144 Hours

Hello,

6 days to go until the grand release of STALKING SAPPHIRE. Meaning: Only 6 days left of hyperventilating into paper bags. 6 days before I start sleeping like a normal person again. 6 days until every food I put in my system doesn't make me nauseous...hopefully.

There are no guarantees, of course. Perhaps every published author out there secretly spend their life not being able to eat, sleep, or breathe properly? What do I know.

You'd assume that someone like Stephen King would be used to the excruciating nerves that come along with releasing a book, skipping by your side, insisting on holding your hand where ever you go like an annoying child who won't stop asking: "why-why-why-why-why?", but can you really be sure?

Perhaps, there is a small percentage of a chance that this will be my life now. A life where I'm a nerved out 26-year-old with stress wrinkles of a 53 year-old, have the non-existent appetite of a 3 year-old who refuses to eat anything but Cheerios, sleep like a 35 year-old insomniac, and breathe like a 92 year-old who has lost their oxygen tank. Fun.

There's nothing for me to do right now but wait until the release date, April 2, comes around and hope that when the day finally arrives,  I will eat, breathe and sleep like there is no tomorrow.

Only 144 hours to go...but who's counting.


xoxo,
Mia

If You're Somewhat Insane, you Might just be a Writer.

Hello,

Had a long day rewriting/editing a very dark and sinister section of SILENCING SAPPHIRE. Have come to realize that since I begun writing the Sapphire series, along with mass research on serial killers and sociopaths, I do the following:

Check my whole car, especially the backseat, for serial killers... sometimes more than once.
Picked the sound track from the TV-series Dexter as my ring tone.
Think random people--who may or may not have given me an odd look while passing by--are killers.
Now own non-fiction books for leisure reading entitled: The Sociopath Next Door. Which I read in the morning with my cereal and coffee.
Think about zombies, at least once a day...not that it relates to my book series, but still...

And that's just the beginning of the list.
I'm not saying that I was completely normal before I started the series; just less strange. I think most writers are in some way, shape, or form a little bit odd. It's possible that the slight oddness which is handed to us sometime during life or before birth is the very reason why we crave putting pen to paper.

I've come to appreciate that peculiar oddness of mine over the past few years, embracing it even. Because where would I be without it? What would I be without it? Well, perhaps mentally sane, but who needs sanity when you get to write about fictional character who are much more messed up in the head than you are?

Taking away the pure love/obsession of story, odds are, if you regularly feel as if you're the one on the outside looking in, studying people instead of interacting with them; if you often find yourself thinking about the end-of-the-world scenarios at fun celebratory events like parties and wedding; or if you're just plainly the person who sticks out like a sore thumb because your inner monologue sometimes leaks out: you might just be a writer, my friend.

Xoxo,
Mia

STALKING SAPPHIRE Release Date

Hello,

Yes, STALKING SAPPHIRE's release date has changed from April 23 to April 2nd. I couldn't be happier about this considering I was already counting down the days to the release like a child does for his/her birthday.

Since I haven't cared about a birthday since I turned 21 and was legally allowed to drink for the second time--the first being when I turned 18 in Sweden--the release of my new adult thriller novel is very exciting. As in haven't-slept-or-eaten-properly-for-3 months exciting. It's okay; extreme caffeine intake cover both areas.

Had a very productive call about my little Sapphire's future today with my editor at Diversion Books, and feel extremely positive about what's to come. I also feel insanely paranoid and permanently shaky, but that's probably just the side effects from the whole 3 months of no sleep/food and too much coffee thing.

Further more,  STALKING SAPPHIRE is also up on Goodreads.com if anybody wants to check it out.

Xoxo,
Mia















 

A Good Day for both me and Michael Bublé

Hello,

Woke up this morning to sunshine, breakfast in bed, and bird song; Walt Disney style. Okay, maybe it was more like overcast, cereal by the kitchen counter, and the raspy caw of a crow, but let's not split hairs here.

I woke up to good news from Diversion Books about STALKING SAPPHIRE and I'm about as giddy as a school girl right now; coincidentally I was wearing pigtails when I read the email.

Though I know I've put in years of work on the novel and had many, many, many...well you get the point... ups and downs on the road which lead to this very spot, I also feel like I suddenly stepped outside one day and everything was going right. Like my life has, after way too many wrong paths, finally found the right road. Poetic, I know. The fact that some of the text above may or may not be from a Michael Bublé song is neither here nor there.

What is the good news you ask? Well, I can't tell you.
That's mean, I agree--not to even speak of anticlimactic--but it's not official yet. Once it is, I will share, over-share, and most likely bore you to death with this piece of news...I solemnly swear.

Xoxo,
Mia

Do not read this!

Ye'llo,

That's how I would answer my phone if I were a man. "Ye'llo!"
Instead of my girly and meekish "he...llo?" See the difference? If you as a girl would answers the phone with a powerful statement like "Ye'llo!" people will automatically think of you as a woman who wears comfortable shoes,  chews tobacco, and who in addition to saying "Ye'llo?" says things like:
"Y-up." before spitting out a wad of brown-ish chew onto your comfortable shoe.

Not that there's anything wrong about being the Ultimate Tom-boy--I, myself, was an astonishing tomboy until the age of nine--but it may confuse people when they later meet you or already have met you, wearing high-heels accompanied by a tiny purse which holds nothing, because it's not meant to be practical.

Okay, believe it or not, this--meaning the unjustified rant above--was not my intention to blog about today.
I just had an amazing writing day on SILENCING SAPPHIRE and feel as though I'm finally out of my rough patch.
I'd been tapping away for 8 hours straight, thanks to 56 gallons of instant coffee--not tasty, but it does the trick--and as I closed my laptop I felt really good about the script. Exhilarated, invincible, and much like superman.
Besides from having someone else read your novel and have them like it, that moment, right there, is what I live for as a writer. It's what makes the hours, days, weeks, months, and years of work worth it all.
Never mind that I might wake up tomorrow, overlook what I did the day before and say: "Who wrote this sh*t!?" then delete it all, just to start all over again.

It doesn't sound very fun, I know, but then other mornings I wake up and look over what I wrote the day before and I go: "Meh." those Mehs mean, that's not half bad. Which also gives you a very nice and rewarding feeling.

Whether I'll wake up tomorrow, and say "Meh." or "Sh*t!" it doesn't matter right now, because in this very moment I feel like a million bucks...or maybe, more realistically for me, who just came back from a very expensive vacation, 123 dollars and 67 cents.

I apologize about this post, but this is what happens after 8 hours of uninterrupted writing and 56 gallons of coffee. If you didn't make it past the over-debated "Ye'llo!" I won't hold it against you, but in my defense I did warn you in the title. If you did make it all the way down here, then I applaud you. Well done.

Until more lucid times,
Mia