PNWA Conference

Just returned from the PNWA conference in Seattle! Had a blast attending and presenting my How to Apply Screenplay Structure to Your Novel workshop!

The downside was that I had to leave my almost two-year-old daughter for the weekend. Tears were spilled and tantrums were thrown...even she seemed a little upset.

The upside was that I got to signs some books, meet many talented writers--both published and unpublished--drink as much wine as I wanted, and spend time with my favorite agent, Elizabeth Kracht (I only have the one agent but if I had more, she'd still be my favorite.)

I'd like to thank everyone who attended my class and stayed, even after I accidentally said: "and this is obviously where the protagonist takes the victim down and saves the killer..."

I'd also like to thank my striped wide-leg presentation pants for obvious reasons.

Xoxo,
Mia

Lessons of Revenge Writing

Revenge writing, it's a thing.
Not quite as gross and well known as revenge porn, or going Carrie Underwood on someone's car, but I promise, it's a thing. Ask the Swift.

I revenge write from time to time. Hell, I've even revenge written for other people (see Sacrificing Sapphire, out on December 12.) As a writer I work things out consciously or subconsciously through my writing, and revenge writing, I suppose is a part of that. It's seems, to me at least, like a very healthy way of dealing with issues that would otherwise have remained unresolved. And, since it's just storytelling, revenge writing, isn't something that ever comes back to bite you in the ass. By all means, it's absolutely bulletproof.

Or so I thought...

The first time I found myself revenge plotting (I always revenge plot before I revenge write, otherwise it leads to too much revenge editing) I had been in a long-running argument with my husband about...actually, to properly tell this tale of love and hate--mostly hate--I have to take you back to its beginnings.

2006

I was studying Screenwriting in Los Angeles at the time, and was involuntarily crushing on a guy in my class. It was involuntary because the last thing I wanted at that time was to be distracted by anything unrelated to writing. Nonetheless, I was crushing hard. So hard that I was too mesmerized by his charming smile and bright blue eyes to notice what was on the black T-shirt he wore every once in a while.

2007

I was now married to my crush, and though I was still mesmerized by his charming smile and bright blue eyes, I'd become well aware of what that black T-shirt, with the bold white letters, stated:
I don't take shit. I don't give shit. I'm not in the shit business. 

Not that bad, right? The slogan moderately annoyed me, but it could've been worse; he could've owned one of those FBI - Female Body Inspector shirts.
But the more he wore this shirt, the more it annoyed me. He wore it like it was any other shirt--to the movies, the grocery store, and once to a fairly nice restaurant in Beverly Hills. I'm generally not one who cares that much about how one should look, act, and speak, but this shirt was starting to rub me the wrong way. Every time he put it on I started feeling as if the shirt, along with its now majorly annoying slogan, initiated a Eastwood-like stare down, while singing I'm ba-aaack.
Over the coming years, my relationship with the T-shirt went from dislike, to detest, to hate. And my husband really couldn't see what my problem was.

2009 (maybe..?)

I was in the middle of my initial bout with writing my first novel, Stalking Sapphire, in which the male MC, Aston, starts out in the series as an assh**e. As I sat there typing away, the thought struck me and my fingers froze momentarily over the keyboard. What would an asshole wear, if not THE T-shirt hanging in the closet at that very moment, silently mocking me.
I saw it all play out in my mind's eye. It was top-shelf vengeance. I would write the novel, and one day so many people would read it that when my husband and I walked down the street, readers would stop me and say: "Gosh, that really was one terrible T-shirt in chapter 6."
After which my husband, who may be the most stubborn person on earth, would look at me and say, "Yes. I can see now. It is the second worst T-shirt (the first being the FBI one) since the history of T-shirts. Let's BURN it." 

Yes! I thought and smiled, that was exactly how it would happen. And then I typed.

2012

The T-shirt in question mysteriously (eh...) vanished while I was doing laundry.

2013

Stalking Sapphire got published earlier that year, and had just been put up on Wattpad because its sequel was coming out. For those who don't know, Wattpad=online Mecca for readers and writers. After a few months on there, and right around the time Stalking Sapphire reached a million reads, I decided to shut off my comment notifications to save my email inbox from filling up.

Present Day (-ish.)

A couple weeks ago, I went into Wattpad to check on something and ended up at the beginning of chapter 6 of Stalking Sapphire. That's when I saw them, the amount of comments that had been filling up over the past four years, all centered around this dialogue cluster.

My fantasy had (kind of) come true. I was Thrilled! Ecstatic!  People hated the shirt just as much as I did. Practically radiating with gloat, I clicked on the comment bubble and waited as the page loaded, the way Ralphie waited for the secret code to be revealed in A Christmas Story. The moment the comments appeared I would run up to my husband while pointing and yelling: "See! Seeeeeeee!"
After which he would immediately admit that yes, it was a terrible shirt, and it was a good thing it mysteriously (eh...) vanished in the laundry.
As the comments appeared on my screen, my victorious grin tapered off. The longer I scrolled, the further the corners of my mouth dropped, until finally, I looked like the saddest of all emojjis.
Here are just a few of the comments I saw:

They all loved it. My husband's shirt had not gotten a single negative comment. What else was I wrong about, I wondered. Did red and pink not really clash? Was the ending of Dexter not actually terrible? My way of viewing the world could be completely upside down.

"Oh my God," I said, baffled.

"What?" my husband asked.

"You win..." I said, in shock. "They love your T-shirt. I don't know why, but they love it."

He squinted. "What T-shirt?"

"Come on, the T-shirt. The one that mysteriously (eh...) vanished  in the laundry a few years ago."

No response.

"The one that I hated so much that I wrote about it in my book..."

Still nothing.

"The one that said 'I don't take shit, I don't give shit, I'm not in the shit business!'"

"Haha! Right...hilarious," he laughed, then his eyes grew wide with excitement, and he reached for his phone. "I wonder if I can find it again!"

F*******ck!

So...lesson learned. Will now proceed with revenge writing more cautiously as it appears not all of it is as bulletproof as I once thought. It seems it may actually come back to bite you in the ass after all...even if it's a decade later.

Xoxo,
Mia

Sapphire Dubois Mysteries: Book 5

With the fourth Sapphire book, Sacrificing Sapphire, turned in for its first round at Diversion Books, I sat down to write out all the plot points for the final Sapphire installment (book 5) today. I've had the main plot of the series set up and ready to go for years, but I always save the detailed plotting for after I'm in the final stages of the latest installment, just in case unexpected plot changes have to be made.

As I wrote out the sheet, very, very tentatively titling it Stealing Sapphire: Plot Points, I was overwhelmed with bitter sweetness. I started the series when I was 22 or 23-years-old. I just now passed 30. These characters have been with me for so much of my adult life that I don't really know what it'll be like without them, entertaining me when I'm bored and torturing me when I want to sleep.
Over the years, the series have taken me on a roller-coaster, from losing ten pounds and nearly my mind during the deadline for Silencing Sapphire, to topping mystery bestsellers lists in both Europe and the US for a beat. In the end, all I can do now is enjoy the hell out of writing Sapphire and Aston's final chapter. I will savor the entire process, knowing I'll miss it all when it's over, nasty bumps and smooth sailings alike.



Xoxo,
Mia

Ten Reasons To Adopt a Pet

I usually talk about writing, but today, I'd like to share my secondary passion.
There are so many reasons to adopt from an animal shelter instead of buying from a breeder, pet store, or god forbid, a puppy mill. I'm sharing the Humane Society's list, since they've put it better words than I ever could. But first, I'd like to add my own reason to the top.

My Reason

In 2007, my husband and I drove over to the park in Burbank where animal societies all over L.A were holding a fair. Of course, we'd decided, we were only there to donate and not to get a pet.
We were students, at the time, and we didn't even know if we'd be able to stay afloat in the insanely expensive city after school was out. Getting a pet would just be plain irresponsible, we'd agreed beforehand.

After twenty minutes at the fair, my husband pointed at a funny-looking black and white mutt with a red bandana. We watched her for awhile as people with equal interest in her funny-looking-ness came up to the handle to greet her. She was unsocial, her tail was down, and she refused to accept the touch of anyone trying to woo her. As soon as people realized she wasn't "friendly" they moved on.
We kept watching her as the handler took her to the line of dogs that would be brought up on stage for display. One after one the dogs came up to the center of the stage and sat nicely so the audience could look at them as the announcer told us their names and stories.

When it was time for the funny-looking mutt, the handler brought her up and told her to sit. The mutt looked at the audience, then turned her butt to them and sat.
"Ah..." the announcer said, "and this is Oreo."
Though the handler tried to coax her to turn, Oreo sat resiliently, facing the wrong direction, in a very screw-you-all manner.

After they brought her back down, my husband suggested we should walk over to her.
"But we're not adopting," I reminded.
"Of course we're not," he agreed as we walked over. "We can't."
My husband kneeled by Oreo. Immediately, and without reservation, she sprung up to give him a kiss. My husband looked up at me, eyes saying "ah, shit."
Ah, shit, I replied telepathically.
"Do you have other pets?" the handler asked. "She doesn't get along with other dogs, or cats. Or most people."
"We can't adopt," I hurried. "We're just...ah...sorry." I nodded at my husband to go, and he got up, saying his goodbyes to Oreo.

As we left her, and moved back to our car, we overheard someone say that the dogs with the red bandanas were the ones that only had three days to live.
My husband and I looked at each other in horror, then back at Oreo with her red bandana, sitting once more with her butt to the by-passers. We didn't know if it was true, or merely some random person's theory, (still don't know) but we reacted. We marched straight up to the handler and said, "we want her."

The moment we left the park, Oreo started prancing. Her tail, which had been permanently down, shot up. I don't care what people say on how much a dog can and cannot comprehend, she knew she was not going back to the shelter.

Since, Oreo has been with us everywhere we've moved: Colorado, Europe, Nevada, and now back to California. It's been eight years since that day in the park, and when I think back on it, I can't believe how close we were to walking away from her, simply because we didn't feel our future was perfectly laid out for us. But, when is it ever?

My reason to vow shelter adoption for as long as I live?
The thought of this picture of our dog--happy as can be on a day at the lake--having never happened because no one ever gave her a second chance, does it for me.

Oreo Age 7

Ten Reasons To Adopt a Pet

List from Humane Society: http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/adopt/tips/top_reasons_adopt.html

1. Because you'll save a life

A shelter pet is more than one in a million—she's one in 2.7 million. That's the number of adoptable dogs and cats who are still euthanized each year in the United States, simply because too many pets come into shelters and too few people adopt.
The number of euthanized animals could be reduced dramatically if more people adopted pets instead of buying them. When you adopt, you save your animal and open up shelter space for another animal who might need it.

2. Because you'll get a great animal.

Animal shelters and rescue groups are brimming with happy, healthy pets just waiting for someone to take them home. Most shelter pets ended up there because of a human problem like a move or a divorce, not because the animal did anything wrong.

3. Because you'll get a great bargain.

When you adopt a pet, the cost of spay/neuter, first vaccinations and sometimes microchipping is usually included in the adoption price, which means you've scored a major deal—a fuzzy deal who will thank you with kisses or purrs for years to come.

4. Because of the bragging rights.

No one needs to see another selfie—unless it’s a selfie of you with the adorable cat you just adopted, like the hero you are! Adopt a pet, post the pictures and let the love (likes) roll in.

5. Because it's one way to fight puppy mills.

You're too smart to get a dog from a pet store or online seller—you might as well buy direct from a puppy mill. Puppy mills are "factory style" breeding facilities that put profit above the welfare of dogs. Animals from puppy mills are housed in shockingly poor conditions with improper medical care, and are often very sick and behaviorally troubled as a result. The moms of the puppies are kept in cages to be bred over and over for years, without human companionship and with little hope of ever joining a family. And after they're no longer profitable, breeding dogs are simply discarded—either killed, abandoned or sold at auction.
Most puppies in pet stores and sold online come from puppy mills. The dogs are sold to unsuspecting consumers in pet stores, over the Internet and through classified ads. Puppy mills will continue to operate until people stop supporting them. By adopting a pet, you can be certain you aren't giving them a dime.

6. Because your decor will thank you.

Many of the pets from shelters and rescues are already housetrained, which means you’re not only saving a pet’s life, you may be saving your rug.

7. Because all pets are good for your health, but an adopted pet is good for your self-esteem.

Not only do animals give you unconditional love, but they have been shown to be psychologically, emotionally and physically beneficial. Caring for a companion animal can provide a sense of purpose and fulfillment and lessen feelings of loneliness and isolation in all age groups. And when you adopt, you can also feel proud about helping an animal in need.

8. Because you’re environmentally responsible.

You recycle your paper and plastic so it doesn’t end up in landfills, and you know that recycled materials make all sorts of things. A “recycled” pet can make something even better: She can make you happy.

9. Because The Shelter Pet Project will make it super-easy.

We like easy. Go to the Shelter Pet Project to find pets near you, of every size, color, temperament and breed. You want an orange cat who likes ear-scratches on alternate Tuesdays? You can probably find one.

10. Because you'll change a homeless animal's whole world.

And get a new best friend in the bargain. Seriously, what could be better than that?

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Xoxo,
Mia