Today we are very honered to have stopping by Cody Kennedy on the SID blog tour!

Cody is sharing a wonderful post about the difference between one of the main characters in Omorphi  & SID and there even a bonus piece by Timmy!

Also there is a giveaway of a digital copy of Omorphi for a Lucky winner !

Welcome Cody 🙂

 

Title: Slaying Isidore’s Dragons

Author: Cody Kennedy

Publisher: Harmony Ink ( DSP)

Length: 350 pages

Release Date: April 9th

Cover and Artwork by Reese Dante

 

How Isidore in Slaying Isidore’s Dragons is Different from Christy in Omorphi

 

Thank you, Dani , for the honor and privilege of sharing my new book with you! It’s great to be here! Welcome, everyone, to the book tour for Slaying Isidore’s Dragons!

 

For those who are unfamiliar with my books, I write books about hope, triumph, and building a life beyond abuse. While many of the tenets in my books are about learning to live after abuse, they apply to everyone in everyday life. Above all is hope. Without hope, we lose the will to live life to the fullest and Slaying Isidore’s Dragons and Omorphi are about exactly that. But the stories are vastly different in subtle ways. In fact, you may often find that the most valuable principles and adages in my books are understated.

 

In my post on The Kimi-chan Experience, I talk about the differences between Slaying Isidore’s Dragons and Omorphi. In my post on The Novel Approach, I talk about the differences between Declan and Michael; and today I talk about how Isidore is different from Christy.

 

The primary difference between Isidore and Christy is the stage at which we meet them following abuse. In Slaying Isidore’s Dragons, we meet Isidore as he endures heinous abuse and first leaves his abusive environment. Meeting Declan gives Isidore his first whisper of what it might be like to be something other than a victim. In Omorphi, we meet Christy one year after his freedom from abuse begins.

 

Isidore is raw and has no sense of self; and hasn’t the vaguest idea how to live life away from his abusers. He is terrified of what he doesn’t know, of what will happen to him, and what his abusers will do to him if he must return to them. Terror rules Isidore’s life and, without Declan, he can’t function in his new freedom. Christy has been away from his abusers for a year. We briefly meet him three months away from abuse where terror still plays a big role in his life, but the story begins a year into his freedom. He is learning to adapt, is learning to quell triggers, and has begun to develop life and coping skills.

 

Because Isidore is raw and his only sense of self is based in the opinions of his abusers, he doesn’t yet understand any of his own emotions. By the end of the book, however, he learns that it is okay to laugh, to cry, to be angry and, above all, to hope for a better future. But it is still very tentative and we, as readers, know he has a long row to hoe ahead of him before he can live independently. On the other hand, Christy has begun to develop the building blocks of his personality. He is learning that he can reject the opinions of others, he can be outright angry if he chooses to be when someone offends him and, above all, he has learned that he has a right to and can have faith in his own hope and expectations thereof. Yet, as with Isidore, he is still very much in the learning stages of life.

 

While I am not a psychologist, it is important to note that youth who suffer abuse never have a chance to develop the building blocks, the very foundation, of who they are. They are not only denied the basic inalienable rights to survival: food, water, sleep, the right to void, etc., they are also denied the inalienable rights to develop. There is no safety, security, or happiness. Two of the primary mechanisms an abuser uses to control a victim are: 1) to ensure the victim finds qualified safety, security, and happiness only with the abuser; and 2) to ensure the victim trusts only the abuser. Accordingly, for an abused person to have the strength to leave and not return to an abusive environment, s/he must be willing to sacrifice the only bastion of his/her security and trust: the abuser. To place trust in someone new, no matter how much a victim may care for that someone new, not only takes monumental courage, but also a fundamental change in perspective—a victim must dare to think differently.

 

Isidore can only think with Declan’s constant presence, constant reassurance, and constant perspective. As with all victims, Isidore must first see himself through Declan’s eyes, must learn to trust that Declan is correct, and only then can he begin to see himself as something other than a victim. In the beginning of the book, he can’t function, but by the end of the book, he believes he is “big, like the star.” For Christy’s part in Omorphi, he is rescued from abuse almost accidentally. He has no choice but to move forward without his abusers. Like Isidore, Christy begins without a sense of self, but we meet him a year later at the beginning of the book and he is light years beyond where Isidore is at the end of Slaying Isidore’s Dragons.

 

As Isidore and Christy move forward in their stories, we see that Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy plays an essential role in their development. A large part of TF-CBT is drawing or writing about your feelings and what has happened to you. In Omorphi, Christy paints the sea—symbolic to his freedom as it was all he could view from his window in captivity—and the hell he has lived through as part of his therapy. In Slaying Isidore’s Dragons, Isidore journals (writes) about his feelings, and draws the only happiness he has ever known until Declan: his beloved mother who was assassinated. In my opinion, Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy is essential to a victim’s healing and I encourage you to learn more about it.

 

In Omorphi, Christy has healed enough to begin to show his personality outwardly. He has learned that he has choices. He expresses himself in the way he dresses, the way he is willing to interact with people, and the way he knows he can demonstrate feelings without fear of punishment. In Slaying Isidore’s Dragons, Isidore still conforms to his abusers’ expectations as to how to express himself and firmly believes he has no right to challenge anyone, including his doctors.

 

The last fundamental difference between the two characters is that Christy has never been in a relationship of his choosing and Isidore has. Christy doesn’t understand his initial attraction to Michael and has to spend months spying on Michael before he decides he can even “talk” to him. He is not certain, but thinks it is okay if someone likes him. Just a little. Isidore has known love and adoration not only from his mother, but also from his only friend and first boyfriend, Caspian. Yet, he is certain that he doesn’t deserve Declan. It takes nearly the first half of the book before he believes it may be safe again for someone to like him. Just a little.

 

In truth, Slaying Isidore’s Dragons should be read before Omorphi to gain an understanding of a victim’s first year away from an abuser. No, I do not have an answer as to why I sought publication of Omorphi first. My apologies. Please read the books. I don’t care in which order.

 

And now a word from Timmy:

 

After reading Cody’s post I asked to add two separate points. First, Isidore and Christy ARE two different people. They have different personalities. Neither is very secure, and why would they be after what they endured? However, Isidore is the stronger of the two. He has a strong personality, and he speaks it to everyone other than his abusers. Christy was not nearly that confident in his own thoughts. Don’t mistake that for anything other than a personality trait. Isidore is still very scared and trying to cope.

 

That brings me to my next point. I have been in both of these places. The abuse and leaving it, and now a year later. I can tell you that I understand and identify with every point Cody made in this post. I would urge readers NOT to look at Isidore or Christy and say either leans too heavily on Declan or Michael. Or that Declan and Michael are too protective because, trust me, without that protection, I would not have made it. It IS necessary, and though not every person who has suffered abuse is the same, there are common threads in the healing process and the relearning of one’s life. Just as a person who has not lived this abuse can’t really understand our needs, I can’t understand how they would expect me to heal on my own. I need constant reassurance and as time goes on I need that less, but both boys need that support—only differently because they are different people at different stages following abuse.

 

Cody often tells me to be kind and gentle with myself, but sometimes it’s other people who need to be gentle with their words or actions. I have read reviews of Omorphi and Slaying Isidore’s Dragons where the reviewer, however gently implied, makes me feel bad because of the amount of support I need—because they say it’s not normal. Please be considerate of the abused children who will read these reviews and remember we are just learning that we CAN do things on our own, but we still need a huge amount of support until we have learned this for ourselves.

 

To kids who have suffered abuse, don’t let others make you feel bad for needing support. If you need it, for any reason, and it’s available to you, USE IT. Nobody understands you like you do, not even me. Every person is different and may need varying levels and different types of support. Don’t be afraid of that or embarrassed. Take what is offered and use it to every extreme that you can because that got me to where I am today. Also remember, don’t let someone tell you that because they have worked with others who have suffered that they know how you should feel. They don’t know and no two victims are the same even if raised in the same home or abusive environment. Good luck and get help. It is out there and we all need it.

 

 

Thank you, Timmy, for your heartfelt encouragement to others. To all of you out there, please remember that it takes only one voice to save a life. Be that voice. Enjoy Slaying Isidore’s Dragons!

 

Follow Slaying Isidore’s Dragons’ Book Tour!

 

About Slaying Isidore’s Dragons

 

5 Best friends 4 Vicious brothers 3 STD tests 2 Guys in love 1 Car bombing & Nowhere to run

Follow the burgeoning love of two teens during the worst year of their lives. Irish-born Declan David de Quirke II is the son of two ambassadors, one Irish and one American. He is ‘out’ to his parents but to no one else. French-born Jean Isidore de Sauveterre is also the son of two ambassadors, one Catalan and one Parisian. His four half brothers have been told to cure him of his homosexuality. Both teens have lost a parent in a London car bombing.

 

5 Weeks of hell 4 Attempts on their lives

3 Law enforcement agencies 2 Dead high school seniors 1 Jealous friend & A love that won’t be denied

 

Declan and Isidore meet at the beginning of their senior year at a private academy in the United States. Declan is immediately smitten with Isidore and becomes his knight in shining armor. Isidore wants to keep what is left of his sanity and needs Declan’s love to do it. One is beaten, one is drugged, one is nearly raped, one has been raped. They are harassed by professors and police, and have fights at school, but none of it compares to running for their lives. When the headmaster’s popular son attempts suicide and someone tries to assassinate Declan’s mother, they are thrown headlong into chaos, betrayal, conspiracy, allegations of sexual coercion, even murder. And one of them carries a secret that may get them killed.

 

5 New family members

4 BFF’s 3 Countries 2 Extraordinary Psychologists 1 Courageous Mother

& A new beginning for two young men in love

 

Read Chapter One of Slaying Isidore’s Dragons

 

Now available in print and ebook at Dreamspinner/Harmony Ink Press Amazon   Barnes & Noble   OmniLit/ARe

Ingram Books for Libraries and Schools

About Cody Kennedy

 

Raised on the mean streets and back lots of Hollywood by a Yoda-look-alike grandfather, Cody doesn’t conform, doesn’t fit in, is epic awkward, and lives to perfect a deep-seated oppositional defiance disorder. In a constant state of fascination with the trivial, Cody contemplates such weighty questions as If time and space are curved, then where do all the straight people come from? When not writing, Cody can be found taming waves on western shores, pondering the nutritional value of sunsets, appreciating the much maligned dandelion, unhooking guide ropes from stanchions, and marveling at all things ordinary.

 

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Cody is offering a copy of Omorphi to one Lucky winner

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