Ask the Author: Maia Chance
Answered Questions (16)
Maia Chance
Hi Asa, thanks for your question! My daughter is named Aesa, but the way :) Sadly, there are no plans for more Discreet Retrieval Agency books at this point. I have switched gears and I'm writing thrillers now--my first one, The Body Next Door, is going to be released on August 4th.
Maia Chance
As a matter of fact, Katelyn, I'm finishing up a story right now that wraps things up for Ophelia and Penrose. It should be out this spring, so make sure you sign up for my email list (via maiachance.com) and you'll be notified when it is released! Thank you for reading :)
Maia Chance
Thanks, Apple! I do most of the editing myself, but I do have two early readers who point out problem spots for me, and then of course at the publishing house a professional copyeditor points out any additional problems.
Maia Chance
Hi John. Maia Chance is my real name. The one author I know who uses a pseudonym does so to keep her fiction writing separate from her academic writing.
Maia Chance
Hey, Tanya! I LOVED what you did with the Snow White Red-Handed narration! I hatched the concept for the Fairy Tale Fatal series when I was simultaneously reading academic fairy tale criticism, Victorian lit for a grad school course, and--as always--cozy mysteries. The ideas sort of cross-pollinated, I guess :)
Maia Chance
Thanks, Jackie! Well, the third book in the series, Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna, will be released in just one more month on Feb. 1. After that, I am not sure. My editor at Berkley Prime Crime retired so things are still up in the air. Be sure to check out my other series, though!
Maia Chance
Thanks, Liisa. Yes, I have contracted with my publisher for the next three books in The Discreet Retrieval Agency series starring Lola and Berta. The second book will come out sometime in fall 2016. I don't have the release date yet but if you go to my website and sign up for my mailing list you will get a reminder email when it comes out. maiachance.com
Maia Chance
Thank you, Addie! Yes, I plan to write at least two more Fairy Tale Fatal books, and possibly a novella or two. So happy to hear you're enjoying the series.
Maia Chance
Thanks, Lauren! Yes, there will be a fourth in the Fairy Tale Fatal series as long as my publisher is on board--stay tuned on that. Favorite princess? Hmmm. Honestly, I think with fairy tales I usually gravitate toward the secondary characters . . . especially the villains :)
Maia Chance
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Maia Chance
Number one, define and focus the problem, phrased as a question, and write it down. Number two, go for a walk. Bring your notebook on the walk, because you WILL get the answer.
Maia Chance
The best thing about being a writer is, for me, having way more control over things--the end product, my schedule--than I had in other jobs.
Maia Chance
I never used to believe this, but now I do: write it for yourself. Because it amuses you. Because you're working something out for yourself in the process. Because you are mysteriously compelled to write it. I've tried other ways, and I can say with conviction that writing for other people or "the market" is, if nothing else, dreary.
Maia Chance
The idea for Snow White Red-Handed came from a creative mash-up: I was teaching an academic writing course called Critical Approaches to Fairy Tales, in which the students read fairy tales and wrote about them using different critical theories, and simultaneously I was working on my PhD dissertation, which is about New England literature in the mid-nineteenth century. So I had practical New England girls like Ophelia Flax on my mind, and I thought it would be pretty entertaining to put one in a magical European setting.
Maia Chance
I'm working on three projects right now (although they are in various stages of completion): the third Fairy Tale Fatal mystery, called Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna; the second Discreet Retrieval Agency mystery; and another mystery novel that I'm writing just because I must, called Bad Housekeeping.
Maia Chance
Reading other people's books inspires me. If I go through doldrums during which I only watch television or movies for a week or so, my writing suffers. And for me, imaginative work is mash-up work, so I usually get new ideas through unexpected combinations of other things. In fact, you can use this for a creative exercise: take two utterly unrelated ideas or things and force them into combination. Sometimes the result is like Frankenstein's Monster, but other times the result is special and surprising.
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