I hope you are enjoying this month’s May showers. I have loved reading about all the authors and how they are coping with this pandemic and gotten some good recipes and tips. It isn’t over yet! we still have a week of fun left and Today’s guest is Jack L Pyke. Hi Jack! (never yell this on an airplane!)
Jack: We have this thing in our house. If you goof up: you get the cup of shame, with a full chorus of “Shame on you, Shame on you” from the kids. Like if I kill my kid’s experiment he’s put on the kitchen shelf to grow, yep: the cup of shame comes my way with the family chant, hubby in tow.
With Covid-19, seven of us in the house: three kids, two supposed adults, a cat and a killer Rabbit, like most we’ve seen something knew hit: those strains of depression.
I think us adults were the first to go down. I usually work from home, but with homeschooling, my workload has been cut drastically. I can’t write, read, listen to files on audio, or work accounts when I’m used to. So I started to get a little cabin fever: pacing up and down and grumbling with hubby, the odd argument here and there to release tension. Me and hubby have been together long enough to know that if we argue, it’s a pressure release point, where come the end of it, we’re too exhausted to carry it on anymore. Hubby is used to his own space too, so even though we’re together most times as a rule, we still like our own space. Neither have gotten that.
The kids have handled it so much better, turning more into the adults with: “It keeps people safe, so we’re doing fine right here” line.
And through learning I kill my kid’s science experiments on the shelf, thus being awarded the cup of shame, I’ve learned I’m no teacher either.
Despite having an hons degree in linguistics, being an editor, and author — I really am pretty rubbish at teaching! And I have every respect for teachers now (although I did before!).
At 18 and due to start university, Addy is my easiest to handle when it comes to homeschooling. All I do is the whole: “Sit, Study.” And he replies: “Eighteen here, an adult. I’ll study when I’m ready.” Lol. Luckily he’d done a lot of his 6th form work before Covid-19 hit, so I don’t mind turning a blind eye, especially as Addy handled setting up most of his university placement and accommodation with no help from us (his choices, we wanted to give him space to work them!).
At 15, Sam is a little harder. Don’t get me wrong, his high school has been really good, setting hourly lessons in each subject, and Sam is in the top set for most lessons, so he’s able to interact and get on, so long as he has his toast and tea of a morning. But we see the strain setting in in a little more, how the workload gets heavier and his will breaks a little. So it’s just trying to nudge him as gently as possible and keep his usual gorgeous motivation, well, at least that: get in, get work done, get out commando roll routine he had at school, lol.
Alfie is my youngest at eight, and boy, this is where I learned I’m no teacher. I don’t have the math skills, my computer is too slow for his computer lessons and the apps he’s given, and my English is, well, his eyes glaze over when I start talking morphological inventiveness with kids, lol. So we had to split the learning in half: half school homework, half home-based activity. Which meant bringing in relative lessons that we need around the home. For instance, Alfie’s learning Welsh because my eldest is moving to Wales for uni, so they are learning together and teaching us at the same time. He’s also learning the piano and rediscovering our backyard. We’ve moved away from the school reading books, where he now reads anything from Stig of the Dump to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It’s not perfect, but it’s home.
But me and hubby know we’re not everything we could be for our kids during Covid-19, and it hits a little hard. So to lighten up me and my hubby, the kids introduced a new prize:
The cap of depression.
Of course we’re talking a tiny cap off a kid’s Fruit Shoot drink, thus earning the kid’s sarcasm over just how serious they take our moods. So we look pretty damn stupid wearing it. But it brings out a few smiles when we all need it most. We just need a new chant to go with it!
And to get my own back on my kids, I have a new audio out called Broken Ink. It’s dedicated to my kids, with an “You’re all adopted, psych, psych” dedication. But not only that, for those who’ve heard it and know Alfie from Broken Ink, he’s named after my lad Alfie and all his little professor-in-need-of-a-huge-hug outlook on life…
Title: Broken Ink
Series if applicable: Broken Ink 1
Author: Jack L. Pyke
Narrator: Dan Calley
Cover designer: Adrienne Wilder
Publisher: Men in Ink Press
Genre/heat: MM Dark Romance, speculative fiction
Audio: 12 hrs
Blurb: Carrying a tattoo on your skin no longer just comes with a risk of infection. Get the composition right, you have the latest mind-control drug on the market. It’s the sex-traders’ dream, or worst nightmare, depending on the concentrated dose of the ink—and just who’s wearing it.
For Kiyen, the ink means he’s able to strip raw the minds of the best and worst of society. He’s one of MI7’s top killers and never more driven to select and take down a target. For Falen, the ink has ensured he’s spent his early years as a willing sex slave and low-grade empath. Hiding out in a small town and trying to bury the needs running through his body, Fal’s hoping to stay under the radar of MI7 and their specialist killers. But the ink itself has a mind of its own, wanting to ignite the natural dynamics driving a Dom and sub, so when Kiyen is forced into Fal’s small world, prejudice battles a pure need to touch. Only problem is: Kiyen’s on the run, and in a world where thought can be the worst crime of all, Fal’s in for a fight for his sanity to find out just what it is that’s making a young killer run for his life.
Buy links:
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0874VNKBY
Excerpt/heat rating
Bio
Jack blames her dark writing influences on living close to one of England’s finest forests. Having grown up hearing a history of kidnappings, murders, strange sightings, and sexual exploits her neck of the woods is renowned for, Jack takes that into her writing, having also learned that human coping strategies for intense situations can sometimes make the best of people have disastrously bad moments. Redeeming those flaws is Jack’s drive.
Stalker Links:
Website: https://www.jacklpyke.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007776739131
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6691397.Jack_L_Pyke
Coming soon
The Dark of You (Broken Ink 2)
Carrying a tattoo on your skin still no longer comes with a risk of infection. Get the composition right, you have the latest mind-control drug on the market. It’s the sex-traders’ dream, or worst nightmare, depending on the concentrated dose of the ink—and just who’s wearing it….
Or that’s how it was supposed to go down.
for Kiyen, an ex- MI7 killer and First Ink, his world has been thrown into reverse now his ink has been forced to lie lay dormant. He’s been hurled into the land of the ‘normals.’ Still reeling from his torture at the hands of MI7, he’s drowning fast and hard as he struggles to come to terms with this new way of ghosting through life and the threat of being left behind.
For Falen, the ink has ensured he’s spent his early years as a willing sex slave and empath, but having shared ink with a First Ink, Kiyen, Fal now finds he’s got an added kick to his ink ability that puts him higher on the ink chain. Moving outside of MI7s radar with Kiyen in the ink underground, Fal’s running with a tough crowd who are out to ensure no child is stolen from London streets and inked again. And their tough inked crowd is growing.
Yet when the origins of the ink drips into their lives, Fal finds he’s in for a fight to stop Kiyen falling into a darkness in soul no one saw coming. There’s a rougher, darker crowd walking through UK streets. One that’s about to turn Kiyen’s head with the true origins of… family.
And now for the prizes! Jack has very generously donated a complete set of audios of her Don’t Series. a very dark taboo MM romance. (One of my favorite series). It is the second grand prize so be sure in comments if you don’t like this kid of stuff specify Grand Prize one only and if you don’t read a genre let me know that as well. There are also lots of individual prizes as well.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
One response to “Covid-19: From the Cup of Shame to The Cap of Depression #Giveaway #homeschool #DarkMMromance”
Great post. Yes, the times are so interesting! We put on our creative hats for sure.