Today I am very excited to welcome author Alex Kidwell to the blog. Alex is here to talk to us more about her new release, After the End. She has also brought a copy to giveaway to one lucky readers, so check out the details at the end of the post. Welcome Alex!
When I was a child, I was different. I was different in the way all children are different, in the way we all feel awkward and out of place in the world. In order to escape, I did what so many of us did – I discovered the library. There I could see into magic kingdoms or windswept plains, could fight for good alongside wizards and fauns and the brave but simple commoner who would change their fate. I dove into the world of fairy tales and I fell in love with the idea of the hope that pervaded, the love that would last through time, the good that would always defeat evil.
Then I got older. I realized that sometimes, happily ever after wasn’t the end of the story. In fact, after ‘The End’, there were a thousand more days, a hundred more tales waiting there. Some of them weren’t so happy. Some of them weren’t as clear cut as the princess falling in love, as the prince saving the day.
It was that thought that lead to After the End. I wanted to write a story about a love story that had ended. What did it mean to love someone for the rest of your life when their life ended before yours? It’s a heartbreaking question, and it took me a while to find the right story to tell it.
In After the End, we find Quinn O’Malley two years after the death of his long term partner, Aaron. Quinn used to be complete, he used to be a moderately successful comic book artist who sometimes had art shows, who had a fat cat and a man he adored, who had a life and a home and all the happily he could handle. And then Aaron was gone and he remained. So what did he do with the rest of his years, when they were all supposed to be Aaron’s?
Quinn’s best friends set him up on a blind date with Brady Banner, a party planner from a big family. Brady was charming and handsome, he loved to cook and he made Quinn laugh. And that was a big, dangerous thing. Because if Quinn could feel for someone else, how could he ever say he loved Aaron?
And that’s the crux of the book. It’s a very simple story, I think. Nothing new, nothing earth shattering. I just wanted to explore the idea of what might happen if the worst happened, if you lived through the death of the love of your life. What could the rest of your life be?
I’d like to leave you with an excerpt from After the End. In it, Quinn and Brady are taking a walk by the river, soon after their blind date.
It was chilly by the river this time of year, but I just wrapped myself further in my corduroy jacket and long scarf, tugged on knitted gloves as my fingers got too cold. Brady walked next to me, silent most of the time, our breaths twin ghosts against the still air.
“I love autumn,” he said, grinning as he reached up to pluck a just-turning leaf from a maple tree. He twirled the scarlet-trimmed green in his fingers before tucking it into the buttonhole of my jacket pocket. “Just the way the air smells and everything crackles. Also, I look damn good in boots.”
Barking out a quick laugh, I cut a sideways glance at him. “You’re….”
As I trailed off, he filled in for me with a mischievous grin. “Charming? Irresistible? Cute as a button?”
“Surprising.”
Completely the opposite of Aaron. Of the tall, booming man who’d moved through life like it was a river to ford, like it was a battle he’d already won. He laughed and the whole world lit up; he smiled and it’d been like the sun rose just to see it. I’d lived in his arms, in his eyes, in the breadth and span of his passion, of his wit and gentleness, for so long that when it’d been taken from me, I’d felt like I was only part of a person. All the goodness in me, all the possibilities, they’d been put in the casket with Aaron, buried in dark earth and hidden under a stone marker.
Brady was nothing like my Aaron. He was slim and golden—instead of a lion, he was a prince. The only cardigans he owned were probably bought ironically, and I doubted he owned a single broadsword or cared at all about the War of the Roses. He was so utterly separate from Aaron, so unlike, it was nearly impossible for me to reconcile myself with either of them. Like night and day, I wasn’t sure how I could thrive in one when I’d learned to crave the other.
“That seems to be our particular theme.” Brady smoothed his fingers along my cheek, and I shuddered out a breath, eyes closing briefly. How long had it been? Not just since this—not just since the soft slide of skin along my own, since the hot exhale of someone’s breath stirred across my face—but since the closeness that had nothing to do with our bodies. It was Brady pressing inside that quiet bubble I called my own, inside the walls everyone kept up around themselves. He was looking at me, seeing me, and for a moment I couldn’t breathe for how incredibly long it had been.
“I can’t.” The words came out of me like they were pulled, like I’d ripped them off of the scars I’d thought were so well hidden. “Brady, it’s not that I don’t want to.” Scared and lost, my eyes blinked open and found his, those ridiculously kind brown depths holding my gaze. “I do, I just… I don’t think I’m ready. I don’t think I can. It’s everything, all at once, and I feel like I can’t breathe.”
Thank you so much to Joyfully Jay for allowing me to talk a little bit about this book today. It really was an incredible journey, writing it, and I hope people will enjoy taking that trip with me.
Giveaway
Alex has generously offered to give away a copy of the book to one lucky reader. Leave a comment by Sunday, January 27th at 11:59 pm EST to enter to win.
This is sitting on my wishlist at the moment – all the extracts I’ve seen from it are wonderful and so very sad. One to read with a big box of tissues, but then a good cry can be very cathartic.
Congrats on the new release, Alex! Love the cover and all the excerpts I’ve read for this one. Really look forward to reading about Quinn and Brady. Sounds like a very moving story. Thanks for the giveaway!
This book is definately on the ‘must read’ list – and I love the cover!
Sounds exactly like my kind of book! Thanks for the chance!
I have been waiting for this book to come out. I love the cover……….really LOVE it.
Sounds like a great book. Loved the excerpt! Please count me in. Thanks!
Beautiful cover, thank you! Can’t wait to read this.
Yes, isn’t the cover gorgeous?
It’s a touchy subject I love to read about. Please count me in 🙂
Hi Alex,
Congrats on the release of After the End. It sounds like an amazing story. Please count me in for the drawing.
This book sounds wonderful, I enjoy second chance at love books. And such a lovely cover. Congrats on your release! I would love a chance to win!
OceanAkers @ aol .com
I hope things work out …I must read and find out! Count me in please.
Thank you,
chellebee66(at)gmail(dot)com
Aw, so sad… I’m probably gonna cry my eyes out… lol… oohh~~
But please, please count me in. I’d love to see how Quinn finds love again~
Judi
arella3173_loveless@yahoo(dot)com
This book is on my Wish List! Thanks for the chance to win.
Yvette
yratpatrol@aol.com
Already had this one on my wishlist…can’t wait to read it.
Yet another great excerpt, Alex. I really can’t wait to read this one. It keeps getting higher on my TBR.
This is on my wish list so please count me in.
Sounds like a good story, even if it is a tearjerker. I’ve got this on my wish list.
smaccall AT comcast.net
Though I have never lost a partner I often ask the question, How can anyone recuperate from the loss of the person that means the entire world to them? I’d love to read this book. Thanks for sharing and for the chance at the giveaway!
~Rush~