Sharkbait Writes

Welcome to Chumming with Sharky™, the quirky blog series where I treat viewers from every corner of the deep blue sea with a taste of talented authors from a myriad of genres. Today is Valentine’s Day, so it’s only appropriate for me to give all you romance lovers out there something warm and fuzzy. So, grab your complimentary glass of wine and box of chocolates from Anchor’s Bar and help me welcome the talented Wyatt McIntyre to the stage . . .

Wyatt McIntyre

with your host Robert “Sharky” Pruneda

Robert “Sharky” Pruneda, Host
Wyatt McIntyre, Guest Author
Anchor the Hammerhead, Our Toothy Bartender

Anchor: So, what’s your poison, Mr. McIntyre?

Wyatt: Double Jamieson, straight and keep them coming.

Anchor: Good choice. And you, Sharky? Something virgin? We don’t want you pulling a Tom Cruise and bounce like a raving lunatic on the sofa again.

Sharky: I think I can handle a Blood in the Water or two.

Anchor: You’ll get one and be happy . . . And I’m going light on the vodka.

Sharky: I’m starting to think hiring Anchor as my bartender might have been a mistake.

Wyatt: So there’s a Shark and an Anchor? Is there a boat somewhere around here as well? Maybe a lifesaver?

Anchor: Hey, watch it, buddy.

Sharky: Oh, pipe down, Anchor. Where’s your sense of humor? Anyway, while we wait for our touchy bartender to prepare our drinks, I’ll let our guest introduce himself. So, who exactly is Wyatt McIntyre?

Wyatt: Wyatt McIntyre is a work in progress, I think that’s really about the best way you can describe him.

On a very basic level, I’m a writer, a poet, a map maker, I tinker with history, and theology, and woodworking. A jack of all trades, yet a master of none. I collect comics and love classic and folk rock, and old movies.

I don’t necessarily know how to really define myself beyond that to be perfectly honest, because, as a person, I am the sum of my victories and my defeats, my flaws and my strengths. Constantly growing, constantly evolving, living and learning, sometimes right, sometimes wrong, I am a man who is always trying to do better, trying to live better for myself and the people around me. I believe in the boundless potential of the human spirit and the resilience nature of our dreams and that life is an opportunity to live day by day, to discover and be discovered as we learn, love and hope.

Sharky: Well said, my friend . . . and very poetic at the same time. Oooh! Our drinks are here. Hey, wait a minute, what happened to Ariel?

Anchor: Did you really think the folks at Disney wouldn’t find out you tried to steal her away from them?

Sharky: Damn. That little mermaid was one hell of a waitress too.

Wyatt: This whole conversation seems a little fishy . . . almost makes me want to be where the people are . . .

Anchor: Keep that up, buddy, and I’ll introduce you to my friend Bruce. That whole “fish are friends, not food” deal doesn’t apply when humans are concerned.

Sharky: Alrighty then. Anchor is obviously in one of his moods today.

Anchor: Hey I’m working double duty here, now that Disney reclaimed that sweet little mermaid. And I’m barely making minimum wage, so I don’t want to hear it.

Sharky: All right, Anchor, I get your point. I’ll add a few more minnows to your salary.

Anchor: That’s all I’m asking.

Sharky: Anyway, being it’s Valentine’s Day and all, I figured we’d have a little fun with the interview. I received questions from millions of subscribers around the world and . . .

<Anchor coughs something along the lines of . . . well, you fill in the blank>

Sharky: All right, all right. I made up the questions myself. (Makes note to self: Run classified ad for a new bartender). Since it’s Valentine’s Day, and you’re a romance author, let’s start off with a passionate story about Wyatt’s first kiss.

Wyatt: Well there was your first kiss and your first stolen kiss.

My first stolen kiss was in kindergarten. It was sweet, romantic, and she smacked me for infecting her with cooties. My first real kiss, I was 21 years old. I was nervous, probably a little sweaty, the very definition of a suave hearth-throb, eat your heart out George Clooney. Waiting so long, I had probably built it up in my heart, and the anxiety swelled deep within me as my stomach tied in knots. I leaned in, hoping I didn’t do anything stupid, or that it didn’t become something that eventually look back and laugh at once the horror of the moment subsided.

When our lips met, there were no fireworks, there were no explosions. It was nothing like I had expected it to be or what I thought it would be. It was more of a warmth, a deep, soothing warmth that washed over me and I thought it was love, I thought to myself this was the person I was going to end up being with for the rest of my life. If I close my eyes and think back hard I can honestly remember every moment, the way her long, wavy, sandy brown hair glimmered, the smell of the car, it was a pivotal moment, a turning point for me.

She ended up breaking up with me the next day and I was devastated. I was young, and I didn’t know how any of it worked, how relationships worked, or anything else for that matter. Perhaps, had I dated earlier, had I had my first kiss earlier it would have been different, less heartbreaking when it didn’t work out but there it was, there I was, so much a man and yet still a boy in these things.

Sharky: Getting dumped is never easy. I’m still recovering from my last breakup. My therapist keeps telling me that I need to move on, but damn it, I shared my Fruit Roll-Up with her and . . .

<Anchor hands Sharky a brown paper bag. Hyperventilated ensues. He then slaps his fin across the back of Sharky’s head.>

Anchor: Get over it, Sharky. It was over thirty years ago!

<Anchor replaces Sharky’s drink with a box of tissues>

Sharky: I’m okay. Really. Um . . . Where were we?

Anchor: Breakups.

Sharky: Oh, yeah, right. <Ahem> Getting dumped is always devastating. And boy have I had my fare share of sweeping up the shattered piece of my heart. I think many of our readers can also relate. So, Wyatt, can you give us your personal thoughts about dealing with this issue? Maybe a bit of advice?

Wyatt: You know, every breakup is the most difficult at the time and the least difficult when the next heartbreak comes. For me, the difficulty was always that I was the dumpee, and never the dumper, not that I ever wanted to be the dumper. I went into these relationships, each one thinking this would be the one with eager anticipation and a sense of hope for what it would bring. Truth is I can remember every break up I have ever had, every we should go our own separate ways, and the challenges and the hurt that it brought me. What always made it difficult to me for me was that the relationship had no apparent end and I couldn’t figure out why it was ending. No relationship I ever had ended with a fight, it was always a “I just don’t feel that way” or “My feelings changed” or something similar to that. I just never could understand why that was or even what that really meant.

It taught me, more than anything else, that romance, and love are a series of fleeting moments of happiness. Some of these moments are gone as soon as they come, they burn with intensity, and then, in a blinding flash, they are gone. Some moments, they can last so much longer, and run so much deeper. It’s about finding the person who you can build those moments with, that you can run the course of one moment, and find that, when it is done, the next moment is ready to begin. It isn’t about the intensity, it isn’t about how hot it can burn for a moment. That fire, it needs to burn long enough to keep you warm for a lifetime, even as the seasons of your life change. In that sense it is about how you cherish that special someone and how they cherish you in the love, commitment, and responsibility you have for them and their heart.

Remember, each break up, every relationship that has gone bad, or fell apart, it should hold the same lesson: it is there to teach you to appreciate the right person when they finally come into your life, it is there to teach you to cherish, love, and respect that person for everything they are and everything they are not, knowing how hard and difficult it could be without them.

Sharky: That’s just beautiful, man. I feel like giving you a hug now. Um . . . manly slaps on the back of course. Seriously, though, I can tell just by the way you’ve responded to my questions that it reflects the type of content we can expect from reading your novels. Speaking of which, I started reading The Last Dance this week, and for someone who rarely reads romance novels, I’m really enjoying it. The writing is poetic and harmonious. Without giving us a copy and paste description from the back of the book (I’m guilty of doing that too), tell us a little bit about The Last Dance and what inspired you to write this novel.

Wyatt: Well thank you very much. I have heard that a lot. Though I know it’s a romance I like to think that The Last Dance is more than a romance. To me it’s more of a story of two people finding love, growing, changing, evolving and yet remaining constant in something that they could and would only find together. That’s something most people, whether they read romances or not, can relate to, dream of, and hopefully find.

It’s not a story of “if’s”, it’s not a question of “if they find each other” or “if they end up together”, it’s a story of how it all happened.

The Last Dance is a love story that really starts at the end of the lives of James and Alejandra. From the moment you meet them you come to understand that they have spent a lifetime utterly devoted to each other in a love that carries them even to the end. But there is more to their story than that, more to who they are than just that. In that sense it’s not a story of “if’s”, it’s not a question of “if they find each other” or “if they end up together”, it’s a story of how it all happened, the challenges and hurts, the lost trust and lost ways, and how they manage to find each other through it all to build that life together.

I didn’t just want to write a story where it was all simple or easy, and I felt like once we got the “if’s” out of the way, we could go deeper and just explore the nature of who they were apart and together in a love story that would carry them through the rest of their lives.

Sharky: The fact that you started the story from the end and then show us how James and Alejandra got there is an interesting twist to foreshadowing. I think your readers are in for a real treat. So, romance lovers, (or even if you don’t normally read the genre, like me) I highly recommend you pick up a copy of this book. And this is a great time to do it. For this weekend only (Feb. 14-15), you can download The Last Dance to your Kindle for only $0.99 (reg. $3.99). You can also read it FREE if you are an Amazon Prime member or subscribe to Kindle Unlimited. Just click on the link below:

Sharky: I like to end each show with a fun hypothetical scenario for my guests and since it’s Valentine’s Day I’m continuing with the romance theme. Here is your scenario, Wyatt:

You’ve reached No. 1 on the New York Times Best Sellers List. You now have a publicist who has you travelling the country. You’ve booked shows on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show, Ellen DeGeneres, and even been invited to The White House. In other words, you’ve become a celebrity. That fame and fortune has its consequences. You start getting anonymous love letters from someone who claims you hurt in high school. She says she should have been “the one” and she’ll do anything to claim what’s hers. She’s not quite Annie Wilkes material, but close to it. Your publicist advises you to just ignore the letters, but then the stalker turns to Twitter and begins making claims that you’re the mother of her unborn child, which is obviously untrue. How would you handle this?

Wyatt: Well it’s apparent we weren’t friends in high school, because you’d know just how silly that scenario was *laugh*. I didn’t have my first date until I was almost twenty years old. I didn’t quite have the girls beating down my door, or even vaguely/remotely interested. Tall, skinny, awkward and more interested in history and politics I one time asked a female friend what I was doing wrong, she told me I wasn’t the kind of guy high school girls dated, I was the kind of guy you bring home to meet the parents. Thank goodness I wouldn’t have to deal with something like this as I came into my own much later in life.

Sharky: You and me both, brother. You and me both. But I’m a single guy who’s still grieving over my grade-school sweetheart. What do I know about romance *still sniffling*? Anyway, I’ve got an appointment with my therapist in twenty, so I’d like to thank you for chumming with me in the shark tank (I knew I should have trademarked that!). I would also like to thank our captive audience for sticking around for another episode of Chumming with Sharky™ at Sharkbait Writes. Be sure to subscribe for future episodes. Next month we’ll have horror author Erik Gustafson in the tank. Stay tuned!

About Wyatt McIntyre

Born in Valleyview, a small Northern Alberta town, the middle of three boys, and now living in Illinois, Wyatt has sometimes been referred to a cowboy poet, rarely seen without a hat, staying true to his roots, he was taught, from the youngest of ages the virtue of hard work, diligence and faith through life’s toughest of adversities. As an an author he has an overriding passion: to tell a story worth telling, and write in a way off the page with meaning and significance to the reader, using his experience to help them look at things in a different way. Over the past decade Wyatt has been honing his writing, striving with each short story, with each new project to meet that challenge head on.

For more about Wyatt McIntyre visit his official website at http://wyattmcintyre.com/

Chumming with Sharky™ is a spotlight series brought to you by Robert “Sharky” Pruneda, author of Victory Lane: The Chronicles and Devil’s Nightmare. If you would like to be a guest on Chumming with Sharky™ or you know someone who you think would like a featured post, please send an email to: SharkbaitWrites (at) gmail (dot) com or contact me via Twitter @SharkbaitWrites or on Facebook.