A warm welcome to author James Stryker joining us here for his blog tour on new release : “Boy: A Journey”.
James shares an exclusive excerpt and there is a giveaway to participate in.
Welcome James 🙂

Title:  Boy: A Journey

Author: James Stryker

Publisher:  NineStar Press

Release Date: December 19, 2106

Length: 81100

Genre: Literary/Genre Fiction, trans, coming out, family

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Synopsis

Luke may never have been close to his father, but he feels like he knew him. Jay was a frustrating parent – always urging Luke to go to mortuary school, disapproving of his Broadway aspirations, and favoring his other children. He even had the audacity to die mid-argument, forcing additional guilt on Luke for never meeting his expectations.

However, Luke’s assumptions about Jay are thrown into turmoil at the funeral when an enigmatic stranger, Tom, expresses gratitude that Jay finally shared his past with his children. When Luke can’t hide his confusion, Tom realizes his mistake and bolts. Riddled with questions, Luke confronts his family. He is shocked to discover that everyone guards the truth that Jay was a transgender man who’d been raised as a female. Practiced at keeping his father’s secrets, they’re unwilling to reveal anything further at Luke’s demand. Devastated by Jay’s lack of trust in him, Luke feels forced to abandon the family who deceived him although leaving them behind won’t answer his questions.

To discover the reason his father hid his gender identity, Luke seeks the only other person with answers, Tom. In Luke’s eyes, he is owed an explanation, even if it’s a difficult one. However, Tom harbors a deep protective devotion to Jay, a loyalty he feels the truth would betray. Additionally, as a man suffering with terminal cancer, he has no desire to drudge up painful memories by playing Luke’s Virgil. Luke must earn his trust before the secret past of both men dies with Tom.

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James Stryker © 2016

All Rights Reserved

 

He turned the lock, pulled open the door, and nearly vomited on his threshold.

Luke stood outside his door.

“Tom.” The boy’s smile vanished. “You look sick. Are you all—”

Tom closed the door in his face and threw the deadbolt. He leaned against the door, his heart racing as his castles in the sky evaporated. Or possibly he really was hallucinating. It wasn’t Luke on the other side of the door. It was Jay. A mirage created by heartache and pain. He could be dead already. Maybe he’d taken the pills and didn’t remember.

He felt the knocking on the back of his head. Ghosts didn’t knock.

“Tom, I need to talk to you.”

It wasn’t Jay’s voice.

“Tom, please open the door.”

How did he find me? Why did he find me?

“Why are you here?” Tom wanted to yell, but as his voice rose, the spike in his abdomen forced him to finish in a scathing tone. “I told you to leave me alone.”

“I need to talk to you. They told me only a little, but they refused to tell me everything. I need to know.”

“What do you need to know?”

“Please open the door.”

Tom took a deep breath before he turned and drew the lock. He opened the door only a few inches.

“I was going to give the Mormons three minutes. I’ll give them to you instead. What the fuck do you want?”

Luke appeared hurt by his reaction, and for a second Tom felt sorry. But he was in so much pain.

“I want to know why he did what he did,” the boy said.

“That’s a ridiculous question. If you woke up tomorrow in a woman’s body, wouldn’t you do something about it?”

“Not that. Why did he hide who he was from me?”

Tom didn’t immediately respond. He could see how upset Luke had been and was becoming again. The boy was disheveled, and there was a cut on his cheek. Tom tried to respond with a softer inflection.

“He didn’t hide who he was. You knew him.”

“I didn’t know him at all. Why didn’t he trust me? I want to know everything.”

Tears streamed down Luke’s face. Tom almost opened the door. Almost.

But I can’t. If I let him in, I won’t be able to go through with my plan. And I want it to be over. The left side of his face flinched. I don’t want to think about you. You or Jay.

“If he’d wanted you both to know everything, he would’ve told you. I respect that, even if you don’t. Now leave me alone.” Tom didn’t slam the door this time. He just shut it.

As he stumbled away, Luke knocked again.

“But she does know!” Luke pounded the door with the flat of his hand. “He told Beau and not me! He told everyone but me! And she kept me in the dark too! They all lied to me!”

Tom had told Luke that Jay kept him informed, and he doubted anything could be disclosed that he wasn’t already aware of. While Jay had flung bits and pieces to different people, Tom had honestly believed that he was the only one who knew it all.

You told her. When? In what context? Was it before I was at their graduation? Was it before I was at her wedding? Did you point me out to her? Does she know you’ve been telling me about her baby? That you promised me a sonogram picture?

“Please, Tom. Don’t shut me out like everyone else.”

Luke’s voice sounded fainter. When Tom reopened the door, he was on his knees in the hall. Tom hesitated.

He looks so much like you, Jay. I could never refuse you.

“Wait here.”

Tom closed the door and ground his teeth to move through the pain, to his bedroom. He removed the OxyContin from his carry-on, shook two pills out, and swallowed them dry before replacing the bottle. On his way back to the door, he stopped at the coffee table, took his other prescription bottles, and stuffed them under the couch cushion. Last, he walked to his piano and gathered the pictures on its top. He opened the lid itself and set the frames on the treble strings.

I’m sorry, baby. I don’t know where else I can put them right now.

He returned to his door and opened it a fourth time, half expecting it to have been a dream. But Luke was still there. Standing now, his face red and a messenger bag slung over his shoulder. Tom held the door back.

 

James Stryker is a central-Pennslvannia author who enjoys writing speculative and literary fiction. Themes in his work focus toward diversity in the LGBTQ spectrum and the voice of underrepresented or misunderstood viewpoints. His debut novel, Assimilation, was released in 2016.

James shares a residence with a pack of pugs, who continue to disagree about the ratio of treats to writing. Despite his day job and writing projects, James is never too busy to connect with readers or other writers. He welcomes you to check out his website, follow him on social media, or drop a line to his email.

Pronouns: he/him

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