Hi Everyone,
I’m interviewing novelist, Mia Thompson. Mia was born and grew up in Sweden coming to the U.S. to study film at age 19. She’s since become the international bestseller of YA thrillers featuring Sapphire Dubois.

Mia, did the long dark Swedish winters of your childhood contribute to your decision to write about serial killers?

I’ve never connected the dots before, but two things are common during a Swedish winter. One: winter depression, induced by lack of sunlight. Two: people go to bars, because there’s nothing else to do. Add those two together and you get depressed drunks. So, growing up surrounded by depressed drunks for seven months out of the year might’ve entrenched a glum morbid-ness in me. With that deduction, I’d say yes, probably.

You must’ve read Scandinavian noir as a teenager. Who do you like and how have they influenced your writing?

The majority of the books I remember reading in my teen years were actually by American, English, and Irish authors. A Swedish author who did influence me a lot, but much earlier in life, was Astrid Lindgren. Every Swede has grown up with Astrid’s characters, and the worlds she created have become staples of our childhood. Her work showed me how much story can affect people, and I carry that knowledge with me every time I sit down to write.

I can see that. Sapphire Dubois is kind of a twenty-first century Pippi Longstocking.

My God, you’re right! Add killers, blood, and a foul-mouthed cop to Pippi’s strength, wealth, and forced independence and we’ve got Sapphire. Clearly, I carry even more of Astrid’s work with me than I thought.

Without giving us too many spoilers, tell us about Sentencing Sapphire.

Sentencing Sapphire is everything Stalking Sapphire and Silencing Sapphire have lead to. People can expect that the ante has been upped on the general chaos in Sapphire Dubois’ life, and that an awaited confrontation will take place. With that said, it may or may not contain the conclusion of two certain main characters, who may or may not end up together.

I’m looking forward to it! Pub date is October 6, 2015, all you Sapphire fans.
Do you see Sapphire as having a character arc that spans your 5 book series?

One of the first things I learned about writing was that you should always start your character out at the lowest point in their emotional/spiritual journey, whether your character knows it or not. That is exactly how I’ve set up Sapphire’s arc. In each book I inch her closer to the person she is supposed to be. One of her major arcs does happen in Sentencing Sapphire, but her testing trials are far from over. If everything goes the way I’ve planned, Sapphire should be “complete” so to speak, by the end of book 5.

Are there any similarities between Sapphire Dubois and yourself—and if so, could I have a loan?

Ha! There are. Unfortunately, none you’d want. Though I definitely view Sapphire as a kickass alter ego, I’ve come to realize that I’ve placed some of my less appealing qualities in her. If you take out the words serial killer throughout the books and replace them with the word writing, that’s me. I am as obsessed with my imaginary world, as she is with her serial killers.

I loved the plot point guidelines you taught at the Las Vegas Writers’ Conference. Any plans for teaching at an upcoming conference?

I have nothing lined up at this moment, but I’m open to it. It’s funny, because it’s something I never wanted to do, or ever saw myself doing. But once I was up there, giving the lecture for the first time, I was shocked to find out how much I enjoyed it. If you asked anyone I grew up with to imagine me standing in front of a class, holding a lecture, they’d probably laugh their asses off at the idea.

What is your favorite part of the writing process? Your least favorite?

I love it when I get the initial idea for a story. At this stage, the story is so full of possibilities, and absent of holes, that all I feel is excitement. To me, the feeling is reminiscent of falling in love. The ideas that are flighty crushes, lacking substance, eventually go away. The ideas that my mind keeps fleshing out are the ones I deem a wholesome relationship—the stories I eventually write.

I agree.

My least favorite part, besides from the general stress that comes with the gig, is what can happen in the aftermath of the process. For instance, after Silencing Sapphire came out I got a box full of the books. I picked one up, then sniffed it (because there’s no better smell) and cracked it open to a random page. The first thing I saw was that I had accidently written Mrs. Havisham, instead of Miss Havisham in a reference. Anyone familiar with Great Expectations, knows what an idiotic and ironic mistake that is to make. It killed me. Frankly, I’m still dead.

In the future, write Ms. And you’re good. Mia, thanks for the interview. Best of luck with Sentencing Sapphire.

Hi there,
I’m back with a new novel coming soon:  BETTTING BLIND.

Lennox Cooper, P.I., is looking for parole skip, Matilda Bauer. The beautiful blonde con-woman has her hooks in Lennox’s poker buddy, parole officer, Fulin Chen. If Lennox doesn’t find Matilda before the cops do,  Matilda will plaster dirty photos of Fulin all over the internet and Fulin’s career in law enforcement will be toast.

Lennox searches for Matilda and three days later finds her dead, in what looks like a sex game gone terribly wrong. Fulin is the lead suspect. Lennox jacks into the cyber world, where real threats exist, to find which of Matilda’s blackmail victims or jilted lovers is her real killer.

I’ve sent my finished manuscript to my editor at Diversion Books, and I’m hoping that BETTING BLIND will debut in early fall.

Some of you in Blogland may have wondered where I’ve been all this time. Well, I have a dandy excuse. Early in 2014 a chronic cough turned into a diagnosis of lung cancer. Since then I’ve gone through radiation, 25 rounds of chemo and three bouts of pneumonia. Picture me, week after week, a tube coming out of my arm working on BETTING BLIND while nurses in hazmat suits ask me what I’m up to. “Sex and murder,” is my answer.

My lovely agent and editor, Liz Kracht, and the folks at Diversion Books couldn’t have been more kind and supportive during this time. I’m happy to say that my health has improved, and it looks like some great new cancer treatments are in my future. I can’t wait to say sayonara to chemo.

I’ve been blessed with much love and support from my husband, my son, siblings and marvelous friends. Many visits, cards, flowers and gallons of chicken soup have come my way. Thanks a million.

Hope you all are doing well.

Check out  Prose & Cons  http: //www.auniqueandportablemagic.blogspot.com  the brand new blog hosted by 21 writers (including yours truly) dedicated to reading and writing.

No, this is not a blog post about Harry Potter as Allen Ginsberg. This is the admonishment attributed to Arthur Quiller-Couch to aspiring writers: “Whenever you feel the an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscripts to press. Murder your darlings.”

William Faulkner, Oscar Wilde, Anton Chekov, Eudora Welty, and Stephen King have ladled out similar advice. This from Stephen King: “…kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”

All I know is that I fall in love with my insightful, witty, beautiful lines mainly because they’re damned hard to come up with. Yes, the story rules. Yes, if I want a successful story I need to be ruthless.

What do I do if a line or a passage needs to be cut to serve the story? I send those precious words to a notebook of orphaned lines. This can be a print notebook or a computer file—I copy them in both places. Once I know the darlings are safe and tucked in, I can be the ruthless professional I need to be.

Take Woody Allen as our shining role model for the cut-and-use-later school. He had a hilarious elevator to hell scene in Annie Hall, each floor of the elevator designated for a different level of sin—fifth floor for organized crime, fascist dictators and people who don’t appreciate oral sex. Allen cut this great scene to shape the Oscar for Best Picture,  Annie Hall, but used it twenty years later in Deconstructing Harry.

Do your darlings ever find a home? The answer is a resounding yes—that is if they remain darling through the years until you find their story.

There’s a reason why so many famous writers advise us to write every day. My sweetie and I just got back from a marvelous 3 week vacation during which time I didn’t cook a meal or write a word. Now that we’re back home, I’m working mightily to finish my second Lennox Cooper mystery, Betting Blind, by early next summer.

It’s hard as hell to re-enter the fictive dream I’d worked so hard to build. And the writing itself is excrement. I have to type with one hand and hold my nose with the other. Let me tell you, it’s painful to write so badly.

What keeps me going is Annie Lamott’s Bird by Bird. Lamott coined the term “shitty first drafts” saving legions of aspiring writers from committing seppuku. Most of us believe that the writers we admire sit down at their desks and gorgeous sentences come out the tips of their fingers and onto the page. Not true, Lamott tells us.

Here’s how she describes her process: “It’s over, I’d think calmly. I’m not going to make the magic work this time. I’m ruined. I’m toast. Maybe, I’d think, I can get my old job back…I’d get up and study my teeth in the mirror for a while. Then I’d stop, remember to breathe, make a few phone calls, hit the kitchen and chow down. Eventually I’d go back and sit at my desk, and sigh for the next ten minutes. ..and every time the answer would come: all I had to do was to write a really shitty first draft of, say, the opening paragraph. And no one was going to see it. So I’d start writing without reigning myself in…”

Don’t you feel like less of an idiot? I do. And once I have those pages I can shape them into something wondrous (or least, acceptable.)

My lesson? The next time Mr. Sweetie suggests a trip to Rome, I’ll think twice before leaving my manuscript behind.