Guest Post and Giveaway: The Slaying Isidore’s Dragons Blog Tour With C. Kennedy

The Novel Approach is pleased to welcome Cody Kennedy on the Slaying Isidore’s Dragons blog tour. Enjoy his post, then be sure to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway by clicking on the widget below for a chance to win an e-copy of Omorphi.

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How Declan in Slaying Isidore’s Dragons is Different from Michael in Omorphi

Thank you, Lisa, for the honor and privilege of sharing my new book with you! It’s great to be here! Welcome, everyone, to the book tour for Slaying Isidore’s Dragons!

For those who are unfamiliar with my books, I write books about hope, triumph, and building a life beyond abuse. While many of the tenets in my books are about learning to live after abuse, they apply to everyone in everyday life. Above all is hope. Without hope, we lose the will to live life to the fullest and Slaying Isidore’s Dragons and Omorphi are about exactly that. But the stories are vastly different in subtle ways. In fact, you may often find that the most valuable principles and adages in my books are understated.

In Slaying Isidore’s Dragons, we meet Isidore as he endures heinous abuse and leaves his abusive environment. Meeting Declan gives Isidore his first whisper of what it might be like to be something other than a victim. In Omorphi, we meet Christy one year after his freedom from abuse begins.

In Slaying Isidore’s Dragons, we meet Declan, an utterly normal guy but someone whose life has come to an abrupt emotional halt upon the assassination of his beloved father. Though he loves his mother dearly, a part of him is lost and meeting Isidore gives him a renewed sense of purpose. In Omorphi, we meet Michael, an utterly normal guy living a charmed life with two great parents. He is immediately smitten with Christy but has to work up the courage to date him.

The commonalities between Declan and Michael at first glance are: they are only children from well-grounded and loving professional parents. They are honest, good, smart, wholesome, and determined to protect Isidore and Christy, respectively. But that’s where it ends.

Michael is nurturing, protective, and shy to a degree. He relies heavily on his best friend, Jake, for advice and to be a sounding board for nearly every thought and facet of his life. By and large, he is non-confrontational and patient. He hasn’t faced extreme adversity or profound loss. As such, he might be considered your typical teen with growing maturity, and he learns coping skills along with Christy as the story progresses. His primary methods of problem solving involve contemplation, logic, and seeking knowledge. He is a peacemaker and wants only good in the world and for everything to be all right.

Alternatively, and while Declan is caring and protective, he is intolerant of certain things and can be impatient. He is accustomed to professional and political environs, is well traveled, and carries himself with proper deportment in the public eye. There is no such thing as not knowing what to do or say in a social setting particularly when faced with media coverage. Contrary to Michael, Declan has suffered profound loss. He is angry over the loss of his beloved father, will not tolerate bullying, and is confrontational—sometimes physically so. He is popular at school but doesn’t have a best friend he can confide in, Isidore is everything to him, and he is determined to give Isidore a happy world. His primary methods of problem solving are to confront facts, control as many variables as he realistically can, and then to fight for what is right.

The way each of them handles the knowledge of what has happened to Christy and Isidore is very telling of their personalities. Michael becomes upset, goes running, and shouts his anger and sorrow for Christy at the heavens. Declan becomes angry, and moves to protect Isidore with everything in his arsenal—his mother, their private security, and his fists. In sum, Michael is a naïve peacemaker and Declan is a jaded fighter. Both, however, will and do lay down their lives to protect Christy and Isidore.

Enjoy Slaying Isidore’s Dragons!

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Blurb: 5 Best friends, 4 Vicious brothers, 3 STD tests, 2 Guys in love, 1 Car bombing & nowhere to run

Follow the burgeoning love of two teens during the worst year of their lives. Irish-born Declan David de Quirke II is the son of two ambassadors, one Irish and one American. He is ‘out’ to his parents but to no one else. French-born Jean Isidore de Sauveterre is also the son of two ambassadors, one Catalan and one Parisian. His four half brothers have been told to cure him of his homosexuality. Both teens have lost a parent in a London car bombing.

5 Weeks of hell, 4 Attempts on their lives, 3 Law enforcement agencies, 2 Dead high school seniors, 1 Jealous friend & a love that won’t be denied

Declan and Isidore meet at the beginning of their senior year at a private academy in the United States. Declan is immediately smitten with Isidore and becomes his knight in shining armor. Isidore wants to keep what is left of his sanity and needs Declan’s love to do it. One is beaten, one is drugged, one is nearly raped, one has been raped. They are harassed by professors and police, and have fights at school, but none of it compares to running for their lives. When the headmaster’s popular son attempts suicide and someone tries to assassinate Declan’s mother, they are thrown headlong into chaos, betrayal, conspiracy, allegations of sexual coercion, even murder. And one of them carries a secret that may get them killed.

5 New family members, 4 BFF’s, 3 Countries, 2 Extraordinary Psychologists, 1 Courageous Mother & a new beginning for two young men in love

Read Chapter One HERE

Now available in print and ebook at: Dreamspinner/Harmony Ink Press | Amazon  | GooglePlay | Barnes & Noble | OmniLit/ARe  | Beam-eBooks in Europe | Ingram Books for Libraries and Schools

About the Author: Raised on the mean streets and back lots of Hollywood by a Yoda-look-alike grandfather, Cody doesn’t conform, doesn’t fit in, is epic awkward, and lives to perfect a deep-seated oppositional defiance disorder. In a constant state of fascination with the trivial, Cody contemplates such weighty questions as If time and space are curved, then where do all the straight people come from? When not writing, Cody can be found taming waves on western shores, pondering the nutritional value of sunsets, appreciating the much maligned dandelion, unhooking guide ropes from stanchions, and marveling at all things ordinary.

Stop by Cody’s Blog with questions or comments, or simply share what’s on your mind.

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Ello, Goodreads, & read Cody’s free serial story, Fairy

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