Today I have the great pleasure of welcoming author Marcus Lopes to Fictional Candy to speak to us about how his life doesn't necessarily follow the conventional rules. Thank you, Marcus, for posting with Fictional Candy today. I wish you the best of luck on your tour with CBLS!

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The “Rules”

I don’t play by the rules. I never have.

In my life and in my work, I have never simply gone from Point A to Point B in a straight line. There are curves, major detours, regressions, and a few pretty good surprises before I reach the end point. I’m stubborn that way … I’m stubborn, period. But in a world where there is so much pressure to conform — to follow the straight and narrow — I had to find my own way, follow my own path. Maybe that’s why I decided, intentionally or not, to break the rules.

It’s not that I “broke” the rules, exactly, but that I chose not to follow the crowd. I want to believe that my life as an artist — writer, painter, composer — is just like that of an investment broker, or a hair stylist, or a police officer. I don’t see a difference but some of the people around me do because I don’t get up daily to go into an office. My life isn’t regimented by some conglomerate’s employment contract.

My work isn’t perceived as “real work” because I don’t have funds deposited into my chequing account every two weeks. I don’t have to ask permission to take a day off. I have it “easy” because I can get up when I want, do what I want when I want. I guess, to some, I’m not playing by the “rules”.

Being a writer — an artist — takes courage. As artists, we open up ourselves, and our artwork, to criticism. It’s courageous because we have dared to dream, and then set to work to make the dream pass into reality. It was courage as much as stubbornness that made me push and push until I found a publisher willing to take a chance on Freestyle Love.

Goethe told us to “Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” I dare to dream no small dreams, and if that means breaking the rules, then I’m all for it. For too long I stood where two roads diverged. But unlike Robert Frost, I’m not sorry that I cannot travel both. For when I “looked down as far as I could,” one road, flooded, waters as high as the knee, the sun still shone bright with possibility and hope. The other road was steep in snow through which a path had already been trod. I’m taking “the road less traveled by,” for I do believe that it will make all the difference.

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When it comes to one-night stands, Malachi Bishop has “rules”. No pillow talk. No sleeping over. No planning a future hook-up. First names only. It’s just sex, not a prelude to love. But when Cole Malcolm, a smooth-talking management consultant, woos Malachi into bed, the rulebook is tossed out the window.

The one-time fling leaves Cole reeling: Malachi is his first real shot at happiness, his “forever” man, and he’s determined to show Malachi just how good they could be together. But Malachi doesn’t believe in happily-ever-after, and dodges Cole’s play for his heart. After all, Malachi is still mourning the loss of Taylor Blanchard, whom he hoped to love forever. Then there’s Zach Brennan, a handsome twenty-five-year-old and student at the college where Malachi teaches. Falling for Zach could destroy everything he’s worked for, but Malachi can’t help himself.

Caught by love and in its betrayal, it’s a later affair with a beautiful stranger that changes Malachi’s life most dramatically. Now Malachi must confront his present and his past that bring into question the larger fantasies of home and his place in the world.

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Title: Freestyle Love

Author: Marcus Lopes

Publisher: Lazy Day Publishing

Length: 66,500 Words

Sub-Genres: Contemporary, Erotic, Interracial/African-American, M/M/M

AVAILABLE AT:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Freestyle-Love-ebook/dp/B006G3CB52/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322645484&sr=8-1

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/freestyle-love-marcus-lopes/1104119697?ean=2940013548930&itm=2&usri=freestyle+love

Allromance.com: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-freestylelove-648175-145.html

Marcus Lopés is originally from Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia. His writing has appeared in Canadian and international literary magazines. Freestyle Love is his first novel. A novelist, essayist, poet, painter and singer-songwriter, Lopés lives in Sherbrooke, Québec.

Website: http://www.marcuslopes.ca

Email: marcus@marcuslopes.ca