Hello. My name is Rhys Ford and I write mysteries.

Hello. My name is Rhys Ford and I write mysteries.

Well, right up until now.

A while back—a ways back actually—Elizabeth North challenged (okay, suggested) I try my hand at doing a contemporary. Now I’m addicted to death, murder and puzzles so a contemporary gave me a bit of a pause. Then a character emerged from the goop in my brain and I realized while I loved his personality and construct, he wasn’t going to fit into anything with murder bits.

So my first stab at a contemporary was born.

There’s This Guy is pretty much the story of a man named Jake whose world is so bleak and unforgiving, it is dull and colourless. It is only after he’s met Dallas, does he learn to find the joy around him as well as the happiness he can have within him.

I knew going into it, I wanted to write a serious book about personal tragedy but also how there is light in the darkness someone might be drowning in. Jake does find his rainbows but only by accepting he is worth the love offered to him and by working through the pain he carried inside of his heart.

You see, when I sat down at the infancy of “There’s This Guy”, I looked at what I had in Jake Moore, the main character of the book, and decided I wanted to explore a lingering darkness in him, shadows on his soul and heart put there by life and his upbringing. To balance Jake out, I needed someone solid and healthy but not someone who would magically cure him but someone who would be a friend then eventually a lover. So Dallas Yates was created.

First and foremost, I wanted to give Jake a happy ending, to have him explore the realities of healing a bit from his darker days and reaching for the light and colours he’s made aware of after he meets Dallas. The key part of this book is for Jake to be aware he could not have happiness, could not fully love until he learned to love himself first. By accepting his strengths and working on repairing the damage done to his heart, Jake’s future expands beyond the narrow horizons he once thought open to him.

I purposely started the book off at the most troubling moment of Jake’s life because I wanted to portray the depths of his sadness in order to show how far he goes on his journey. The introduction of Dallas into his life gives Jake a glimpse of what contentment looks like, of how laughter between friends sounds like, and most of all, how to reach out and talk out the troubling spots in his life.

Dallas is an integral part of the story because he is so solid in his personality. He is confident and sometimes a bit cocky but generous of heart. He isn’t Jake’s balance but rather Jake’s leverage, a hand up to a place where Jake can feel safe and begin to grow as a person. He offers friendship, knowing he may never ever be Jake’s lover but for Dallas, that’s still a gift of Jake’s heart and a piece he will always cherish.

So, that’s my first stroll down the contemporary lane, a romance of sorts between two souls who find one another along the way and discover a friendship and love neither one of them can live without.

Thank you all for your support and I can’t wait to hear from you.