Just letting you all know that there will be an exclusive cover reveal for It Could Happen, my New Adult M/M/M Contemporary Romance, this Friday on Open Skye Book Reviews!! And there will be a giveaway!!!

DON’T MISS IT!!! ❤ Mia

I don’t cook.

Well, I did cook once. It was actually one of the things I looked forward to most when I first got married: cooking my man his dinner. Unfortunately, he wasn’t particularly enthralled by the two meals I knew how to make:

1. Chicken Rice Casserole: chicken breasts/ cream of mushroom soup/frozen broccoli/ Minute Rice

 

2. Tuna Noodle Casserole: can of tuna/ cream of mushroom soup/ frozen peas/pasta

 

The look of hungry dissatisfaction on Mr. Mia’s newlywed face remains branded on my mind almost twenty-five years later.

Sigh.

Things got a little bit better when Mr. Mia grew a garden. I figured out how to make a fresh zucchini/onion/tomato stir fry, which I served over rice or pasta (and, for the record, it wasn’t a casserole) that my husband actually liked. I made it every day for three weeks.

And then he didn’t like it anymore.

Longer sigh.

 

This cooking dilemma compounded with the birth of my extremely finicky first daughter, Ali. She nursed for a long time—I couldn’t go wrong with that. But when the time came for her to eat solid food—well, it didn’t go well. I tried all of the typical “kid foods”: chicken nuggets, grilled cheese sandwiches, french fries, buttered noodles, and pizza. NOPE, NOT HAPPENING. So, I shifted into “chocolate milk shakes for all three meals mode”, into which I would sometimes slip some fruit or yogurt.

“No banana, Mommy! No yogie! Just milk and ice cream!” (And way too much chocolate syrup.)

About a year later, I asked the pediatrician, “Can a child survive on milk shakes, Wheat Thins, and Kudos bars?” The doctor looked at me strangely. And for the record, at this point I wasn’t too worried about what Mr. Mia ate for dinner.

 

Child number two… less picky. Yay.

Child number three… WAY MORE PICKY. Ugh.

Child number four eats anything… and everything, for the most part. Cool.

And then dinnertime got CRAZY. Swim team, dance class, art lessons, baseball, after school enrichment program, soccer, soccer for someone else… you name it, my kids did it. Sitting down at the dinner table became a thing of the past.

I was not overly disappointed, as dinnertime was nothing like the picture above. It had become rather stressful, thanks to the fact I had to make four separate meals each night.

We got out of the “sitting down to dinner” habit. For the next few years, I put together one meal for two kids at five, and Mr. Mia put together a semblance of dinner for another kid at seven, and I picked up fast food for more family members at ten, on the way home from dance. What Mr. Mia ate each night… I have no clue.

Yeah, that was another sigh.

All I can say is I’m reasonably confident that nobody was starving.

I called myself “The Lone Arranger” when it came to coming up with dinner for the kids. (I actually thought everybody called me this catchy nickname, but I have recently been informed—rather rudely, I must say—that this is not the case.) In any event, I didn’t cook dinner—I simply arranged for each family member to have access to something edible each night.

The situation has become even more challenging lately, although it’s not often that the entire family is home to eat dinner seeing as one child is in law school, two are in college, and my only child who is living at home is heavily involved in sports.

Ali is a vegetarian—and a super “foodie” vegetarian at that.

Demi is gluten and dairy free by necessity.

Sisi eats about five foods in the entire world, but this number is slowly growing. I think she is up to seven foods now.

Chris isn’t so much into vegetables.

Mr. Mia refuses to eat fast food and those easy heat-up frozen meals.

I tried to be a “hunter-gatherer” for a period of time for health reasons, but finally gave up and I just eat what I can arrange.

 

We cook a Green Chef meal a few times a week and hire the lady across the street to occasionally cook us comfort food. Mr. Mia grills every now and then. Momma Mia makes that chicken/mushroom soup/broccoli casserole once in a while. Sometimes we eat big bowls of cereal.

Sometime we just drink wine (excluding my son who eats leftovers from the above list).

I don’t cook—never really have, and probably I never will.

But we’re getting by.

Sigh.

By the way, did you hear that Omaha Steaks is offering new crockpot meals?

This is Beef Bourguignon.

 

Here is how they are marketing this delicious meal…

“The only difficult part about this French family favorite is saying the name. Also known as Beef Burgundy, it’s a flavorful savory dish that’s been difficult to make for centuries. Now, there’s no mess, no stress, and no shopping or chopping multiple ingredients. It’s all included – just add it to your Crock-Pot® slow cooker before you leave for the day and it’s ready when you get home.”

I’ve already tried selling the idea to Mr. Mia. He’s a tough customer. And then there’s the fact that children #1-3 won’t be able to eat it, for various reasons (see above) and child #4 will pick out the vegetables.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I want to know HOW YOU DO IT… How do you feed yourselves and your families on those crazy busy or I-don’t-feel-like-cooking nights? Please!! I need the help!!

 

❤ YA  Mia

 

Check out my badge!!

 

 

I just wanted to pass on the rainbow joy on yet another day where TRANSGENDER EQUALITY has suffered a setback.

Mia ❤

 

Today is a big day for me: It is the release day of my first novel with a crossdressing and frequently feminine-presenting character who falls under the trans* umbrella.

As I struggle to deal with our new White House administration, I have grown increasingly concerned about the emotional and physical safety of transgender individuals in our society. As an author, one of my goals is to provide readers with characters like themselves in literature–everyone deserves a chance to read about a character with whom they can identify. But in writing about transgender characters, which is what I have endeavored to do in Scarred and three of my upcoming releases, I also hope to allow cisgendered individuals to “get to know” trans* people through my characters and stories. Scarred features a passionate romance between Vedie Wilson, a gay man whose gender expression shifts from feminine-presenting to masculine-presenting, and Matt North, a pansexual, cisgender man.

I conducted a great deal of research to create the character of Vedie Wilson. What I found particularly challenging to convey was that, where he consistently identifies as male, he often expresses his gender in ways that many would consider feminine. In fact, his feminine gender expression–and his family and friends’ lack of acceptance of it–is the main reason he decides to leave home and make a new life on a remote island off the coast of Florida. Vedie was unsafe in his life up North, having been bullied and beaten in his family’s frequent attempts to change his gender identity and sexual orientation. He hopes that Placida Island will offer him a chance to start his life over and live in anonymous safety.

At times, Vedie expresses what he calls his “soft side” by wearing skirts and dresses, makeup, and perfume. He finds himself drawn to express his soft side when he is relaxing, feeling romantic, or creative. However, when he is working or feeling in some way threatened, which happens a lot in his life, Vedie generally presents as male. His transgender characteristics lie mainly in his gender expression, not in his actual gender identity.

In Matt North, Vedie finds a similarly divided soul. Where Vedie possesses characteristics of male and female that he doesn’t always understand, Matt is both a man and a boy. He is mature and calm at one moment, and then distant and panicked the next. And they relate to one another as complicated human beings, rather than in terms of gender.

I have written several other stories with transgender characters. My Crunchy Life, a YA story of a transgender girl during her transition, has been signed by Harmony Ink Press. My Middle Grade The Princess of Baker Street, the devastating story of a young boy and his neighbor, Joey–neither of whom understand how it can be true that Joey IS a girl–is being considered by several mainstream publishers. And a story which I am still working on, All Boy, is of a young trans man who hides his birth gender and is ultimately discovered and brutally exposed.

I hope you check out Scarred, as it is a deeply moving and at times painful examination of what it is to feel different and isolated, but to want more out of life than solitary confinement.

One more time, here’s the blurb:

Matthew North waited ten years to heal from the devastating wounds inflicted by the man who abducted and abused him as a child. Living reclusively on a tropical island—with no company but his four cats—he merely avoids the lingering pain.

Wearing twisted ropes of mutilated skin on his back, Matt struggles with a profound hindrance—the scars that deaden his soul. However, on the night he meets lively Vedie Wilson, a local restaurant busboy who expresses his gender by wearing lipgloss and eyeliner along with his three-day beard, things change.

Gradually, Vedie and Matt unite in friendship. Through a series of awkward encounters, the pair learns each other’s secrets. Vedie learns that an angelic face can front for a scarred soul. Matthew learns that the line between one’s masculine and feminine sides is blurred. Can they embrace the painful stories behind each other’s scars so they can find everlasting love? Or will surrendered love come to be yet another blemish on their souls?

Make a comment below regarding transgender people in your country or make a comment about Scarred, my new release–it’s cover, blurb, story–and I will enter you into a hand drawn raffle for a $10.00 Amazon gift card that will be conducted sometime today or maybe early tomorrow and provide me with an email.

LOOKING FOR LOTS OF THOUGHTS… Please let me know what you are thinking.

 

Mia ❤

I’m not even slightly technically inclined, BUT, necessity IS the mother of invention, right? Not that I invented canva.com’s meme-making system, but the necessity to promote my books drove me to a frenzied trial-by-error approach to figuring out (aka inventing) how to make memes to use on social media.

I credit Julia Ember with the big heads-up. THANK YOU BIG TIME, JULIA!!!! She pointed me in the direction of canvas.com, where, to be honest, I’ve allowed my creative juices to flow.

My first attempts at making memes for Facebook promotion were rather rudimentary. 

 

Never fear, I’ve improved.

 

I went WILD with my Valentine’s Day wishes for Facebook friends and a personal friend…

 

 

Yes, these examples may just define “OVERKILL.” So sue me.

OK Sneak Peek- ONLY YOU GET TO SEE ONE OF NEXT WEEK’s PROMO MEMES for Scarred , my March 1st release!!!

 

 

No overkill here. Hmmm…. simplicity.

I must admit, I’m getting addicted to this whole meme-making thing.

 

COVER LOVIN’  COVER LOVIN’ COVER LOVIN’

But I’m nowhere NEAR the image artist that Louis C Harris of CoolDudes Publishing is.

Isn’t this FANTASTIC?

 

IN LOVE…. Yes, I am in love with this cover that shows Matt’s physically scarred back and in the background, Vedie’s emotionally scarred soul.

 

Do YOU make memes? I’d love to hear about your experiences.

***I will draw one name of a random commenter who will win a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card. Please leave an email address so I can send it to you!!

Comment on Memes… Comment on GIFs… Tell me how to pronounce these words… LOL.

 

LOVE and KISSES… (I should make a meme for this.)

 

MIA

 

BIG BOOK COVER NEWS #1

MONDAY, February 13 is the COVER REVEAL for SCARRED by Mia Kerick. It is an amazing cover created by the talented Louis C Harris of CoolDudes Publishing. ❤

Matt and Vedie are scarred, inside and out. ~You won’t want to miss their story~

Matt suffered abduction and abuse as a child leaving him socially and emotionally unavailable; Vedie has long struggled with gender expression, leaving him with no choice but to hide.

Their story, called Scarred, will lift you up and tear you down, only to lift you up again!

 

BIG BOOK COVER NEWS #2

INCLINATION by Mia Kerick has a New Look!!

CHECK OUT THE NEW COVER and IMPROVED TEXT on February 15th on Amazon.com.

 

I’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!

(Is it snowing where you are?)

 

❤ Mia