A warm welcome to author Mila McWarren joining us today here @ Love Bytes for her new release “The Luckiest”.
Mila brought along Aaron to ask him some questions, she also shares an excerpt and there is a giveway to participate in!
Welcome Mila 🙂
Author Name: Mila McWarren
Book Name: The Luckiest
Release Date: July 7, 2015
Publisher: Interlude Press
Cover Artist: C.B. Messer
Pages or Words: 256 pages
Blurb:
When New York-based memoirist Aaron Wilkinson gathers with his high school friends to marry off two of their own, he is forced to spend a week with Nik, the boy who broke his heart.
As they settle into the Texas beach house where the nuptials will be performed, Nik quickly makes his intentions clear: he wants Aaron back. “He’s coming hard, baby,” a friend warns, setting the tone for a week of transition where Aaron and Nik must decide if they are playing for keeps.
Categories: Contemporary, Gay fiction, M/M Romance, New Adult, Romance
Character Interview Aaron
- What did you want to be when you were a kid?
The first thing I ever wanted to be was an astronaut. I grew up practically in the shadow of NASA, and I was a smart kid; of course I wanted to be an astronaut. I think I liked the promise of it, too – we would go on these school trips and they would cram 26 kids into a model of a tiny lunar capsule, and this obnoxious kid Tyler would be shuffling from foot to foot because he had to pee, and half of the kids smelled like cigarette smoke and sweat and hairspray, and the girls didn’t stop whispering the entire time, and so the tour guide would be telling us about the isolation of being in space and nothing sounded more delightful than sneaking aboard a rocket and hiding, stowing away, and getting away from all these people.
- What do you value the most in your friends?
Probably humor. I have no idea how I’ve become this earnest – my mother says I was even serious as a baby, but she’s hilarious in her own very dry way. The people who know me best know how to save me when I’m drama queening out, which I do with some developed skill. Alex, especially, has always had a sixth sense for slapping me with a joke when I needed it, and Stephanie, by being even more serious than I am, helps me find the joke in pretty much everything. And Nik, of course, can look at me just right and I don’t even have to feel his elbow in my ribs or hear his voice to know that I should just lighten up already.
- What is your favorite song?
I can’t stop smiling, because the answer to this question would be so much more wonderful if you were asking Nik; we’d be here for 20 minutes while he gave you his entire musical history. You’d learn far more than you ever wanted to know about the role Houston played in the development of Southern hip-hop and rap. Ask me how I know.
I don’t love music like Nik does. I like to dance and so dance music has a special appeal for me, but for me the best songs are the ones that tell me stories. I love stories, and so that’s part of it, but I also grew up listening to my mother’s favorite classic country that she loved so much, and those are songs that tell the same stories over and over again.
I don’t really have a favorite, but I can tell you that for the last several months I’ve been humming George Jones’s “I Always Get Lucky With You”. It’s a sentimental favorite, at least.
- If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Well so far I’ve come off humorless and possessing an old man’s taste in music, so why not?
I would be less prickly, I think. I’m better than I used to be, less defensive and self-protective and reactive. I know it frustrates Nik sometimes; the man can take criticism and just calmly evaluate it and decide for himself how relevant it is, and he’s still not sure how to talk to me sometimes in a way that I can really hear without shutting down. I’m working on it – well, we’re working on it together, I guess.
- What word or phrase do you overuse?
Looking back over these last few responses suggest that the word is “Nik”. That’s what happens when you’re living with somebody, I guess – so much becomes about them that it’s hard to talk about yourself without referring to them!
Mila speaks: This was fun – thank you for having me here today!
Thank you for coming 🙂
Aaron finishes the song and Stephanie snatches the mic out of his hand, crooks her finger at Nik and launches them into a reprise of their performance of “Dancing on My Own” from the homecoming weekend they all spent here at the house back in senior year. Stephanie still has questionable rhythm and tragic pitch—she loves to sing, which is why they have a karaoke machine in this house, but it’s one thing she will admit she doesn’t have much of a gift for—but there’s a reason Nik majored in music at The University of Texas, and his voice has come a long way.
Somehow, this deliberate throwback to a memory that was never anything but happy seems different than what Aaron has just done. He sits on the sofa, flanked by Alex and Jasmine, hating them both a little for participating in it even while he smiles. Nik dances—how can you not, with this song—but he still watches Aaron, gives him a little head-tilt during the chorus, and it’s charming and devastating and infuriating.
Jasmine leans to murmur, “Oh, I see how it is.”
“Oh, shut up.”
“You might not be desperate, but I’m not sure about him. He’s coming hard, baby.”
Sales Links:
Mila McWarren grew up in Texas, but has happily made her home on the East Coast for the last decade. In her day job she works as a social scientist and has spent the last 10 years developing her fiction writing online. She lives with her husband and their two kids. When she isn’t using working, writing, or hanging out with her family, she likes knitting and watching television, because they go together like peanut butter and chocolate, two of her other great loves.
Where to find the author:
Twitter: @milamcwarren
Tumblr: milamcwarren.tumblr.com
Website: www.milamcwarren.com
Tour Dates & Stops: July 7 – July 20, 2015
7-Jul
Because Two Men Are Better Than One
8-Jul
Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves
9-Jul
Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
10-Jul
Sinfully Addicted to All Male Romance
13-Jul
Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews
14-Jul
15-Jul
16-Jul
17-Jul
Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My
20-Jul
Rafflecopter Prize: One $25 Interlude Press gift card. Five e-book copies of ‘The Luckiest’
Thanks so much for having me here today; the character interview was super fun. If any of your readers have any questions, I’d love to chat!
Congratulations on your release! I really want to read this book! Thank you for the chance!