NEPHY'S WORLD: Here Without you by Mia Kendrick. Interview.

Book Name: Here Without You

Book two of the Once Voice series. Can be read as a standalone, but not suggested.

Release Date: February

Author Name: Mia Kerick

Author Bio:

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, 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.

Where to find Mia:

Blog: www.miakerick.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mia.kerick

Dreamspinner Author Arcade: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/AuthorArcade/mia-kerick/bio/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6474518.Mia_Kerick

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MiaKerick

INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR

1 - Which of your characters gets the most attention? The one who is the loudest or the one who is next on your to do list?

If you are asking about which character gets the most mental attention from me in my daily thoughts and daydreams, it is not the loudest character, but the sweetest and most sensitive. The characters who feed my imagination the most, and then I, of course, feed them back, are the sweet, tortured guys who just want to fall and love and live happily ever after, but so much prevents them from getting that done.

2 - Which of your characters has gone off in directions you didn’t expect?

When I wrote The Red Sheet from the perspective of Bryan, I told myself I was going to let myself go totally as an author and that I was not going to be restricted by the usual rules that authors are supposed to follow. I said to myself, “If Bryan thinks it, and Mia likes it, then I’m gonna write it.” And Bryan was quite a character, with quite unruly thoughts. He even took me to the scene of a flash mob in his high school cafeteria, where he danced! I honestly never knew what Bryan was going to do next. He once even jumped off a high stone wall to see if he could fly!

3 - Do you have a daily word count you expect to reach?

I definitely do not have a daily word count. In fact, I just write in spurts and pay no attention to word count, whatsoever. If the book is long, it’s long, and if it is short, so be it.

4 - What is your least favorite part about writing?

Waiting for the very first reviews is hard because if feels like I am waiting for a verdict to come in on my hard work. And I’m sensitive so I take it all to heart.

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Cover Artist: Paul Richmond (Photograph by Dan Skinner)

Blurb(s):

Excerpt

NATE'S DIARY

August 23 (they only been gone about half a week now)

SO MAYBE this is a bit fucked up, but I’m gonna put it down on paper in black and white, and maybe when I read it back to myself, it’ll seem more normal.

Here’s the thing. Like Casey says, us three is a throuple. Three dudes in love. Whatever. Cuz I sure as shit love them guys, and nothin’s gonna change that. So, yeah. There’s two dudes in place A and one dude, alone, in place B. I just figured them two would be gettin’ busy in bed in their fancy dorm room whenever they had a chance—cuz that’s what guys do, right?

Well, apparently not so much. Last night they Skyped me. There them two were, sittin’ all cozy on Casey’s rainbow-colored bedspread. The floppy stuffed unicorn that me and Zander gave him for Christmas junior year was propped up behind ’em, starin’ at the computer, like it was lookin’ right at yours truly. I felt real alone and a little like a loser (fucked-up fact is they only been gone a couple days), but I leaned back on my bed and acted like I didn’t give a shit.

Casey said, in this adorable proper voice, “Nate, there’s a topic Zander and I feel it’s imperative we discuss. It’s a matter of great importance.” He already sounds like a doctor, and he’s only a freshman in college.

Zander was just starin’ into the computer at me, sorta studyin’ my I-don’t-give-a-shit-about-nothin’ expression.

“What’s such a big friggin’ deal, babe? Lay it on me.” That was pretty cool soundin’, I thought.

“Well, Zander and I want to have a discussion about.... Nate, we want to discuss physical intimacy. In that....”

Even on Skype I could see that two spots on Casey’s cheeks had turned bright pink. Looked like he was having trouble spittin’ this out. And he was the talker in our throuple.

“Zander and I are here together, without you, and we’ve talked about this—”

“I expect you two’ve been goin’ to town on each other every night since you got to college and are prob’ly itchin’ to strip each other down right now.” Both of my guys’ eyes popped open wide when I said that.

“Actually, Nate.” Zander spoke up cuz it seemed that Casey was suddenly at a loss for words. “We haven’t, and we’re not gonna.”

“Huh?” That just kinda flew outta my mouth. “Come again, guy?”

Casey found his voice. “We aren’t going to sleep together unless you’re with us. We discussed it, and neither of us think it would feel right.” He glanced at Zander, and them two nodded at each other. “We aren’t going to do anything in bed together until you’re here for a visit.”