Author Saturday Spotlight: Edmond Manning #Interview #Giveaway

Happy Saturday!!!! With many people enjoying their last day at GRL there are exciting things happening here on Diverse Reader! Today we have the truly outstanding and talented Edmond Manning. He was actually the first author on this blog to be my spotlight when it opened almost 4 years ago. So, it's exciting having him back.

This is a special post. Obviously because he's here again but also because the blurb to the final book in his Lost and Found Series will be revealed here. We will look at the ENTIRE series today. We will have a wonderful interview, see the last book, and it will end with a giveaway where one person will win the WHOLE SERIES! That's 6 books! Hope you have a great time!

The Lost And Found Series

King Perry

In a trendy San Francisco art gallery, out-of-towner Vin Vanbly witnesses an act of compassion that compels him to make investment banker Perry Mangin a mysterious offer: in exchange for a weekend of complete submission, Vin will restore Perry's "kingship" and transform him into the man he was always meant to be. Despite intense reservations, Perry agrees, setting in motion a chain of events that will test the limits of his body, seduce his senses, and fray his every nerve, (perhaps occasionally breaking the law) while Vin guides him toward his destiny as "the one true king." Even as Perry rediscovers old grief and new joys within himself, Vin and his shadowy motivations remain enigmas: who is this offbeat stranger guiding them from danger to hilarity to danger? To emerge triumphant, Perry must overcome the greatest challenge alone: embracing his devastating past. But can he succeed by Sunday's sunrise deadline? How can he possibly evolve from an ordinary man into King Perry? A Bittersweet Dreams title: It's an unfortunate truth: love doesn't always conquer all. Regardless of its strength, sometimes fate intervenes, tragedy strikes, or forces conspire against it. These stories of romance do not offer a traditional happy ending, but the strong and enduring love will still touch your heart and maybe move you to tears.

King Mai

Adopted from Thailand and never one to fit in with the local bubbas, life has been rough around the edges for Mai Kearns, even before he came out of the closet. Now, almost ten years past the torture of high school, Mai still can't catch a break: he and his parents stand to lose their beloved farm.

How will a “King Weekend” help change Mai’s fate? What has narrator Vin Vanbly been up to for the four weeks he’s been sneaking around Mai’s hometown? At the urging of a ransom note from ‘The Lost Kings,’ Mai embarks on an impossible treasure hunt chasing mystic poetry, Fibonacci Hopscotch, ancient prophecy, the letter ‘x,’ and a confounding, penguin-marching army.

The stakes are high: if Mai fails, the Lost Kings will permanently claim him as their own. Finding the treasure may unlock the secret to saving his family farm. But can this angry farmer risk opening his broken heart before the weekend is over? Mai Kearns has 40 hours to get very, very curious in this second installment of The Lost and Founds.

The Butterfly King

Terrance Altham doesn’t know why he’s been arrested. He’s committed no crime and the cops aren’t talking. Sadly, the man sharing his holding cell talks too much. Known only as Ghost, he is a young grifter, apparently familiar enough with this police station to convince Terrance a break out is possible, and pushy enough to leave Terrance no choice but to follow Ghost into the underbelly of New York City. 

Terrified by the unjust imprisonment and the possibility of a life behind bars, Terrance searches for proof of his innocence while Ghost seeks the elusive Butterfly King. But neither man seems in control of the weekend’s direction and the consequences of mistakes are life-changing. As Ghost’s manipulations come to an explosive head, each man must decide amid danger and street violence what kind of man will triumph, lost or found? 

Narrator Vin Vanbly (a.k.a Ghost) returns in the most revealing King Weekend yet, where he faces the dark side of his dangerous manipulations, and learns missteps can be deadly. Vin must confront sinister dealings from his past—and a future promising disaster—as he waltzes Terrance across Manhattan in spring, searching for the elusive and charismatic, Butterfly King. 

King John

English attorney Alistair Robertson can’t quite believe an astonishing tale of kingship and transformation he hears at Burning Man, the annual counter-culture art festival in the Black Rock desert. Who are the Found Kings? Is “being kinged” as magical as it sounds?

Determined to find the mysterious garage mechanic named Vin who helps men “remember who they were always meant to be,” Alistair catches his quarry amid the extravagant sculptures, fire worshipers, mutant cars, and lavish costumes. After searching for three years, he’ll finally get to ask the question burning inside him: “Will you king me?”

Wandering together through the desert, Vin Vanbly and Alistair explore Burning Man’s gifting culture and exotic traditions, where they meet the best and worst of their fellow burners. Alistair’s overconfidence in Vin’s manipulative power collides with Vin’s obsessive need to save a sixteen-year-old runaway from a nightmarish fate, and the two men spiral into uncontrollable, explosive directions.

In this fourth adventure of The Lost and Founds, beneath the sweltering summer sun and the six billion midnight stars, one truth emerges, searing itself on their hearts: in the desert, everything burns. 

Come Back To Me

After years of lying, scheming, and dangerous manipulation, Vin Vanbly finally gets what's coming to him: love. 

How can he survive unstoppable, uncontrollable love when his very nature demands he control everything? Clues about his one true love—tantalizingly hinted at in each of the books in The Lost and Founds series—come together in four life-changing stories. 

In No Kings, a sex hookup with a parking lot stranger reveals more about Vin’s life as a Lost King and his destiny than he could have dreamed. In King Fitch, Vin meets the last king in his long legacy, one final weekend before he withdraws from the world to an anonymous Latin American jungle. The Lost Ones recounts a terrifying kidnapping by street thugs from Vin’s past. In King Malcolm the Restorer, Vin’s mysterious relationship with his older brother—and the soul-crushing secret which drew them together—is finally revealed.

Through it all, Vin Vanbly struggles to survive. But what if he is destined for more than mere survival? Is he finally ready to embrace the truth and remember who he was always meant to be? Once there were a tribe where every man was the one true king and every woman the one true queen…

Interview

Thanks so much for hanging out with me today, Edmond! I truly adore your books and you. I’m going to pick away at your brain a bit and see what I can’t pry out of you.

Thank you for inviting me! Good luck prying. I think all the good stuff leaked out onto my pillow last night.

GRL is going on right now but you, like me, are not in attendance. You have been in the past though so tell all of us who aren’t there what this week will be like for everyone, from your experience.

Energetic – that’s the key word.

Everywhere you turn around is someone you know online, met two years ago at GRL, or someone who is as excited as fuck to see you right in this moment! It’s like a non-stop class reunion with almost every damn person you wanted to show up, showing up. Even if you try to escape to your room, there are people you love in the elevator, walking down your hotel hallway, in the room next to yours who pop out because they heard you come home. Wanna be silly for two minutes? So, you hang, chat, and suddenly an author you love is doing a spotlight in twenty minutes… You promise yourself you’re not going to make yourself crazy trying to attend everything…but… when will you ever get another chance to see Anne Tenino read? Where else can you ask Kaje Harper questions about the next book?

For a whole weekend, you nourish yourself with kindred spirits. And as the experience winds down, you realize that every part of your physical body, your ability to make words with your mouth hole, your very personality itself feels like a power strip that has been charging hundreds of cell phones at the airport gate area. All you wanna do is completely unplug in a dark room.

This is a tricky question, I know. Of the five Lost and Found books you currently have published, do you have a favorite? And if so why?

King Mai.

When I wrote my first published book, King Perry, I loved the insane premise for the book. I laughed while I was writing, I wept, I experienced little “author orgasms” over and over, page after page. When I began writing the second book, King Mai, I wondered, can I have that experience again? Is the magic still there? Will I have more author orgasms?  

I did.

King Mai will always have a special place in my heart because while writing that book, I really came to believe in myself as a writer. Also, I loved writing about the town’s bubbas, the absurd treasure hunt, and the main character, Mai. He is always a favorite in my heart.

How often when you meet people do they ask you to King or Queen them?

Never! Never been asked, which, WHEW! I have had a few people ask me to reveal their king or queen names…but I don’t think that’s my power. I think a person’s king or queen name ought to come from someone who knows them well, very well. Ideally, from the person themselves. Therefore, I usually try to avoid inventing a name. However, I love discussing King and Queen names and it’s fun to speculate what someone’s name might be, but I would never tell someone, “This is yours.”

Can you tell us anything about the next book in the series?

Yes! King Daniel is the last book in the first story arc of The Lost and Founds. And rather than attempt a flirtatious description of what’s ahead, I’m going to share the book blurb, which I haven’t shared publicly yet. Here we go!

After discovering a blog revealing a mighty tribe where “every man was the one true king and every woman was the one true queen…,” thirty-five-year-old, unemployed Daniel realizes he’s tired of being a Lost King. He wants more. But more what?

His quest to uncover the secret will drag him beyond his comfortable seclusion, into the cornfields of DeKalb and thunderous, chaotic New York City. After a hotel hookup with a sensual Englishman, the murderous rage Daniel fought to repress is finally unleashed.

In the final story arc in The Lost and Founds series, Daniel faces the ultimate choice: what would you risk to become a Found King? His fate depends on a seedy escort named Fitch, benevolence from the mysterious king named DC, and love from the elusive Vin Vanbly, who may—or may not be—dead.

This is the end.

But is it the end for Daniel?

If someone came up to you and said to you they will take you anywhere for an entire month, all expenses paid, where would you choose to go?

Italy. A villa with commanding views over the rolling hillsides and a local chef from town who cooks every meal, sometimes showing us how.

I assume this person whisking me away for a month was a sugar son (kinda like a sugar daddy, but younger), so I would also need a month supply of camouflage thongs.

Now, to add on to the other question, would you still go if they said you’d have to go in that exact moment but couldn’t tell anyone?

I love this weird question. I had to get up and walk around for a half-hour, pondering my answer.

No, I could not.

My mom is 80. I couldn’t do that to her—disappear. Also, dealing with the month’s aftermath (stressed, worried, angry friends) would kill any enjoyment I had wearing camo thongs on a hilltop lunch gazebo overlooking the Tuscan vineyards.

It took me a half-hour to properly decide because I cherish the idea of disappearing for a stretch, not answering any phones, nobody knowing where I am. If there was some sort of quantum mechanics time and space pocket universe in Italy where a month passed but only a day happened in the normal world? I would stay in Italy two months.

Is there a plan after the Lost and Founds are done?

Audio book versions of everything!

Writing-wise, I’m already working on another story that is tangentially linked to The Lost and Founds, (but not really). I’m writing a “Bible thriller” (if such a thing is possible) based on the minor, minor character, Zacchaeus. I love writing challenges and I am intrigued by writing a Biblical tale so fascinating you can’t put it down.

If you could be a shifter, what animal would you love to turn into?

This question has forced an existential dilemma on me. I want to say “bird,” because then I could always escape the circumstances, just dart away like an inconspicuous wren. But escape what? What can a bird actually “do” in bird form, other than chirp? And heights make me nervous, so what if I pass out from terror while I’m hundreds of feet in the air? Do I turn back into me and plunge to my death, which then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy about my fear of heights?

If I were an alligator, I could chomp my problems, but what if my problem was fire and I needed to fly away? Alligators are terrible at flying.

I’m gonna say “bird.”

Meredith, why are you making me work so hard?

What are three things about yourself that people would be surprised to know?

§  I had a 4.0 GPA in college (except for Italian class)

§  I get anxious visiting my dentist (who I adore)

§  I don’t eat apple pie. Ever.

How can people follow you through social media, website, etc.?

Blog: www.edmondmanning.com.

Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/bYya6v

Email: pickwickinkpublishing@gmail.com

Facebook:Edmond Manning

Instagram: theedmondman

Twitter: @edmond_manning

When someone reads your books, what do you ultimately hope they take away from them?

Great question. I used to have hopes and expectations that people would get THIS message or walk away with THAT feeling. I realized that some part of me wanted to control the reader experience. With my first few one-star reviews, I remember thinking, “no, no…you don’t understand what’s going on…” It was a big day to admit that those readers understood JUST FINE what was going on. They didn’t have the reaction/experience I wanted them to have.

In reading reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, and blogs, I discovered many readers walked away with fantastic experiences, usually nothing I could have ever predicted. In a recent Goodreads review, the person mentioned that they’re now going to get a tattoo to celebrate something they realized about themselves during reading King Perry. Wow, how fantastic is that?

I found that letting go of my expectations has made reading reviews a lot more fun. I love to read about peoples’ journey with these stories.

Fast Fire Questions:

Favorite color? Deep blue. Like the color of this font right now.

Where do you hope GRL will be next year? Italy.

Favorite comfort food? Beefy Mac

Coffee or tea? Tea, I guess. Bleah. I’d rather have a Diet Cherry Pepsi

Favorite holiday? Thanksgiving

Best time of day? Right now. I’m staring at the autumn trees in absolute delight

Cake or pie? Cake, cake, cake, cake

Okay, thank you, Edmond, so much for entertaining my questions!

Giveaway

Want to win ALL these books?

Enter the rafflecopter giveaway!

King Daniel Releases in November so you will have to

wait for that one but you will win ALL 6

books!

Contest will end on October 27th!

Thank you to Edmond for being here today and being as amazing 

as always!

a Rafflecopter giveaway