Name: Maria Miller

Author of:  Abandoned China Dolls, Dandelion Project, Chasing Fate, A Tribute to the Mother of the Waters, andSaving Emma *Interviewer comments are in bold.


1. What inspired you to write your first book? We were living in Costa Rica when I wrote my first novel, Abandoned China Dolls. A friend who had lived in China for a short time told me a story about seeing young girls in cages being sold at a local market.
I'm curious to know if Maria did more research on this as she wrote, or if most of it is fabricated fro her imagination. 2. How did you come up the ideas for your book?I have no idea where the ideas for my books come from.3. What genre do you consider your book(s)?I don’t write in a particular genre. I write novels as I come up with the ideas.
This is a very hard sell for most authors. So many readers expect an author to stick to one or two genre's. Thus the pen name can be quite useful if your audience expects only a particular kind or book from you. 4. Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life? The only novel that was based on somebody I know was Dandelion Project. My cousin, who was only 31, was found dead in her house. I’m not sure exactly how the coroner ruled her death, but I’ve always believed that she was murdered. I dedicated the novel to her memory.
5. What books have most influenced your life most?  I can’t cite any particular book that’s influenced me.
6. If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?  I read many books by many authors, so I can’t really pick one.
7. What book are you reading now?  Right now, I’m reading The Nightlife: New York by Travis Luedke.
8. Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest and why? Van Krishna, author of The Last Strand, really grasped my interest. I had to force myself to put his novel down because I wanted to absorb what I was reading! He got so many negative reviews of his novel that I wrote him and told him to ignore those reviews. His novel was fantastic!
I don't know how I feel about this. I have not read Van Krishna's novel, but to some extent you need to listen to your bad reviews, if only to learn how to write better. Authors get so close to their work, actually this goes for any sort of artist, that they become oblivious to mistakes. 9. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book? I’m never satisfied with my novels. I can always think of something that needs to be improved. I have to force myself to quit editing and publish.10. Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing? Since I write fiction that has some element of reality in it, sometimes the research is challenging. I’m currently writing Revenge Is Sweet, which is a sequel to Saving Emma. In it, my character (an American) is detained at the U.S.-Canadian border. I scoured the internet for information about being detained at the border, what happens to detainees, where they go, etc., but found very little. I finally found somebody on Nanowrimo who had been detained and could answer my questions. 11. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work? My favorite author is Graham Greene because he writes fictional stories based on true events.
12. What was the hardest part of writing your book? LOL! I wrote Saving Emma and Revenge Is Sweet from a male point of view, so that was the hardest part! 

Funny, I have several MCs that are male and I so not find it difficult to write from their point of view. Mind you I write from Limited Omniscient so I am not in that characters head space all of the time. I do find that some of the characteristics of my male characters are rather infuriating. I was so mad at one of my favorite characters when I was nearing the end of Soul Seed. I knew he was acting true to himself, but I was just sick of it. I wanted him to change.
13. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?When I wrote Saving Emma, I had to pick a profession for Luke. Rather than pick something generic like a doctor or lawyer, I had him implode buildings. Never having done this myself, I had to do a lot of research for it. I emailed several people with a few questions about imploding buildings, but I did not get any answers. (I guess people were afraid I was a terrorist.) I did learn, though, that, when imploding a building, the crew puts the charges on the top floor and blows it out. Gravity then takes over and destroys the building. This is contrary to the stories about Timothy McVeigh and how he parked a truck bomb under the Federal Building and blew it up.
14. Do you have any advice for other writers? My advice for other writers is to use your talent to help somebody else. My husband and I wrote A Tribute to the Mother of the Waters, which is about an untold story of the Vietnam War. Writers need to tell stories that don’t make the local news. (By the way, this is banned on Kindle.)15. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers? Remember that reading is supposed to be enjoyable!16. What books/authors have influenced your writing? N/A17. Do you ever experience writer's block? I don’t write on a schedule or force myself to write one hour a day. I write when I have something on my mine, so writer’s block is never an issue.18. What do you do to overcome writer’s block?N/A  
19. Do you write an outline before every book you write? My first three books were written with an outline. After that, I just wrote the story as it came into my mind. I think those stories are more fluent.20. Have you ever hated something you wrote? I’m never satisfied with my writing, so I guess my answer here is “everything.”21. What was you favorite book or series as a child?N/A22. What is your favorite television series?N/A23. Do you have any unique talents or hobbies?N/A24. Have you found that one of your books has sold better than the others? Why do you think that is?I’m still a struggling author. So far, though, my young adult novel Chasing Fate is probably my best seller.
25. How can we contact you or find out more about your books?You can visit me on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Maria-Miller/320837814628632?ref=hl. I’m also on twitter at https://twitter.com/MariaMi76180982.
26. What can we expect from you in the future?I find writing very stressful. When I finally publish a novel, after having worked with that character for so long, I feel like I’m saying goodbye to my best friend. Even though I can read my novel anytime I want, I’ll never “see” him again like I did when I was writing. I always say I’m finished writing, but I’ve written three novels since the first time I said it. I’ll probably be around for a few more years at least!
I feel this way when I kill off a character. Spoiler! I killed of a dog based on a dog that I actually own.  I also plan to kill off another one of my favorite characters which I absolutely hate. She is such a role model. She's the strong women type which I look up to. I had wrote her in with the intention of killing her later in the series, but I didn't expect to fall in love with her.