Hello! Today with us we have Angelina Kerner (friend) and Mara A. Miller (author)! *Applause*
Angelina: Could you please share with us your journey as an author and what inspired you to pursue writing?
Mara: I started writing when I was really young. I remember asking Grandma Miller if she had a typewriter, and her letting me sit at a desk with it to just type away. Then later, I remember playing Final Fantasy VII, and really being fascinated by Cloud and Tifa’s love story (there’s a whole love triangle aspect in the game and fans are still arguing over who is better for Cloud and I am 100% a Tifa/Cloud fan). Shortly after mom tossed a romance novel by Nora Robert’s at me (Dance Upon the Air) and told me to read it—I was about 12 and JUST beginning to read because I have dyslexia. It was a mix of the reading a LOT of romance novels and playing the Final Fantasy games that got me writing-I didn’t realize it at the time—FanFiction. I wrote FanFiction for years and got stuck on a vampire story that I still haven’t finished. It wasn’t really until high school that I knew deep down I was a writer, and I started writing FanFiction with my friend, Kelli, who later introduced me to a FanFiction website that I still sometimes use. In college, I had a brief four-year period where I thought I wanted to be an anthropologist, but it was all over when I got into a creative writing class and fell in love with my now ex-husband. There was a whole Kindle Worlds period where I published one of my fanfics, All This Time, and was still writing an AU/AH FanFiction for The Vampire Diaries, and realized I had an original romance novel. This was in 2012/2013 after I went through a divorce. And it was Cheap Guitars. I ended up pulling that story off the website. And I kept in touch with my ex’s first ex-wife because I still felt like a mom to their son, and every single time that man did something that made me angry or die laughing, I wrote a new book. (There used to be curtains that hung in my bedroom that his first wife made into curtains. Green paisley was the pattern. He took them, and then his third wife fashioned those curtains into vests for the groom’s party and I still can’t breathe from laughing if I really start telling the story.) That’s when self-publishing was really becoming popular. I had gotten my anthropology degree, and had just graduated with my English degree, and the program finally gave me the tools I needed to finish writing a novel. I’m still dyslexic. The dyslexia will never go away, but writing was the tool I needed to come over the learning disability. And now that I have a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing, I feel like I’ve conquered a learning disability that could have potentially stolen the joy of reading and writing from me. Besides, I love a good angst romance, so of course I write them.
Angelina: What themes or messages do you aim to convey through your work, and how do you believe they resonate with your readers?
Mara: Dealing with death and loss can seem like a strange thing to put in a romance novel, but I also have a literary side, and it’s something I had to go through at a very young age when my father died. He was a truck driver, and only 36 when he passed away. I also had a professor once who told me about what hurts, so…
But also, that women are strong, and if they aren’t in the beginning, they can get stronger. People have told me that they are shocked when a character passes in Cheap Guitars, and they fall in love with the characters and feel like they are friends.
Angelina: Can you tell us about your latest book/project and the creative process behind it?
Mara: Right now, I am pausing finishing The Cheap Series. The Blue Ridge which I have been fleshing out, has a lot of the same backdrop as the Cheap series too, and so I am thinking about turning Cheap Promises into the first book in the series. The only difference is that I’m dipping my feet into paranormal rom com territory since the female leads are witches. I love it because it’s like I’m paying homage to the Three Sisters trilogy that made me fall in love with reading.
And Sims. I play way too much Sims. I keep a notebook next to me to make notes while they’re in school or work or building skills. And I like to build houses. I can always tell when I’m about to go on a huge writing binge when I spend a few weeks playing Sims 4. I tell myself stories about the sims and even write on Facebook about what they’re up to sometimes.
Angelina: As an established author, what advice would you give to aspiring writers looking to break into the industry?
Mara: Just write. When you see other authors pushing out a bunch of books, don’t expect yourself to do it right away. If it happens? Awesome. No? Well, it’s not a reason to let imposter’s syndrome to take over. Rejections are a part of the traditional route. Self-publishing gives you control over your work. Remember why you started writing and use that to fuel your creativity.
Angelina: How do you handle writer’s block or challenges during the writing process, and what strategies do you use to overcome them?
Mara: Sims 4.
Angelina: Are there any specific genres or writing styles you haven’t explored yet but would like to in the future, and what draws you to them?
Mara: I want to write paranormal rom com, or just rom com in general. Apparently, I’m funny. And I think it would be hilarious to write about a character with anxiety who smokes too much. I love a good rom com. The Bromance Book Club series by Lissa Kay Adams had me howling over the fart jokes.
Angelina: Are there any specific authors or literary works that have influenced your writing style or storytelling approach?
Mara: Nora Robert’s, Colleen Hoover, Jane Austen, a little bit of Poe. I read a lot of literature. Have read a lot of literature because my undergraduate and graduate studies had a lot of reading.
Angelina: As an author, what role do you think research plays in creating believable and immersive fictional worlds or narratives?
Mara: Research is everything. I need to know way too much. How drinks are made at the bar, something common that’s wrong with a car that my mechanic in the story is thinking about, and I’m not end sure I could list everything I’ve googled in the past 24 hours.
Angelina: What do you believe sets your writing apart from others in your genre, and how do you strive to innovate within your field?
Mara: My characters are real. And raw. And I have the anthro background, and I think that makes me more observant with people.
Angelina: In your opinion, what are some key elements that make a compelling and successful book, and how do you strive to incorporate them into your writing?
Mara: The heroine has to be strong. You’ve got to hit all the important points of storytelling in a three-act structure. Romance novels are formulaic, so yeah, follow the formula, but you can break the rules sometimes. Rules are meant to be broken.
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