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
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Paul Richmond (Photograph by Dan Skinner)
Blurb(s):
With all of his scratched and dented heart, Nate DeMarco wants to be two places at once, but he’s been forced to make an unbearable choice. Having barely survived high school, Nate and his boyfriends, Casey Minton and Zander Zane, are ready to move forward in life. Casey and Zander have left home to attend Boston City College. Nate remains in New Hampshire to protect his volatile younger sister from their increasingly violent, alcoholic uncle. Nate suffers with anger, resentment, and loneliness as he battles what he wants against what he feels he must do.
Now separated, the young men fight to stay in contact. However, they’re each faced with their own separate issues. Casey must cope with residual fear from having been bullied in high school. Zander obsesses over the establishment of One Voice, the new gay-straight alliance at Boston City College. Nate fights for his sister’s very survival. Meanwhile, the intensity of the boys’ relationship increases, both sexually and emotionally, as happens in long distance relationships.
Nate’s futile effort to live two lives leads to tragedy, which blasts Nate, Casey, and Zander apart. Can the three young men find their way back to a united path before it’s too late?
Categories: Contemporary, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Menage/Poly, New Adult, Romance
Excerpt:
2 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.”
Pages or Words: 216 pages
Interview
On a scale of one to ten, how much of an emotional toll did this book take on you and why?
Thank you very much for hosting me on your blog today, I am so pleased to be here on my Here Without You book tour. This is a very interesting and maybe slightly complicated question, as Here Without You is the first sequel to Us Three, in the series that is called The One Voice Series.
I hope it is okay that I backtrack a bit, and start by discussing Us Three. I did some intense research on bullying in order to write Us Three, which was a YA novel. And great deal of the bullying tactics I included hit quite close to home because I focused on the ways females bully. Although in this story one of the female bullies escalates to violent physical bullying, much of the girls’ (the Queen Bees) tactics were emotional. They encouraged others to gang up against Casey and make him feel isolated, they employed social media to harass him, and they even used simple dialogue to humiliate him. And having personally experienced some of that kind of treatment in the past at the hands of other girls, it took a toll on me to write about it because it brought me back to high school and all of the feelings of rejection and isolation. In addition, to apply this pain this to a very sweet character like Casey who I had grown to love in a short period of time, was not easy to do. I would rate the emotional toll Us Three took on me as a 7-8. The first scene of the book, however, I would rate as a 9.
Here Without You does not focus on bullying, but instead it centers on physical and emotional abuse in a domestic relationship. Fortunately, I have not experienced the kind of physical and emotional abuse that Nate and his younger sister, Cindy, face at the hands of their guardian, Uncle Rich. Nate was finally in a position to leave his dangerous home; he had made it through high school and had an opportunity to go with his boyfriends to Boston to study culinary arts. But he was trapped in that he felt he could not leave his volatile younger sister in the hands of his more volatile alcoholic uncle. Cindy’s insolent behavior led to merciless beatings—not of her but of Nate, by their enraged uncle. And as the story progresses, the assaults on Nate become more and more frequent. This physical abuse and Nate’s inability to deal with it, was very difficult to write, as I knew Nate much better when writing Here Without You than I did while writing the first book in the series, and I had grown attached to him. I knew how deeply he loves Casey and Zander, how he is truly very needy for them but feels he must appear strong. In fact, in writing this story, I realized that his physical largeness also contributes to his sense that he must always be the strong one, but at times he is even more fragile than Casey, even. Nate doesn’t understand that his personal physical safety matters, too. He is only concerned with the safety and happiness of his younger sister.
In addition to the pain and fear he must live with, Nate must deal with his challenges alone. Casey and Zander have together relocated to their school dormitory two hours south, and Nate knows they have each other to lean on, while he has no one. At a certain point in the book, Nate is driven over the edge by a combination of these factors, and writing the scenes when Nate hits rock bottom, I will rate as an emotional toll of 9.5, bordering on 10.
Dreamspinner Press has purchased a third cover for the final book in this, the One Voice Series. I promise that in what I plan to title, Coming Into the Light, you will know I endured an emotional toll of 10, as Zander, who has always held the three together, tries to make his way out of the dark.
Tour Dates/Stops:
16-Feb
Gaylist Book Reviews
Nephylim
Multitasking Mommas
Prism Book Alliance
Rainbow Gold Reviews
17-Feb
Hearts on Fire
Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
Velvet Panic
Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews
Amanda C. Stone
18-Feb
Fallen Angel Reviews
Cathy Brockman Romances
Because Two Men Are Better Than One
My Fiction Nook
Jade Crystal
Queer Town Abbey
BFD Book Blog
19-Feb
Bayou Book Junkie
MM Good Book Reviews
Christy Loves 2 Read
Molly Lolly
20-Feb
Parker Williams
Decadent Delights
Love Bytes
The Novel Approach
Inked Rainbow Reads
Sales Links:
eBook: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6035
Paperback: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6036
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