I'm so excited about Mia Kerick's upcoming YA book, Love Spell. She's here today to answer some of our questions, and along with that an excerpt and giveaway!
Author Interview:
BMBR: How did you come up with the title for this book?
Mia: The story is about devious ways to capture your man, and it mainly focuses on a how-to list that Chance and his BFF find in an online woman’s article. However, it hit me that conducting having Chance conduct a love spell could be interesting and funny, and so I did an online search for love spells. What I found was a literal gold mine to a writer, and maybe to a stand-up comic. I just knew I had to include at least one love spell in my new story, as it is a romantic comedy. And I really had no choice but to name the book Love Spell. The title screamed its desired name at me with such ferocity that I had no choice but to comply.
BMBR: Do you have a specific writing style?
Mia: I do. And it is the very opposite of the brief two-word sentence I just used to reply to your question. I tend to write many long sentences, broken into pieces by commas, and I like to follow these sentences with shorter incomplete sentences, such as: Not to be dramatic. Or, Like a rat in a corner. I find the abrupt change in flow humorous. I thrive on the use of creative language and dialect, and I love to put internal thoughts in italics. Get my meanin’?
BMBR: Rather than only writing M/M romance, you’ve ventured into different sexual/gender identities in the LBGTQ spectrum with your writing. Other than M/M, are there any other LBGTQ romances in your plans?
Mia: I have written roughly 12 (or is it 13) gay romances in YA and adult categories, but I did stray from my usual course and write a YA lesbian romance, Come To My Window. In Love Spell, I write the story of an out and proud gay teenage boy who happens to suffer with gender confusion. He is not transsexual but he identifies with both genders. He doesn’t want to be forced to choose between the genders. So, writing a gender fluid person’s story is a new place on the gender spectrum for my fictional characters. I feel certain that I will continue to seek out new places on the gender spectrum to explore using romance. Everybody needs a story.
BMBR: You’ve written quite a few inspiring YA novels, do you enjoy reading YA yourself?
Mia: I really do enjoy reading YA, in fact, right now I am reading Cody Kennedy’s Slaying Isidore’s Dragons. I have Brian Katcher’s Almost Perfect on my TBR list. But I read more adult gay romance, as I do not want my perspective as a YA writer to get overly influenced by the styles and flavors of other YA authors. I like to keep my perspective fresh.
BMBR: Is there a message in this book you want your readers to understand?
Mia: There are several important messages in Love Spell, I will not lie. I include a theme about labeling people; I don’t come out and say labels are good or bad, but I urge readers to question their necessity. There is also a strong theme of the importance of being true to oneself. And being honest with others. I hope to encourage readers to see that some kids are different from most, perhaps even odd, but they have hearts and souls and concerns and joys, like everybody else. The values of friendship and the pure love of family is not overlooked.
Cover & Blurb:
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.
Pages or Words: 44,300 words
Categories: Contemporary, Gay Fiction, Romance, Young Adult
Excerpt:
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.
About Mia:
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.
Author Links:
Goodreads
Publisher: Cool Dudes Publishing
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A special thanks to Will at Pride Promotions for organizing this tour.
Hi Mia! I love the cover. It's so fun!
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