Author Spotlight - Mia West
Website: http://miawest.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authormiawest
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7729990.Mia_West
Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/miawest
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/miawest
Author Questions
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Why do you write?
I write because it’s fun. Because ideas poke at my ribs ’til I give them my attention. And I like to chase a flow state. I love reaching the end of a scene and not being able to remember writing specific lines. That said, if I could tap dance I’d figure out how to get paid for that instead!
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When did you start writing?
Ten years ago in June. The U.S. version of The Office ended that season on a big cliffhanger, and I discovered fanfiction. I started there, then began to develop my own characters and stories. Before that, the only writing I’d done was as a grant writer, which is basically persuasive expository writing. Fiction isn’t encouraged. :-) So I never really considered myself a creative person until I started getting feedback on the fanfic.
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What genre(s) do you write?
As I’ve figured out where my interests and strengths intersect, I’ve written paranormal (time travel, then shifters), contemporary, and historical. I focus now on historicals centered on queer characters, and mostly on characters who gender-identify as men. My current series, Into the Fire, follows the evolving long-term relationship of two men reunited when the western Roman Empire collapses.
Late in 2015, I sat down with all of my ideas for historical series and came up with a story universe that will encompass all of them. It’s called the Storm’s Edge saga and will comprise chronological series linked by a sword forged in Into the Fire. Right now, rough series ideas stretch the saga from the late 5th Century CE to the 20th. -
What does your writing routine consist of?
First thing after breakfast, I do about an hour of admin work – email, recordkeeping, that kind of thing. When I’m being responsible, I don’t check social media because it can make it harder to then focus on writing afterward. (When I’m not being responsible, all bets are off.) After that, I work on writing projects ’til lunch, then again after lunch until supper. If I have drafting and revising to do, I prefer to draft in the morning – once my editor brain kicks in, it’s hard to turn off. I try to stop around 5:00 or 6:00 and keep evenings as time to spend with my husband. Reading’s a big part of writing for me, and I do that mostly in the evenings, right up until I fall asleep.
At the end of each workday, I do a daily review to see if I need to move any tasks to the next day. On Fridays or Saturdays, I do a weekly review to check my progress and set the next week’s work schedule. I usually work Monday through Friday, with overflow on Saturday. I try to keep Sundays work-free, but if I’m watching football, say, I might also flip through potential cover art or tweak my website. -
What do you feel are your strengths as a writer? How have you developed these qualities?
I’m a concise writer. How sexy is that?! Haha. It’s a skill I picked up writing grant proposals, for which there’s often a limit on words or characters. You learn pretty quickly how to trim a sentence by 50%. The problem that presents in writing fiction is that I write short; in revisions, I almost always have to add text. Which is too bad, because I’m better at cutting. ;) Other than that, I think I write pretty good dialogue. I’m also comfortable letting go of the work. I release frequently, and you can’t dither on that kind of schedule.
Challenges – this is much easier to answer! I struggle with the discipline to start writing right after that initial admin session in the morning. Much of the time, I get hung up on how a scene should start, and I won’t begin writing until I have the first line. This is silly, and I’ve started forcing myself to just jump ahead a few lines and start there, then deal with the beginning later. I also procrastinate and not always productively. The upshot is that I write very close to my release dates. I’ve reworked my process this year to include more outside edit feedback, in part to force myself into a less frantic schedule. -
Where do you find your inspiration? Do you put yourself in your stories?
Man, history’s full of inspiration. My husband and I love to travel, so sometimes it’s a place that inspires a story. When it comes down to it I’m a what-if writer: what if an art thief did her work via time travel, and she has to have a partnered orgasm to travel? What if a farmer in the 1830s American West advertised for a bride, and the person who showed up was a young Cherokee man evading removal by the government? What if a Roman soldier suddenly had no army to employ him and trekked home, only to be mistaken for a marauder by his boyhood friend and nearly killed? What if those two men built a life together, and one of their grandsons became a man we now know of via legend?
I wouldn’t say I put myself—all of me—in my stories. I don’t think I’ve totally Mary Sued like that. But aspects of my personality definitely shape characters. Dmitri, one of my wolf shifters, is also a writer, so a lot of his challenges are mine too. My art thief, Bryn, loves languages, and so do I. My brewer, Mac, despises IPAs. Me, too. :-) And, like any writer, my experiences shape stories, especially when writing locations I’ve visited or sensory details I’ve experienced. -
Outliner or improviser? Fast or slow writer?
Hardcore plotter. I don’t do a detailed outline, but I’m a structure wonk, and everything I write starts with a plot grid. I always know my ending when I begin plotting, and by the time I begin writing, I’ve laid out my scenes. My historicals are novellas of about the same length to keep pricing consistent. I keep a planning spreadsheet for each series that includes plot grids for each book. Those, in turn, include a cell for each scene and word count calculators to ensure my turning points are happening when they should, that the first half of the book balances the second half, etc.
When I actually get down to writing, I’m somewhere between fast and slow. At the draft stage, I’ll put up 1,600-2,000 words per hour. My inner editor is a loud-mouth. To shut her up, I have to lower my laptop screen until I can just make out that the cursor is moving but not read what I’m typing. Then I allow myself lower-case letters, periods, and hard returns. That’s it. Anything more, and I’m line-editing as I draft, which…ugh, slow. At the end of the day, I clean up the text I wrote that day because my typing looks like drunk wolverines made out on my keyboard. On my current schedule, I write a novella in about three weeks, start to finish. -
Tell us about your latest book.
In January, I published two Into the Fire novellas. Marc, the soldier of the couple, develops testicular cancer, and it’s an arc that bridges two books so I pubbed them close together. Fracture deals with Marc trying to hide his illness from everyone, including his partner, Wolf. The follow-up, Weld, is about his treatment and recovery, and how his new physicality affects his self-identity and his relationship with Wolf.
Each book has a page on my website, with links and excerpts:
Fracture: http://www.miawest.com/books/into-fire-series/into-the-fire-6-fracture/
Weld: http://www.miawest.com/books/into-fire-series/into-the-fire-7-weld/ -
Indie publishing or traditional publishing - and why?
Indie, for a lot of reasons. The potential to reach exactly the readers who want your books is astounding, thanks to the global reach of ebook platforms and reading devices. I think this gives me more freedom to write the stories I want to write and think less about trends. I like the control I have over my books and my brand, from how everything looks down to the ability to tweak prices, links, excerpts, etc, whenever I need to. The royalty is better, even after I pay outside pros for freelance work. And I don’t mind shouldering the extra work; there’s reward in that too.
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Any other projects in the pipeline?
Storm’s Edge is a Patreon project! Patreon is a site designed to nurture the ongoing support of creative work, bringing back the idea of patronage as a means of support for artists. To keep things simple, I set one reward level: $1/month. Anyone who is an active patron when I release a novella receives that novella as a thank-you for their support. New patrons also get access to all novellas already published in the current series. I plan to release 7 novellas in 2016, so it’s comparable to buying them.
The Storm’s Edge project lives here: https://www.patreon.com/miawest -
What is your goal as a writer and what are you doing to achieve it?
To never stop learning. Studying craft is part of how I approach this goal, so I read and take notes, trade work with a critique partner, attend craft-focused events, and research specific things I’m curious about. In 2015 I completed an MFA in writing that was part of my work toward this goal. But diving in and writing is the main part. I learn something about characters, story, and myself in the writing of every project. The trick is to pay attention and apply the new stuff next time.
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What is the best piece of writing advice you've ever been given?
Write the book you want to read. On the surface it sounds like an invitation to self-gratification, and I’ve definitely caught myself wanting to write just the fun bits. But, as you can imagine, I’ve learned that the book I want to read also has the hard parts, the uncomfortable and painful parts; without them, the fun, sexy parts mean nothing.
Click HERE to sign up for Mia's newsletter and receive the first 3 books of the Into the Fire series, free. This bundle includes, Temper, a short story exclusive to the collection.
Featured Books
When the Roman Empire collapses, career soldier Marcus returns to the home of his foster father, only to be knocked unconscious by a man he doesn’t recognize. That man is Wolf, a blacksmith now forced to defend his former master’s home with a hammer and his wits. As Marc heals at Wolf’s hands, attraction sparks. The unexpected revelation that they once were boyhood rivals stokes the fire between them to a weapon-melting inferno.
View the Excerpt Amazon | All Romance | B&N | iBooks | Google Play | Kobo |
Rivals-turned-lovers Marc and Wolf set out to cross the fallen Roman Empire with one aim: to reach the western sea. As they tangle with roving outlaws and each other, the men gradually discover that their combined strength—and any hope of seeing the sea—lies in their deepening bond. Every present moment and shared memory, every rough stroke and whispered demand, will bring Wolf and Marc closer to a destination neither can predict but that each craves, body and soul.
View the Excerpt Amazon | All Romance | iBooks | B&N | Google Play | Kobo |
Marcus and Wolf have begun to build a life by the sea. The blacksmith wants something more—a specific something—but the idea makes Marc restless. Meanwhile, the unrest following Rome’s collapse still churns. After an ambush nearly costs him everything he cares about, Marc organizes a patrol armed to the hilts, determined to eradicate any threat within sight. What he discovers in a nearby forest is a threat indeed—a menace unlike any other to his life with Wolf—but one that transforms his fear and uncertainty into a tenacious hope for the future.
View the Excerpt Amazon | All Romance | iBooks | B&N | Google Play | Kobo |
Into the Fire Vol 1-3 contains the first three books of the Into The Fire series plus an exclusive bonus story, Temper, which is a lighthearted, sexy vignette that answers Marc’s final question in Forge.
Buy from Amazon |
Three years after Marc and Wolf’s arrival, drought holds their community in its grip. As summer peaks and their water supply dwindles, finding a solution becomes a battle of wills between Marc and Philip. Caught between his lover and his friend, Wolf seeks a way to restore peace to his neighbors and a preoccupied Marcus to his bed.
An unexpectedly scorching encounter at the bathing stream gives Wolf an idea. When the oppressive heat finally threatens to incinerate all reason, he proposes his own solution to Marc and Philip. Not every thirst can be slaked with water, after all, and some negotiations are more satisfying when the mind surrenders to the body. Amazon | All Romance | iBooks | B&N | Google Play | Kobo |
When the time nears for Matthias to become an apprentice, Marcus tries to claim him for the fighting corps. Not to be outmaneuvered, Wolf demands the boy spend equal time in the blacksmith’s workshop. A heated argument becomes a tipsy reminiscence of their own training, and Wolf and Marc concoct exactly the sort of idea fueled by long winter nights and too much ale.
Inspired by the master-apprentice tradition, the two men embark on a private exchange of guidance and discipline, instruction and experimentation, and practice, practice, practice. But what begins as a playful sharpening of skills soon lays bare the core of their partnership: the strength, durability, and resilience that have bound them for years – qualities they’ll need if Marc is going to accept his son’s true calling, and Wolf acknowledge the unconventional apprentice he’s been training all along. Buy from Amazon |
Wolf’s carefully crafted world is cracking around him. Matthias, now seventeen, wants to leave the stronghold to study in a distant city. In the smithy, Britte is distracted, hardly able to forge a nail without splintering it. Even Marcus is acting strange, willing to give pleasure and comfort but deflecting Wolf’s efforts to do the same.
Marc’s rigorously trained body has developed a weak point. More than a strained muscle this time but nothing he can’t handle, especially since his son has chosen this moment to break ranks. Busy quelling Wolf’s worry, he ignores the growing chink in his own armor. But when Wolf finally breaches his defenses, Marc must admit he faces a battle he may not be able to fight alone. Buy from Amazon |
All time-traveling art thief Bryn Talbot needs to cross history is a partnered orgasm. As her erotic adventures take her from the Roman frontier to the Spanish Inquisition, from the destruction of Pompeii to the Black Plague, Bryn’s one constant is Tell, a fiercely protective ex-boxer who challenges her as much as he turns her on. Is theirs a professional partnership for the ages, or something far riskier than Bryn’s ever experienced?
Tell Me When features an evolving M/F relationship, as well as F/F, M/M, ménage, and group sex. Buy from Amazon |
Locked in a kinky archive. Snowbound in a primitive mountain hut. Abandoned on a tropical island by the last ferry for a week.
Sexy strangers, tight quarters. Sometimes getting stranded is the best itinerary. Stranded features hot, messy M/F friction in stand-alone novellas. Buy from Amazon |
Bush pilot John Tillman never expected to raise his kid sister. As her graduation approaches, he can almost taste the freedom of the empty nest in his near future—to fly in his eagle form for days…walk around his house naked…maybe even bring a man into his bed for the first time in years. To save her college fund, John’s taking every run his plane can handle and doing his best to keep his shifting under the radar. Then his latest job walks into the local bar with a strange gait and velvety Southern drawl.
After three tours, two new legs, and one long-overdue divorce, the only thing Logan Maddox is counting on now is a distraction-free hunting trip with the son whose teen years he’s almost missed. Logan isn’t a hero, just a guy trying to readjust with new parameters. If he hasn’t quite put into practice the gay identity he’s finally accepted…well, it’s not top priority. But fate has its own tactics, and the only pilot available to ferry them looks like a recruitment ad for Alaska’s hottest unit, and arrives with a seventeen-year-old girl in tow. View the Excerpt Amazon | All Romance | iBooks | B&N | Google Play | Kobo |
For wolf shifter Dmitri Sernov, life bites. His late-night hunts leave him winded, the twelfth rewrite of his novel is crap, and his last good lay was five drafts ago. He’s staring down forty with a creative well as empty as his bed. The last thing he needs is a beautiful, intimidating, obnoxious pup bent on exposing Dmitri’s underbelly… and everything else that’s gone soft.
Thierry Marrou has burned every bridge from Montréal to Juneau. Once a prospect for Canada’s Olympic hockey team, he’s just been kicked off a piddling local squad in Nowhere, Alaska. But one whiff of the silver wolf on the opposing bench was enough to confirm that the erotic dreams drawing Thierry across a continent have a very real—and very cranky—source. Amazon | All Romance | iBooks | B&N | Google Play | Kobo |