A warm welcome to author Michael Rupured joining us today here at Love Bytes on his creative minds tour for his new release “Whippersnapper”.
Welcome Michael 🙂
TITLE: Whippersnapper
AUTHOR: Michael Rupured
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
COVER ARTIST: Maria Fanning
LENGTH: 220 Pages
GENRE: Contemporary
RELEASE DATE: January 29, 2016
BLURB: Tellumo Magnamater is a fresh-out-of-college, first-year English teacher at Salt Lick County High School in Kentucky. He rides the bus to and from work, and every day he walks to the gym behind his small efficiency apartment to exercise. Perhaps because of being raised by two lesbians, Tellumo is attracted to older men. He sets his sights on fifty-something available bachelor Oliver Crumbly. But Tellumo isn’t the only resident interested in Oliver.
Peggy Tucker, a widow approaching her sixtieth birthday, is determined to marry again, and she thinks Oliver is her perfect match. Despite Tellumo and Peggy striking up a friendship at the gym, neither realizes they are interested in the same man. But the joke might be on both of them. Oliver, a retired history teacher, is the original crotchety old man who hates everything and everybody—especially young people.
Oh Little Town of Fallisville
Whippersnapper is set in Fallisville—a fictional town somewhere in Central Kentucky. My earlier novels take place in Washington DC and New York City. Getting the details right was a challenge. Making everything up was easier and a lot more fun.
The Fallis House, originally home of city founder Hugo Fallis, is an upscale restaurant inspired by the Shakertown restaurant in Harrodsburg, Kentucky and Ashland, home of Henry Clay in Lexington. It’s Oliver Crumbly’s favorite restaurant—a classy place usually reserved for special occasions.
Peggy Tucker loves the popular Dinner Barn, out by the interstate. The rocking chairs on the big front porch are filled with folks waiting for a table for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After putting in a day at the Department of Motor Vehicles, Peggy sometimes meets gal pal Lurleen Owens there for dinner.
Tellumo Magnamater—a fresh-out-of-college English teacher—is overwhelmed by the demands of his new job. He splits his time between Salt Lick County High School, his efficiency apartment, and Fit as a Fiddle—the most recent iteration of a gym that changes its them with each new owner.
“Like Salt Lick County, the students in [Tellumo’s] classes [at the high school] weren’t particularly diverse. Tellumo had been surprised grocery stores offered choices other than white for bread and vanilla for ice cream. Asians, Hispanics, and African-Americans lived in the area, but he saw few minority students in school and had none in his classes.
“Southern Baptist was the prevailing faith, with Church of Christ a distant second, just ahead of the Mennonites whose farms dotted the countryside on the western side of the county. A smattering of Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Catholics brought up the rear. Agnostics, Buddhists, atheists, and others who weren’t Christian kept a low profile.
“Nobody was very poor, nor aside from a few horse farm owners on the south side of the county, particularly wealthy. The unemployment rate stayed below state and national averages. A manufacturing plant for a foreign automaker, a light bulb factory, and a nearby hub for a national delivery service were the largest employers, followed by the hospital and then the county government, including teachers, firefighters, and peace officers. County residents, even teenagers who wanted to work, had little trouble finding jobs.”
Fallisville is a nice little town. Stop by. Tellumo, Oliver, and Peggy will show you around, introduce you to their friends, and tell you a story that will make you laugh, bring tears to your eyes, and warm your heart.
Oliver Crumbly watched the Salt Lick County snowplow scrape the street in front of his house with a mixture of satisfaction and relief. Ten days of complaining had finally paid off. Two feet of snow had fallen in the day or two leading up to Christmas. A week later, before plows or salt trucks had reached Thoroughbred Acres, another six inches had fallen.
He’d been trapped at home since Christmas Eve. Worn treads had kept his Taurus from getting any traction on the flat street in front of his house. Driving out of the hilly subdivision would have been impossible.
Bill Pinkley, head meteorologist for local Channel 13, said El Nino or El Nina had caused the winter storm. Oliver couldn’t remember which, or why what happened so far away made a difference in the weather in Northern Kentucky, but if Bill Pinkley said so, it must be true. Heeding his advice to stock up on groceries ahead of the first flurries had kept Oliver from running out of food.
Thirty inches was a lot of snow to have fallen in a week’s time, and Calumet Circle was in the back of Thoroughbred Acres. Still, ten days was too long to wait for snow removal. Calls to the county road department had fallen on deaf ears. The surly customer service representative had hung up on him—four times. Miss Bethany Williams, Customer Service Representative II, was about to learn messing with Oliver Crumbly was a mistake. He’d mailed a lengthy letter detailing her incompetence and rude behavior to the director of the county road department with copies to the mayor, Oliver’s representative on the city council, and the Kentucky and U.S. Departments of Transportation.
Too bad Kevin Leonard had missed the blizzard. For eight years, Oliver’s ex had complained about the lack of winter snow. But then, nothing in Kentucky had suited Kevin. He’d grown up in the upper Midwest, where life was better in every way. Eight years of Kevin’s delusions of grandeur, condescending attitude, and manufactured facts had been a good four too many.
Oliver didn’t miss him one little bit. Not anymore. He dropped into his recliner, turned on the television, and flipped to the TV Guide Channel. His forty-eight-year-old ex had returned to North Dakota last February to live with his parents, and according to a mutual friend, was still unemployed. Because Mr. and Mrs. Leonard had often driven their camper down to Kentucky for weeklong visits, Oliver knew them a lot better than he’d have preferred. In his opinion, the sorry son and his parents deserved each other.
The viewing options scrolling on the screen at a snail’s pace failed to keep his attention, and his mind wandered. Falling for the wrong guys was Oliver’s gift. The first time his heart had been broken, he’d believed he would die. But he’d lived to love again… and again… and again… and again. Five times he’d survived a broken heart and the end of yet another relationship gone bad. Getting over kicking men out of his life had grown easier with experience. After Kevin left, Oliver’s battle-scarred heart had healed in record-breaking time.
Dreamspinner Press (Paperback)
Michael Rupured loves to write. Before learning the alphabet, he filled page after page with rows of tiny circles he now believes were his first novels, and has been writing ever since. He lives in Athens, Georgia, grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, came out as a gay man at the age of twenty-one in the late 1970s, and considers surviving his wild and reckless twenties to have been a miracle. To find out what Michael’s up to now, visit his blog (rupured.com), follow him on Twitter (@crotchetyman) or send an e-mail message to mrupured@gmail.com.
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Winner’s Prize: $25 Amazon Gift Card
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Life begins at forty and all that (so fifty something is a well-done age *wink*) plus it’s May/December trope! So of course I’d like to read this book!! 😀
I’ve been curious about this one for a while!