Rodolfo Gamboa de Guerrero was the last of the SFC to have slept with Skyler. Even though there was one more inductee after him, the other was a trick several years ago. In fact, Rodolfo’s entrance to the books is memorable in FOXE TAIL for creating quite a ruckus and he ends up fighting a lot with Philip. He’s from Ecuador and the oldest member of the SFC, even older than Keith, though we aren’t certain quite how old (forty or so) with the distinction of having the spitting image of Antonio Banderas…if Antonio liked wearing shimmery tops and tight leather pants. He is a pastry chef and works at a patisserie in Redlands, though we have yet to visit his place of business. He was also the first to break a Fuck Club rule by hooking up with another member of the SFC (it’s a spoiler, so I won’t tell you). Rodolfo is flamboyant, full of life and fire, and a perfect addition to the SFC, because he loves helping Skyler investigate crimes.
Character Interview Questions—Rodolfo Gamboa de Guerroro
1. What is your biggest fear?
I’ve already lived through my biggest fear. When I left Ecuador, it was under the coup, and I escaped by the skin of my teeth. “Skin of teeth” is correct, no? I sometimes have a hard time with English.
2. What is your most prized possession?
*holds up his hands* These. I make poetry with these. I make the most delicate desserts and pastries with these two hands. Without them I would be lost. Also without butter or cream, I would be lost. So that is four prized possessions.
3. What do you enjoy doing on your day off?
I go down to the park and watch the old men play chess. It was that way in Ecuador when I was growing up. Old men playing chess or dominoes. They would play on the street in front of their houses. These old men would sit there for hours, drinking and smoking and playing and talking with each other. I thought that would be me, too, but…being gay and with what happened…ah! Life is different in California. In California no one worries over what you wear or what you say. Only sometimes. There are places in Redlands—on the outskirts—that I do not go.
4. Your best childhood memory?
My mother cooking in the big pot over the stove. Such smells! Her fritada de chancho was heavenly. It’s pork braised in orange juice with boiled hominy, plantain, spices. You serve it with avocado and aji criollo—hot sauce. I make it sometimes when I am feeling homesick.
5. Where do you hope to be in five years?
Maybe I can own a patisserie myself. I left Ecuador in 2010 for the last coup. Some don’t call it a coup d’état because it failed but there has been so much unrest, shootings. Every election has been a gamble. But being gay in Ecuador was no
problem. There were so many laws—earlier than a lot of them here in the United States—to protect GLBT people, and in many ways it is still far better in Ecuador for gay people. But there is too much unrest. And I like it here in California. I have a boyfriend and I want to stay now for him. I am working toward American citizenship. So I expect to be an American in five years. You never know what you will need citizenship for. *wink*
Haley Walsh writes the Skyler Foxe Mysteries, a thrilling, humorous, and romantic GLBT romp with men, music, and murder. The books are in print, digital, and now audio! Skyler is in his first year as a high school English teacher in his hometown of Redlands California. It’s tough enough in high school, but try being a young, gay high school teacher in a redneck county in southern California. Of course, Skyler Foxe thought teaching English Lit was murder. Wait till he falls into the real thing.
Skyler Foxe Mysteries .com
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Book Name: Desert Foxe
Series: The Skyler Foxe Mysteries
Number: Five, plus two novellas (one due soon!)
Release Date: November 2014
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4390441.Haley_Walsh
Publisher: MLR Press
Cover Artist: Winterheart Designs
Skyler and his friends go to Palm Springs for the annual White Party and find murder!
Out and proud high school English teacher Skyler Foxe and his posse of friends go to the annual Palm Springs White Party for a weekend of fun, frivolity, and luscious men. But there are boy troubles of all kinds ahead. Skyler’s boyfriend and high school coach Keith Fletcher has to endure an embarrassing number of Skyler’s former hook-ups, one of the SFC might be going solo, Skyler encounters unexpected and unwelcome participants at the party, and there’s a murder on the dance floor, literally at Skyler’s feet! Both Skyler and Keith are drawn into investigating more than murder when the FBI asks Skyler to do the unthinkable.
Pages or Words: E-book: 232 pages, Audio: About 7.5 hours
Narrator: Joel Leslie
Categories: Contemporary, Crime Fiction, Erotica, Fiction, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Mystery
Excerpt:
Taquito Grill was crowded for a Sunday night. Jamie and Dave had arrived not long after Skyler and Keith. Jamie, hair spiked and a fire engine red in honor of his firefighter boyfriend, clung to Dave’s arm and bounced in his seat. “We’re so excited about Palm Springs,” he squealed. Dave grinned at him fondly. “It’s going to be so much fun with Dave there.” He patted the large bicep. “And we both agreed that we can dance with other people. Isn’t that cool?” Dave nodded. “Just as long as we keep our hands above the waist.” Jamie demonstrated with jazz hands in the air.
Skyler glanced hopefully at Keith, but the man was scowling into his bottle of Dos Equis. With a defeated sigh, Skyler sat back against the bench seat. Part of the fun of the White Party was dancing with a bunch of different partners. But, he had to admit, the other part of the fun was hooking up with them, too. Under the table, he rubbed conciliatory circles on the man’s hard thigh.
Keith’s tensed muscles seemed to relax under Skyler’s ministrations and he flicked a glance at Skyler with a sheepish smile before putting the beer bottle to his lips.
“Oh, and Dave,” Jamie rambled on, “we are staying at a huge hotel. It’s fantastic. Humongous pool. And some of the activities will be there.”
“Activities?” said Keith for the first time since ordering his drink.
Jamie leaned across the bench seat toward him. “Well! One of the activities is the Splash Pool Party, with live music. It’s all day. Nothing but beautiful shirtless men in tiny white swim trunks.”
Skyler wondered if Keith’s brows could furrow any deeper.
“White? So you have to wear white?”
“It’s a ‘white party,’ Keith,” said Skyler. “Hence the name. We wear white. And you’d look fabulous in white, with your dark skin tones.” He squeezed Keith’s thigh under the table.
Keith seemed to be thinking his own thoughts about that as he studied Skyler. “You’d be in white, too. I love you in white.”
Skyler blinked. “You do?” He melted against Keith. He couldn’t help it when the man looked at him with those sultry eyes.
“Save it for the White Party,” said Jamie.
Dave turned his head toward the door. “Philip and Rodolfo. Finally! …Uh oh.”
They were in mid argument and hadn’t taken their narrowed eyes off each other as they made their way to the table. Rodolfo sat hard and crossed his arms over his magenta shirt. Philip settled on his chair and pointedly looked away from his Ecuadorian boyfriend.
Skyler instantly went on alert. “What’s the matter with you two?”
“Nothing this pene doesn’t know about,” said Rodolfo, waving his hand. His wrist clanked from his bracelets.
“Don’t start with the name-calling,” said Philip, rounding on him and pushing up his black-rimmed glasses. “Can we just stow it for now?”
“Stow it? Stow it? Fine. I can ‘stow it.’”
“Then please do,” muttered Philip, menu in front of his clenched mouth.
Rodolfo slapped his menu to the table and jerked toward Philip. “Do you know what is wrong with you, Philip?”
Clutching his menu, Philip closed his eyes and sighed. “No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me in florid detail.”
“You have no sense of fun or adventure. Now take amante here,” and he gestured toward Skyler.
Skyler grabbed for his margarita. “Leave me out of it.”
“Skyler has a keen sense of adventure. And look. There is Keith. He is more than willing to go to the White Party with his lover.”
“I don’t know about more than willing,” muttered Keith.
“But not you. You with your timetables and schedules and graphs and bullet points.”
“I’m just mapping out our weekend. Is that so horrible? There’s a lot to do! Things to see! Men…to avoid.”
“AHA! That’s it, isn’t it? It all comes down to this.”
“Rodolfo…”
Jamie stuck his long arm between the two. “Hey! You guys! You’re not supposed to argue anymore. Not since you started fucking.”
“Jamie,” said Skyler out of the corner of his mouth, eyes searching the busy restaurant. “Keep your voice down. Family place.”
He scrunched up his face at Skyler—as close to a sneer as he got—and leaned into the arguing couple again. “The fact is that you guys are supposed to get along now.”
“I’m getting along just fine!” said Rodolfo too loudly. “It’s him that isn’t getting along with me!”
Philip slumped back in his seat. “Oh, for the love of God, give it a rest already.”
“Give it a rest? Yes, that’s exactly what I should be doing.” Rodolfo threw down the menu and lurched to his feet. “I’m suddenly not hungry.”
Philip clenched his menu so tightly it bent at the edges. “Well I am.”
“Fine! Stay here. Eat. I’m leaving.”
“Bye! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out… Much.”
Rodolfo threw his glare at each in turn before pivoting and stalking toward the entrance. He pushed open one heavy wooden door and let it swish shut. There was a pause as the restaurant patrons fell silent and stared at the double doors a split second before they were thrown open again and Rodolfo stomped toward the table. He stood over Philip with his foot tapping.
“I don’t have the keys to the car.”
Buy the book:
http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=HWDSRTFX
https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-desertfoxe-1664093-145.html
http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_pd_Fictio_c2_1_auth?searchAuthor=Haley+Walsh
Haley Walsh tried acting, but decided the actor’s life was not for her. Instead, she became a successful graphic designer and art director in Los Angeles, her hometown. After fifteen years of burning money in the ’80s and early ’90s, she retired from the graphics industry and turned her interests toward writing. She became a freelance newspaper reporter, wrote articles for quirky magazines, published award-winning short stories, and now writes a critically acclaimed GLBT mystery series, the Skyler Foxe Mysteries. She’s lived all her life in southern California, sampling wines and chomping chocolate. Oh, and she also writes a multi-award nominated medieval mystery series under another name. Yeah, it’s a living. http://.SkylerFoxeMysteries.com
Where to find the author:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skylerfoxe.mysteries
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/skylerfoxe.mysteries
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/skylerfoxe1/
Other: http://.SkylerFoxeMysteries.com
An E-book or Audiobook copy of ‘Desert Foxe’
Tour Dates & Stops:
21-Sep Bayou Book Junkie, Divine Magazine
22-Sep Inked Rainbow Reads, Foxylutely Book Reviews
23-Sep 3 Chicks After Dark, BFD Book Blog
24-Sep Havan Fellows, Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews
25-Sep Rainbow Gold Reviews, Molly Lolly
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I would like to give a big Thank You to Haley Walsh and Will at Pride Promotions for letting us take place in this Blog Tour.
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