SECOND SKIN by Jesse Pearle - Giveaway and Character Spotlight on Pilar Flores

Book Description

Sam Blanco is a young tattoo artist trying to get out of L.A. by earning money selling his talent to a prominent local gang. His life is thrown into chaos after giving a very special tattoo to the the gang leader’s beautiful girlfriend. Sam winds up torn between the desire for the girlfriend’s attention and craving the friendship of the gang leader he’s come to see as a brother. Who will ultimately pay the price for love?

At the end of the party one randomly chosen commenter will receive a $10 Amazon gift card and a free copy of the ebook (pdf, epub, or mobi).

Pilar Flores Character Spotlight

Pilar Flores, the daughter of a drug lord, has been shaped by her father's business her entire life. She lost her mother at age six and shortly afterward began accompanying her father everywhere during his various business interactions, most of which weren't always in the most savory locations. She's been immersed in his world for more than a decade when the story begins, and believes she can hold her own among the men who work for her father. Except now that she's more mature, her father seems increasingly more protective of her to the point that she feels stifled.

When Leo Reyes shows up in their living room, bleeding from a gunshot wound inflicted by his own brother, her entire world is turned on its head. She falls hard for Leo, and encourages the reluctant young man to take his brother's place as her father's right hand.

She never regrets the decision to push Leo to do what she believes he was meant to do, but the repercussions leave her longing for attention from both the most important men in her life, her father and Leo, who are so preoccupied with their work that she is left feeling taken for granted for her own part in the business.

In an ill-advised attempt to entice her lover, she commissions a tattoo from Sam, the new tattoo artist for Leo's gang, and a man she believes is safe enough to accomplish what she wants.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

Pilar's Inspiration

Pilar's visual inspiration is Sofia Vergara, but her character inspiration is the character Alex from the original Red Shoe Diaries. She loves the man she's with to an almost painful degree, but through unfortunate circumstances she becomes obsessed with another man and makes a terrible mistake that she will probably regret for the rest of her life.

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SECOND SKIN by Jesse Pearle - Giveaway and Character Spotlight on Leo Reyes

Book Description

Sam Blanco is a young tattoo artist trying to get out of L.A. by earning money selling his talent to a prominent local gang. His life is thrown into chaos after giving a very special tattoo to the the gang leader’s beautiful girlfriend. Sam winds up torn between the desire for the girlfriend’s attention and craving the friendship of the gang leader he’s come to see as a brother. Who will ultimately pay the price for love?

At the end of the party one randomly chosen commenter will receive a $10 Amazon gift card and a free copy of the ebook (pdf, epub, or mobi).

Leo Reyes Character Spotlight

Leo Reyes has always played second fiddle to his older brother, Manny. Leo was the darker, quiet brother. He worked silently by his brother's side, during Manny's rise through the ranks of the LA street gang they belonged to, and eventually led. At the time, the gang was called "Valla Blanca" or White Fence, and was one of the oldest running gangs in the history of the city, but still under the control of a much more powerful force, the drug lord Arturo Flores.

Leo witnessed his brother's despair when his lover, the beautiful Toni Valentine, left him to pursue her dreams of becoming a tattoo artist in San Diego. Manny's subsequent descent into recklessly ambitious behavior should have tipped Leo to the impending betrayal, but it wasn't until the pair were face-to-face, guns drawn, that Leo realized how far gone his brother was in his ill-planned effort to undermine Arturo.

In the aftermath of Leo's fatal confrontation with his brother, he comes to know the love of his life, Pilar Flores. He's seen her from afar for most of his life, but she barely remembers him, and she is far too perfect a young woman for a killer like him to ever be worthy of. Her father is his boss, and he has his brother's memory to live up to, as well as Manny's betrayal to atone for.

Leo quickly learns that he would have been a better, more loyal lieutenant to Arturo Flores than his brother ever was. He just hopes that by accepting the job it will mean he can be even closer to the woman he loves.

Leo also has a particular love of tattoos, something that his best friend, Toni Valentine, encourages. He's seen Arturo's collection of fine artwork and fancies himself a collector of fine art as well, but the artwork he prefers is more personal. He seeks out the most talented tattoo artists and acquires their work on his own skin. He eventually befriends the young tattooist who has started tattooing his gang, and sees the young man as a surrogate brother. Sam reminds him of Manny, at least before his brother went off the deep end. They forge a close friendship. The closest Leo has had since his brother died.

Leo's Inspiration

Leo is a bit of a tragic lover. I wanted him to be conflicted about his love for the young woman, Pilar, who helps nurse him through his ordeal. She nurses him through both the tragic loss of his brother (by his own hand) and the injury he sustained as a result - the gunshot wound inflicted by his brother.

Part of Leo's inspiration comes from Jin Kwon's character in Lost. He fell in love with the daughter of a powerful man and in the process of trying to prove himself to her lover's father, he almost inadvertently destroys their relationship.

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SECOND SKIN by Jesse Pearle - Giveaway and Character Spotlight on Sam Blanco

Book Description

Sam Blanco is a young tattoo artist trying to get out of L.A. by earning money selling his talent to a prominent local gang. His life is thrown into chaos after giving a very special tattoo to the the gang leader’s beautiful girlfriend. Sam winds up torn between the desire for the girlfriend’s attention and craving the friendship of the gang leader he’s come to see as a brother. Who will ultimately pay the price for love?

At the end of the party one randomly chosen commenter will receive a $10 Amazon gift card and a free copy of the ebook (pdf, epub, or mobi).

Sam Blanco Character Spotlight

Sam is the quintessential big brother, a role that defines his life, particularly after he and his younger sister, Celine, are left to fend for themselves in their dangerous Central Los Angeles neighborhood. He takes advantage of his artistic skill and connections with the local gang, Los Leones, to earn enough money selling tattoos to hopefully move himself and his sister to a safer locale, away from their abusive father.

Sam dreams of one day opening his own shop and becoming a famous tattoo artist like his idol, the beautiful Toni Valentine. However, through a series of bad decisions, he ends up in an impossible situation that only has two ways out: leave town or die at the hands of a driven and vengeful drug lord.

The young tattooist is artistically brilliant, possesses an uncannily accurate memory, and manages to float through his high school years without making much effort thanks to his innate talents. His weaknesses are the stars in his eyes and his gradually evolving penchant for getting wrapped up with beautiful women who he probably shouldn't get involved with. During the course of the book, he learns some very valuable, yet dangerous lessons that propel him into the second book in the series.

Sam's Inspiration

Sam's character first came into being while I was writing another story and needed a side character to fill the role of a rough and world-weary tattoo artist approaching his 50s. The character sprang to life so vividly in my mind at the time that I just had to know what his life story was, so I began writing it, beginning with the character as a teenager.

This is that story, which begins with a fifteen-year-old Sam, a young aspiring artist with big dreams, but almost insurmountable hurdles to overcome to reach those dreams. Above all, he wishes to shed his past and the legacy of his father's name he carries with him every day. Sam's life quest is to find a way to don a new skin and leave his old one behind.

That older man I first imagined as Sam in his later years emerged as a fully realized character who has already been through significant trials and come out the other side. Here's a brief excerpt from my notes on Sam as he begins to evolve into that man after the end of Second Skin, (these may or may not show up in the actual books):

One thing I never counted on during the entire stint with the Marines was how much it would change me. I was pretty sure I knew who I was when I joined. When I shipped out I was hellbent on not letting the military dictate who I could or couldn't be. I still kept those pieces of me, but it was like they'd been shattered and reincorporated into some strange mosaic. I recognized the person I'd become, but I wasn't sure anyone else I knew outside the military would have known me. Then that image was shattered again, and again, the pieces fitting together differently each time. 

Just when I thought all the re-making had hardened me beyond the point of breaking, the war started, and I learned how one hard blow could simply turn me to dust. The person who emerged from that barely resembled the man I'd been.

Sam was partly inspired by the character of John McClane from the Die Hard movies (just imagine him as an eighteen-year old about to join the military), and partly by a video game character Zaeed Massani, from the popular video RPG, Mass Effect.

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