GUEST POST with EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY: Z.A. Maxfield of 'Plummet to Soar'
The Banter is excited to have the fabulous Z.A. "ZAM" Maxfield here at the blog today to talk about her new romantic suspense, Plummet to Soar. Not only that... but she's joined by none other than Kenzie himself!
Hi and thanks you so much for inviting me to share my book, Plummet to Soar, with the fans and friends of Kimmers' Erotic Book Banter.
I’ll be honest. This book doesn’t really fit in the erotic category. It’s almost a bit of a farce, or a romantic suspense. My guys are too busy running from a (pretty inept) madman to do much sexing each other up…
If you enjoy character driven stories, with snappy dialogue and suspense that relies heavily on tropes and comedy, then this book is for you.
A lot of “life coaches” are people with the real desire to see others succeed. Mackenzie Detweiler, “the man who fell,” loves people. He has been through some tough things and learned some stuff, and he figures his wisdom might be useful for other people. The only problem with Mackenzie is he’s not exactly good at it. He’s a little bit silly, and facing some lawsuits, and when the book opens, he has lost touch with his editor, JD, who has become his polar star, the constant in his life, a man he believes he loves.
In JD’s absence, the world Kenzie inhabits goes out of balance, and he starts questioning everything. Kenzie and JD were so fun to write. I feel like it’s a synthesis of the New Age thinking my mother and I were involved in during the seventies, and modern group events to promote metaphysical well being.
Yet, if, at one point, Kenzie says, “Plus, A plummet is no place to fall in lust,” here… the author begs to differ!
In fact, a plummet is the very finest place for Kenzie and JD to fall. Don’t you think so, Kenzie?
Kenzie: Only JD gets to call me Kenzie, wherever the hell he is. And he’d better call soon, is all I’m saying. (he holds out his hand to shake) Call me Mac.
ZAM: Oh, okay, Mac. Got an answer? Do people fall in lust at plummet events?
Kenzie: Yeah. I guess. Except unless it’s problematic? I mean plummeteers, that’s what I call my groupers—
ZAM: Groupers?
Kenzie: (laughs lightly) I don’t call them groupies for the very reason you mention.
ZAM: But, doesn’t it happen? I mean it happens in 12-step so often they call it the 13th step. It’s frowned upon.
Kenzie: Well sure, but we’re all adults. We’re mostly sex positive humans. If someone’s attention gets snagged by somebody else at a Plummet, they deal. It happens. They talk about it. Negotiate. Consent or not. We have strict rules but no absolutes because we’re all there to figure out what’s right for us, you know?
ZAM: That ever happen to you? (At this, I notice his eyes stray to a handsome gray-eyed plummeteer with a broken leg.)
Kenzie: sighing deeply. Nuh-uh. Never.
ZAM: He seems nice.
Kenzie: You know what? If I walked over and said, “Sit, Raleigh,” he would totally sit. Don’t you get that vibe from him? Like he’s a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in human form and any minute now he’s going to read some very reassuring bit of news?
ZAM: I couldn’t say.
Kenzie: God damnit. I’m going to have to confess.
ZAM: What?
Kenzie: Now that you pointed it out, I’m going to have to tell the dude in the tech parka I dig him, and I’m going to have to ask the other plummeteers to help me stay on track, so I don’t abuse my position as…whatever I am.
ZAM: I don’t understand. You just said sex positive humans, and blah, blah, blah.
Kenzie: (letting his head fall back against the booth’s orange vinyl cushions) Power imbalance. Can’t do it. Not even if I want to. Not right. No consent… Plus… Until JD says we’re through? Until I hear it from his lips in person, I’m gonna believe in him.
ZAM: That’s sure loyal, but you said you haven’t heard from him. What if he’s ghosting you?
Kenzie: I hold out hope. It’s not that dumb. I fell out of a tourist helicopter and lived. That was a bona fide miracle. This is just… two people making a connection. I believed in JD. I still do. If I’m wrong about him, I’m wrong about everything.
At this point, his mind seems so far away. I’m not sure he’s hearing me, but I ask one last question,
ZAM: I hope things work out, really. But, about being wrong about everything… In light of the lawsuits and the fact that Chambers Lighthouse is pulling your book from the shelves, do you think you’ll be able to continue doing the plummets?
Kenzie: (Startles) Wait. What…?
Stay tuned and thanks again!
ZAM
Title: Plummet to Soar
Series: Plummet to Soar #1
Author: Z.A. Maxfield
Published: May 8, 2018
Publisher: Dreampinner Press
Cover Artist: L.C. Chase
Genre: Contemporary Romance; Mystery/Thriller; Suspense
Length: 200 Pages
Tags: Gay; M/M; Friends to Lovers; Humor; Opposites Attract; HEA
About Plummet to Soar
Feckless, luckless, and charming, Mackenzie Detweiller is the author of a self-help book one reviewer calls “the most misbegotten motivational tool since Mein Kampf.” He’s maneuvered himself into a career as a life coach, but more often than not, his advice is bad. Really bad.
It’s even getting people hurt… and Mackenzie sued.
It falls to Mackenzie’s long-suffering acquisitions editor, JD Chambers, to deliver the bad news. He chooses to do so face-to-face—to see if the spark he senses between them is real when they’re together in the flesh. Unfortunately, a snowstorm, a case of nerves, a case of mistaken identity, and finally a murder get in the way of a potential enemies-to-lovers romance.
There are many, many people who have good reason to want Mackenzie dead. JD must find out which one is acting.
Despite the white noise generated by the heater and the hum of someone’s television, silence threatened to overwhelm JD after Mac left. The room was nice—super-dated decor, traditional furniture. The linens, though, had that “international chain hotel” look—white on white with a colorful runner and fancy round bolsters to go with ample standard-size lumps for sleeping on. And right next door, lying on his back, among all those many pillows….
JD,
You can call me anything you want. You contracted the book, man. People have called me everything—Mac, Mackenzie, Z, and shit-for-brains.
I’ve never let anyone call me Kenzie.
Mac
Why’s that? Breathlessly curious about the odd new writer—the goofball his colleagues laughed at and jokingly called Humpty Dumbass behind his back—he switched to text.
Mac texted back, Dunno. I think I’ve been saving that one for someone who loves me.
JD thumbed, I love being inside your head during the journal entries. A long hesitation. Oh, God, was that too much? He always gave away too much, goddammit. He typed like lightning—I mean that’s how I felt when I first read it. I love these ideas, finding resilience. It resonates with me in a way I can’t really explain. I loved being in your head, reading words as you thought them. Wrote them.
My book is me, distilled. Maximum me. Call me Kenzie.
Like whisky, the words, the book, the man went to his head. All right, then, Kenzie.
JD loved their secret nicknames, loved knowing what it meant. He connected with Kenzie daily, over the minutiae of publishing his book and well beyond that, into late-night emails and intimate text conversations about the meaning of life. But while he coyly obscured all but a few details and kept his face, even his voice, hidden for no reason but his fear that if he broke the fantasy, he’d lose it, Kenzie was transparent. Since Kenzie Detweiler had become the single most important thing in his life, and since JD had nothing in his life to compare the experience to, he was ill equipped to handle such a thing.
Where she says:
"Maxfield’s sense of humor always makes me bark aloud.... Yes, Plummet to Soar is an exciting thriller, the pages turning faster and faster to determine what will happen next. But I found myself re-reading it to cherish its small nuances... "
Meet the Author
Z. A. Maxfield started writing in 2007 on a dare from her children and never looked back. Pathologically disorganized, and perennially optimistic, she writes as much as she can, reads as much as she dares, and enjoys her time with family and friends. Three things reverberate throughout all her stories: Unconditional love, redemption, and the belief that miracles happen when we least expect them. If anyone asks her how a wife and mother of four can find time for a writing career, she’ll answer, “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you give up housework.” Facebook; Goodreads; Twitter; Instagram; Tumblr; Amazon
For more from Z.A. be sure and visit her website.
