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Book Title: The Good Ship Lollipop
Author: Patrick Benjamin
Publisher: KDP Publishing
Cover Artist: Rebecca Covers
Genre/s: Contemporary M/M Romance, Comedy
Trope/s: Love triangles, Frenemies
Themes: Moving on, learning to love again
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Length: 140 000 words/430 pages
It is a standalone book.
Buy Links - Available on Kindle Unlimited
Kyle must choose between the love of his past and the man he could love in the future
BlurbFor fifteen years, Kyle and Dustin seemed like the perfect couple. That was until Kyle came home to discover Dustin in bed with a yoga instructor half his age and twice his flexibility. Two years and countless therapy hours later, Kyle has almost put the incident behind him. Being nearly forty and single makes a man bitter, but he’s making do.
Yet, when Kyle’s best friend asks him to be her Man of Honor, on her ten-day Caribbean wedding cruise, Kyle finds himself in a most uncomfortable situation. He ends up trapped on a seafaring vessel for ten days with the man who practically destroyed him.
Face to face with Dustin for the first time since the breakup, unresolved feelings float to the surface, and Kyle and Dustin both begin to wonder if their story is as over as it seems.
While navigating unchartered waters with Dustin, Kyle also meets Jax, a sexy Australian who likes to cruise in more ways than one. Kyle is more than happy to let Jax distract him for ten days. Still, when Jax suggests that he might want more than just a few days of fun, Kyle must choose between the love of his past or the man he could love in the future.
Excerpt
No, absolutely not!” I nearly choked on a spinach leaf.
“You have to come,” Sapphire insisted. “I want you to be my Man of Honor.”
“A) That’s not a thing. B) The answer is still no.”
“I can’t get married without you.”
“Sure, you can. There’s no law against it. People do it all the time.”
When Sapphire offered to take me to lunch, I should have suspected something treacherous was afoot. Sapphire and I were like sisters. Sisters of different races and one of them with a penis, but sisters, nonetheless. Our relationship was something enormous and incomprehensible to most people. On paper, we had nothing in common. We had completely different backgrounds and cultural experiences that cultivated entirely different perspectives of the world around us. Despite those differences, we had found each other.
As close as we were, the girl had never offered to buy lunch. She seldom volunteered to pay for anything. That should have been warning number one. When she suggested my favorite Italian restaurant, Armando’s, that should have been warning number two. When she volunteered to foot the bill to attend her destination wedding cruise, I should have known to prepare myself for the Armageddon of bad news.
“You spent fifteen years with the man. What are ten more days?” She spoke with her hands. A piece of chicken flung off her fork and onto the table beside us. The senior couple, who were trying to enjoy their eighteen-dollar salads, glared at us like we each had two heads.
“I’m so sorry,” I mouthed to them.
“I can’t believe you would miss your best friend’s wedding over a tiny, little, uncomfortable inconvenience like this.”
“A cockroach infestation is a tiny inconvenience. Gonorrhea is uncomfortable. What you’re asking me to do is far worse.”
“Don’t be dramatic,” Sapphire said, waving her hand. “Dustin is not that bad.”
“Isn’t he?” He was too tall, too fit, too classically pretty, and all too aware of the fact. He was narcissistic and untrustworthy, but he was also charming and exceptionally good at putting on an innocent act. He could flash his white teeth and his dimples and get people to believe anything he wanted. Still, if you looked into his eyes, you could tell he was soulless.
“Why would you want everyone to join you on your honeymoon, anyway?” I shifted focus. “I hate to tell you this, but if you can’t stand to be alone with Justin for ten days, you probably shouldn’t marry him.”
“Very funny,” she said dryly. “I want everyone there because I want my wedding to be an experience. An amazing memory we can all look back on together.”
“I am not spending ten days, on a tiny boat, in the middle of the Caribbean, with him.”
“It’s a cruise ship,” she corrected. “Besides, you won’t be with Dustin. You’ll be with me.”
“Lies!” I wasn’t buying any of it. “I know exactly what will happen. You and Justin will be too busy enjoying your Caribbean honeymoon to spend any time with me. Then I’ll be trapped, in the middle of the ocean, with no one to talk to except Beelzebub’s concubine.”
“He’s not going to be the only other person there, you know. Several other people will be in our group. You can make one of them your wingman. My father loves you. You can hang-out with him.”
“Honey, don’t take this the wrong way. If I’m on an exotic vacation, and the only man who wants to spend time with me is your sixty-five-year-old arthritic father, I might drown myself in a bathtub.”
“Don’t be silly,” Sapphire dismissed. “You’ll be surrounded by water. There’d be no need to draw a bath.”
I did not look amused.
“I can’t believe you’re still so angry. It’s been over a year.” It had been eighteen months since the breakup, and yes, I was still harboring, hurting, and hating.
I hadn’t seen or spoken to Dustin since the incident. As instructed, he had been gone when I returned to the apartment. With Sapphire’s help and some very strategic planning, I had avoided him throughout the entire decoupling process.
I left yellow Post-it Notes on everything he could take and was extremely vindictive about it. He could have the Blu-ray player, but not the discs or the TV. He could take the kitchen table, but not the chairs. I even kept the Keurig, though I permitted him to take his pods. What kind of monster drank decaf anyway? I also instructed Sapphire to guard the jazz record collection with her life. I detested jazz music, and we both knew it. I planned to pawn or destroy the albums later.
The first few weeks after the breakup, Dustin tried tirelessly to communicate with me. He sent me text messages that I didn’t answer and left voice mails that I refused to listen to. Dustin tried everything short of smoke signals. He even sent me an old-fashioned letter, which I didn’t open and burned immediately. I had nothing to say to him and had no desire to hear what he had to say to me. I had never been an incredibly trusting person, and his betrayal had reinforced all those walls that I had been trying, for years, to dismantle.
Being the forgiving person she was, Sapphire tried to convince me to give Dustin a second chance. Still, I refused, steadfast in my determination that he’d had his chance. Since then, she had been careful not to mention him. Even though I knew full well that she saw him regularly. He was her fiancé’s twin brother. She had to remain cordial. I did not and had no intention of ever being so.
“You simply have to come. We’re going to so many beautiful islands: Turks and Caicos, Bonaire, St. Thomas, and Aruba. You’ve always wanted to go to Aruba.”
That was true, but still, “If you put us on a ship together, I promise you, I will throw him overboard.”
She smiled wide, her teeth gleaming white against the contrast of her chocolate skin. “That’s fine! Just promise you’ll make it look like an accident.”
“Duh,” was the most mature response I could muster. “I don’t want to end up someone’s bitch in a Caribbean prison.”
“Don’t you, though?”
Dirty, prison sex would have been the most action I’d seen in a while. Thirty-nine may have been young by hetero standards, but in the queer world, I was practically a spinster. Being classified as an elder gay meant that my dating pool had been reduced to a few categories. First, those men who were so weird or creepy that nobody wanted them, or second, those who were so bitter and jaded by relationships past that dating them was like trying to build a house out of straw. I was a card-carrying member of category two.
Of course, there was always a third group. Younger men. They were excellent in theory, with their zero percent body fat and their permanent erections. However, too often, their perfect bodies and sexual appetites only camouflaged the fact that they lacked any real substance. If brains were dynamite, most of them couldn’t blow their nose. There were always exceptions. Old souls that knew how to converse about more than just Rhi-Rhi’s new album or T-Swizzle’s latest boyfriend. Those younger men wanted more than sugar daddies. Though, I still couldn’t imagine having enough in common with someone who hadn’t even been alive during the original run of Friends.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t get a date. Even close to forty, I was still cute. Not as attractive as I was at twenty, but I wasn’t a hunchback or anything. My deep green eyes matched my red hair, which I kept cropped short to avoid the bozo-clown-realness it would become if left to grow-out. I was tall and still decently shaped, a little thicker in some places than I’d prefer, but that came with age. At least, that’s what I told myself. I had a good understanding of where that put me in the queer hierarchy. Guys would still bang me; they just wouldn’t brag about it anymore.
Admittedly, the realization that I was no longer prime real estate took some getting used to. Before Dustin, I had been a penthouse in Manhattan, but after fifteen years in couple-town, I was shocked to discover I was now a brownstone in Queens. Next stop? Condemned building in Jersey!
That being said, I was optimistic about my life, even if it meant spending it alone.
“The ship is huge,” Sapphire was still talking. “You won’t even really have to see each other. There are also excursions at every port: zip-lining, snorkeling, hikes, surfing. Come on. You can orbit around each other for ten days without committing a violent felony.”
“Great, so I can spend the entire time by myself?”
“There’s going to be thousands of people on this ship. It’s a floating city. If you’re so worried about being by yourself, you could always try making friends.”
“You’ve known me for twenty years. Am I the type of person who makes friends?”
I was about to find out.
Laughter, a bit of rivalry with the ex, some shocking surprises all blended with lots of feels
Kyle is such a negative Nancy 🙄
Ruby is missing some screws
Jax has the patience of a Saint
Dustin is so full of himself
Shawn is oblivious to negativity
And that is just a glimpse at some of the colorful cast that complete and compliment this heartwarmingly funny tale of lost love (more like a rash that keeps returning), forever friendships ( gotta love a BFF like that), and new romances (real and imagined)
The story has an ebb & flow momentum - a bit like the sea - at times you will find yourself holding on white-knuckling the railing - others will feel like downtime a chance to catch your breath.
Overall a wonderful story with all the feels
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Tell us a little about yourself.
I am turning the big
40 this year—although, with COVID, I feel like we lost a whole year, so I am
tempted to stay 39. The Good Ship
Lollipop is my second title, but it is my first romantic comedy. I released my
first title, The Road Between, last year but that was much more of a family
drama with romance woven through.
As I get older, I find that I am most comfortable at home, curled on the couch with my husband and dog. Usually, I am half-watching a movie while simultaneously reading or writing. I still have a fun, party side, but it does not present itself frequently these days.
What would people be most surprised to know about you?
They
might be surprised to know that I am a Drag performer when I am not writing
books. I have been performing as Tequila
Mockingbird for almost twenty years. I have had the privilege of being featured
in shows with some the best Queens in North America; Bianca Del Rio, Shangela,
Latrice Royale, Miss Fame—to name a few.
I am also highly active with volunteer work. I serve on the board of a non-profit organization (The Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose) that has been actively supporting the LGBTQ2S+ community for 45 years.
Do you have a favorite quote (either from your own books or one’s you’ve read)?
“What other people think of me is
none of my business.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
It is not from a book, but I think
it is quite possibly the best piece of advice I have heard, and I try to live
my life by it.
How long have you been writing and what made you fall in love with writing?
As
long as I can remember, I have been a communicator and a storyteller. As a
child, even before I knew how to hold a pencil, I had an active imagination. I
would frequently put-on impromptu shows and tell tall tales. I have always been in love with storytelling.
I have always known how to tell an engaging story, put a sentence together, use
description, metaphors, and alliteration. Still, writing is something that I am
learning to love.
When it comes to physically writing, I fully admit that I am not particularly good at it. My fingers are never in the right place on the keyboard. I am an awful speller. Punctuation confuses me. I use the comma like it is a gift with purchase. I toss one in every couple of words, just for fun. Lol
Thankfully, that is why I have editors.
Did you always want to be a writer?
I always knew
I wanted to be a storyteller. Initially, and for a long time, I wanted to be an
actor. I thought I would be able to feed my creativity by being on stage,
television, or film, but for various reasons that did not work out. So, I thought long and hard about how I could
fulfil that need to be creative and tell stories. I remembered that my High School English
teacher tried to convince me to pursue writing, but I never seriously
considered it. In my early thirties, I dabbled in editorial journalism. I even
wrote an advice column for a few years for a friend’s online publication. When that opportunity went away, I started to
seriously consider redirecting my love of writing and reading toward novels. I
released my first novel last year, and I have not looked back.
What are your ambitions for your writing career?
I do not know
if I have any. I think every author
secretly hopes that one day they will make the New York Times Best Seller’s
list, or someone will want to make their book into a blockbuster film. Still, I
know those are not realistic expectations.
For me, I think the biggest ambition I have is to leave something
behind. It is a short life, and I do not
have children. I hope that one day, long
after I am gone, someone somewhere will still be reading my books. It brings me joy, knowing that I will leave
something behind and that I have left a mark.
Even if only a small one.
What’s your favorite part of writing?
I love writing dialogue. I have always been someone who rehearses
conversations in my head before I have them with people. I examine every angle and every possible
reply and then what I will say in return. So, I find that writing dialogue
comes quite naturally to me.
I have always been a huge fan of shows like Dawson’s Creek and Gilmore Girls. I feel like their writing was seriously some of the best dialogue written in history. I love dialogue that flows effortlessly from a serious conversation directly into a punchline and then into something poetic and then right back into the serious discussion again without missing a beat. I hope one day I can be that type of writer.
Tell us about your writing style.
I tend to use a lot of metaphors and alliteration.
There are some passages in my books that almost feel like poetry, and that is
very deliberate.
What does your writing process look like?
It is a little chaotic. I tend to plan out concrete things I want to
happen to the characters, and then I will write those chapters first. Then, after I am happy with those, I will
write the passages that connect them.
Because I do not always write the chapters in order, that sometimes presents
continuity issues. Then I must edit very thoroughly to catch them. It is a very
piecemeal approach, and it does not work for everybody.
When/where is your favorite time/place to write?
I find that I am most creative in the
mornings. So often I will pour a cup of
coffee, sit on the couch, and write. A
little-known fact is that I do most of my writing directly on the phone. It is always with me, and I can write
whenever inspiration strikes. I usually
only do my edits on my computer.
Why did you choose to write GLBTQ romance/fiction?
I grew
up in a small, rural community. Reading was often the only escape from the
slow-moving pace of country living. I
would escape into books and get lost in the different worlds I would
discover. Yet, as much as I loved
reading, I found it especially difficult to find books and characters with whom
I could relate. As a queer teen, I was not a “manly man.” I could not connect
to the masculine characters most often portrayed in literature. So, I frequently found myself gravitating to
books with strong, female leads because there were not enough queer characters
in contemporary literature.
As an adult, I noticed that it began to change. Queer content started to emerge more and more. Yet too often, the books that I read were all one-note. They typically focused on the angst of coming out or themes of rejections and fear. Being gay was often a central plot point in the story. While I know how important those stories are, I longed for books that did not make the character’s sexuality a primary focus. I had already come out. I knew what coming out was like for me and was often like for others. I did not want to read about it repeatedly. I looked for novels that, much like the heterosexual alternatives, were rich in plot and where the character’s sexuality never really warranted discussion or justification. I wanted to read books that took place long after the painful coming out story. I hoped for books where the character’s sexuality was just a secondary descriptor like hair or eye colour—and automatically a non-issue. Still, I had trouble finding many of them. So, I decided to write them for myself.
That is the writing I aim to do. With each book, I set out to write a story about more than sex or sexuality—a tale about something else with sex and romance woven in. I aim to write literature that normalizes queer content and shows LGBTQ people as well-rounded, full human beings with successes, struggles, flaws, jobs, and friendships. I try to focus on who they are as characters instead of who they are as gay characters.
Do you write any other genre?
I have only written two books so far, The Road
Between and now The Good Ship Lollipop, and they are both quite
different from each other. The first is a romance/drama and the other a
romance/comedy. I love writing comedy. I
am naturally a witty and sardonic person, so comedy feels genuine to me. Most
of Good Ship Lollipop quickly flew out of my mind and directly onto the
page—which is probably why it ended up being so long.
Still, I do not want to pigeonhole myself into any one style of writing. There are so many different genres that enjoy reading, and I would love to try my hand at all of them. My next boom might be a suspense or a whodunit or even a fantasy. One day I might even love to team up with another author and collaborate on a series of books. I am so new to the world of publishing that right now, the possibilities of what I might write, really feel endless
Describe a scene in your writing that has made you laugh or cry?
So many of
them inspire an emotional response from me.
Like many writers, much of what I write comes from a place of truth;
something I have experienced for myself at one point in my life. In The Good Ship Lollipop, there is a scene where Kyle wakes up unexpectantly naked and not in
his room. The entire chapter is pretty
much how does naked Kyle get back into his room without being seen. It was a
fun chapter to write.
Give the readers a brief summary of your latest book or WIP. What genre does it fall in?
The Good Ship Lollipop is a comedic romp through the Caribbean islands. There are some serious or uncomfortable
moments, but really, it is mostly about having fun and falling in love on the
open water. If you are looking for an
easy read with much humour, I hope you will give The Good Ship Lollipop a
chance because it was a joy to write.
The cover is designed by Rebecca P from Rebecca Covers on Fiverr, and without even reading the manuscript, she captured the essence of this story perfectly. It is colourful and light-hearted. This is one of those rare instances I think it is ok to judge a book by its cover. 😉
Give us a little insight into your main characters. Who are they?
Kyle is the main character, and like a lot of
single gay men his age, he is sarcastic, cynical and a little jaded. He is like a tootsie pop, hard on the outside
but with a soft and sweet centre. He is
fiercely loyal to his friends and family but sometimes forgets that the world
does not revolve around him.
Jax is one of the love interests. Born and raised in Hornsby, this sexy Aussie is so laid back and relaxed that nothing seems to faze him. That is, of course, until he meets Kyle. He is a hopeless romantic at heart and seems determined to win Kyle over.
Dustin is the other love interest. He is full of charm and charisma. Dustin also has an ego to match. Two years have passed since his humiliating break-up with Kyle, and he is confident he is over him. Dustin even has a new, younger boyfriend to keep him happy and entertained. Still, two days with Kyle and he is suddenly wishing he could turn back time.
Will we be seeing these characters again? Is this book part of a series?
You will likely not see these characters again. Unless
I one day wake up and think they have more to say—which is possible. Still, as of right now, this is a stand-alone
story.
Which actor would you like to see playing the lead character from your most recent book?
Ben Platt
would be awesome. If not him then maybe
David Alanson Bradberry, or Zachary Quinto.
What genre/s do you enjoy reading in your free time?
All of them!
In my e-reader, I have a mixture of MM Romance, Post-apocalyptic
adventure and even a Vampire thriller. I will give almost anything a try. I think a good book is more than just a
genre.
What was the last book you read? What did you like about it?
Starting Over by Rob Browatzke. I enjoyed the
premise of high school sweethearts reconnecting.
Have you held any interesting jobs while you worked on your books?
I am a full-time retail Manager and a part-time
Drag Queen.
How do you relax?
With a good
book or a movie and a glass of wine.
What hobbies do you have outside of writing?
I enjoy reading, singing, performing, make-up
application. Honestly, my favourite thing in the world is entertaining people,
in any form that takes.
Author Link
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