Description:
One October morning, high school junior Bryan Dennison wakes up a different person—helpful, generous, and chivalrous—a person whose new admirable qualities he doesn’t recognize. Stranger still is the urge to tie a red sheet around his neck like a cape.
Bryan soon realizes this compulsion to wear a red cape is accompanied by more unusual behavior. He can’t hold back from retrieving kittens from tall trees, helping little old ladies cross busy streets, and defending innocence anywhere he finds it.
Shockingly, at school, he realizes he used to be a bully. He’s attracted to the former victim of his bullying, Scott Beckett, though he has no memory of Scott from before “the change.” Where he’d been lazy in academics, overly aggressive in sports, and socially insecure, he’s a new person. And although he can recall behaving egotistically, he cannot remember his motivations.
Everyone, from his mother to his teachers to his “superjock” former pals, is shocked by his dramatic transformation. However, Scott Beckett is not impressed by Bryan’s newfound virtue. And convincing Scott he’s genuinely changed and improved, hopefully gaining Scott’s trust and maybe even his love, becomes Bryan’s obsession.
With a foreword by C. Kennedy
Book Links:
Excerpt:
“HOW DID you do on your narrative paper?” We’d just received our graded essays back from Miss Libby.
“Like you care?” Scott gifted me with one of his nastiest ass-kicking glares.
“Yeah, maybe I do.”
“She liked it… a lot. That’s all you need to know.” Scott stuck his nose back into his novel. “Except, I guess I owe you a ‘thank you,’ seeing as you provided me with all the devastation I needed to write with conviction on such a heartfelt topic.”
Speaking of topics, maybe it’s time for a topic change.
“Halloween’s on Monday. You got any big plans?”
Scott stared at me like I’d flashed my privates at a meeting of the Appleton Middle School’s Babysitters Club.
“Maybe you could come over to my house and we could give out candy to the kids together.”
He smiled at me brightly. “Well, if Monday is a cold day in hell, then maybe I’ll stop by.”
Thankfully, Miss Libby finished passing out the graded papers right then, relieving me of the need to respond to his sarcasm. “Okay, class. I have an important phone call to take in the office. I’ve opened the door between the classrooms, so look over your papers, and please try to keep it down in here so you don’t disturb Mr. Carr’s American lit class while I’m gone. I should only be about five minutes.”
She turned around and left the classroom. And I was left with my hostile peer-editing partner. I trembled but pressed on. “Anyways, Scott, anything going on this weekend?”
Apparently, he did not deem that question worthy of an answer. He kept his nose buried in his book.
I think I was as surprised at what I said next as he was. “You gotta believe me—I don’t remember any of it!”
“Come again?” He looked at me now, but it was in the repulsed/calculating manner of an environmentalist examining a test tube of questionably polluted pond scum.
“This may be hard to believe, but it’s like I blocked what went down Saturday night out of my mind. As in, completely.”
“You must think I was born yesterday.”
“And there’s more, dude. Just listen….”
“I have a feeling I’m either going to laugh my ass off or lose my lunch when I hear what you’re about to say.”
And although I had a feeling that he was correct about his predicted response to what I was about to claim, I still said it. “It’s like this—I don’t remember you at all—from before Monday of this week.” Spilling that took major balls, if I do say so myself. “It’s like I never even saw you before… before Monday at lunchtime.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” He wasn’t smiling, not even slightly, so I was pretty confident that his response was not gonna be one of laughter. The jury was still out on him vomiting, though.
“I don’t get it either, but I thought that, under the circumstances, we could maybe start our relationship over, and, you know, get off on the right foot this time.”
“No.”
“Just like that—no?”
“Yup. Just like that, Dennison.” Once again, he looked down at his paperback. “Because you are full of shit.”
MIA’S BLOG POST –
How did I come up with the idea for the Red Sheet?
Ideas for my new release, The Red Sheet, more or less bombarded me from all angles, ultimately coming together to form the YA novel in its finished form.
First, I will admit that I was strongly motivated by the song “Superman”, by Five for Fighting. I find the idea of someone so strong as Superman realizing and accepting and ultimately admitting his areas of weakness as intriguing and even touching. I wanted to write about a young adult male going through this very experience, and coming to terms with his personal vulnerability. The concept of a strong character being brought to his knees, particularly by the effects of an emotional struggle, hits me hard and motivates me to write. Bryan Dennison, the main character in The Red Sheet, is brought to his knees by the regret he feels at his own past behavior, particularly in regard to his bullying of another student at his high school, Scott Beckett.
Further, I wanted to deal with the aspect of spirituality, not in a religious sense, really, but more in the manner of a young man coming to terms with what he feels is right and wrong in the universe as a whole. Bryan Dennison, after experiencing a complete overnight, apparently miraculous, change for the better, turns to his sense of God for help and guidance as he struggles to understand, forgive, and improve himself. I also wanted to incorporate the beliefs of Mahatma Gandhi, and the way that teenagers would relate to the words of a wise person such as him, into my story. Bryan absorbs the meanings of Gandhi’s words, and applies them to his life in a way that is meaningful, and that I believe will be important to readers.
Furthermore, I intended to write a story that was somehow humorous and entertaining, and simultaneously, tragic. Dealing with the painfulness of bullying, the feeling of utter nakedness a teenager endures when he is strung up, alone and exposed for all to see, is something that has been done, and done well, in many YA books. But has it been done in the perspective of the bully, the very person who stripped the victim of his humanity? And can I influence the reader to actually like this bully? Can I make the reader identify with him, and even laugh with him? That was my challenge.
In addition, I wanted to let go completely in the creation of this novel. When I wrote The Red Sheet, I relaxed all of my writing rules. In other words, if I thought it and I liked it—I wrote it. And I kept it. Freeing myself from all of the “do this” and “don’t do this” of writing allowed me to create the very unique voice of Bryan Dennison. So, The Red Sheet is an example of Mia Kerick “letting it all hang out.”
I’m hoping you are down with how it hangs.
About the Author:
Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—all named after saints—and five nonpedigreed cats—all named after the next best thing to saints, Boston Red Sox players. Her husband of twenty 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 men and their relationships, and she believes that sex 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 Dreamspinner Press for providing her with an alternate place to stash her stories.
Mia is proud of her involvement with the Human Rights Campaign and cheers for each and every victory made in the name of marital equality. 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.
My themes I always write about:
Sweetness. Unconventional love, tortured/damaged heroes- only love can save them.
Author Links:
https://www.facebook.com/mia.kerick
http://www.amazon.com/Mia-Kerick/e/B009KSTG9E/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1389575652&sr=1-1
GIVEAWAY
I wasn’t able to log into the Rafflecopter so I’m just going to leave a comment. I really like the sound of this book being told from the bully’s POV and very interested in seeing how Mia “let’s it all hang out” lol 🙂 Thanks for a chance at winning a copy.
This sounds like a fun read. It’ll be interesting to see it from the bullies stand point, what his reaction will be when he regains his memory.