I have the awesome Mia Darien visiting today to share a little about herself and about her Adelheid series of books! Please give Mia some love and help her feel welcome!
What was your favorite part about writing the Adelheid series?
Mia: You know, that’s hard to say. It’s probably the characters, though. They’ve been in my head for almost a decade and a half, or close to it, and written in different places and ways before becoming the Adelheid series, so they’re really personal to me. I love being in their lives. And that’s what it is. I don’t write them or create them. They let me write what they tell me!
What was the most difficult part of writing the Adelheid series?
Mia: The actual writing. I have a terrible time with writer’s block, so getting those first drafts done can be really difficult.
What inspired the concept of making supernaturals legal citizens and the downstream impacts of that?
Mia: I…don’t know that I remember, to be honest. Like I said, it’s been fifteen years since the idea started bubbling. I think a bit of it came from the Anita Blake series (by Laurell K. Hamilton) in part, but I always thought there was so much more on the “human” level that could be done with the idea. And you don’t have to look far back in history or far out the window to see struggles for human rights in the world, so I kind of wanted to express those ideas through a different looking glass, so to speak.
Do you have any strange writing habits? Describe what/why?
Mia: I don’t have any writing habits at all. I’m the least ritualistic writer ever, I think. I write whenever, where ever, however… I’ve typed in Google Docs on my phone before. (Not the best way to write, I’ll admit.)
Writing the blurb… love it or hate it? And why?
Mia: Hate it! You have to make it engaging but not sound…goofy. You have to make the reader want to read it, but not sound self-aggrandizing in a way that puts them off. You have to tell readers enough about the story to interest them but not write a dry synopsis or give it all away… I always get stumped for a while on that.
Share some of your writing pet peeves that bug you in books you read?
Mia: My biggest one lately, which I’ve all but run around with my hair on fire about, is so many books–especially epic fantasy, but not just that–that have what I’ve started calling Pointless Female Syndrome. Where the only female characters seem to be shoved in there without thought, purpose or depth just to say “we have a girl” in the book. I’d rather an all male cast, honestly. I just want to see more books with strong, realistic, purposeful female characters.
If you were a professional wrestler, what would your wrestler name and persona be?
Mia: Well, a nickname early in my marriage was “Crazy Ass Little Woman” who my husband used to think would wait in the corners of the ceiling to jump down on him after he walked in the door… I could probably do something with that. 😉
You wouldn’t be caught dead where? And why?
Mia: Oh, goodness… Uh… Since I’m dead, I don’t really see why I’d care!
Something you can’t resist (your kryptonite)?
Mia: Books with Norse mythology in them. Someone sends me a book to read, that word attracts me like a beacon and I can’t say no.
And now, for the speed round (a la Actors Studio). Answer the following questions with 1 word:
- What turns you on? Mia: Rock-music
- What turns you off? Mia: Arrogance
- What is your favorite word? Mia: Woonsocket
- What is your least favorite word? Mia: Mucus
- What sound or noise do you love? Mia: Rainfall
- What sound or noise do you hate? Mia: Tornado-sirens
- What profession other than yours would you like to attempt? Mia: Bellydancer
- What profession other than yours would you NOT like to attempt? Mia: Skydiver
- What is your favorite swear word? Mia: Jackass
- If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say to you as you enter the Pearly Gates? Mia: Yay!
Welcome to Adelheid Series
by Mia Darien
Paranormal Suspense
Cameron’s Law
Vampires are people, too.
Cameron’s Law has made all supernatural creatures legal citizens, and the boy next door has suddenly become the werewolf next door. With Sadie Stanton, vampire and one of the public faces of the legislation, calling the little town of Adelheid, Connecticut home, it can’t help but be a focal point for these once mythical beings.
But when vampires start attacking werewolves without provocation, Adelheid draws the attention of those that would seek to have Cameron’s Law repealed and would send the preternaturals back into the shadows they used to hide in, but without the safety of their anonymity and their law.
Can Sadie keep the city’s two biggest species from descending into chaos and war before it brings all of them to harm? And can she do it when she herself gets thrust into the spotlight?
When Forever Died
Forever is a long time.The life of a hunter is a lonely one. Perhaps more for Dakota than others in her line of work. Not only is she better than anyone else at chasing down the things that go bump in the night, but her past chases her with the same tenacity.
She’s built walls around her solitary existence and that’s the way she likes it, but the past never sleeps. When she’s hired to hunt an ex-lover for murder, it’s just the first in a string of memories that will bring Dakota’s past, present and future into a collision course.
And when she agrees to take on a second case and hunt down an Ancient, a vampire over one thousand years old, it unleashes circumstances onto that collision that will shake the foundation of everything she’s built and force her, for the first time in a long while, to look to others.
Can she survive it, like she’s survived these past four centuries? Or will the weight of it all finally crush her?
Voracious
Written All Over Her
One word can change the story of your life forever.
Abduction. Torture. Surrender.
Eleven months from her adolescence have framed thirty-one years of Detective Nykk Marlowe’s life. Despite the trauma of her past, and the unique physical scars it left her with, she’s built a career as a detective for the Adelheid Police Department.
Her personal life might only consist of caring for her sister and a pet rabbit, but she accepts that.
She accepts that she’ll never be able to be like “normal” people, even the supernatural ones. As long as she can keep the past where it belongs, she’s okay.
But when the body of a teenage girl shows up with the same scars that Nykk sees in the mirror every day, her “okay” life gets turned upside down and she’s forced to confront the past she’s been looking away from for sixteen years.
And when it turns out there’s already more than one victim, the pressure’s on to stop the killer before any more girls are tortured, mutilated, and murdered.
Born a Connecticut Yankee in nobody’s court, Mia Darien grew up to brave snow and talk fast. She started reading when she was three and never looked back, soon frequently falling asleep with a book under her cheek. (Something she still does, though these days it’s her Nook as often as a paperback.)
At eleven, she discovered “Night Mare” by Piers Anthony and entered the world of grown-up fantasy fiction and it was all over from there. She started writing at fourteen, then met vampires as a teenager and the concept for what would become Adelheid was soon born. Epic fantasy remains her first love, but she enjoys writing whatever stories come to mind in any genre.
Now she loves both writing and helping her indie community with her freelancing. A geek till the end, she enjoys role-play by email games and World of Warcraft when she has the time. Married to her very own Named Man of the North, she lives with him, their mini-tank (also known as their son) and pets, who usually act more childish than the child.
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