Book Description:
High school senior Kalin (Lennon) Macready knows several
facts for certain: John Lennon is his hero. Beaumont Finley Danforth II (Fin)
is his best friend. And—this is the complicated one—he feels more for Fin than
mere friendship.
For weeks, Lennon pesters Fin, who like Lennon admits to
questioning his sexual orientation, for a commitment to spend twenty-four hours
together exploring “the gay side of life.” Fin reluctantly agrees. Each boy
will seek to answer the daunting question, Am I gay? Lennon pre-plans the day,
filling the hours with what he assumes “gay life” is all about: shopping for
fashionable clothing, indulging in lavish dessert crepes, boogying to Taylor
Swift’s “Shake it Off”, and yes, listening to show tunes.
However, Lennon quickly realizes that in creating his plan
he has succumbed to the most common and distorted of gay stereotypes. Can he be
gay and not fit them? And more importantly, is it possible that spending one
very hard day and night together will help Fin accept that he’s gay, too? If
so, maybe Lennon has a shot at winning the heart of the boy of his dreams.
“A Hard Day’s Night” is an amusing young adult contemporary
romance about two boys who seek to discover if they must fulfill stereotypes to
be together.
In the end, maybe all you need is love.
Excerpt:
I park directly in front of the salon.
“The Best Little Hair House in Westfield?” Fin looks
at me incredulously but doesn’t dish out a criticism. My dear friend Fin has
great difficulty with that whole “calling it like he sees it” thing.
“I didn’t name the place,” I mutter as I jump
out of the Jeep. After shaking his curly blond head a couple of times in
what-did-I-get-myself-into disbelief, Fin does the same.
I’ll be sorry to see those pretty curls on the
floor of the beauty salon, but we’re gonna endure our mutual makeover, one way
or another.
In my opinion, having mutual makeovers spells togetherness
as well as exploring our more feminine sides. “Come on. We have both of the
salon’s haircutters booked for the next hour.” Then I mumble in a manner
designed to be intentionally incoherent, “And we have a makeup artist for the
following forty-five minutes....” Fin doesn’t hear this part and I think it’s
for the best.
“Daaahlings, you must be Lennon and Fin....” Richard,
I assume, since I recognize his sing-song voice from the phone call I made to
set up our appointments, greets us at the door, air-kissing me and Fin, on both
cheeks. I know immediately that if my goal is to immerse Fin and me in all
things homosexual, we are in the right place. I find it hard to tear my eyes
off Fin as he checks out the salon. I’ll sum up the salon’s décor like this:
rainbow-glitter-velvet-jelly-bean-explosion. And I’m pretty sure that Fin,
coming from a lifestyle enhanced by the subtle shades of Williams-Sonoma and
Restoration Hardware, has never laid eyes on anything quite this... this
vibrant. And Richard’s lilting voice one more time sings out proudly, “Welcome
to the Hair House!”
At this point, Fin, with extremely wide eyes, checks
out the slick-haired narrow-eyed man who is going to beautify him. Not that Fin
needs any enhancement in that department, whatsoever, because even if I weren’t
gay, I’d recognize that Fin is a stunner. “I... um... thank you,” he says and
offers his hand, which Richard grasps, lifts dramatically to his lips, and
kisses very slowly.
“And I must insist that you call me Chard—all
of my dearest friends do,” the stylist utters, a glimmer of hopefulness
blatant in his sly, dark eyes.
Fin’s lips move but no sound comes out. He’s probably
trying to formulate the words for what he is thinking: Are you kidding me—you
call yourself Chard? Hahahaha!!
But with no success, as Fin, like I mentioned before, has trouble with calling
upside-down black heart shapes with tiny stems what they are—yeah, spades.
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, 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. Now marital equality is the law of
the land!! WOOT!! 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.
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