A warm Love Bytes welcome to author Jeff Erno visiting our blog today. Jeff talks about working class characters , shares and excerpt and there is a giveaway you can enter!
Welcome Jeff 🙂
Synopsis
Phil Mitchell pours his heart and soul into his job as manager of Speedy Mart, a local convenience store. He loves his work and he loves his fellow employees, but when it comes to his personal life, Phil is lonely and depressed and still pining for his long-departed ex.
He embarks upon the week from hell where anything that can go wrong does. It begins with a truck crashing into his outdoor sign and only goes downhill from there.
Add an asshole homophobic boss hell bent on seeing him fired and Phil realizes he needs to put into place a plan to save himself and his job.
First step in his plan,do something about his love life.
Meanwhile, Ezra, one of Phil’s team members, is dealing with his own roller coaster ride of a week.
As is Brandon, the local cop.
And Mark, the homophobic boss.
Perhaps, with a little luck, the next week will be better.
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Why the Working Class?
Fictional stories that feature, common, working-class characters are not unusual. In fact, many of the greatest, most popular stories feature unlikely heroes who rise from ordinariness to fulfill their destinies. Seldom do we see stories, though, that feature average, working-class protagonists whose aspirations do not lead them out of their droll existences of living paycheck to paycheck.
Within society, a large segment of the population views retail jobs as entry level positions. They aren’t considered careers but are seen to exist for the purpose of providing work for teenagers or college students. Temporary, stepping-stones to a “real” job. The few people who work full-time in retail, fast-food, hospitality, or other service industries, are viewed as under-achieving losers. They obviously squandered their opportunities to get a decent education, or they simply made poor choices. It is very easy for a professional, executive, or business person to look down on the “unskilled” working class and feel proud of themselves for having accomplished so much more.
If only life were that simple. There are myriad reasons why a person might find him/herself in a working class profession. Being that I’ve worked as a retail manager most of my adult life, I think I’ve seen it all. At least most of it. I remember one occasion when a customer entered my convenience store and began a conversation with me, revealing that she’d been unemployed for several months. This was during an economic recession when jobs were scarce. I told her we were hiring at the time, and she quickly dismissed me, stating that she wanted a real job, not one that any “trained monkey” could perform.
At that time, my store happened to be staffed with five employees, including myself. As I looked around, assessing them, I realized that four of the five of us held bachelor’s degrees. One was a former teacher. Two of us had degrees in business management. It isn’t safe to assume that just because a person works in retail, they’re stupid, unmotivated, or uneducated.
I can’t remember any time when I haven’t had at least a few part time employees who also had full-time jobs elsewhere. A lot of school teachers, for example, work in retail during the summer. People from various professions take supplemental retail jobs on nights and weekends.
But what about those people who don’t have college degrees, who choose to work as stockers, cashiers, desk clerks, and servers their entire lives? There must be something deficient about them. There must be something lacking, a reason why they wouldn’t aspire for something more, something better than a meager paycheck and a couple weeks of vacation per year.
The answers to those questions are so nuanced and complex, I couldn’t begin to address them in a meaningful way within a blog post. Many of the anecdotal situations that affect life choices stem from a multitude of external factors. A person born into poverty has a far greater chance of remaining in poverty their entire life than they do of achieving a middle-class income. People whose parents didn’t go to college are far less likely to get a post-high school degree than people whose parents did. Bottom line is that far more people in our country do not have a college degree than those who do.
Right now I continue to work in retail, and not in a managerial capacity. I do so by choice, not necessity. Although I was fortunate enough to be able to finally acquire my degree, I discovered my real passion of writing fictional stories when I was in my late thirties. Most of my income now comes from my writing, and I work part time as a retail clerk for supplemental income.
There was also a period in my life when I was caring for ailing loved ones. Both my mother and grandmother had suffered strokes. My Gram developed Alzheimer’s. I stepped down from my management position and worked part time in order to care for my family.
Each time I’ve found myself in this position, when I’ve chosen to work in a retail laborer position, I’ve encountered shockingly deplorable treatment, not so much by the companies I’ve worked for, but by the customers. People tend to make assumptions. When they engage with a person behind the cash register or on the other side of a counter, they automatically assume that the lowlife, working class employee is beneath them. They’re an underachiever. There must be something inferior about them or they’d have a real job.
I wanted to write a series of stories that specifically highlights and elevates people who work in retail. I wanted to show how people of average means make the best of their lives even though they might not have the resources to travel around the world at will or buy luxurious homes or attend highfalutin social functions. My Working Class Series depicts common, everyday folk who choose to do jobs so many others find beneath their dignity.
Hopefully the characters in this series will resonate with some readers. My desire isn’t to preach to people or make a political statement of any kind. I simply want to show a slice of life, and I want to show how in many cases the lives of common people are just as interesting, if not more, than the rich and famous.
“I better get back to work,” Phil said, crushing out his cigarette on the bottom of his shoe. He’d toss it in the trash bin on the way back inside rather than littering.
“Boss, it’s time for you to go home,” Judy said. “Christ, you’ve been here since what? Five o’clock this morning?”
“Five thirty, and I still haven’t had time to get into the cooler. I was waiting for you to get here.”
“Why don’t you just go home? You look exhausted. I’ll send one of the CSRs in to do the cooler.”
Phil shook his head. “You’ve got Wayne and Erin tonight, and neither one of them really knows how to do cooler.”
“Oh fuck.” Judy rolled her eyes in protest.
“I thought you liked Wayne.”
“I love Wayne, but with him there’s so much drama.”
As Judy took the last drag from her cigarette, Phil headed back around the corner toward the front of the building. Judy followed. When he got to the edge of the sidewalk he stopped to toss his butt into the waste bin but heard something strange over the outdoor loudspeaker. He held his hand up, motioning for Judy to stop. Wayne was using the P.A. system to address one of the customers at the pump. Phil looked to see whom he was talking to. A twenty-something, rather buff athletic guy stood beside his sports car at pump six.
“Honey, hold onto that nozzle of yours while you’re pumping!” Wayne’s singsong voice echoed from the loudspeaker beneath the canopy. “Or if you’d like, I can come out there and hold it for you… so you don’t spray all over the place.”
Phil, horrified, turned to look at Judy who stood directly behind him, laughing. She cracked up so loudly she nearly doubled over. “You go girl!” she screamed.
Phil rushed down the sidewalk toward the store’s entrance, glancing one last time toward the pumps to see what other customers were on the lot. When he flung the door open and stormed inside, Wayne stood at the counter, holding the microphone in his hand like a stage performer and appeared poised to continue with his routine.
“Wayne!” Phil shouted. “What the hell are you doing?”
Erin, the other cashier, stood a few feet away with a shit-eating grin on her face. She began to giggle. Wayne, however, looked up at Phil, his expression insipid. “I’m talking to a customer,” he stated in the calmest of tones.
“Are you trying to get us all fired?” Phil said, moving quickly toward him. “Do you know what’ll happen if someone complains to corporate?”
Wayne waved his hand dismissively, flipping his wrist in the process. “Oh, that’s my friend Freddy. He’s a body builder I originally met at the gym, and he’s one of my biggest fans. He comes to all my drag shows.” Wayne made no attempt to deny his identity as a drag queen.
Phil approached the counter, leaning in to lower his voice. “Wayne, please, I’m begging you. Can you please, please try to at least be a teenie, tiny bit discreet?” He held up his thumb and forefinger to signify a small measurement. “I know it’s hard, but….”
Indignant, Wayne straightened his posture and then twitched his chin while flicking his hair back in the process. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were just a tad homophobic,” Wayne said, his voice shrill with emotion.
“Wayne Baxter, you watch your mouth!” Phil turned to see Judy right behind him. With arm extended, she pointed an accusing finger toward Wayne. “You know that’s not true. Phil don’t have a prejudiced bone in his body. He’s just trying to keep you from getting your ass fired.”
“The customers like it when I joke around with them,” Wayne said in a much lower, more timid voice.
“I know, Wayne,” Phil said. “I didn’t mean to… um… you know I support… uh….”
“What he’s trying to say,” Judy interrupted, “is he’s cool with you being gay and doing drag and all that. But you can’t get on the fucking loudspeaker and say vulgar things!”
“Speaking of vulgar,” Phil said. “Language!”
Judy rolled her eyes.
Book trailer
Prizes: $20 WIP Gift Card, $10 WIP Gift Card, ebook copy of Speedy Rewards
JEFF ERNO began writing LGBT fiction in the late 1990s. Although an avid reader and amateur writer from a very young age, Jeff pursued a career as a retail store manager in Northern Michigan. When his first gay-themed novel was published, he was shocked that anyone would even want to read it. So far, he’s published over thirty novels. Jeff lives in Southern Michigan, where he works part time at a convenience store.
Jeff’s writing credits include a variety of themes and sub-genres including male romance, Young Adult, Science Fiction, erotica, and BDSM. He is the winner of a 2012 Rainbow Award and an Honorable Mention in 2011. His style is unpretentious and focused upon emotionally-driven, character-based stories that touch the heart. Jeff is especially passionate about young adult literature and combating teen bullying and youth suicide.
Email: jeffaerno@gmail.com
Website: http://www.jefferno.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jefferno
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeffErno
I love the sound of this book