative’s spurious claim to Jade threatens the new family, and even if they prevail in court, they could lose their little girl unless they can rescue Jade from evil hands and true peril.

About the Author

I love romance (with all its ups and downs), and I love writing it. The lovers on my pages are men They end up loving each other, and it’s all pretty sexy. How cool is that?

I live in the narrow strip of rainy land in the northwest corner of the USA. We get some sunshine, but not enough to interfere with my writing, which I do in front of a big window that lets me look out at the rain whenever my cat is not in the way.

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