Title: The Weekend Bucket List

Author: Mia Kerick

Release Date: April 19th 2018

Genre: Young Adult, LGBT

BLURB

High school seniors Cady LaBrie and Cooper Murphy have yet to set one toe out of line—they’ve never stayed out all night or snuck into a movie, never gotten drunk or gone skinny-dipping. But they have each other, forty-eight hours before graduation, and a Weekend Bucket List.

There’s a lot riding on this one weekend, especially since Cady and Cooper have yet to admit, much less resolve, their confounding feelings for one another—feelings that prove even more difficult to discern when genial high school dropout Eli Stanley joins their epic adventure. But as the trio ticks through their bucket list, the questions they face shift toward something new: Must friendship play second fiddle to romance? Or can it be the ultimate prize?

Purchase: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Interlude Press

Find The Weekend Bucket List on Goodreads

My First Cover Without a Face…  by Mia Kerick

 

The proposition of a book cover without a person’s face front and center swept in memories of a Billy Idol 1984 (rather disturbing) hit. I’m dating myself but, whatever—the notion of having a book cover without a face takes me back to sophomore year in college, when “Eyes Without a Face,” was the rock bad boy’s mega-hit.

 

 

Eyes without a face… Eyes without a face, got no human grace your eyes without a face

 

For the first time in my writing career, my YA novel would not sport an indisputably adorable boy, a serenely contemplative girl, a teenager wearing a desperate, dark, or dangerous expression, or multiples of the above.

I experienced an instinctive fear that my faceless cover would possess no human grace…

 

And so my new, facially-challenged, cover was unveiled to me. (Thanks to the amazing and talented designer who knows the YA audience, CB Messer.)

But upon first glance I didn’t know what to think…

 

Here is the cover of my April 29, 2018 YA general fiction release with Duet Books, The Weekend Bucket List

Version:1.0 StartHTML:000000253 EndHTML:000086240 StartFragment:000086104 EndFragment:000086190 StartSelection:000086104 EndSelection:000086190 SourceURL:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37802033-the-weekend-bucket-list?ac=1&from_search=trueThe Weekend Bucket List by Mia Kerick | Goodreads

Yeah, it takes a HUGE STEP—okay, a MEGA-LEAP—away from the covers from my other novels, as well as from my previous branding tagline “Love is What I See.”

 

Where are the longing eyes? Where’s the pleading expression? Or the “save me, please” in a teenager’s eyes? The “I’m so cute” in a self-satisfied smirk? The “I’m so deep” in a sideways gaze? The “I’m so troubled”? The “take me home”?

 

How on earth will my readers connect to Cady, Cooper, and Eli without these things?

 

OMG, maybe they won’t!!!

 

Before I gave in to the full-out panic attack, I decided to conduct some research on what factors contribute to an effective YA book cover. A mature move, I think.

 

With trembling fingers, I typed on my laptop keyboard, “What makes a good YA book cover?”

 

Here’s what I found (in no particular order… until the last one):

 

Cheesiness is the book cover crime that can’t be overlooked.

(I fear I have fallen into this trap in the past a time or two…)

 

The most important aspect of a cover is that it appeals to the audience the book is written for. My research shows that on current YA bestsellers, symbols work better than people on the cover.

 

And so, with my cover of The Weekend Bucket List, I have stepped away from my branding of “Love is What I See,” although it still is…. I’m a romance writer at heart. But friendship matters, too, and it’s another form of love that matters. The Weekend Bucket List focuses on adventure and humor and growing up in the context of complex friendship. The story depicts a final school-aged bucket list romp and I think the cover suggests this.

 

The true test? I revealed the cover to my four YA children ages 17-23. THEY LOVED IT! “Mom, this is your best cover so far!”

“Wow! It’s not cheesy at all!”

“I’d definitely read this book!”

 

I hope you enjoy The Weekend Bucket List and it’s awesome YA book cover!!

 

Ever since we skipped the junior prom together last spring— neither of us is the type to participate in overrated school events, especially ones that involve dancing—and came to this very spot at the end of the Wellington Town Beach, I’ve felt a flicker of “something more” for my longtime BFF. It wasn’t exactly a romantic evening—we listened to eighties music and downed a full bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken while gazing at Tamarack Lake—but for me, our relationship changed. When Cooper touched my face that night I was overwhelmed by an urge for something completely new and different and dangerous: I wanted to kiss him. The urge has been lurking since that night, but right now, it’s stronger than ever. I want so badly to drop down on top of him and plant my lips on his, just to find out how it tastes… just to find out how it feels. But I don’t because it isn’t next on the list.

And because I just don’t.

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Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—a daughter in law school, another in dance school, a third studying at Mia’s alma mater, Boston College, and her lone son still in high school. She writes LGBTQ romance when not editing National Honor Society essays, offering opinions on college and law school applications, helping to create dance bios, and reviewing English papers. Her husband of twenty-four years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about this, as it is a sensitive subject.

Mia focuses her stories on emotional growth in turbulent relationships. As she has a great affinity for the tortured hero, there is, at minimum, one in each book. As a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with tales of said 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 Dreamspinner Press and Harmony Ink Press for providing alternate places to stash her stories.

Her books have won a Best YA Lesbian Rainbow Award, a Reader Views’ Book by Book Publicity Literary Award, the Jack Eadon Award for Best Book in Contemporary Drama, an Indie Fab Award, and a Royal Dragonfly Award for Cultural Diversity, among other awards.

Mia is a Progressive, a little bit too obsessed by politics, and cheers for each and every victory in the name of human rights. 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.

Contact Mia at miakerick@gmail.com. Visit her website for updates on what is going on in Mia’s world, rants, music, parties, and pictures, and maybe even a little bit of inspiration.

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