BLURB:
Gallery owner
Nellie, a giving yet neurotic New Yorker, brings together a mismatched cast of
characters in the opening of Ryan Whittaker’s debut, a phallic show. Little
does she know that she is setting the scene for odd and unpredictable
relationships, much like Shakespeare in Midsummer Night’s Dream. The frenzied,
magical mix-up is an outrageous farce with a deep moral message: there is a
RIGHT place for everyone in this world and love and friendship cement us in it.
The Art of Change is a funny, smooth reading
romance, which deals with bridging differences in gender, education,
social milieu, in an insane but pragmatic, modern fairytale, set in New
York City. The twists of the plot are written without an ounce of cynicism but
simply acknowledging that life is neither here nor there, neither black or
white and all can be dealt with in real friendship and love.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
Chapter 6
Out in the gallery, the umbrella bin was
overflowing as people started trickling in from the rain.
A nice crowd, thought Pino. They will need to
unwind and drink and eat. Enter
moi!
“Aurora, what are you doing? Stop looking at the
people and come help me!” he ordered, and although Aurora immediately came
over, she couldn’t take her eyes off Cynthia, the artist’s girlfriend.
On the other side of the room, Cynthia was
following Ryan with her gaze, as he went from painting to painting,
scrutinizing each one, as if he had never seen them before. She was infuriated
by his bloody remarks on their sex life. What sex life? Making love to him was
like putting on a performance! A warm, touchy-feely woman! No, sir, she was not
going to end up barefoot and pregnant with no life, like his mother in Oregon!
She was a fast-paced go-getter, and this is the way it was going to be.
Aurora looked over at the door. A navy officer with
an umbrella big enough to cover a battalion walked in with a very close friend,
or so it seemed, as she was almost his age and holding on to him for dear life.
Aurora approached with a smile and offered them a drink.
“Thank you very much. Much needed with this kind of
weather outside. What are you showing here tonight?” Aurora blushed, but the
teased-up, helmet-haired German lady exclaimed, “Honey, look! A self-propelled
torpedo!”
The officer looked at her, eyeballed the torpedo
painting across from him, took another sip, and asked her, “Is that what they
are?”
“Yah, this one over here is not intact. It looks
cracked like a war leftover, and— turn around, check this one out—this one is
crashed, destroyed, perhaps damaged by the passing of time.”
Readjusting his glasses, he walked closer to the
broken torpedo painting, then took a step back and burst out, “What the
fu—boooooom! Ha ha-ha ha! Come along, Mrs. McCouifer, I’ve seen plenty of
torpedoes in my time but nothing like these.”
She squeezed his arm as he whispered something that
made her scalp and hairdo move back and forth. “You have a torpedo like that at
home? Where did you get it? Is it buried in the backyard? What do you mean
you’ll show it to me tonight?”
Pino was waving to Aurora to come and replenish her
tray. The general grabbed her to place the two empty glasses on it.
“Wait, please, I will bring some more,” Aurora
said, trying to please Pino with her eagerness to serve. She smiled at the
uniformed man — she had always had a crush on regalia and uniforms. Sometimes
she would look with childish adoration even at hotel doormen.
The gentleman, straightening his military jacket,
turned to her and made a declaration, like a state of the union address, to all
who happened to be next to them. “These are pink torpedoes, I hope you know.”
And smiling to his audience, he clicked his heels and took the whacky-haired
lady and marched away.
“Weird peoples, Pipinousco, weird, very weird
general and companion. And very very weird hairs tonight. Look at this older
lady.” Pino followed his wife’s gaze to an elderly couple approaching them.
The short lady with a haircolor not found in nature
stood in front of the first painting by the door. She shook her head in dismay
and quickly moved on to the next. When she took a step back and saw them all,
side by side, she scurried away to the next, which was half erect . . . almost
ran to the next, which was three-quarters erect, and was covering her eyes by
the time she had gotten to the fully erect penis . . . and then had to run off
and find a chair to sit down and fan herself. Her husband offered a hankie to
mop her brow.
“Where is the painting with the ejaculation?” she
asked him, laughing. “Nellie is probably hiding it in the office because it’s
still wet.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and
Links:
Kelly
Andria is the pen name of two very close friends who decided to write a story
to make people laugh. The two authors, although different in many ways and
viewpoints, have a lot in common. Both Greek Americans coming from conservative
vibrant families, they learned to speak and act as they believe. Fair but
always kind. Their passion for art, food and romance led them to become authors
of a comedy that redefines the “boy meets girl” norm. The wacky one of the group knew that they had
the stories in them. The other half quickly became convinced as their quirky
characters took shape and form and gained a voice of their own.
Website:
http://www.kellyandria.com/
Buy
Links:
Giveaway:
Kelly will be awarding a $25.00 GC for either Barnes & Noble or Amazon, winner's choice, to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
The more they comment, the better their chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
Good Morning!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for hosting me today! I appreciate your help in promoting my book!
Kelly
Thanks for sharing the blurb and the excerpt!
ReplyDeleteAndralynn7 AT gmail DOT com
Congratulations on your new book! Sounds like a great read. Enjoyed the excerpt. Thanks for the giveaway.
ReplyDeletebhometchko(at)hotmail(dot)com
Thanks for the chance to win!
ReplyDeletehense1kk AT cmich DOT edu
Great excerpt, thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteJibriel.O at web dot de
Thank you everyone for your kind words!
ReplyDeleteKelly