A warm love bytes welcome to author Mia Kerick joining us here today to talk about her newest release “Love Spell”.
Mia answers a couple of questions for us , shares and excerpt and there is also a giveway to participate in.
Welcome Mia 🙂
Author Name: Mia Kerick
Book Name: Love Spell
Release Date: June 1, 2015
Publisher: Cool Dudes Publishing
Cover Artist: Louis C. Harris
Pages or Words: 44,300 words
Blurb:
Strutting his stuff on the catwalk in black patent leather pumps and a snug orange tuxedo as this year’s Miss (ter) Harvest Moon feels so very right to Chance César, and yet he knows it should feel so very wrong.
As far back as he can remember, Chance has been “caught between genders.” (It’s quite a touchy subject; so don’t ask him about it.) However, he does not question his sexual orientation. Chance has no doubt about his gayness—he is very much out of the closet at his rural New Hampshire high school, where the other students avoid the kid they refer to as “girl-boy.”
But at the local Harvest Moon Festival, when Chance, the Pumpkin Pageant Queen, meets Jasper Donahue, the Pumpkin Carving King, sparks fly. So Chance sets out, with the help of his BFF, Emily, to make “Jazz” Donahue his man.
An article in an online women’s magazine, Ten Scientifically Proven Ways to Make a Man Fall in Love with You (with a bonus love spell thrown in for good measure), becomes the basis of their strategy to capture Jazz’s heart.
Quirky, comical, definitely flamboyant, and with an inner core of poignancy, Love Spell celebrates the diversity of a gender-fluid teen.
Categories: Contemporary, Gay Fiction, Romance, Young Adult
Pre Order Link:
Thank you so much for welcoming me here today. I am eager to discuss my new June 1st release, Love Spell.
How did you come up with the idea for Love Spell?
We all want to see characters like ourselves in books—with the same types of personal problems, fears, and dilemmas that we face every day. Reading books with characters that resemble us in some significant way is comforting, and lets us know that we aren’t alone in what feels like an epic battle to survive the teenage years. LGBTQ kids, particularly kids who are gender questioning, are at a disadvantage here, as they don’t have an equal opportunity to find themselves in books, since the books on the shelves at the library and the local bookstore and even online don’t feature enough characters of diversity. This is discouraging to the kids who are most in need of models to provide them with hope. Gender questioning teens need to be able to easily find reasons for hope and sources of inspiration in the books they read.
In the news lately, there have been so many tragic examples of gender questioning or transitioning teens taking their own lives as a result of their gender confusion. Contributing to the teens’ agitation include lack of family support, religious condemnation, and bullying by peers. Studies show that LGBTQ teens have more suicide attempts than students without gender or sexuality acceptance issues. Kids who are struggling with their gender identity need books like Love Spell. They need to read about Chance César—a gender fluid seventeen-year-old boy who quite often feels like a girl. They need to see him as being awkward at times, and strong at other times, but always engaging and real. They need to see him make mistakes and fix them. They need to see him negotiate the circumstances of his life as a teen with a non-traditional gender identity. And kids who are not experiencing these issues need to read about kids who are, to encourage compassion and understanding, and a move towards normalcy of all gender identities. My idea for Love Spell came from the raw need in society for this type of book.
Is it a standalone or part of a series?
Sometimes when I write a story, I don’t know if a book is a standalone or part of a series. It depends on reader reaction. With Us Three lots of readers wanted to know what happened next, so I wrote Here Without You. I guess I will just see how readers respond to the characters and then decide, but for now Love Spell stands alone.
What is your favorite comfort read?
Lately, I have been going to my Kindle and reading The Red Sheet by…by ME! I guess I am extremely happy with and proud of that novel and I like to relive it every now and then. But I have developed more finesse as I writer, so sometimes I wish I could edit it one more time, which causes a bit of stress. But overall, reading The Red Sheet always makes me smile.
How do you celebrate a new release?
I usually wait up until midnight for the book “birth” and save some special memes for release moment and the release day, and then after posting I just let it happen. I usually don’t write anything new on release day and I torture myself by checking the Amazon lists to see how my new book is doing. No big party, but a hearty sense of relief!
Care to share what your next project is?
I have written 50,000 words of a YA LGBTQ story featuring two complicated high school characters—Lanny, the sweet-faced, seemingly guileless boy next-door and Trevor, the troubled, super-cool rebel—and how they are thrown together to survive the toughest years of their life. I’m not going to tell you about the major theme of the book, as I don’t want to spoil the surprise. But it is a heavy novel, not a light-hearted one. Lanny has a class-clown mentality, not so much obnoxious as sweetly funny, and Trevor is a man of mystery. Neither of them will be able to move forward in their lives until they face their own painful truths. Also this summer I have a novella releasing from CoolDudes/YoungDudes Publishing that was inspired by the Beatles called A Hard Day’s Night. Watch for it!!
Not to say that I kept my phone basically right beneath my chin for the next four days, but I kept my phone basically right beneath my chin for the next four days. Yes, I was oh-so-pathetically waiting for his call, which I am aware fully explains the need for the phrase “get a life.” But Jazz hadn’t been at school on the Thursday or Friday after he had called and cancelled our playdate, and now it’s Sunday night, and I still haven’t heard from him. And although I’m frustrated that all of my elaborate plans to make him fall head over heels in love with moi have apparently tanked, I’m also growing genuinely concerned.
That’s when my cell phone, which I placed on my chest before I lay down on my now “love-spell-pink” wrapped mattress, starts singing Express Yourself.
“Yo.” I don’t check the number. It’s Emmy—who else would it be?
“Hi, Chance.” The deep voice is so not Emmy’s.
Yaaassss!!! This is what ninety-nine percent of my insides shout. One percent says quietly, “It’s about frigging time you called, asshole.”
But my voice is calm. “Jasper,” I say blandly. In my opinion, he hasn’t earned the right to be called Jazz any longer.
“Um, sorry, no. It’s Jazz.”
I try not to roll my eyes even though I know he won’t see, but it’s an epic fail. “Whatever.”
“I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch for a couple days. My mom’s been real sick. I was lookin’ after her, gettin’ her to the doctor, goin’ to the pharmacy, bringing JoJo back and forth to school, and stuff.”
Oh.
“Mom caught JoJo’s strep throat and had to go to the ER because she couldn’t even swallow.” He stops talking for a second and then clears his voice. “Alls she could do was spit into a rag whenever she needed to swallow.”
Well, that’s definitely TMI, but I get the fucker-nelly revolting picture. “I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault, dude.”
And then there’s silence.
“Gonna take JoJo to the library after school tomorrow. But first I gotta stop by the cable company and pay up or we’re gonna lose our TV and internet at home. They already warned us like twice.”
“Want me to pick up Yolo at school and take her to the library?” I’m so freaking pissed off at him. Why am I offering to save his ass again?
“That’s cool of you to offer, but there’s a bus she can take to the library from her school. Could ya be waiting for her at the library, in case I get held up?”
“Of course.” I’m a Class A sucker.
“You’re such a cool pal.” Ugh—so not what I’m going for.
“Thanks.”
“I’m not gonna be at lunch tomorrow seein’ as I’ll probably be collecting my makeup work. So, I’ll see ya at the library. ‘Kay?”
I don’t say kkkk cuz it’s not even slightly cool. “Sure. The libes after school, it is.”
“Thank you, bro,” Jazz offers.
One more silence, and then I say, “Later.”
I have research to do.
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-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 Dreamspinner Press, Harmony Ink Press, CoolDudes Publishing, 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. 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.
Stop by Mia’s Blog with questions or comments, or simply share what’s on your mind. Find Mia on Facebook, Goodreads, and Amazon.
Where to find the author:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mia.kerick?fref=ts
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MiaKerick
Pinterest: http://www,pinterest.com/miakerick/
Tour Dates & Stops:
25-May
26-May
Cathy Brockman Romances
Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews
27-May
Because Two Men Are Better Than One
28-May
Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
29-May
Rafflecopter Prize: $25Amazon Gift Certificate
Thank you for having me on your blog today!! I am so excited to have the opportunity to discuss Love Spell with your readers!
Hello Mia! CongraTULAtions on your latest release.