You Dear, Sweet Man by Thomas Neviaser Book Tour and Giveaway :)
You Dear, Sweet Man
by
Thomas Neviaser
Genre:
Psychological Suspense
Would
you give up your life to enter an unknown world just to eat a
hamburger? A fast-food company creates the Ultimate Perfect Ad, a 3D
form of motion with a model having an evil agenda. Her telepathic
ability has special powers over men, utilizing a simple phrase, “You
dear, sweet man." Her plan jeopardizes a blue collar worker's
life as he realizes that advertising is not as glamorous as it seems
and that his relationship with the woman's ultra-ego has defined his
destiny from which he may never escape.
The
subway ad is enticing. One might even consider it elegant as well. A
beautiful woman, sitting atop a desk in a sparsely decorated office,
staring directly at Bobby Fastow, a blue collar worker, on his way to
his monotonous yet physically exhausting job. The photograph has
an unusual charisma, a spectacular presence. It seemingly leaps
off and out of the poster.
Bobby
Fastow intensely absorbs the information directed at him.
BurgerBlast, his favorite fast food restaurant, famous for
quick service and reliable, if not artery-choking fare, is announcing
a new name and a new direction.
But,
in the world of advertising, nothing is as it seems. What if the line
that separates an advertisement from the real world were erased? What
if an image stepped from an ad and beckoned you to follow it back,
inviting you to melt into its world. Could you resist? Bobby Fastow
couldn't, and his decision would turn his world upside down.
“Get
Fit, Eat Fast Food!” read the poster above the subway window.
Bobby
had noticed advertisements posted here many times before, but this ad
seemed to leap out of its metal frame and demand his attention. Bobby
Fastow had ridden the subway to and from work for most of his adult
life. As a low-to-middle-income, unskilled factory worker with a wife
and two daughters, he had struggled from paycheck to paycheck.
Sometimes, he felt there was something unfair about it all. It didn’t
matter if his knees ached, he had a terrible cold, he felt down and
out, or
there
was a foot of snow on the ground. No circumstance seemed to warrant a
day off because every dollar earned was a dollar needed for survival.
So,
Monday through Friday, he boarded the 6:04 a.m. subway, sat down in
whatever seat was available, nodded his head, and tried to catch as
much shuteye as possible. “Shuteye” was different from sleep.
Bobby didn’t always nod off because he was tired, but closing his
eyes meant he could shut out and escape the real world around him and
enter another level of consciousness more of his choosing.
Today,
he was going to close his eyes, but there, in front of him, was an
advertisement illustrating a most attractive woman, whose features
were conjuring up feelings he’d had only when younger. He let his
overweight body slide forward in his seat, rested the back of his
head on the subway window behind him, and closed his eyes. He
imagined this woman sitting across from him in a bar.
She’s
reaching across the table and taking my hand, bringing it to her
lips, then lowering my hand onto her thigh, and leaning slowly
forward, puckering her lips.
The
emotion from this fantasy was so inviting, almost real. Maybe too
unbelievably real for Bobby Fastow!
Just
before her lips touched his, the subway swayed and jarred his eyes
open. He knew from experience that another stop was imminent.
Suddenly anxious, Bobby checked the station sign to be sure he hadn’t
missed his stop. He was not sure how long he had been daydreaming.
Noticing
he had a few stops remaining, he wiped his damp, shiny forehead,
sighed with relief, and straightened his bulbous body back upright in
his seat. He had gone into this make-believe world too deeply several
times over the years and passed by his destination. It wasn’t the
embarrassment, hassle, or frustration of getting back to his exit
that bothered him but the prolonged ribbing he had to endure from his
fellow employees for being late. This was what he really dreaded. He
had never
been
late in his twenty-plus years of work.
“Get
Fit, Eat Fast Food!” What in the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Bobby
let his gaze drift from the headline to the photograph beneath it
depicting a young, strikingly slender woman in her late twenties. She
was dressed in a black pantsuit and white blouse with ruffles around
her neck. He noticed her silky nylons but was surprised she had no
shoes on. She was sitting at the end of a long oak conference table
with her legs crossed, Indian-style, her right elbow placed on her
knee, her forearm and hand supporting her chin. The table was not
unique and could have
been
found in countless board rooms across the country. Bobby gazed at her
face: beautiful, soft, but with minimal makeup. She was looking at
the other end of the table at a hamburger and fries smothered in
ketchup. Below the photo were dishes of salad, fruit, and broiled
chicken, and a
message
that read:
Fit’n’Fast,
Inc.
The
Food You Crave Without the Guilt
We
will select the finest ingredients with your tastes and health in
mind.
We
will make your dining choices easier by providing delicious and
nutritious choices to suit all tastes and budgets.
Today,
Fit’n’Fast, Inc. is synonymous with the words healthy dining,
quality food, and of course, our fast, personal service. Our ability
to deliver unique, quality foods in a time-sensitive, fast, and
casual
environment
is unrivaled.
(Formerly
BurgerBlast, Inc.)
Bobby
assumed the model ate the healthy selections rather than the
traditional burger and fries. That certainly seemed to be the obvious
message the ad meant to convey; however, Bobby was amazed that
BurgerBlast, Inc., the fast-food takeout restaurant that had hawked
greasy burgers, fries doused in sugar, and gaseous sodas for years
had now become FitnFast, Inc., a health-conscious corporation.
In
spite of its new name, Bobby knew he would continue to refer to he
restaurant as The Greasy Spoon. He knew it well because he had eaten
hundreds of meals at BurgerBlast, Inc., and now it was copying other
restaurants of its type and advertising the hell out of it. He also
knew that hundreds of gullible folks would go to the restaurant to
stand in line and soon become captives of the smell of their greasy
burgers and fries and conveniently forget the healthy food.
It
has to be a ploy to get them into the joint.
~
~ ~
The
forty-six-minute subway ride was over, and Bobby exited the subway,
along with the hordes of other nine-to-five working stiffs, to enter
his private purgatory of work orders, printing presses, and
drudgery.
This was his world, where nothing changed from day to day and
everyone watched the clock until quitting time.
The
memory of that young woman on the conference table with no shoes
continued to stir his imagination. As he exited the subway terminal
and walked up the concrete steps to the street, the heat of the day
engulfed him.
It’s
going to be a hot one today.
As
he hustled across the street and into the Page Newspaper Company’s
print shop, the image of the ad and the woman to whom he had been so
physically attracted just minutes ago gradually
disappeared…—but
not for long.
Dr. Neviaser is a retired orthopaedic surgeon and author of many medical articles, papers, presentations, and contributions to medical texts. He’s written extensively on shoulder conditions, his specialty. He is available as a speaker on most orthopaedic conditions. His dynamic presentations involve a great deal of audience participation and personalized attention to attendees.
Dr. Neviaser is
proud of his orthopedic guide book for the lay person, THE WAY I SEE
IT: A Head-to-Toe Guide Guide To Common Orthopaedic Conditions and
his first novel, YOU DEAR SWEET MAN.
He is now especially
excited to introduce to his new novel, THE MYSTERY OF FLIGHT 2222,
to be published this
2018 summer.
Follow
the tour HERE
for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!
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