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About the Author

A little about me. I love to read, write, travel, and drink tea. I especially love it when I can do more than one of those at a time.   I have too many different series started, but all of them are definitely reverse-harem. It took me years to finish my first book, and now I have started to publish them.

 

My style leans towards paranormal, mystery, thriller themes when I write and read. If I'm trying to write, and I don't have time to read until I get inspired, I like to listen to music. That'll usually get me out of a block and back to writing!!

Q/A Session for Mia Smantz: 8/5/19

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

 

Mia Smantz I got the idea for my most recent book, The Cardinal Bird, from my husband. We had a long, in-depth discussion about what would be the coolest superpower to have and why. We have the most random conversations! We both thought the coolest superpower would be to speak any language that we wanted. We had traveled recently to Europe, and it must've been on our minds about how much easier life would've been if we'd been able to communicate better. 

I was also inspired by my older brother. He was a real-life hacker--getting into trouble with phone companies from the age of 7 up. The FBI would tap our phones because he'd hacked into the local company so many times--just for fun. I'm pretty sure that the phone company had our mom's phone on speed-dial. It got to the point where she would recognize the number calling her and go, "Really? Again?" Luckily the director was nice about it and would just say, "I'm afraid so."

Thus Callie Jensen was born--a shy, smart, passionate girl based off of two manly men.

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How do you get inspired to write?

 

Mia Smantz I get inspired to write when I watch a really great movie or read a great book. The entire time I am picturing spin-offs or alternate ways the story could've gone. If I need more immediate inspiration, I'll listen to music. It's my quickest muse.

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What are you currently working on?

 

Mia Smantz I am currently editing the next book for the Cardinal series: Cardinal Caged. It is up for pre-order and will be released on October 30th. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07...
I'll do maybe one edit of the entire story every two weeks until then. This lets the story fade from my mind a bit so that I can check for cohesion and make any changes that to plot that would make it better--usually adding more foreshadowing. 

On downtimes between that, I'll be drafting the 3rd book for the series: Cardinal of Hope...or writing on another reverse-harem series: The User-Friendly Guide to Ghosts. It will be a younger audience with a paranormal twist. It'll be about a teenage girl that has an affinity for the dead that wreaks havoc on her school life and social life. However, it will bring her some very handsome guys.

I'm very excited for it!

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What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

 

Mia Smantz Don't feel like everything you write has to be a great masterpiece or a finished book. Sometimes with deadlines, expectations, and pressure, it takes away the fun of being a writer. It can be overwhelming. It's okay to write a 10-page, 50-page, 100-page story that goes no farther than your own computer. Anything you write is experience and lessons to help you with that next great series or best-seller. In fact, those shorts could be the inspiration for them.

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What’s the best thing about being a writer?

 

Mia Smantz The best thing about being a writer is feeling like anything is possible. The only limit to what you can do is time, money, and creativity. JK Rowling, Stan Lee...they created entire worlds and franchises with pen and pad. That feeling of possibility and power is a heady addiction that makes being a writer awesome.

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How do you deal with writer’s block?

 

Mia Smantz When I am having trouble with writing, I listen to music. I try to picture the story the song is weaving. I cast a person in my mind that could be the person the song is about. I try to create a backstory to it. 

Doing this helps put me back in the right state of mind for creating.

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