Tour Stop, Guest Post & Giveaway: Renewing Forever by Kelly Jensen

A Field of Rocks

Several of the parks and forests featured in Renewing Forever are hikes I complete every year—sometimes multiple times.

One of my favorite destinations in the Pocono Mountains is Boulder Field. The sixteen acre enigma of Hickory Run State Park is thought to be caused by periodic freezing and thawing, which fractured the bedrock. The result is a vast field of rocks, ranging from pebbles to the size of a school bus (buried down low), that looks as though a giant truck upended a load of gravel—some 600,000 years ago.

What I love about Boulder Field is the incongruity of it. You’ll be walking through a coniferous forest, the ground beneath your feet alternately packed with soft brown needles, moss, and the occasional rock. Then you emerge into what looks like a lake of rocks. It’s bizarre and somewhat mystical. It’s a vista that challenges you to find meaning—and there is none, beyond the fact that nature can be incredibly random.

Tom and Frank visited Boulder Field in their teens. It’s one of the places they have in common. And when Frank discovers Tom’s photography website, one of his first purchases is a photo of the rock-strewn landscape. He finds it as puzzling today as he did the day he bought it, and often wonders if somewhere in all those rocks, lies the mystery of Thomas Benjamin.

Two of the other photographs in Frank’s apartment are also feature landscapes and memories captured by Tom: Mount Tammany and Mount Minsi. Together, these peaks stand sentry over the Delaware Water Gap, Mount Tammany on the New Jersey side, Mount Minsi on the Pennsylvania side. The hike to either summits isn’t long, but the elevation gain—around a thousand feet over the course of a mile or so—is steep, making the walk a challenge. I enjoy both hikes, though, and strive to complete both each year: Mount Tammany first and Mount Minsi second. From the top, I always take a picture of the opposite peak, and I supposed Tom, with his love of hiking, often did the same.

The significance of these pictures is much the same as the hikes: Tom and Frank stand in for the mountains, divided by a gap of many, many years (thankfully not centuries). Each standing sentry over their own domain, each as stubborn as a mountain full of rocks.

The path to Mount Minsi—approaching from the town of Delaware Water Gap, meanders past a large pond known locally as Lenape Lake. As an aside, on the other side of the river, there is a trail to a small glacial lake called Sunfish Pond, and I’m always amused by the fact the smaller Lenape is called a lake, which the larger Sunfish is a pond. Anyway, Lenape is a lovely spot.

Water flows in from the east and runs off to the west, meaning the pond actually stays fairly clear (if a little brown) throughout the year. And the surface is almost entirely matted with lily pads. It’s gorgeous when they’re in bloom. It’s also a great spot for turtle watching and for listening for bullfrogs.

A trail loops around the edge of the small lake—though it’s currently cut off by trees downed in a severe storm that passed through here earlier this year. About halfway around, though, there is a bench that faces a private little beach, and it’s there that Frank and Tom finally reconnect on every level—where they each realize that this is it, that there will never be another person for either of them. That in each other lay all their forevers.

The final trail I’d like to talk about is the one that leads through the woods where Frank and Tom played as boys. I based it loosely on the trail that follows Brodhead Creek into the town of Stroudsburg, including the tree root Frank trips over when he’s nine, and the swimming spot made by arranging boulders out from the bank to form a small pool that’s isolated from the current. My daughter and I have spent many happy hours floating in that creek—and chasing various toys downstream toward town. I’ve walked the entire length of the path, and it’s a favorite spot to visit when I don’t have time for a more ambitious hike.

I hope you’ve enjoyed touring some of the hikes of the Poconos with me. One of the great joys of living here is access to so much of nature, and that was something I wanted to include in the story of Frank and Tom. Frank might not seem much of an outdoorsman, but I loved watching him fall back in love with the place he once called home, and walking down memory lane with both of them.

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Renewing Forever is the second of a series of standalone novels focused on older characters who think love has passed them by. Frank and Tom’s story is a true second chance romance, reuniting childhood friends and first loves separated by an argument and thirty years of misunderstanding. I hope you enjoy reading about their renewed friendship and their plans for forever.

Title: Renewing Forever by Kelly Jensen
This Time Forever Series Book Two
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Gay, Romance
Length: 346 pages/Word Count: 85,700

Summary:

A neglected resort, a lost chance at love, and one last chance to renew forever.

Frankie and Tommy once dreamed of traveling the world together. But when seventeen-year-old Frank kissed Tom, their plans ended with a punch to the jaw and Frank leaving town without looking back. Thirty years later, Frank’s successful career as a journalist is interrupted by his uncle’s death and the question of his inheritance—the family resort where his childhood dreams were built. When he returns to the Pocono Mountains, however, he finds a dilapidated lodge and Tommy, the boy he never forgot.

Tom’s been keeping the resort together with spit and glue while caring for Frank’s uncle, Robert—a man he considered father, mentor, and friend—and his aged mother, who he refuses to leave behind. Now Robert is gone, taking Tom’s job with him. And Frank is on the doorstep, wanting to know why Tom is still there and why the old lodge is falling apart.

But before they can rebuild the resort, they’ll have to rebuild their friendship. Only then can they renew the forever they planned all those years ago.

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Purchase Link: Riptide Publishing

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About the This Time Forever Series

Small towns and second chances.

Simon, Frank, and Brian think love has passed them by. Each is facing down his fiftieth birthday—Simon in a few years, Frank next year, and Brian soon enough. Each has loved and lost. But for these men, everything old really is new again, and it’s only when they return to their roots that they’ll find their second chances and the happily ever after they’ve been waiting their whole lives for.

This time it’s forever.

This series includes:
Building Forever — releasing October 15, available now!
Renewing Forever — releasing November 12, available for preorder!
Chasing Forever — releasing December 10, available soon!

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Author Bio

If aliens ever do land on Earth, Kelly will not be prepared, despite having read over a hundred stories about the apocalypse. Still, she will pack her precious books into a box and carry them with her as she strives to survive. It’s what bibliophiles do.

Kelly is the author of a number of novels, novellas, and short stories, including the Chaos Station series, cowritten with Jenn Burke. Some of what she writes is speculative in nature, but mostly it’s just about a guy losing his socks and/or burning dinner. Because life isn’t all conquering aliens and mountain peaks. Sometimes finding a happy ever after is all the adventure we need.

Author Links: Website * Tumblr * Facebook * Twitter * Goodreads * Pinterest * Instagram

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Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Renewing Forever one lucky person will win a $25 Riptide Publishing gift card and a swag pack of stickers, art cards, and bookmarks! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on November 17, 2018. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!