Mia Sivan's Blog, page 3

Romantic Suspense books I loved

There is an element of suspense in all my books. In Pulling Her Resources, the couple investigates corruption in the heroine’s workplace. They need to procure a crucial piece of evidence. In order to mask their breaking and entering to her company's offices, they put on a live opera show including bare-chested male dancers (link below). As lively as that scene was, it's still not the action-packed, life-threatening adventure you get with "real" romantic suspense books.

Laura Griffin writes that the best novels combine the three P's: Problem that the heroes solve, Proximity—they are together a lot, and Pacing—the book must be fast-paced. The next novels deliver on all three.

"Whiteout" by Adriana Anders is one of the best romantic suspense novels I’ve read. Angel is a chef and an unlikely action heroine. A group of mercenaries kills her friend, and she foils their plans while falling for a glaciologist who happens to be in the same trouble as she is (running away from the bad guys). The setting is a remote station in Antarctica: subzero temperatures and a hostile, impossible-to-live-in environment on one side, and on the other, a haunting beauty and isolation.

“No. No, that wasn’t all she could do. She was alive, wasn’t she? She had no idea what or how or if she’d die in the process, but she was going to find some way to stop these men. Now.”

(Whiteout, Chapter 6, P49)

Cindy Gerard’s Taking Fire's premise is the best: In Kabul, a beautiful Mossad agent named Talia Levine seduces Bobby, an American military contractor:

“She’d be playing with fire once she engaged him…and as she watched him…she knew she regretted volunteering for this op. But the endgame was what drove her…”

(Taking Fire, Chapter 1, P11)

After he leads her team to the Hamas leader they were after, she leaves. Understandably, he hates her guts and feels used. Six years after they first met, Talia and Bobby happen to be together at the American Embassy in Oman, right when it gets bombed. Talia is the target due to her prior mission in Kabul. Now Talia has to admit to Bobby that they have a son, and the clock is ticking as Hamas has kidnapped their son and he is being held hostage.

I read this book after October 7th, and it was triggering. I continued reading because this was a romance. So, unlike in real life for so many hostages and their families, here at least, there will be a happily ever after.

Do you have a great romantic suspense book you want to tell me about? let me know in the comments.

Further links:

Links:

​https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/the-3-ps-of-writing-romantic-suspense​

​Whiteout by Adriana Andres​

​Taking Fire by Cindi Gerard​​

​The dance of the Furies - The Hofesh Shechter Dance Company in The Royal Opera's production of Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice.

Discovering Strength in Stories: Mia Sivan interviews for Joe Dimino in Famous Interviews

Joe Dimino interviewed me for his Famous Interviews Podcast.

I now have the links to share.

Listen on Apple or Spotify, or watch on YouTube:

If you prefer reading to listening and watching, here is a partial and edited transcript:

Joe:

I would like to begin, before we get into your writing and your history, by asking you: four years ago, when we started this pandemic, no one really knew where it was going to go. So I'm curious, how did you make it through the pandemic, and how did it change you?

Mia:

By the time the pandemic hit Israel in March 2020, I had already left my job as a VP of investments. I left in early 2019 to start a new career as a writer. So, when COVID hit, I basically continued doing what I did before—sat in front of my computer and wrote my books. Fortunately, we have a semi-detached house with a front and back garden, so I didn't feel as closed in as people living in apartments might have.

Joe:

Well, that's good. That's kind of the way it was in Kansas City. You could get out, you could drive, and it was very spacious. But I think people in New York and other big cities had a more difficult time. So right now, in 2024, if I put you in front of a bunch of grade school kids, third graders, on career day, and one of the kids says, "Hey, what do you do for a living?" how do you answer that child?

Mia:

My books are actually for adults, but I would tell them that I write stories where people meet, get to know each other, and have adventures. My stories often involve financial scams, so the two heroes solve mysteries together, fight crime, grow as people, and there's always a happily ever after.

Joe:

I'm curious, I really enjoy your backstory. Of all the things you've done in your life, in your different careers, what are you the proudest of?

Mia:

Career women with families often manage two careers: our professional career, for which we get paid, and the career of managing our home. While men may say they help with children, from my experience, it's usually women who handle the majority of home management tasks—not only cooking and being with your kids but also their itineraries, like play dates and carpooling. I consider this home management a second career, and I'm very proud of raising three great children and balancing these two careers for 30 years.

Joe:

What is your motivation every day to write and evolve as a human?

Mia:

The stories I write focus on strong women in the finance world. Romance novels often don't feature women in such professions, which are usually associated with billionaire men. By highlighting women navigating this cutthroat, male-oriented environment, I aim to tell their stories of overcoming challenges and finding love. I explore themes that are relevant to older readers. All my heroines are always in their mid-30s to mid-40s, reflecting the experiences of those ages. I don't think it's going to be very big on TikTok, but I'm writing to an audience who wants to read these kinds of stories.

My Warrior Grandmother

Joe Dimino has a podcast called Famous Interviews, where he talks to people from all over the world. I was a guest the other day, and I’ll be sharing the links to my interview soon.

One of the questions I answered was: 

Who was your role model or hero when growing up?

It made me dig deep within myself - did I even have a role model?

Yes, I did, and it was my grandmother on my father's side. She was called Hava (the Hebrew version of Eve), I called her Savta Hava (Grandma Hava), and I adored her. She was quite short, brimming with energy, and always cycling everywhere. Being her eldest grandchild, I felt we had a special bond.

I've mentioned in previous newsletters that I was born and raised in a kibbutz, a unique Israeli settlement influenced heavily by socialist ideals. In kibbutzim, children were not supposed to live with their parents - we were meant to eat, sleep, and spend most of our time with other children our age. We stayed in what was called "a home," while our parents lived in "a room." Every day at four o'clock, we would go to our parents' room, spend a few hours with them, and then return "home" to sleep.

My grandmother was a beautiful soul and a true character. Despite being one of the kibbutz founders and a staunch socialist, she always prioritized her family above everything. She opposed the idea of children growing up away from their parents with all her heart. Despite intense peer pressure she fought for "family sleeping" (as opposed to "communal sleeping") her entire life.

A side note: Batya Gur, a renowned Israeli crime fiction writer, wrote a book about this very subject, Murder on a Kibbutz.​ Her most famous creation, Michael Ohayon, is a somber police inspector whose investigations delve into the psychological and social dynamics of Israeli life. ​​

Back to our story: I hated sleeping in the communal children's home. So much so that I constantly ran away. I’d prepare a small bundle of clothes, very neatly, and walk at night, half a mile, through the kibbutz to my grandmother’s house.

Remember, I was only five or six years old. I didn't go to my parents because they would have brought me back. My grandmother, who lived a little closer, would make my bed on the sofa in her living room and take me back “home” before breakfast. This continued for a couple of years, me running away to Savta Hava, until my parents finally took me and my sister in to live with them.

Several years later, my grandmother won her fight.

At the general assembly of the kibbutz, she spoke vehemently for children sleeping within their parents’ homes, and the majority voted with her. The kibbutz abandoned communal sleeping.

She passed away years ago, and I still miss her dearly.

Does AI dream of Electric Sheep

Let's talk a little about AI - what are your thoughts about using it?

Since its explosion in late November 2022, AI has been the center of debates on authorship, ethics, and the essence of artistry. I use AI almost daily. I use ProWritingAid to edit and proofread my manuscripts before sending them to alpha and beta readers. Or ChatGPT 3.5, to shorten research time.

Where and when is it okay to use it, and where do we draw the line?

As of a few months ago, Amazon started asking this question: Have you used AI to write this book?

 I answer: no.

But Mia, you might say, you just admitted to using it! Yes, I have. But I only use it in the early stages of the book. I use it to generate ideas for romantic subplots, conflicts, or twists based on scenarios that I provided. To offer writing prompts tailored to the romance genre, in order to inspire new scenes or chapters.

But all the sentences are mine, the style, the words, the Voice.

DALL·E, the image-generating AI, has been around since 2021, but its use was initially restricted to industry insiders and early adopters. I don't like design, so I'm pretty shitty at it. But when WIX, which I use for my website and blog, and Canva, which I use mainly for social media, started offering AI image-generating tools, I thought I'd try it. I wouldn't consider using it for book covers. For that, I rely on the incredible Enni from Yummybookcovers; her designs are unmistakably human-made.

But for social media, it's a different story. And you know what else? It's fun! 

It is also a complete time sink. To generate the images below, I spent an entire morning playing with it. Canva AI’s image generator requires a minimum of five words but no more than fifty. For the prompt,  I took a direct quote from the book and shortened it a little. Then I experimented with the different categories:  "watercolor", "dreamy", "filmic", etc. I find that if you say "none" the results are the best. I guess like all of us, AI likes its artistic freedom.While  I greatly appreciate them, for me, none of the images truly resembles Erez, the male protagonist of my latest book, as I envisioned while writing him.

Here is the quote I used:

"He peeled off his shirt, revealing broad shoulders, a flat chest, and a tight stomach. He had long blue stripes of wave-shaped tattoos. The curling waves started on his smooth, tanned shoulder and hugged his biceps, ending above his right elbow."

Here are the results, which one do you like best? Comment below and let me know.

The Inspiring Tale Behind a Passover's Beloved Melody

Pesach, Passover, is on April 22nd, less than a week away.

There are still more than 130 hostages in Gaza, abandoned by our vile government who could have done a deal a long time ago. There is a serious humanitarian crisis. Thousands of Palestinians are caught between their own ruthless rulers, i.e., Hamas, and the IDF, which sometimes has a hard time distinguishing innocent Palestinians from Hamas terrorists. On Saturday we all spent a sleepless night wondering if our defense systems would hold up as Iran launched drones and missiles towards us.

Amidst all this turmoil, we're still expected to celebrate Passover.

And we will. Because, what else can we do? It's tradition, and that's something Jews are sticklers about. So, in this blog post, I would like to tell you about special Passover traditions and the heartwarming story behind one Passover song.

I grew up in a kibbutz called Na'an, where there is a communal Seder: the entire kibbutz comes together for a collective celebration. My kibbutz holds the largest Seder in Israel. More than a thousand people gather in the sports arena, read and sing the Haggadah together.

A Haggadah is a text that guides the Passover Seder, recounting the story of the Exodus from Egypt. It serves as a script for the ceremony, providing instructions and readings for participants to follow. The same exact format had been used by Jews all over the world for thousands of years.

Yet right from their start, the kibbutz decided to renovate the ancient text and infuse it with new traditions. The new Haggadah relied on the traditional one, using the concept of Exodus as the move from the Diaspora to Eretz Israel. It put emphasis on Spring, agriculture, and the rebirth of a nation.

Songs were needed for this new recounting, and this is the story of a humble composer and the song he wrote that ended up being the best loved song of the new Seder.

The lyrics were chosen first, deriving from a poem about a newborn baby:

“Come, my human son, and I’ll kiss you, with green fields and sunlit skies…” Later, there is mention of growing wheat. It fit perfectly the overall themes of the newly written Haggadah.

Now for the melody. At the time, two composers resided in Na’an: David Zehavi and Yehuda Oren.

Zehavi was very well known. He had been composing songs since age 15, including classics like “A walk to Caesarea”, and “The flute”. His songs are still sung today (further links and info at the end of the newsletter). He even has streets named after him.

Oren, on the other hand, always lived in Zehavi’s shadow. He composed a little but only for himself. He was a music teacher for many years - instructing tone-deaf kids including, in his last years, yours truly.

Back to our story.

In 1944, Zehavi was approached to compose a melody for the Seder song. He obliged but it failed to gain traction and for several years, the poem was merely recited during the Seder. Oren took it upon himself to write new music, arranging it as a duet for his wife (soprano) and her best friend (alto). In the Seder of 1948, mere weeks before the birth of the State of Israel, the song was sung for the first time. Dina, Yehuda's wife, and Hayale, her friend, performed it together, continuing to do so for years thereafter.

Initially, only the residents of Na'an knew and cherished the song. It was, and is to this day, the highlight and the best loved song in the Seder. Twenty years later, a famous choir picked it up, and almost overnight, it became a sensation. It received dozens of covers, by the most well known singers of the day. Oren, who lived until 1999, witnessed his song become a hit. He’d always maintained that the original duo, his wife and Hayale, performed it best. I agree - it’s the shortest rendition, and the most beautiful (there’s a link below).

Dafna Zehavi, who married David Zehavi’s firstborn son, now sings it at every Seder. Yehuda Oren's daughter, Lally, succeeded him as my music teacher. She has been the musical director of the Seder for the last forty years, proudly conducting the singing of her father's most well-known melody.

Further reading:

 

David Zehavi’s biography

A recording of Dina and Hayale’s rendition (1950), and the lyrics in Hebrew

A research on the evolvement of The Kibbutzim Haggadah

A news item about the seder in Na’an

A Walk to Caesarea

​

Visit my city and my Writing den

I’m fully aware that the only tourists we get here now are Jews with strong connections to Israel - the kind who come over to celebrate Passover with family. That being said, Tel Aviv’s indomitable spirit is alive and kicking, and it remains, in my eyes, one of the best cities in the world. Here are three short recommendations about Tel Aviv in the Spring of 2024:

Best cheap street food chain: Hamiznon by Eyal Shani

Shani has opened restaurants around the world, but if you want the original, it’s right here in Tel Aviv. The chef has attributed his masterful handling of vegetables to his father, who was a vegan. Try the famous cauliflower and the smashed potato. My personal favorite is the string beans (in the pic).

Best cocktails and Happy Hour: Imperial Bar

Imperial is the winner of Drinks International magazine’s ‘Best Bar in Africa and the Middle East’. I’m not sure how stiff the competition was in this category, but It is, without doubt, the best bar in Tel Aviv. Bar Shira, one of the three owners, is known for sending undercover visitors to spy on the quality of his own places. I was there the other day and posted pictures on my Instagram.

The small museum you don’t want to miss:

I wouldn't leave the city without going to the Nahum Guttman museum.

Guttman lived in Tel Aviv and he held a special place in his work for documenting and preserving the beginnings of his home town. His museum is located in Neve Tzedek, and Gutman's paintings bring to life the appearance of the neighborhood, its events, its people and its houses. After completing your mandatory cultural portion of the day, stroll through the picturesque streets and enjoy the boutiques and restaurants.

I have a small Guttman hung right in front of me (a little hidden by my second monitor). It's very characteristic of the painter’s work, with its traits of naïve art. Here it is, plus a pic of my writer’s den.

I hope to see you soon - drop me a line when you're in Tel Aviv, and I'll gladly show you around.

I used to write only about food

I used to write a food blog, designated for busy moms like myself. The rules were simple: 1. No more than five ingredients and 2. The recipe can only include up to three steps of preparation. I did it before Jamie Oliver Links to my old blog are at the end of this email with posts that go back to Feb 2012. But I'm a kind and forgiving person and so I'm going to let it slide, great minds think alike and all that.

My love for food and writing about it extended to my books. I always write about food - what my characters eat or cook.

The recipe I want to share with you does not appear in any of my books. It takes to the extreme the 3:5 method, using just two ingredients to make a delicious homemade low-calorie soup.

Since there are only two ingredients I'm going to have to insist - you need to use the dark green-skinned zucchinis plus a high-end variety of a spreadable fatty cheese - like the laughing cow pictured above.

Zucchini is practically like eating water, a mere 14 calories per 100 grams. The cheese, on the other hand, is a different story. Each wedge packs 50 calories. I only incorporate 6-7 triangles per kilogram of zucchini. Consequently, our entire dish amounts to just 520 calories. Divided into five servings, each bowl contains a mere 100 calories - fulfilling, flavorful, and diet-friendly.

Zucchini Soup with Melted Cheese Ingredients (serves 4-6):

6-7 zucchinis

6-7 triangles of "La vache qui rit" ("The Laughing Cow") cheese

Preparation:

Slice the zucchinis (no need to peel, and slices can be thick). Place them in a pot, cover with water, and cook for 10-15 minutes until the zucchinis soften. Remove about 2/3 of the water from the pot (but don't discard it - if the soup is too thick, you can add it to reach the desired consistency). Add the cheese and blend using a hand blender (a regular blender works too, but why dirty another tool?). Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Yours,

Mia

​https://www.miasivan.com/​

Links to my old blog. Articles are in Hebrew:

Red, black and white salad:

​https://xnet.ynet.co.il/Ext/XnetOld/XnetOld_CdaArticlePrintPreview/0,20224,L-3093474,00.html?print=1​

Dried fruit cake anyone can make:

https://xnet.ynet.co.il/food/articles/0,14567,L-3104360,00.html

My first ever podcast interview!

I was a guest on the She Blurbs Podcast by Brook Nichelle.

I can tell you I was scared shitless beforehand. The pressure to articulate thoughts clearly, combined with the awareness of unknown listeners tuning in, was daunting. Adding to my anxiety was the fact that I have a foreign accent, and I feared potential miscommunication or a lack of clarity. However, the host, Brook, quickly put me at ease. With over 300 podcast interviews under her belt, she posed insightful questions and even chuckled at my lame jokes. Although it's evident it's my first interview, I believe it went okay.

Breakdown by minutes:

2:01: Talking about my first book, "Crunching Her Numbers": the real-life criminal that appears in it. Brook tries to guess which famous actors appear on the cover.

8:33: Delving into "Analyzing Her Assets", touching on themes of body positivity and my experience writing a curvy heroine (curvy is a challenging word to say in English).

13:09: Sharing insights into my new release, "Pulling Her Resources" and discussing the hardest scene for me to write.

20:50: Offering advice for new writers.

International Women's Day 2024 - celebrating a brave woman

It's international women's day today. Last year I ranted about the state of women in the global financial industry.

This year, under the most fascist, right-wing government Israel has ever known, I'm tired of ranting. Instead, I want to celebrate one particular Israeli woman, Ilana Dayan. She is an investigative journalist, a dying breed - she broadcasts about a subject after actually checking her facts. She heads the longest-running news magazine program on Israeli TV, “Uvda,” which literally means fact.

Five anecdotes on Ilana Dayan:

When she arrived to the US to interview president Barack Obama, US border control wouldn't let her in. They also didn't believe her when she said she came to interview the president. Only after showing the official letter from the White House was she allowed in. She has a doctorate in law from Yale University. When Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu wanted to close the public broadcast channel, channel 11, for being too free thinking, she protested, and gave an impassioned speech, despite being on a competing network. (she broadcasts on channel 12). Her first appearance on TV was in 1979, as a teenager asking pertinent questions about the Israel-Egypt peace agreement. My personal favorite quote: "I am only a perfectionist when I can afford to be one."

Below is a video of her beautiful acceptance speech made on Feb 28, 2024, when she received a prize from the Peres Center of Peace and Innovation celebrating forty years of brave journalism. The speech is in Hebrew but YouTube enables you to get a pretty decent simultaneous translation to English.

https://youtu.be/00IejY1sjF0?si=jL6gHWnuVzD6OWLE

Ilana thanks many people. At the end she gives special thanks to her husband, the father of her three children, who makes it all possible.

My new book is about a woman who manages a thriving career, while taking care of her elderly parents and her two teen aged children. She is divorced, and she believes that she has met and lost the love of her life. But, as it turns out, a second chance at love is just around the corner…

Let's talk about Branding

When I first started my author career, I designed my website myself, using a WIX template. I thought it looked okay, but the site both reflected that I was not only a newbie author, but also a crappy web designer.

Last year I hired a professional designer, Nicole, and the first thing she wanted to know was my 'branding'.

Say what?

Branding is complicated, people. 'Mia Sivan' the persona is both similar yet different to the real person behind her.

I told Nicole that I was from Tel Aviv and that I write about my city, and she asked to see the city's logo.

Here it is - I know I'm biased but I think it's a good one. The emblem on the side was designed by Nahum Gutman, a famous painter who grew up in Neve Zedek, the first neighborhood of Tel Aviv. The circle was designed years later and it gives vibes of green green shaded avenues, a blue Mediterranean and sunny beaches:

Nicole sent me a mockup of a color palette based on Tel Aviv's branding and a possible logo for me.

I shared them with my group of author friends. We sit together every morning from Monday to Friday, so we share our opinions without prejudice, and the consensus was - No! The colors are wrong, and the logo looks like I run a health and diet website.

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I got back to Nicole and we delved deeper. I shared with her some of the values that are important to me when I write my books.

Originality: avoid plagiarism, either intended or accidental. Feminism: portray strong heroines. A little financial education. Try to educate about positive sex. Most of all I want my readers to get all hot and bothered in certain scenes and say: this is hot, and also I can try this in my bedroom with my partner! My branding and website should say: here is a spicy author.

Nicole sent me this color palette, and my group of friends gave it the okay:

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The colors I chose: red, orange and yellow - warm colors to signify spicy content, and for the logo we went for a gradient effect.

Mainly my website is red, which is totally fine with me.

Have you ever sat down and managed your 'branding' and how you present yourself to the world? I'd love to hear your thoughts.