Please welcome Mia Kerick to Love Bytes as she talks about her new short novella, “A Hard Day’s Night”.
We are happy to have you here, Mia!
Author Name: Mia Kerick
Book Name: “A Hard Day’s Night”
Release Date: 1st September, 2015
Pages: 79
Publisher: YoungDudes Publishing
Blurb:
High school senior Kalin (Lennon) Macready knows several facts for certain: John Lennon is his hero. Beaumont Finley Danforth (Fin) is his best friend. And—this is the complicated one—he feels more for Fin than mere friendship.
For weeks, Lennon pesters Fin, who like Lennon admits to questioning his sexual orientation, for a commitment to spend twenty-four hours together exploring “the gay side of life.” Fin reluctantly agrees. Each boy will seek to answer the daunting question, Am I gay? Lennon pre-plans the day, filling the hours with what he assumes “gay life” is all about: shopping for fashionable clothing, indulging in lavish dessert crepes, boogying to Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off”, and yes, listening to show tunes.
However, Lennon quickly realizes that in creating his plan he has succumbed to the most common and distorted of gay stereotypes. Can he be gay and not fit them? And more importantly, is it possible that spending one very hard day and night together will help Fin accept that he’s gay, too? If so, maybe Lennon has a shot at winning the heart of the boy of his dreams.
“A Hard Day’s Night” is an amusing young adult contemporary romance about two boys who seek to discover if they must fulfill stereotypes to be together.
In the end, maybe all you need is love.
Genre: Gay Romance, Teen, Gay, Romance
Having written six young adult books that involve questioning religion or gender identity. In “A Hard Day’s Night” Lennon and Fin question their sexual orientation, thinking that only if they fulfill specific gay stereotypes can they be gay. So, where each of the main characters questions something about being LGBTQ, the exact nature of their confusion is different.
However, the stakes are very high for each boy.
The story is simplistic in its telling, with brilliant humor and characters who are normal in exceptional circumstances; to experience being gay for just one day.
What is important to note, though, is that it isn’t so much the actual things that they do—stereotypical activities that gay men enjoy—as much as the time spent together intimately examining their feeling and emotions, that allows the two boys to accept the reality of their sexual orientation.
The formal experience—“we are going to spend 24 hours seeing what gay life is like”—allows the two boys to stop hiding and to open their hearts and minds to the possibility that they could be gay as well as that they have feelings for one another. It is not important exactly what the two young people do together, but that they set aside the time to examine themselves and as such, it is a plot and goal oriented series of events that bring the two friends together.
Prologue
“Fin and I have managed to get locked into what I will refer to as a repetitive pattern of affable behavior, and, in my opinion, it’s working out splendidly. We are the dearest of friends.”
Scratch that. Starting over.
And since I know it’s well past time for some brutally honest self-talk, I sit up in my bed, and by the warm glow of my Yellow Submarine nightlight, study my frayed picture of John Lennon. To complete the visual, it’s the photo from Mom’s retro record set, The White Album, that I pinned to the wall beside my bed and have worshipped regularly since I was in the seventh grade. Behind those round wire glasses, the man’s piercing eyes don’t lie—John was a brutally honest sort, often to his detriment. After all, back in 1966 didn’t he assert that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ? Now, that is certainly calling it exactly as he sees it.
Not that I necessarily agree with the sentiment, I respect that kind of directness in a person.
I owe him this much.
Out of respect for John, I revise and reissue my previous assertion.
“The Finster and I are stuck in a rut of pleasant compatibility…an unusually deep rut, at that.”
This attempt at telling-it-like-it-is is definitely an improvement, but it’s still not right on the money, and I’m nothing, if not specific.
I prop up my pillow and lean hard against the creaky antique headboard (call it like you see it, Lennon—the headboard is just plain old), with the certain knowledge that I’ve completely outgrown this flimsy, twin size bed of my childhood.
So maybe it’s more like this….
“Fin and I each have one leg semi-submerged in a muddy ditch, and we’re in it well past our knees. This is the kind of murky and dark, seemingly bottomless, pit that will suck the rubber boot right off your foot with a single, hollow, slurping sound, and then belch with satisfaction.” For the third time I speak aloud in an effort to make my declaration official. “It appears that the two of us are gonna be stuck here in this mucky BFF-swampland for the long haul—bootless and slowly sinking into the sludge—unless, of course, I act decisively and with haste. And with great vigor—because, to accomplish the task I have in mind, I’m most likely going to have to shift into full-hyper-dunk-mode, possibly coupled with the drama-queen-approach. Neither of which poses a problem for me, other than that they require an excessive expenditure of energy.”
That was most definitely a mouthful, but an accurate mouthful.
And all I need is one day. Just one gay day.
Thankfully, ever proud of the open-mindedness he hides so well from his ultra-conservative family, Fin has granted me my greatest wish. On Saturday, March 21st, Beaumont Finley Danforth II (IMHO this BFD is a Big Fucking Deal) is mine for the day to do with as I please. I sincerely hope that a single day is sufficient to help Fin figure out what I already know.
Um, Lennon…maybe now is not the right time to start suffering with a debilitating bout of self-doubt.
Confidence is of key importance in this endeavor.
No, I do not have any worries, and yes, I do have twenty-four feminine-side-exploring, team-switching, relationship-igniting hours to make my homeboy see the rainbow-hued light. Starting bright and early tomorrow morning.
On that note, I’ll get started with my beauty sleep. I sure hope I’m gonna need it.
I wiggle down so I’m flat on my back with my feet sticking six inches over the end of the bed, pull the covers up to my chin, and listen to my mental arrangement of “Imagine” until I fall asleep.
Sales Links:
Ms. Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—all named after saints—and five non-pedigreed cats—all named after the next best thing to saints, Boston Red Sox players. Her husband of twenty-two years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about that, as it is a sensitive subject.
Mia focuses her stories on the emotional growth of troubled young people and their relationships, and she believes that physical intimacy has a place in a love story, but not until it is firmly established as a love story. As a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with romantic tales of tortured heroes (most of whom happened to strongly resemble lead vocalists of 1980s big-hair bands) and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping.
She is thankful to CoolDudes Publishing, Dreamspinner Press, Harmony Ink Press, and CreateSpace for providing her with alternate places to stash her stories.
Mia is a social liberal and cheers for each and every victory made in the name of human rights, especially marital equality, which is now the law of the land in the United States—woot! woot! Her only major regret: never having taken typing or computer class in school, destining her to a life consumed with two-fingered pecking and constant prayer to the Gods of Technology.
Where to find the author:
gmail: miakerick@gmail.com
There will be several giveaways for this blog tour.
A COMMENTER FROM EACH STOP WILL BE ELIGIBLE TO WIN A FREE EBOOK
PLUS
THERE IS ALSO A GRAND PRIZE OF THREE BEATLES JIGSAW PUZZLE MEMORABILIA TO BE WON BY ONE COMMENTER. THE WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN FROM ALL STOPS. THERE IS ONLY ONE WINNER. WE HAVE ONLY ONE SET OF THREE PUZZLES.
TOUR STOP PRIZE: ONE TOUR STOP WILL BE DRAWN TO RECEIVE A PRINTED VERSION OF THIS FABULOUS BOOK THAT WILL REMAIN WITH YOU FOREVER. IT IS A JOURNEY YOU WILL NEVER FORGET.
I adore this premise!
Sounds like another good one from Mia Kerick! And love that cover. Thanks for the post.
Love the whole Beatles concept.
I enjoy blog posts so much. Thanks for participating.
“A Hard Day’s Night” was one of the first songs that I felt compelled to listen to the radio just to hear it! It brings back so many memories of getting together with my cousins and singing together! I can’t wait to read this book. Thank you!
Sounds like another good one!
This almost reminds me of the sweet British film Beautiful Thing, with two teenager boys trying to find their way and understand what it may be for them to be gay. So thank you for the giveaway chances.