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The Handyman's History: Family Secrets Revealed by [Nick Poff]

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Nick Poff

The Handyman's History: Family Secrets Revealed Kindle Edition

by Nick Poff (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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It's a new beginning for Ed and Rick.

Handyman Ed Stephens and his partner Rick Benton have begun their new life as the masters of Penfield Manor. After the first big event in their new home, Rick’s sister’s wedding, they hope for a long stretch of peace of quiet.

Instead, Ed and Rick both find themselves involved in new activities. As Rick's boss, Realtor Vince Cummings, becomes aware of the opportunities available in the sudden expansion of Porterfield, he and Rick become guiding forces for a major redevelopment project. Meanwhile, Ed's innocent suggestions regarding the revival of a local festival lead him to become a member of the Porterfield Days Association, and the acceptance of additional responsibilities.

It's Rick's discovery of a tombstone in a disused town cemetery that sparks Ed's curiosity about the background of his father's family. Ed begins to question the relationship he had with his deceased father and hopes learning some of the Stephens family secrets will enable him to make peace with his unresolved feelings.

The usual cast of suspects is back to both enrich and complicate Ed's life: His sharp-tongued but supportive mother Norma, his sister Laurie, and housekeeper Effie Maude, who maintains her position at Penfield Manor, and provides amusement for Ed and Rick with her observations and pronouncements. Their best bud Gordy is on the scene as well, struggling to build a relationship in the early years of AIDS. Even Ed gets a taste of the hostility becoming more common as fear of the disease spreads.

As Ed deals with the realities of being a gay man in a small town in 1985, he unexpectedly finds support from two unlikely sources, a visually impaired client, and a clergyman new to the town. THE HANDYMAN'S HISTORY, with its soundtrack of classic oldies, will take its readers both forward and backward in the continuing saga of Ed and Rick, as their relationship strengthens, matures, and endures.

Print length

338 pages
Language

English
Publication date

February 6, 2019
File size

2771 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From the Author

How THE HANDYMAN'S HISTORY Came To Be

I was facing a very uncertain future in 2008. Therefore, when I finished THE HANDYMAN'S PROMISE, I wanted the ending to work as an ending for the book, and, if need be, the series. Although I didn't know what was going to happen to me, I DID know what was going to happen to Ed Stephens (kind of), which is the advantage of living life within one's imagination. Everything turns out the way you want it.

I thought a lot about Ed and Rick and Porterfield over the years. I never really gave up hope that I'd someday land in the right circumstances to get more of the story into the world. In fact, as early as 2009 I had the next book planned in my mind. I wasn't terribly satisfied with it, though. I felt it took the story too far away from where I had left it. Something, I thought, needs to happen before I can take "the guys" (that's how I think of them) to another phase in their relationship. Too, there were the supporting characters, who mean as much to me as Ed and Rick.

I think it was around 2012 or 2013 when the idea for what became THE HANDYMAN'S HISTORY first started to form in my mind. It had always bugged me that Ed seemed to be just existing until he met Rick in the autumn of 1980. What happened before that? How on Earth did a guy like Ed survive in a place like Porterfield all those years? I wanted to know as much about his past as his future.

I also began to wonder about Ed's deceased dad, Tim Stephens. Ed obviously thought highly of him. What was his story? Writers are like bag ladies; we are constantly picking up scraps that may appear unimportant to other people, but often become the kernels from which good stories grow. Somehow the idea of exploring Tim Stephens' life became intertwined in my mind with a backstory based on bits and pieces of real life stories I'd collected over the years. It finally occurred to me that the best way to learn more about Ed's past was through Tim.

I didn't want it to be a "prequal," though. I wanted to move Ed's story with Rick forward as well. I began to conceive a book set in the present (well, present for the guys), with flashbacks to Ed's earlier years. (SIDE NOTE: I cannot tell you how annoyed I was when I first saw THIS IS US on TV and watched the writers pull this concept off brilliantly. Shit, I thought. I should have gotten this book out years ago. Now it looks like I'm copying!) I began to see that something in the present, which turned out to be 1985 as I wanted to move past the terrible sadness of a main character's death in early 1984, would allow Ed to turn inward and think about the past and his discomfort with it. So I dug around in my scrap bag and began tracing the history of both Tim Stephens and his son.

Putting this together made me realize that Rick would be put in the position of saying "Yes dear" a lot, and constantly providing support as opposed to drama. I liked that idea, though. I thought of this as Ed's book, and I wanted him firmly center stage. Plus, Rick could have been impatient with Ed and not so supportive of his determination to lay the ghosts of the past to rest. The fact that Rick was next to Ed through every step, always having his back, said more about Rick and his relationship with Ed than I could have said in mere words.

The main goal for me as a writer and for Ed as a gay man living in a small town in the eighties was to align the past and the present and prepare Ed for his future. As the writing progressed I was amazed at what I learned. You may think that the writer dictates everything that happens in a story, but that simply isn't so. Quite often the characters tell the writer what actually happens, and it's not always what the writer had planned. THE HANDYMAN'S HISTORY is not the book I originally envisioned; with Ed's input it came to life as a truer description of Ed and his quest to be a better man.

Frankly, that's when a writer turns into a doting parent of sorts. I am so PROUD of him! My mental picture of him has changed as well. I've always seen Ed as kind of boyish, in fact in this book Rick kids him at one point about losing his boyish charm. Ed has lost it. I now see him as a man in every sense of the word -- tall, broad shouldered, and having a maturity that has made him a good deal more handsome than I ever pictured him previously. And for some reason I see his hair a good deal longer and his mustache thicker. I don't know. That must have come from some picture that Ed emailed directly to my brain.

With this book, Ed Stephens has grown up. Again, I can't tell you how proud I am of him. He is now ready to face whatever comes next. Not only that, but observing him with Rick in this book clued me in to the fact that Ed alone is strong, but together with Rick they are a force to be reckoned with. I expect great things of them going forward. I did not see this coming. For the longest time I was stuck on the image that begins the book, Ed waking up on a dangerously cold morning in January to Bruce Springsteen's "Cover Me" on the radio. My mission, if I would accept it, was to get Ed out of that bed and finish growing up with the help of the man sleeping next to him -- the lover that would cover him, no matter what.

Mission accomplished. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I do.

Product details

ASIN : B07NHGY6WX
Publication date : February 6, 2019
Language : English
File size : 2771 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 338 pages
Lending : Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #1,603,958 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #8,972 in LGBTQ+ Genre Fiction (Books)
- #17,507 in Gay Fiction

Customer Reviews:
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Jeff

Ed and Rick return...

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2019

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Back when I was coming out of the closet, Nick Poff wrote three books in the Handyman series. His characters, especially Ed were so much like I was. I was never a flamer, and was not wanting the life of the gay stereotypes... I wanted a life like Ed and Rick. So several years have passed for both Ed and myself, as we both live with men we love. I was constantly pausing to reread and reflect Ed's journey through time, as he went back to the early years of his life; as I could see we both lived through so many common issues in our parallel life experiences. I am so happy that Ed and I seem to be leading blessed lives... I anxiously await the next chapter in Ed's life!

2 people found this helpful

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AlexsDad

Read the previous books in the series -- this one is the best

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2019

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I have read all of the "Handyman's" books. I have enjoyed the first three books. I would have enjoyed a bit more conflict in them. This 4th book was great. Everything wasn't perfect. I hope that the series can and will continue.

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Patricia Nelson

Loved it!!

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2019

This is a fantastic, powerful, poignant, grab-you-by-the-feels, beautiful, raw, intense, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, joyful, emotionally charged, passionate, totally awesome tale about Ed, Rick, and their wonderful journey through life.

One person found this helpful

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Lyn. Perkin

Beautiful, sensitive and well-written. And the soundtrack will have you singing along.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 22, 2019

Verified Purchase

Ed Stephens is a man after my own heart.. loving, caring but with just enough bite to provide a witty or scathing riposte to all the haters. And there are haters in this book because the story represents real life. While continuing the story of Ed, his husband Rick and their families Nick Poff has also given us a wonderful insight into what made the boy Ed into the man we’ve all come to know and love. There are sad, funny and sometimes, heartbreaking flashbacks which take us back to harsher times where being gay was illegal and dangerous. This is a beautifully written and genuinely uplifting book which will leave you waiting eagerly for the next episode in Ed’s life. Read it. You won’t be disappointed.

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