The Luckiest by Mila McWarren Blog Tour
When New York-based memoirist Aaron Wilkinson gathers with his high school friends to marry off two of their own, he is forced to spend a week with Nik, the boy who broke his heart.
As they settle into the Texas beach house where the nuptials will be performed, Nik quickly makes his intentions clear: he wants Aaron back. "He's coming hard, baby," a friend warns, setting the tone for a week of transition where Aaron and Nik must decide if they are playing for keeps.
Author Name: Mila McWarren
Book Name: The Luckiest
Release Date: July 7, 2015
Publisher: Interlude Press
Cover Artist: C.B. Messer
Categories: Contemporary, Gay fiction, M/M Romance, New Adult, Romance
Pages or Words: 256 pages
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25446714-the-luckiest
Sales Links:
EXCERPT
Aaron finishes the song and Stephanie snatches the mic out of his hand, crooks her finger at Nik and launches them into a reprise of their performance of "Dancing on My Own" from the homecoming weekend they all spent here at the house back in senior year. Stephanie still has questionable rhythm and tragic pitch—she loves to sing, which is why they have a karaoke machine in this house, but it's one thing she will admit she doesn't have much of a gift for—but there's a reason Nik majored in music at The University of Texas, and his voice has come a long way.
Somehow, this deliberate throwback to a memory that was never anything but happy seems different than what Aaron has just done. He sits on the sofa, flanked by Alex and Jasmine, hating them both a little for participating in it even while he smiles. Nik dances—how can you not, with this song—but he still watches Aaron, gives him a little head-tilt during the chorus, and it's charming and devastating and infuriating.
Jasmine leans to murmur, "Oh, I see how it is."
"Oh, shut up."?
"You might not be desperate, but I'm not sure about him. He's coming hard, baby."
What comes first, the plot or characters?
Characters, definitely! I study people for a living, and characters are just people who actually make some kind of sense, so they are definitely where I live. Plot is hard for me; I have come to understand it as just what happens when characters are who they are, and the rest is… something of a mystery, to be honest. I'm not a big fan of heavy-handed plot devices, so yeah: characters. God I love them so much.
Describe your writing space.
I'm busy enough that I write wherever I happen to be; I have a 13" Macbook Pro that I carry everywhere with me. Parts of this book were written in multiple cities in the US, Canada, and across Europe, and when I'm home I split time between my office, my home office, my bedroom, and a handful of coffee shops. As you can imagine, that means I'm pretty dependent on my laptop, and my desktop constantly looks like somebody is playing a prank on me. I tried to use Scrivener for the final drafts of this book because it seemed so orderly, but I seem to be resistant to change and my reference notes and research and notes to myself and my punch lists from my editors are still basically scattered to hell and back. Ah, well. Next time I will try harder.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I still don't really consider myself a writer! Maybe I will in a few months, once the dust of this has all settled down? I don't know – I think storytelling is such a part of us. We do it everyday – we look at people and the weird shit they do and try to make sense of it, and that usually comes to us as a kind of narrative, doesn't it? So in that sense, all I really did was take that process one little bit more: I had a daydream about a really emotionally charged moment between two boys, and then I figured out why it happened and what happened next.
Maybe I think we're all writers. I think stubbornness and an inability to let things go is really the biggest difference between a writer and your average person.
What are you reading now?
I just finished "The Martian", which is one hell of a book. It's hard sci-fi so if that's not your bag I'd skip it, but I think writers of all genres should at least take a look at it because holy hell, he does a nice job throwing math and science at readers without making them want to die, and that's a skill to be admired. He's also done a very nice job developing voices for his characters.
I have no idea what I'm going to start next and am actively soliciting suggestions from the peanut gallery. I have a few things sitting in my Kindle app waiting for me (the last book of Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy; Row's "Your Face In Mine", which is highly topical right now; and Neal Stephenson's latest book) but I am a bit stuck on which to choose. Hit me, y'all.
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
I work a lot, which is a dull answer but the truth is that I love my work, so that's okay. I have a husband and kids and a big group of friends, so carving out enough time to just sit and watch TV and knit and hear myself think is something of a challenge, and I really need that time. We travel a lot in the summers because my kids are in school, so right now we're in this cycle of being home for 10 days at a time before we head out again. How pathetic is it to say that "sit in a quiet room and stare at a wall" is the most blissful thing I can think of right now? At least some of you will understand.
This was fun – thanks for having me today!
Mila McWarren grew up in Texas, but has happily made her home on the East Coast for the last decade. In her day job she works as a social scientist and has spent the last 10 years developing her fiction writing online. She lives with her husband and their two kids. When she isn't using working, writing, or hanging out with her family, she likes knitting and watching television, because they go together like peanut butter and chocolate, two of her other great loves.
Where to find the author:
Twitter: @milamcwarren
Tumblr: milamcwarren.tumblr.com
Website: www.milamcwarren.com
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