The Art of Hero Worship
by Mia
Kerick
Genre: NA Contemporary Fiction - LGBTQ
Release Date: October 29th 2018
NineStar Press
Summary:
Saving the one who once saved me.
College junior Liam Norcross is a hero. He
willingly, even eagerly, risks his life to save a stranger as a murderous,
deranged shooter moves methodically through the darkened theater on the
Batcheldor College campus, randomly killing innocent men, women, and children.
The stranger he saves is college freshman Jason
Tripp. Jase loses everything in the shooting: his girlfriend, who dies on the
floor beside him, and his grip on emotional security. He struggles to regain a
sense of safety in the world, finally leaving college to seek refuge in his
hometown.
An inexplicable bond forms between the two men
in the chaos and horror of the theater, and Liam fights to bring Jase back to
the world he ran away from. When Jase returns to school, they’re drawn together
as soulmates, and soon Liam and Jase fall into a turbulent romantic
relationship. However, the rocky path to love cannot be smoothed until Jase
rescues his hero in return by delving into his shady past and solving the
mystery of Liam’s compulsion to be everybody’s savior.
Excerpt:
IT’S
CERTAINLY AN unusual feeling to have your bloody clothes carefully removed by a
burly, male stranger. And once I’m stark naked, to have him stand right
beside the shower with his hands on my waist, while I do my best to clean the
blood off my body—well, this kind of thing doesn’t happen every day. At least
not to me. I hang my head and watch as the bloody water swirls around and is
swallowed by the drain, and I don’t freak out, mainly because I don’t think
there’s any “freak out” left in me. As soon as my head is clean, the guy pulls
me out of the shower and forces me to bend at an odd angle so he can examine
whatever made my head bleed so much. He studies my scalp for a long time, until
I start to shiver and need the spray of hot water to warm me.
When he lets
me go, he says, “I think a bullet grazed the top left side of your head.
There’s a two-inch scrape there, and it’s kind of deep. The bleeding’s stopped,
but you probably ought to get it checked out by a doctor in the morning. It’s
pretty nasty.” His large palm finds its way back to my hip. “But dude, I’d say
that, overall, you’re pretty lucky, know what I mean?”
Not feeling
particularly lucky, I again nod and return to my place beneath the stream of
water, wishing I could wash away everything that happened tonight. What’s weird
is the deep scrape on my head doesn’t hurt...nothing does; I’m physically numb.
I decide at this moment I’m not going to think about the stuff that hurts my
mind until we leave this bathroom...or better yet, until we leave this
apartment, which represents a short reprieve between the hell of the shooting
and the hell of accepting that it was real.
About the Author
Mia
Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—a daughter in law school,
another a professional dancer, a third studying at Mia’s alma mater, Boston
College, and her lone son off to Syracuse. She writes LGBTQ romance when not
editing National Honor Society essays, offering opinions on college and law
school applications, helping to create dance bios, and reviewing English
papers. Her husband of twenty-four years has been told by many that he has the
patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about this, as it is a sensitive subject.
Mia
focuses her stories on emotional growth in turbulent relationships. As she has
a great affinity for the tortured hero, there is, at minimum, one in each book.
As a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with tales of said 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
her wonderful publishers for providing alternate places to stash her stories.
Her
books have won a Best YA Lesbian Rainbow Award, a Reader Views’ Book by Book
Publicity Literary Award, the Jack Eadon Award for Best Book in Contemporary
Drama, an Indie Fab Award, and a Royal Dragonfly First Place Award for Cultural
Diversity, a Story Monsters Purple Dragonfly First Place Award for YA Fiction,
among others.
Mia
is a Progressive, a little bit too obsessed by politics, and cheers for each
and every victory in the name of human rights. 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.
Contact
Mia at miakerick@gmail.com. Visit her at www.miakerickYA.com for updates on
what is going on in Mia’s world, rants, music, parties, and pictures, and maybe
even a little bit of inspiration.
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1 comments:
Thanks so much, Nancy, for hosting me today on your blog! It looks wonderful and I truly appreciate it!
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