Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

The Hobbyist by Darryl Shelly, Peter Otte and Tami Shelly

The Hobbyist is a coming-of-age story masked as a sex addict’s roller coaster. Based upon true events, the author authentically chronicles sexual awakening from a man’s perspective as he pulls back the curtain, and with staggering honesty, invites you into his private world of decadence. Not to be confused with a book on recovery, this raucous account is a cautionary tale of heartbreak and hilarity as a young man rises to manhood and into the throes of full-blown, sexual addiction in New York City.<a

I agreed to read and review this book, completely unaware of the real meaning of the word ‘hobbyist’. God alone knows what I thought the book was about.
Turned out to be a hilariously funny mixture of Mrs Robinson and The World of Susie Wong, if you get my drift.

A young man’s sexual education, encompassing his many and varied encounters with the opposite sex. So well educated in fact, that he ends up in Sex Addicts Anonymous. Why anyone would think they needed to, is beyond me. I mean, it is harmless, isn’t it?

Unlike gambling or alcohol. Those things will either ruin your life or kill you. Of all the things in this world that are bad for you, a sex addiction must be way down the list.

Dash, the character in the book, has no problem with his addiction either, at least not in the beginning. When it begins to ruin his love life, he has to learn the colossal difference between love and sex.
Well written with an eloquent writing style, The Hobbyist is an emotionally powerful story. A rites of passage story with a difference, I laughed aloud many times at the situations he finds himself in. Dash is so very human and real, and you really feel for him as he tries to desperately mend the bridges he has burned.

Just when all seems lost and he has almost climbed back onto the wheel of self- destruction, something wonderful happens, but will he be rescued from the slough of despair?
You have to read this book and find out, you will not be disappointed…

About the Author
Darryl is a former contributing editor at Mobil Office and Portable Computing Magazine. His first play was work-shopped in New York City at the fames Actors Studio as part of their Writers/Directors Unit. Winner of the Filmmaker’s Magazine Screenwriting Award for Excellence, he has penned rewrites for projects with James Woods and Kirstie Alley – and currently has a TV series in development at Televisa. A Chicago native, he currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and pussycat.

Darryl Shelly Photography | 11206 Weddington St., 2nd Floor | North Hollywood, CA 91601 | http://www.darrylshellyphoto.com