I’ve never been particularly comfortable with the random parts of life. Like my character Caleb Jorde, in Random Acts, I would prefer to know what’s coming in life and to be afforded with plenty of opportunity to structure my world into clear emotional categories in order to be prepared. That way I’d be ready for any tragedy and any joy. For anything and everything life could toss my way—this girl would be prepared.
But maybe that’s not such a good idea after all… Maybe it’s best to savor the awesome moments as they occur, and to deal with the hardships on a need to be dealt with basis. Maybe life can be random and maybe that’s a good thing.
Maybe that good part of random can start with these random questions from my readers.
Random Questions from Kari
Are you more touched by seeing something or hearing something?
I love this question. And it is an easy one for me to answer. I am definitely one of those people who gets goose bumps when I hear a certain kind of voice singing. It can be any kind of voice that brings on these feelings—as long as it is intense and vibrant and has that special ringing-out-into-every-corner-of-the-room quality—I will be moved in a way that has nothing to do with my thoughts, but rather my feelings are touched on a deeper level.
What was the craziest thing you did as a teacher?
Every year when I taught my unit on Latin America, I was a world geography teacher for seventh graders, I held a fiesta for all of the students who had a passing grade. It may sound cruel that those who were failing couldn’t attend, but the motivation for this fiesta was so great that not one child ever missed it. They achieved passing grades so they could attend.
Each of my 120 students would sign up to be on one of the many committees—food, decorations, music, games, costumes. And on the last Friday of the unit, with permission from the home economics teacher who let us use her kitchen, each of my five classes spent Geography period partying.
The day was overly messy, too loud, and, at times, bordering on out-of-control. Together, my students and I ate rice and beans, sipped on ponche de frutas (fruit punch), limbo-ed, and broke piñatas. (I filled five piñatas, one for each class) Other teachers stopped by wearing sombreros and sarapes, and sampled our homemade cuisine. By the end of the day, Miss G (me in my single days) was SPENT. And full to the brim and I had a lot of counters to clean. But my kids had learned some valuable lessons:
*there are positive consequences to working hard at school
*to value the uniqueness of Latin American foods and games
*to enjoy the company of adults and kids you don’t normally socialize with in an organized (sort of) fashion
Sometimes I miss those days, but you should have seen the kinds of birthday parties I threw for my kids.
How do you manage/balance all of your children’s interests?
When I brought my son home from South Korea, I had a newborn, a two-year-old, a three-year-old, and a five-year old. Four kids—kindergarten age and younger. And I thought I was busy.
But when you have four kids in middle school and high school, none of whom have drivers licenses and all of whom are actively involved in sports, academic clubs, art, and dance, that is when you discover the true meaning of the word. It was logistically impossible for one stay-at-home mother to get four kids to four different places. (Each of my children is unique and has his or her individual interests.) To get Ali to soccer, Demi to dance, Sisi to art, and Chris to basketball required an extra driver, and setting up the afternoon’s schedule was like doing a daily advanced mathematics problem.
To this end, I had mother’s helpers. Marley and Lacey were with us for five years, and they always worked as a team. They were followed by Hilary, Megan, and Jillian. These teenage girls with licenses helped me get the kids around, but they also watched them at rehearsals and practices, conversed with them in the car, fed them fast food and mac and cheese—in short, they did everything that I did. Whenever I see these girls around town, I always thank them and tell them what a remarkable job they did helping me to raise my kids.
It was a balancing act, but I managed to get through it with help, and now there are only two at home in two in college. I have no regrets.
Short questions from Kari:
Cats or dogs? Cats
Pinterest or Tumbler: pinterest
Do you dream in color? I assume so, but I don’t know. Next time I dream I will try to check.
How do you feel about Jon Lester trade? BAD
From Beckey:
Boxers or briefs kind of writer: mainly boxers
Favorite subject in school: chorus
Favorite color: green
Introvert or Extrovert: a very friendly introvert (I recharge alone)
From Kevin:
Left-handed or right? Right
What book will have a sequel next? Us Three’s sequel comes out in January of 2015
From Kate Pavelle:
Where do you write from? Island in kitchen made of uneven barn board (challenging) or sunken in couch in Red Sox Room
Have you ever NOT changed a name to protect the guilty? Bradley in Random Acts is named after Bradley Cooper and he looks just like him!
CAT QUESTIONS
Cat Question from Michael:
What is your cat’s name and why is he wearing a bandana? Is he a gang member, and if so, have you tried to get him to drop out?
The cat is a she and she’s named Cookie, which is the name she came with from the breeder. We got Cookie as a plus-one special when we got our white “Fancy Feast” cat. Cookie, it seemed , had been returned by another family for not behaving as a cat should behave. Cookie has a mind of her own, she knows what she wants which is usually to sit on top of whatever you are trying to pay attention to, and she usually gets it. Despite the fact that she is the smallest and a female, she is the dominant cat in our household. At this time we have four. Cookie rules. Cookie is wearing a bandana because the kids found and bandana, wanted to put it on a cat and she is the only cat who would tolerate it. If cats had cat gangs, she would be the leader. I do not think I could get her to drop out of the gang unless she wanted to.
From Beckey:
Is your cat trying to be a cowboy? Has he roped and tied any mice lately?
Cookie is not a cow-cat; she is just trying to get through the bandana-wearing experience without biting someone. And we have four cats. I have never seen a mouse here.
What made you write m/m? (Marieke)
I wrote stories for many years that I stuffed under the mattress, and my male characters were always so much more well fleshed-out and maybe even likeable than my female characters. When I wrote romance I decided that I would do what I do best and write two men. But it was beyond just a circumstantial decision for me. I am a stay-at-home mother and have been since I had children. I have depended on my husband for insurance. I become angry when I think that all couples committed enough to marry can not take care of each other in this way—by marrying and getting the benefits, like insurance, with which marriage provides you. Practical, not romantic, but real.
Where do you get your ideas? (Marieke)
There is really not one set answer, as my ideas come from different places. With my first novel, Beggars and Choosers, it was a story that I had written in my mind and in notebooks when I was about thirteen years old. I was the main character Cory, and all of the other characters in the book were based on band members from Queen and Journey.
Random Acts was inspired by two men who I find very different, and very intriguing. Bradley Zelder was inspired by Bradley Cooper and Caleb Jorde was inspired by a certain other man I know, who I will not name. I thought about their personalities, and how moving it would be to see a confident, cool, wealthy, educated man become vulnerable to his partner who is none of those things. Random Acts was the result.
Edward Cullen from Twilight was also an inspiration for Brett. I wanted to make my own selfless guy who would do ANYTHING for love, but who was a bit rough and tough around the edges.
For subsequent books, my ideas have come from EVERYWHERE. For Intervention- the idea came from my love of pop music and my desire to show that love can help you conquer even the worst circumstances.
For A Package Deal, it came into my mind that a family does not need to be comprised of those with whom you share blood. I wanted to write a story about A Chosen Family, and ths, I wrote A Package Deal, where Robbie gets Tristan and Savannah, his unconventional family, together as one.
For The Red Sheet, my inspiration came from the song Superman by Five for Fighting—I just loved it so much—and also, I decided I was not going to obey typical writers conventions, but instaed I was just going to write whatever came into my mind. I said to myself- Mia don’t hold back anything, and I didn’t.
I got the idea for Us Three, because I have always been fascinated with the topic of polyamory. I thought and thought and could not come up with a fictional mmm YA throuple, as Scott says in One Voice, the sequel. I challenged myself. Can you write a YA Menage, Mia? Can it be done appropriately and sweetly? I thought it could be done and so I did it.
I recently completed a book that I called His Way, but have since rewritten and it is now called Inclination. I have not yet contracted it with a publisher. In any case, it bothers me how many LGBT people feel alienated by organized religion, as well as by God. I researched gay Christianity, learned an immense amount, and turned what I learned into a story.
I plan to write about an issue that many people know is near to my heart, self acceptance, in particular of one’s body. The idea is slowly forming in my brain.
3 m/m writers walk into a bar. They each order the other two drinks. Who are they, what do they order, and why? (Brandilyn)
Amy Lane, Mary calmes and me- bottle of champagne
Alcohol coffee because I want to talk way into the night
You climb into your car, reach under the seat and find SOMETHING you lost. What would you be happiest to find? (Note: The space under your car seat is not bound by the laws of space and time so you can find ANYTHING.) (Raine)
I climb into my black Volvo wagon. Since I have no idea how to get to my son’s friend house where he went to hang out after school, I start searching around for my GPS. It isn’t on the passenger seat floor where it somehow always ends up. I turn around and look in the back seat, and still don’t see it. This means I’m going to have to get out of my car and go into Full Searching Mode. As a last resort, before I enter FSM, I bend over and reach my hands underneath the driver’s seat. When the older kids return my GPS after borrowing it, I know it could land anywhere. I feel around under there, and I while there are wires, and cold metal objects, they all seem to be somehow attached to my car.
But then something sandpaper-y and wet swipes the side of my finger. And I know one thing for sure—that something is alive! And I’d bet my life it had just licked my finger. I stretch out my fingers and I distinctly feel fur, soft and fuzzy and longish. It is a furry feeling I am familiar with. (Unintended alliteration.) Yes, I am a little bit scared, I wonder if it could be a fox or a squirrel or… Yeah, I’m a bit nervous. But nonetheless, I grab the creature and pull it as gently as I can out from under my car seat.
“This can’t be real!” I exclaim when I see who is in my hands. “Sweet Pea!”
“Meow.”
I literally can’t believe my eyes. From under my car seat, I have pulled the cat that ran away from home ten years ago. The cat I made LOST CAT signs for, who I searched the neighborhood for day and night, who I visited the humane society in search of. For weeks and weeks after her disappearance, the cat who was MY CAT. Mom’s cat. (She truly loved only me.) Every night when all the kids went to bed Sweet Pea would come out of hiding and stand on my chest as I lay, exhausted, on the couch. I knew she somehow understood how long my day had been. I could see it in her eyes as I patted her and she made those happy cat sounds.
Thanks to Raine’s wacky question for my Random Acts blog tour, I enjoyed another precious moment with Sweet Pea.
Random Acts by Mia Kerick
Dreamspinner Press
Blurb:
Bradley Zelder can’t find his way in life. After struggling for nearly a decade, he has yet to complete his college degree. Working as a school custodian, living in blue-collar Landsbury, MA, his love life is as empty as the rest of his existence. But on his way home after another disastrous date, his truck breaks down in upscale Oceanside. When he thinks life can’t get any worse, a man who is the epitome of Boston elite and everything Bradley finds attractive and intimidating helps him move his truck to the side of the road. Ashamed of his lot in life, Bradley almost lets the opportunity slip away, but he comes to his senses in time and tracks Caleb down.
From a random act of kindness, romance begins to grow, filling all the dark corners of Bradley’s empty life—until a random act of violence threatens to take it all away. Bradley must step up and be the man Caleb believes him to be. Caleb rescued him from a life without hope. Can Bradley rescue him in return?
Links:
Dreamspinner Press | Amazon | B&N
Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23167258-random-acts?from_search=true
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 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 men and their relationships, and she believes that sex 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 for providing her with an alternate place to stash her stories.
Mia is proud of her involvement with the Human Rights Campaign and cheers for each and every victory made in the name of 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.
Mia has published four works of adult contemporary gay romantic fiction with Dreamspinner Press and four novels of contemporary LGBT fiction with Harmony Ink Press. Mia Kerick’s books are recommended reads in the LGBT blogging/reading community, have spent many weeks on Amazon Hot New Releases and LGBT Best Sellers lists, as well as other notable bestseller lists, and have won awards for excellence in YA literature. Author Links:
Website: www.MiaKerick.com
Blog: www.miakerick.com/blog
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1pl5bVl
Twitter: @MiaKerick (https://twitter.com/MiaKerick)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mia.kerick
Amazon author page: http://amzn.to/1vowCBK
Dreamspinner author page: http://bit.ly/1xsRQT7
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/TLcDb
