Being True by Jacob Z. Flores

Publisher: Dreamspinner

Genre: M/M Romance

Release Date: September 16, 2014

My Top 5 Songs from the 1980s

 

Hi, everyone. My name is Jacob Z. Flores, and I’m thrilled to be back here at Love Bytes. Dani and before her Sid are two of the most awesome people on this planet, and I consider myself lucky for how kind they have been to me!

 

So just why am I here today? Well, I’m here to promote Being True, my latest release from Dreamspinner. This book is a sweet coming of age romance between Tru Cobbler, the awkward new kid, and Javi Castillo, the hot, popular jock with a kind heart.

 

Now, I bet you’re wondering what the 1980s has to do with my latest release. Well, Being True takes place in high school, and the 1980s made up the majority of my high school experience. I thought it would be fun to relive the 80s for those of us who were fortunate enough to live through the big hair, boom boxes, glam rock, and jelly shoe fads. For those of you who may have missed the 1980s, here are some bodacious songs/videos, that for their own reasons, were the bomb to me.

 

#5—“Only in My Dreams”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IivGqwQvdCI

 

Now, some of you may be like really? Debbie Gibson? Like totally gag me with a spoon! But here’s the reason this song is so gnarly. You see, as a young closeted gay boy, my dreams were the only place I was totally myself, and I had this recurring dream that I still remember to this day. I was running from bad guys that were chasing me, and I run out a door and into the arms of this tall, blond, bad ass, who takes me in his arms. I’d never felt that safe in my life and every time I woke up, I was sure that was never going to happen for me. That guy would always exist only in my dreams. The great thing about this though is at 41 I think I may have found the man of my dreams. Now that’s bitchin’!

 

#4—“Brand New Lover”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWbj64Rwfvc

 

The reason Dead or Alive makes it on my list is primarily because of lead singer Pete Burns. Even as a kid, I admired his gutsy flamboyant appearance and style. I remember thinking that I’d never be that brave. While I’m definitely not as flamboyant, I’m finally the man I was always meant to be. For sure!

 

#3—“Don’t You Forget About Me”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdqoNKCCt7A

 

Now this song is on my list not just because it’s totally rad, but also because of Judd Nelson from The Breakfast Club. I remember wanting to snatch ginger-haired Molly Ringwald bald over him. She got all the hot guys in the 80s! That mall chick skank-o-rama! But even though I secretly hated her for that, I also loved her too. She got most of the hottest guys of the era. She had to be doing something right!

 

#2—“Material Girl”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmbOjpvbCR8

 

Naturally, Madonna had to make an appearance on my list. She practically defined the decade, and this song is one of my faves. Whenever I go shopping and spend some dough, this song plays in my head. And I will admit, that when this song first came out, I’d dance around in my room pretending I was Madge and pushing all these handsome men, who wanted to buy my affection away. But who am I kidding? If that had ever happened to me, I wouldn’t be pushing any of them away. Would you? I’d be saying, “Okay, boys. Who’s first?”

 

#1—“Physical”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWz9VN40nCA

 

Olivia Newton-John tops my list with this song. Why? Well, it’s Olivia! Hello! I have always adored her, and this video was just hot. She was trying to change her squeaky clean All-American Girl image, and I heartily approved! Especially since I pretty much always felt as if I needed an image redo in high school. Like Olivia, I was the good boy who didn’t have much fun. But when I learned how to get physical well, life got a bit better. And those hot, gay gym guys at the end were some pretty powerful motivation.

 

So there you have it. Those are my top 5 favorite songs of the 1980s. And while Being True takes place in a contemporary setting, the issues Tru and Javi struggle with are ones that I, and most likely many others, have experienced in life. Such conflict seems to transcend generations, doesn’t it?

 

Blurb:

 

Truman L. Cobbler has not had an easy life. It’s bad enough people say he looks like Donkey from Shrek, but he’s also suffered the death of his policeman father and his mother’s remarriage to a professional swindler, who cost them everything. Now dirt poor, they live in the barrio of San Antonio, Texas. When Tru transfers to an inner-city high school halfway through his senior year, he meets Javi Castillo, a popular and hot high school jock. Javi takes an immediate liking to Tru, and the two become friends. The odd pairing, however, rocks the school and sets the cliquish social circles askew. No one knows how to act or what to think when Mr. Popular takes a stand for Mr. Donkey. Will the cliques rise up to maintain status quo and lead Tru and Javi to heartbreak and disaster or will being true to who they are rule the day?

 

 

 

 

By the time ten o’clock rolled around, I’d become a nervous wreck. I’d never gone to a party in my life. I didn’t know how to dress for one or what to do when I got there. Luckily, I’d convinced Claudia to help me get dressed. If she hadn’t agreed, I don’t know what I would have done.

“Are you sure I look all right?” I studied myself in the full-length mirror in my mother’s bedroom.

Both my mother and Claudia sighed. I’d already asked them both like ten times.

“You look great,” my mother said. I could still see the apprehension in her eyes. Shortly after she’d gotten home from her new job, I asked her if I could go. She had immediately said no. Thankfully, Javi, who’d been there when I asked, promised he’d stay by my side every minute. Only then had she begrudgingly relented.

She still wasn’t pleased about Heather’s party. Worry lines crinkled her forehead. She feared I might run into trouble with some bully intent on hurting me outside school. And I couldn’t exactly tell her she had nothing to fret about.

It concerned me too.

But Javi was my friend, and he’d asked me to go. After what happened yesterday and then our discussion in the park today, I couldn’t tell him no.

“I just don’t know,” I said as I studied my outfit in the mirror.

“Oh, my God!” Claudia said in frustration. “I razored holes in your jeans to make them more stylish. Not to mention I loaned you my favorite black tee.”

She didn’t need to remind me I was wearing a girl’s T-shirt. I hated that it fit my petite body so perfectly. At least it didn’t have zombies or emo Stewie on it. It was a plain black shirt. Even if it hadn’t been, what choice did I have? My clothes came from resale shops and were at least five years out of fashion. Most were baggy and worn thin. If I showed up to a party in my usual outfits, I’d be torn to pieces on my appearance alone. And I couldn’t have that happen. Not when I was trying to impress Javi and some of his friends.

“We just need to fix your hair,” Claudia said. She grabbed me by the wrist and led me to the bathroom. When had she laid out all these products? Tubes of hair gel and pomade littered the sink. A ginormous can of hairspray sat on the lip of the bathtub. Spraying that thing likely opened up a hole in the ozone layer capable of making the entire human race extinct. She’d even brought a hair dryer and a flat iron. Just what the hell did she plan to do to me?

“Is all this really necessary?” I asked.

She stared blankly at me in the mirror. “Tru, I love you to pieces, but for a gay boy, you have absolutely zero sense of style and your inability to sculpt your hair to perfection leaves me rather speechless.”

I couldn’t argue with her. Since my days usually consisted of just trying to survive, I never cared much for my appearance. Whatever I wore usually got covered in mud or blood. Sometimes both. And it wasn’t like we could afford nice clothes anyway. I had to make do with the little I had. As for my hair, well, why spend time on it? I’d likely get my entire head shoved into a toilet anyway.

But the wild mess of tangled straw belonged on an eight-year-old, not on someone who’d soon be eighteen.

“All right,” I said. “Make me over.”

 

You can buy Being True here:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

Amazon.uk

 

And I urge readers to visit me at any or all of my social media sites:

Website/blog: http://jacobzflores.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jacob.flores2,

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/JacobZFlores,

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5142501.Jacob_Z_Flores

Author Bio :

Jacob Z. Flores 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.

 

 

 

 

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