Jacob Z. Flores, welcome to Romance Lives Forever. We’re
excited to interview your character, Zach Kelly from the book, When Love Takes
Over.
Genre: Contemporary gay romance
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Cover artist: Michael Breyette
Length: 270 pages
Heat rating (based on movie ratings): R
Will broken hearts keep a porn star and author apart or will
love take over?
Zach Kelly’s life is a shambles. His boyfriend of three
years dumped him, and his writing career is going nowhere. On a whim, he heads
to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to nurse his broken heart and figure out his
next step. He’s expecting to find rest and relaxation on the sandy beaches of Cape
Cod. Instead, Zach meets a hunky porn star during a chance encounter at a
leather shop he mistakes as a place to buy a belt that is definitely not for
whipping.
Van Pierce is smitten when shy and inexperienced Zach
crashes through a shelf of fetish gear. Though Van’s got an insatiable appetite
for men on and off the set, his porn persona, Hart Throb, hides a broken heart.
He’s struggling to find the reality the porno set doesn’t offer, and Zach is
fighting to find the fantasy that will set his writing on fire. The odd
goofball and the suave beefcake may either find love amid Provincetown’s
colorful pageantry where summer never seems to end–or more heartbreak than
either can imagine.
Dreamspinner Press http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4098
Amazon http://amzn.com/B00EC3SRK6
Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-love-takes-over-jacob-z-flores/1116309941?ean=2940148562511
What are your main
characters’ names, ages, and occupations?
Zach Kelly is 32. He is a college English professor as well
as a struggling author. Van Pierce is 28, and he is a star for Nasty Boy
Studios.
Interview with Zach Kelly
Tell us about
yourself.
Oh, boy. It’s not a pretty story but here goes. My boyfriend
of three years, Ben, recently dumped me. He gave me no explanation other than
it was over. He was done, and he wanted me out of our apartment. I wanted to
fix things, like I always try to do, but there was no fixing us. According to
Ben. He was so cold and cruel that I had to leave, or I was going to lose it.
It was the last thing I needed. You see, I work as a college English professor,
but it’s not what I want to do. I really want to be a full time author, but my
writing career, well, that’s going nowhere fast. I didn’t know what else to do,
so I boarded a plane for Provincetown, Massachusetts. I needed to get away and
find out why my relationship failed and why my writing sucks.
Tell us about Van.
Van? Wow! Where do I begin? He’s quite possibly the most attractive
man I’ve ever met. He’s perfectly tanned and his smile, well, it’s a killer. It’s
one of those smiles that hitches up to the left, the kind that reveals he’s
both an angel and a devil merged into one. When I first saw him, I wanted to
take him in my arms, but I just couldn’t. I’m far too shy for that. Plus, he’s
a porn star. What could he possibly see in someone like me? I’m too awkward and
imperfect for someone like Van.
What do you think is your strongest point?
Hmm. My devotion perhaps. When I make a commitment to
someone, I see it through to the end. That’s why I wanted to work things out
with Ben. We’d been together for three years. We owed it to each other to try
and work things out, but Ben wanted no part of it. What could I do?
But that’s how I’ve always lived me life. For good or bad. I
don’t give up. I keep trying until no reason to try exists. I think that’s a
strong quality. Although others might call it a weakness.
What would Van say is
your strongest point?
That’s a good question. I don’t know. Maybe my shy and
clumsy nature. It’s what attracted Van to me in the first place. According to
him, I was very different from all the other men he’d met in Provincetown. Most
guys come to town dressed in the same short shorts and muscle shirts. Not me! I
arrived wearing baggy ass camouflaged shorts and an ill fitting blue and white
T-shirt. I didn’t think I looked that bad, but everyone else sure did. Well,
except Van. He liked my mismatched look. He also found it endearing when I
crashed through a rack of fetish gear and stumbled my way into his life. Who
knew being such a klutz would get the attention of someone like Van?
What would Van say is your biggest weakness?
That’s an easy one because we’ve talked about it a lot. He
doesn’t like that I’ve lived for other people for most of my life. It started
with my father. He had this image of perfection that I felt I had to meet, and
when I didn’t meet his expectations, I felt like a failure. When I met Ben, I
did the same thing. I did what he wanted and never really questioned it. I told
you I was a hot mess, didn’t I? But I’m working on it. Van’s been helping me
with that and so have my new friends Gary, Quinn, and Tara. They’ve been the
best medicine for me.
What was it like
where you grew up?
I grew up in a small town called Victoria, Texas. There,
everyone knows your business, and being the son of a prominent doctor in town
only made me more visible. It was hard living in my dad’s shadow, especially
once his indiscretions came to light. I don’t like to talk about them though.
It was pretty tough on me. Well, on my entire family really. I’m still trying
to deal with everything, so needless to say, my childhood wasn’t the best.
What do you wish was different about your life?
I wish I had more confidence in myself. I used to as a
child. I challenged everything—my father, life, school, the world, but that
only seemed to get me in trouble. I learned that it was just easier to go with
the flow. But that hasn’t worked out so well for me, has it? But I’m working on
it. That’s part of the reason I came to Provincetown. To find myself and the
person I once was.
If you were given
your fondest wish, what would it be?
To quit my day job and work full time as an author. It’s
really what I love to do. But I’m not quite there yet. And I need to figure out
why. Reviews for the books I’ve published myself haven’t exactly been stellar.
They say my characters are two dimensional and that my plots are contrived and
over-the-top. Maybe it’s because I haven’t really lived my life yet, which
makes it difficult to create a fictional world. You have to live and have a
life to be able to write believable stories. At least that’s what I believe.
Describe a place of
perfect refuge.
Right now, it’s Provincetown. When I first got here, I was
stressed and unsure. But now, well, let’s just say being here has been good for
me. The people here are great, and they are willing to take in a stranger and
treat him like family. It’s like my troubles in Texas didn’t follow me to the Cape.
I think that makes P-town a perfect refuge for most anyone.
As a child, who was
your best friend? Tell us about him/her.
My best friend was Tommy Martinez. We’ve been friends since
the second grade. We don’t talk as much as we used to. Which is sad. But when I
was a kid, we were inseparable. It was also kind of tough being his best
friend. Tommy wasn’t your average kid. He always had his shit together. Like he
was an adult or something. Sometimes, I felt as if my dad preferred him to me
because Tommy knew what he wanted out of his life and just went for it. Things
were never that easy for me.
What do you wish I had asked you? Please ask and answer it
now.
How about this: where do I see things going with Van?
Truthfully, I don’t know. I like him. A lot. Probably more than I should. But
he lives in Provincetown, and I live in Texas. Plus, he’s a porn star. What
kind of future could the two of us possibly have?
About Jacob Z. Flores
Jacob lives a double life. During the day, he is a respected
college English professor and mid-level administrator. At night and during his
summer vacation, he loosens the tie and tosses aside the trendy sports coat to
write man on man fiction, where the hard ass assessor of freshmen level
composition turns his attention to the firm posteriors and other rigid
appendages of the characters in his fictional world.
Summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, provide Jacob with
inspiration for his fiction. The abundance of barely clothed man flesh and
daily debauchery stimulates his personal muse. When he isn’t stroking the
keyboard, Jacob spends time with his husband, Bruce, their three children, and
two dogs, who represent a bright blue blip in an otherwise predominantly red
swath in south Texas.
