Inspired by a true story. A sex addict looks for true love in NYC.

WRITER'S DIGEST: “I’m impressed by a number of things about this book: the quality of its prose, the penetrating psychological insights into its protagonist, and the unflinching way it manages to depict its subject. Anna David’s blurb on the cover is quite apt: Like Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, The Hobbyist has a grim, cold, bleak worldview. I very much admire Shelly’s boldness in writing this book, as it couldn’t have been easy to be so revealing on the page. This is an extremely impressive read.”

SAN FRANCISCO BOOK REVIEW: “Shelly is a talented writer, and his prose can soar poetic when he wants it to. Still, his descriptions of sexual encounters range from delicate and intimate to raunchy and completely absurd… Shelly lovingly details the sex that Dash has for the mostly right reasons, but he refuses to glorify the sex that exists as an emotional crutch and a burden. Addiction is never pretty, and this book shows that in a vivid manner. In The Hobbyist, Shelly has created a disturbing (and disturbingly realistic) tale of a young man falling into temptation.”

KIRKUS REVIEWS: “Funny as hell…dialogue is sharp and the narrative witty…adult females may delight in discovering what certain men really think and feel about women, in and out of bed. An honest, often hilarious tale of a man who loves sex too much.”

Writer's Bio: A Latin author and alumnus of New York’s prestigious Actors Studio where his first play was workshopped as part of their Writer/Directors Unit. Dante was the winner of the Filmmakers Magazine Screenwriting Award for Excellence, is a Nicholl Fellowship semifinalist, and has penned rewrites for numerous projects, including a recent pilot for XYZ Film last year. Writer’s Digest has compared his work to screenwriters Jerry Stahl and Bret Easton Ellis.