A warm welcome to author Sean Kennedy joining us today to talk about new release “The Obstruction of Emma Goldsworthy”.
Welcome Sean 🙂
I never planned to write a spin-off to Tigers and Devils. But Micah Johnson, a secondary character from Tigers on the Run, wormed his way into my heart. Suddenly his story needed to be told, and the stories of his two best friends. I knew I had to write Emma’s story from the get-go. She was too interesting not to, and I liked the challenge of writing a contemporary lesbian romance. All fears of appropriation and ‘getting it right’ aside, it was a lot of fun although it had a lot of teething problems as well. You wouldn’t think it would be that difficult to write a teenage girl rather than a teenage boy, but, yikes.
In this excerpt Emma is attending a Halloween party, and she doesn’t want to be there. Dressed as Batwoman, she lurks in the shadows, until she meets someone that piques her interest…
It was hard for Emma, walking in and pretending to be all sparkly and vivacious when all she wanted to do was go home and watch Jessica Jones on Netflix. Maybe next year she could come as Jessica Jones—all she needed was black hair, a black wardrobe, and a snarl. Or would that mean she was actually going as Simon Murray? Maybe not. He actually didn’t snarl much, although he liked to think he did. Snarling was more of a Micah thing. And Simon didn’t have dark hair either.
But there she was thinking about the boys in her life, when there were such beautiful girls present. Emma had to remedy that immediately.
The problem with people her age was that you never knew whether they were doing things ironically or non-ironically. Emma had decided to give a group of slutty mouses a miss because she didn’t think they would be on her level—then she heard one of them starting to talk about her paper on the homoeroticism in religious-themed Renaissance art and realised she was way over her head. So she gave them the miss anyway. Alya and Kerri had already disappeared on her, probably to make out in a darkened corner or get their rocks off in a stranger’s bedroom and tick “doing it in public” off their list. (Yes, they had a list. Emma once stumbled across it when trying to borrow a pencil. She never asked Alya for stationery supplies again.)
Jason Voorhees was casually feeling up Michael Myers by the fridge as Emma tried to put her six-pack of Cascade away. She almost knocked into Michael’s sumptuous rack as she stood back up.
“I think I saw a porn like this once,” Emma said to break the ice.
Michael lifted his knife, and Emma fled before she could get fake-stabbed. Five minutes into the party and she was already not winning friends and influencing people.
Another room, another hallway. And there she was.
A gender-bent Captain Malcolm Reynolds, casually leaning against the wall with one hand on her holster and the other holding her beer. Her hat was tipped low, so Emma couldn’t see her eyes. She was stunningly androgynous, her long brown coat covering the feminine assets that could have given the game away, unlike the Michael Myers who had just threatened to fillet Emma. Her hair was short and brown, but it could have been a wig for all Emma knew because the hat was hiding most of it.
Emma had to remember to breathe.
Mal gave a sly grin as she noticed her. “I hope you’re not here to cause trouble, Kate Kane.”
Man, she even had Nathan Fillion’s distinctive drawl down.
“I don’t cause trouble,” Emma managed to squeak. Batwoman would never squeak. She cleared her throat. “Trouble just always seems to find me.”
“Shiny,” Malcolm said. “Sounds like a woman after my own heart. Shall I get you a drink?”
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Measuring up to her friend Micah Johnson’s success is an uphill battle for Emma Goldsworthy, but it’s one she’s determined to win. She works hard to stay on task and excel in her hockey program at the Australian Institute of Sport, but her mettle is tested when her ex-girlfriend returns from studying abroad… with a new American girlfriend by her side. Apparently she’s come out of the closet, something she wasn’t willing to do for Emma. Still, Emma has moved on from her ex—despite what those around her want to believe. Besides, there’s someone else on Emma’s mind—a girl she met once in passing and can’t stop pining for… even though Emma doesn’t know her real name, or even what she looks like beneath her costume.
Sean Kennedy lives in Perth, Western Australia, but his heart still belongs to his hometown Melbourne—which is also the home of Simon Murray and Declan Tyler from his series Tigers and Devils. A disciple of cult leader David Lynch, Sean is glad he lived long enough to see the revival of Twin Peaks in 2017.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sean__kennedy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sean.kennedy.58511