Today I am so pleased to welcome Mia Kerick to Joyfully Jay. Mia has come to talk to us about her latest release, Come Together. She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

 

Hi everybody at Joyfully Jay! I’m so happy to be here today with my release of Book 3 in the IF I FELL Series, Come Together—and it’s the thrilling conclusion! Woot! 

Thank you, Jay, for the warm welcome! <3

Today I’m going to talk about how I created the Mia Kerick brand…

A (wise) publisher I once worked with suggested that creating a signature brand would be critical to my success as an author. I agree wholeheartedly; readers need to know what to expect of my work. Plus, proper branding will (hopefully, LOL) attract readers to my books.

Let’s start with the nuts and bolts of branding:

According to Wikipedia, “A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”

A romance novel is a “good” and I am a seller, right? I needed to create a “term,” you know, a tagline, coupled with a design to illustrate how my writing is unique.

First task—define what it is, exactly, that I write:

I am an author of Gay Romance, both upper Young Adult and Adult. To this point, all my stories have been contemporary romance, but I have dipped my toe into the rough waters of romantic suspense.

mia kerick iceberg

So far, so good. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The above are the basics of my craft, but they do not express who I am as an author.

How do I want to make readers feel when they meet my characters and explore their lives through my stories?

Next step—determine what makes my work different from everybody else’s:

Saying that I like to write stories with heavy angst would be an understatement. Mia Kerick stories define dramatic. Sex between MCs is not frivolous; in fact, it can verge on a religious experience. When I formulate ideas for stories, “light and fluffy” never enters my mind. My leading man will suffer with pain brought about by his (often disturbing) life experience…and this pain can only be relieved by the love of a certain other (leading) man. BUT…he will fight the acceptance of this love until he can fight no more. Sigh.

The tone of my novels is often rather dark, despite beachy/quaint small-town settings. And sometimes, when I’m feeling particularly devious, both characters are damaged from their troubled pasts. These men are frequently stoic; they run and hide from one another, and they’re good at it. Intimate moments are intense and unforgettable. And there is lurking danger—to the leading men’s physical and emotional selves.

Yes, HEAs are very hard-won. But, damn, they are rewarding…

I think you’re getting the picture. (wink, wink)

Moving on to my author’s tagline:

And so, how do I capture the essence of Mia Kerick, the author, in a brief, catchy line? To express who I am, what I write, how I want to make the reader feel…in a sleek phrase or two.

My goal: the reader must identify whether my books are right for them at a quick glance.

brand graphic

I came up with many—um, likely way too many—possible taglines.

Let’s take a look at some of the finalists:

*Tortured heroes are my specialty.

*Whoever said the course of true love would run smooth?

*Broken men, healed by love.

*Follow me into the darkness…

*Angst is my middle name.

*Romance on the rocks.

*No holds barred romance.

All good, but none screamed, “I’M THE ONE, Mama Mia!!!!!”

Until I came up with this:

“So much passion.

So much pain.”

This is the essence of my brand.

Coming up with my LOGO DESIGN was easier, but extremely time-consuming.

I scanned thousands and thousands of illustrated images on Deposit Photo and ended up combining several to create the effect I wanted—dark, melancholy, intriguing, sexy. My cover designer at Fiverr, Lilithx, put the images together artfully with my name and tagline.

I use this logo everywhere. It serves as my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram author image. I place it in the front matter of my newly released, self-published novels. It is featured on my adult blog, https://www.miakerick.com. I end each guest post I write with it. I also use it in many of my social media promos—I’ve become quite the meme-maker. (And I have the logo in three different color schemes!)

mia kerick avatar

As I said above, today I’m here with Come Together, Book 3 (and the dramatic conclusion) to the IF I FELL Series. #AgeGap #HurtComfort Contemporary Gay Romance—three long novellas of approximately 40,000 words each.

The series begins with Hide Your Love Away, where Timmy and Cole meet at Edgewater University. Timmy is a sleek, sarcastic junior; Cole is the hunky, stoic dormitory maintenance man. Despite Timmy’s unwillingness to trust, Cole’s difficult relationship with his son, and a determined stalker, they find love. (99 cents on Amazon/Kindle Unlimited) 

Book 2, Blackbird, gets seriously angsty. Cole sends Timmy away from their new home to accept an internship in New York City. They struggle deeply with the long-distance relationship; the couple even breaks up. But my stories have HEAs (or HFNs) sooooo they manage to find their way back to each other. WARNING: it isn’t pretty. (99 cents on Amazon/Kindle Unlimited)

AMAZON LINK for the complete IF I FELL Series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098BJ1GJR?ref_=dbs_p_mng_rwt_ser_shvlr&storeType=ebooks

I hope you enjoyed my post about the Mia Kerick brand, and have gained a better understanding of me as an author. And yay, I have a giveaway for a random person who comments on this post! A ten-dollar Amazon gift card will be the prize!!

Thanks a million for checking out my guest post!

<3 Mia


Blurb

come togetherBefore saying I do, Cole and Timmy decide to mend their broken family bonds.

But will one of them die trying?

In the dramatic conclusion to award-winning author Mia Kerick’s IF I FELL Series, lovers Timmy Hale and Cole Ledger meet with danger when they attempt to mend broken family bonds.

Timmy and Cole faced brutal obstacles to their union from the moment they fell in love. It nearly drove them apart for good, but they overcame hostility, distance, and the deceptively alluring escape of alcohol. Now they’re ready to settle into the future as a married couple. With their spirited dog, Blackbird, and a close circle of friends, they’ve made a home and a happy life. But they don’t want to step into marriage until they’ve put complicated family problems behind them.

Cole’s son, Robbie, has turned bitter, refusing to accept his father’s engagement to the much younger man. His cold rejection threatens to destroy Cole. Meanwhile, Timmy’s dysfunctional family turns more treacherous than ever after the couple takes in his abandoned teenage niece, Lucy.

Soon, mysterious, threatening messages begin to appear.

When Cole leaves town on a trip to rebuild the severed bond with his son, the threats become real. Timmy’s brother—Lucy’s missing father—reappears. Addicted, violent, and homophobic he’s determined to either coax Lucy away from the shelter of the couple’s home…or destroy it.

Will the two families come together in an explosive collision or in reconciliation? The journey to marriage takes Cole and Timmy on one more wild ride. Through it all, can they hold on tight to their love and its promised happily-ever-after?

Amazon Link for Come Together: https://amzn.to/3KxQZtt


Bio

mia kerick avatarCatch up on what Mia’s up to at on her adult website: https://www.miakerick.com

Join Mia and her Facebook Group Mia’s Lost Boys at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3769563033151500

Follow Mia on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mia.kerick/

Follow Mia on BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/mia-kerick

Twitter handle: @MiaKerick

AND I’M TONS OF FUN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miakerick/


Giveaway

Mia has brought a $10 Amazon gift card to give away to one lucky reader. Just leave a comment at the end of the post to enter. The contest ends on Tuesday, February 1st at 11:59 pm ET.


  • By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
  • Winners will be selected by random number. No purchase necessary to win. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.
  • If you win, you must respond to my email within 48 hours or another winner may be chosen. Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from Joyfully Jay.
  • Winners may be announced on the blog following the contest. By entering the contest you are agreeing to allow your name to be posted and promoted as the contest winner by Joyfully Jay.
  • Prizes will be distributed following the giveaway either by Joyfully Jay or the person/organization donating the prize.
  • All book prizes are in electronic format unless otherwise specified.
  • By entering you are agreeing to hold Joyfully Jay harmless if the prize or giveaway in some way negatively impacts the winner.
  • Readers may only enter once for each contest.  Duplicate entries for the same giveaway will be ignored. In the event of technical problems with the blog during the contest, every effort will be made to extend the contest deadline to allow for additional entries.
  • Void where prohibited by law.
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