Held in arms that won’t let go... Scarred by Mia Kerick

"Mia kerick has done a fabulous job with this story, taking two very different characters and showing that however hard the path they'd each travelled was, love can win the day." Lori, Goodreads

Description:

(Re)Published: December 31st, 2018

ONE tropical island.

Placida Island’s gentle ocean breezes and rolling surf beckon to those who wish to reside in remote tropical serenity.

TWO men living in self-imposed exile.

Wearing twisted ropes of mutilated skin on his back and carrying devastating damage in his soul from severe childhood abuse, Matthew North lives alone in a rustic cabin on the shore, avoiding human contact.

Gender fluidity his perceived “crime” against family and friends, Vedie Wilson flees his childhood home so he can freely express his identity. 

THREE persecutors seeking their warped view of justice.

Vedie’s past refuses to stay in the faraway city he left behind when family members, intent on forcing him to change, steal him from his island home.

TOO MANY scars to count.

Their beautiful faces masking deeply scarred souls, Matt and Vedie live in hiding from the world and each other.

Can they unite and embrace each other’s painful pasts, leaving the scars behind to find love?

EXCERPT

Matt 

Almost ten years ago, I separated from my family and a world I could no longer relate to. 

I kept myself isolated…until now. 

And here I am. 

I have not been held in a caring human being’s arms for over twenty years. For some of the two interim decades, the arms that held me belonged to a human being who didn’t care but simply used me for sexual gratification. And during the rest of those long years, I refused to allow the arms of those who said they really did care get anywhere near me. 

And here I am. Held in arms that won’t let go. 

After a few minutes of this tender human contact, I manage to extricate myself from Vedie’s arms without waking him. I now stand, my tank top hanging loosely on my damp chest and covering most of what needs to be hidden, with my feet in the surf, staring down upon the naked man on my beach. He’s fast asleep on his belly, his round, brown backside dusted with sand, mooning the sun without apology. Asleep, he looks beautiful and innocent, and at a quick glance, I see a guileless teenage boy. He must be nineteen or so… possibly twenty, but not much older. I can still detect remnants of the precocious Lolita who lingers just below the surface waiting for the right moment to emerge. 

I felt as if I was a real person with Vedie. I forgot to be Crazy Matt for a lazy afternoon, but now I’m wondering what the hell I’m doing here with him…or with her…not that gender makes much of a difference to my quandary. Don’t trust anybody has been my motto since a July day when I was seven years old and my world turned upside down and inside out.

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About the author:

Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—one in law school, another a professional dancer, a third studying at Mia’s alma mater, Boston College, and the baby finally off to college. (Yes, the nest is empty.) She publishes LGBTQ fiction and 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-five 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 the emotional growth of young people who are challenged by the circumstances of their lives and relationships. She has a great affinity for the tortured hero in literature, and as a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with tales of tortured heroes and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She has NineStar Press to thank for providing an alternate place to stash her stories.

Her books have been featured in Kirkus Reviews magazine and have won Rainbow Awards for Best Transgender Contemporary Romance and Best YA Lesbian Fiction, a Reader Views’ Book by Book Publicity Literary Award, the Jack Eadon Award for Best Book in Contemporary Drama, an Indie Fab Award, a First Place Royal Dragonfly Award for Cultural Diversity, a First Place Story Monsters Purple Dragonfly Award for YA Fiction, among others.

Mia Kerick is a social liberal and cheers for each and every victory made 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 or visit her at:

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