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.
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 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-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:
So, this is where to FIND the author but we want to know a bit more about her, so lets ask her some questions and see what she has to say for herself
Hello, and thank you so much for welcoming
me to answer some very random interview questions in my Book Tour promoting Love Spell, my June 1st
release from CoolDudes/YoungDudes Publishing.
Do you have a
specific writing style?
I
don’t know if you could really call it a style, but I definitely have
tendencies. I have a tendency to use a youthful-sounding author’s voice, which
I attribute to my perpetual emotional age of fifteen. Even when I’m writing
adult novels. I often write informally, and I love slang and idioms and
cliches. Call me a criminal! (See, I did it right there.) I have a tendency to
write long and complicated sentences, or short brief ones, and it seems I never
take the middle of the road in this area.
Do these things add up to a style? I really don’t know. I write from my heart
and what comes out is what comes out. (I hope you like it, that’s all!)
How do you come up with the titles?
I
find coming up with titles a combination of FUN and STRESS.
The
fun part can be likened to smearing fudgy frosting on a chocolate cupcake. I
thrive on anticipating how well the two parts (frosting and cupcake/story and
title) will come together as a whole. I love searching key words for related
idioms that might fit my story.
And
sometimes I know the title from the very beginning of my writing, for example,
Not Broken, Just Bent was named before the story was fully conceived, because I
was inspired by the song to write it.
So music is a great source of both inspiration and titles.
The
STRESS part comes in when I start dwelling on how important the title is. I
want to attract readers, and I want it to be true to the story. I want it to
have that perfect ring, but I don’t want there to be a hundred other books of
that same title on Amazon. Sometimes I think I have come up with the absolute
perfect title and when I search for it online, I realize I am not the only
author who had that thought.
If
you were not a writer what else would you like to have done?
Interesting question, and I’d have to say that I did
the other things I wanted to do, as far as careers go. I was a middle school
teacher for ten years and I loved it. The kids were great, and writing lesson
plans—incredibly creative Geography lesson plans—was my passion. After I taught
for ten years, I became a mom, and I was fortunate enough to be able to stay
home with my four children for the next eighteen years. I put the same energy
into their birthday parties and play dates as I put into my lesson plans. When the
youngest of the four was in middle school, I picked up writing, which allows me
to be flexible with my time and to spend as much time as I want to with my
family.
Favorite subject in school? Why?
I always liked the boys. My
favorite subject depended largely upon which boys were in my class. But no
matter what, even if the cutest boy in the school was in my class, my favorite
was never math.
Who in history would you like to have met?
I would have loved to have
met Freddie Mercury. He was what my childhood dreams were made of, and in my
opinion, the most talented of all male vocalists. I admire his vocal abilities
that are unbelievable, his musicianship, and his stage antics. What an amazing
entertainer!
What do you always order in a favorite restaurant?
A tuna melt. Love me a good tuna melt.
And on that note, I will go make a sandwich. Answering
interview questions is hungry business!
Tour Dates & Stops:
Parker Williams,
Inked Rainbow Reads,
Love Bytes, Bike Book
Reviews, BFD Book
Blog, Carly’s
Book Reviews, My
Fiction Nook, Wicked Faerie's Tales and Reviews, Scattered
Thoughts & Rogue Words, Boy Meets Boy Reviews, 3 Chicks After Dark,
Chris McHart, EE Montgomery, Divine
Magazine, Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings, Boys on the Brink Reviews,
MM Good
Book Reviews, Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents, Velvet Panic, Up All Night,
Read All Day, Cate Ashwood, Nephylim,
Mikky's
World of Books, Rainbow
Gold Reviews, Because
Two Men Are Better Than One, Prism
Book Alliance, Bayou
Book Junkie, Amanda
C. Stone, Molly
Lolly, The
Novel Approach, Jessie
G. Books, Hearts
on Fire, Cathy
Brockman Romances
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Ann Lister writes erotic love stories using
beautifully drawn characters; flawed and emotionally damaged, and at the height
of their careers, each in search of the one thing that still eludes them: love.
