Erika Mitchell's Blog, page 7

I Know a Guy

I’ve had this problem with my author website for years. It’s not an interesting problem. It’s not even an important problem. It’s simply a problem. A little, tiny, probably insignificant problem, and it’s been bothering me for a long time.

The problem was with the social media button icons on my author website. (If you haven’t checked it out yet, by the way, it’s got nifty little goodies and extras from my books. You might want to hop over there if you’re a fan of my novels.) You see, the website theme I’m using for my blog comes with the option to customize, to a point. I can enter my pertinent social media urls into the backend to make them show up fancy-like on the website, but I could only pick from four options, with the corresponding icons to match. Facebook, Twitter, Github, and Google+.

Now, I use Facebook and Twitter for my writing so no big deal, right? But I don’t use the other two. Instead, I have a personal blog (which you’re reading! Right now!) and an new Instagram account I’m still not sure I’m using properly. I could enter those urls on the backend, but the icons for them would be wrong. In order to change this, I’d need to fiddle with the CSS of the page, something I’m woefully under-qualified to do.

So what did I do about this dumb little problem? I enlisted the help of my favorite code ninja (read: husband) and now? Problem solved! And all I had to do was hand Wes his laptop and ask him pretty please to save the day.

All better!

Easy-peasy. It helps to know a guy. And then date him. And then marry him and have kids with him.

Thanks for sharing!

Instagram Newb

Inspired to try something new, lest I fully succumb to my curmudgeonly tendencies, I signed up for Instagram yesterday. Now, I know all the kids these days have moved on to SnapChat, but I cannot, for the life of me, imagine what I would possibly have to SnapChat about. I can barely wrap my mind around Instagram!

That said, if you’re of a picture-enjoying sort and you’d like more frequent updates on my day-t0-day as a nobody author, saunter your fabulous self on over here. I’m going to try to update once daily, but we’ll see how that goes.

I’m really looking forward to sharing endless pictures of myself with you! Ha. No, I’ll try to throw in other images for good measure. Like maybe of my keyboard or something. See you over there!

Thanks for sharing!

Bullet Points Make Lazy Authors Look Like They Did It That Way on Purpose

A very happy 2017 to all of you! It is my sincere hope that the new year is off to a merry start for all of you. As for me and mine, I’m happy to say we gamboled and feasted our way through the holidays with almost all our nearest and dearest.

Now, I’ve been told by a few kindhearted people that I need to blog more because they find my blog posts humorous and entertaining to read, to which I say, Aw shucks! To make up for the last few weeks of nonexistent content, here’s a list of what I’ve been up to in bullet-point format because I’m too lazy to put in transitions between the points so this post will seem cohesive and intentional.

Christmas preparation. I never realized as a kid how mind-shreddingly hectic Christmas is for mothers. Sandwiched between mile-high shopping lists and celebration logistics are class parties, decorations to put up and take down, traditions to honor/pioneer, stir-crazy kids who are on break from school and blame you that it isn’t Christmas yet, Santa pictures to take, cookies to bake, gingerbread houses to build, cocoas to stir, and gifts to wrap. It’s exhausting. I do believe, and please do correct me if I’m wrong, that December is a stay-at-home parent’s busiest month of the year.

Proof.

Celebrating the return of my red hair. I had a blast with blonde hair over the spring and summer, but man it feels good to be a redhead again. I will say this for blonde hair, though: It’s MUCH lower maintenance than red hair. “But no!” you say, “It cannot be! I’ve heard blonde is constant touch-ups every couple of weeks!” Not if you do balayage, my friends, which is where they layer the color and leave a little of the root color so grow-outs aren’t so noticeable. With my blonde hair, I could do anything to it and nothing seemed to affect the color. Red, however? Red is sensitive. It’ll wash out no matter what you do, but if you use the wrong shampoo you might as well kiss your color goodbye. And I hope you don’t have white pillowcases because your hair color owns those now. They are red, just like your towels and maybe the collars of your coats as well. Might as well get used to it.
The British guy slaughter. Let me explain. Wes was gone on a business trip for a week in mid-December, so I figured it would be a good time to let my heart go on with Jack, Rose, and James Cameron. I poured a glass of wine each night for three nights and watched Titanic, the end of which, as always, saw me ugly-crying as I realized that yes! Her heart DID go on! She did all those things she promised him she’d do! As I dried my tears, I texted my best friend and described what I was doing so she could mock me because, come on. Who wouldn’t? When she finished laughing at me, she recommended I watch Atonement next, followed by The Painted Veil. For those not familiar with these films, they’re both excellent but, and this is a tad spoiler-y, they end tragically in the deaths of some truly likable British blokes. I think her aim in this was to see whether a middle-aged woman could, indeed, become dehydrated from crying at movies over the course of a week. As much as I enjoyed the quality of these movies, they did not, for some reason, prompt additional tears from me for reasons unknown. Maybe I was all cried out after Jack’s untimely demise? Who knows? All I know is that, for a week last month, it was very dangerous to be a British guy on my TV screen. They were seriously dropping like flies.
Medical mystery solved! Longtime readers will remember my years-long struggle to lose weight, with every attempt usually ending in either futility or injury. Well, the injuries have been mostly addressed and repaired, but the futility? That was a major issue. I gain weight like no one I’ve ever met (I gained ten pounds in four days, once. For no reason) and no amount of dieting or exercise can make me lose it. Well, my doctor has figured out why and, with any luck, the medications she has me on will start resulting in weight loss soon. If they don’t? Well, there are different meds. By hook or by crook, it looks like 2017 should finally be the year I finish losing the baby weight I packed on over four years ago. Here’s to finally looking like the gym rat I’ve grown to be!

That’s enough for now. Welcome to the new year, my friends. I hope it’s freaking awesome for all of you.

Thanks for sharing!

Win a Copy of Bai Tide! I Dare You!

Even though I have SO much to blog about, and I WILL, I promise, I only have just enough time at this exact moment to stop by and let you all know there’s a giveaway for Bai Tide going on over at Goodreads. Proof:

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px;

font-style: normal; background: white; }

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; }

.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink {

display: inline-block;

color: #181818;

background-color: #F6F6EE;

border: 1px solid #9D8A78;

border-radius: 3px;

font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;

font-weight: bold;

text-decoration: none;

outline: none;

font-size: 13px;

padding: 8px 12px;

}

.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover {

color: #181818;

background-color: #F7F2ED;

border: 1px solid #AFAFAF;

text-decoration: none;

}


Goodreads Book Giveaway


Bai Tide
by Erika Mitchell

Giveaway ends December 27, 2016.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Now, here’s why this giveaway is cool:

It costs nothing to enter.
If you win, you get a printed book shipped to you for free.
Winners get an autographed copy of the book, plus a lovely handwritten note from me.

Seriously, there’s no reason not to enter. If you already have a copy of my book? No problem! Enter anyway and give the unsigned copy to someone else, or donate it to your library or your local old folks’ home.

The giveaway ends in one week, so get cracking and good luck!

Thanks for sharing!

Erika, Why Aren’t Your Heroes White Chicks?

“Yay! Someone took me seriously even though I’m a woman!”

I have been asked a few times why I wrote my books from a male perspective. After all, I do not, nor have I ever, possessed a pair of testicles, so why am I writing characters who do?

Not only that, but my male protagonists aren’t white, either. In Blood Money, my hero is an Iraqi-born Muslim living in London. In Bai Tide and Take the Bai Road, he’s a second-generation Chinese man who was born and raised in Berkeley, CA. This is weird for people, and I’m asked frequently why I wrote these characters.

After all, I’m a white chick who’s been living in the suburbs her entire life. What qualifies me to run around the literary jungle pretending I’m something I’m not?

The subtext here is odd, I think. Is it possible to ask me why I’m writing heroes who are men of color without the unspoken assumption that because I’m a white woman, I should be writing chick lit with a nice, comfortable white heroine?

After all, men who write novels from a female perspective are often praised for their bravery (here, I would refer you to Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone, Jon Land’s Caitlin Strong novels, or Robert Dugoni’s Tracy Crosswhite series {which is excellent, and which you should read immediately if you like thrillers}). If done well, male writers are seen as taking a bold risk writing from their heroines’ perspectives; they’re asked about their choices from a place of praise. “Oh, you did such a good job writing from a woman’s perspective, how did you do it?”

Women writers, however, are held to a different standard, measured against a different set of biases. I read a blog post recently called “Homme de Plume” about one writer’s experience querying agents under a man’s name instead of her own name, and the shocking difference that made in those agents’ reception of her work. The same book that was submitted under a woman’s name received one request for more out of twenty-five queries sent.

Under a man’s name? That same work netted seventeen requests for more out of fifty queries.

The entire post is a fantastic read and well worth your time if you’re so inclined, but what it boils down to is this: Female writers are expected to write nice, compact little stories in the expected genres. Any time you decide to color outside the lines, be it by writing the wrong kind of protagonist, writing the wrong kind of story in the wrong genre, or daring to try something new, you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle against the expectations of an industry that rarely changes and, when it does, does so only grudgingly.

All this to say, I have an answer to the question I’ve been asked so many times. Why do I write male protagonists, and why aren’t they white? Why am I writing espionage stories when I am theoretically much better qualified to write cozy little chick lit stories?

Because these are the kinds of stories I want to write. Because I like guns, and I enjoy blocking out fight scenes in my living room. Espionage is interesting, and so are explosions. Writing, at least the kind I’m trying to bring to the people who are nice enough to buy my books, should be an entertaining escape. A fun thought exercise that lets you feel, if just for a second, like you’re pulling back the curtain of national security to peek, even if just for a second, at the roiling covert landscape beneath.

And why aren’t my heroes female and white? Because they’re not. It’s just that simple. The world is full of people who don’t look like me, and when I was coming up with those stories, those are the heroes I saw doing what needed to be done.

Despite what Hollywood would have you believe, there are some problems that even a muscled white dude can’t fix.

I doubt I’ll ever submit my work under a man’s name, if only because I imagine that might make writer’s appearances and book signings problematic should the book ever get published. Instead, I’ll keep writing the stories I want to write and encouraging others to do so as well. I’m well aware that my possibly odd choice of heroes and genre may well be the reason I never see my name on a bestseller list, but that’s an ambition I’ve learned to let go.

If I can bring a few hours of enjoyment to my readers, I’ll consider my job well done, and if I can make even one person who looks different than I do feel good because there’s actually a hero who looks like him/her in a book? That’s even better.

Thanks for sharing!

Post-Vacation Opinion Dump

Raise your hand if you’re as confused about this whole December business as I am! How’d that happen? And why am I never prepared for December? No matter what I do, I always end up feeling like December was waiting around the corner to steal my lunch money. Given how expensive Christmas shopping can be, that’s actually not a half-bad analogy.

Ok, fine. We weren’t on another planet, but there was a Space Needle there.

As for Wes and myself, we opted to spend the first few days of December in hiding to celebrate our anniversary. Sort of. We were actually in Seattle, but as far as real world things went, we were off the map. Incommunicado. Unreachable. We went dark, in intelligence terms, and, while we weren’t far away from home in distance terms, we may as well have been on a different planet while we were gone.

You take two driven, somewhat intelligent people, turn their phones off, and tell them to go relax, and you know what’s going to happen? RELAXING. At one point, Wes shook his head and said, “I was just thinking that I feel kind of tipsy, but I haven’t had anything to drink yet today, and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me until I realized I was actually relaxed for the first time in forever.”

Given the ease with which we slipped into a life of leisure (one day, we watched Game of Thrones in bed until 2:30 in the afternoon), we’ve decided we will be very good retirees someday.

So what did we do? A little bit of everything. We started at the Salish Lodge, a very nice hotel on top of a huge waterfall. Once there, we turned our phones off and got some massages. After that, we lazed around until dinner, which we ate at the Dining Room on the main level of the hotel.

Now, you might be asking yourself why Wes is wearing a casual video game t-shirt and mussed hair in the restaurant of a very fancy hotel. The answer is that he’s doing those things because they honestly do not care what you wear there. It is so liberating. Wes wasn’t even wearing shoes in this picture. He called the restaurant and told them he was too mellow to put on shoes and they were like, “Lolz, that’s ok we don’t care.”

Once we were satisfactorily chill, we left Snoqualmie for Seattle. The Hotel Monaco in downtown Seattle, to be specific. Some friends of ours recommended this hotel to us last year and we loved it so much we simply had to come back.

One of the things we love about it is how it smells. The lobby smells freaking amazing. Plus, we always stay in December so everything in the lobby is all roaring fireplaces, sparkly Christmas decorations, and comfy places to sit.

We didn’t stay indoors the whole time. We went for walks, spent one afternoon walking around in search of the perfect martini (needless to say, that was a fun afternoon!), and even managed to catch a show at both Teatro Zinzanni and PNB’s The Nutcracker.

This may have been after our afternoon sampling martinis. We regret nothing.

My two cents? Teatro Zinzanni is excellent, as always. I’ve seen their show three times in fourteen years, so I’m far from a regular, but we have so much fun every time we go. If you’re in town and want to spend a few hours being enthralled and entertained, it’s definitely worth the money.

Especially if you enjoyed The Birdcage. Then you should definitely definitely go see it.

As for PNB’s The Nutcracker? Eh, this is a tough one. I love ballet. LOVE it. Could watch it all day. I only saw the previous iteration of PNB’s Nutcracker twice (the Stowell/Sendak one) and I was absolutely enraptured by it. The way to tree grew, the grown-up Clara, the heart-breakingly beautiful pas de deux at the end. Absolute perfection.

The new one, with choreography by Balanchine and set design and costumes by Ian Falconer, was hit and miss for me. The sets and costumes are remarkable and amazing, but the growing tree effect was kind of underwhelming compared to what came before.

Likewise, there were some dances (The Waltz of the Flowers is almost worth the price of admission just by itself) that were breathtaking, while other parts of the show that left me yawning. The whole first act is almost entirely danced by children who are acting out a Christmas party which, while adorable, is kind of a snoozefest. If I’m paying to see a professional ballet production, I’d like to see professionals doing incredible things, you know?

So anyway, those are my two cents. Should any of you be planning a visit to Seattle in the near future, I hope you find my post-vacation ramblings somewhat helpful. As for me, I’m going to try to remember how to balance a writing career with the needs and wants of the young people in my care. I reckon if I get overwhelmed, I can just remember that, no matter what, Seattle is out there, with all its martinis and hotels and good coffee and nice people.

That ought to do it.

Thanks for sharing!

Commence Begging Sequence in 3, 2, 1…

After a year and a half of hiatus due to unexpectedly major surgery and its accompanying recovery time, I’m back in the proverbial writing saddle and things are off and running on the new book front. I’ve got a release date for the new book (July 3, 2017), I’m working on my marketing plan, and I’ve signed up for ThrillerFest in NYC as a reward for surviving yet another book release.

I have to say, just between you, me, and the Internet, that releasing a book is such a shocking amount of work. You’d think that writing the book or even landing the publisher would be the hard part, but you’d be wrong. Don’t get me wrong, pitching publishers and agents is no picnic (see this post from way back when I had to resort to turning into The Dude in order to cope with the stress of querying), but what no one tells you is that, once you have a publishing contract, that’s where the real work starts!

Never mind content and line edits, the heavy lifting comes in the form of marketing and promotion. Ugh. Promotion. The thing no author likes doing and yet the one thing we’re all required to do.

Part of that dreaded promotion work involves begging. Specifically, begging for reviews. Reviews are as essential to an author’s success as book sales, and they’re elusive. I can’t tell you how many people have taken the time to write lovely Facebook posts or emails letting me know how much they enjoy my work, but I can’t exactly copy/paste those emails onto Amazon so no one else ever gets to know how much so-and-so liked my books.

So here’s where I start begging you, sweet readers. Have you read Blood Money or Bai Tide? No? Then may I interest you in a list of links where you can buy said books? If you’re here, then you like my writing. If you like my writing, you’ll love my books because my books have been painstakingly edited to perfection. Please do pop over to any of these fine sites and find yourself something entertaining to read.

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Goodreads
Library (What? The library? Yes, your local library. If you don’t feel like buying my books {it’s okay, I’m not offended} but you still want to read them, just ask your library to buy them! It’s pretty easy and then, if you like what you read, you can still leave a review on Amazon or something when you’re done!)

Have you already bought and read a copy of my books? Splendid! Fantastic! Hooray! Will you please consider writing a review on the site you bought it from? It would help me out bunches and also make me really, really happy. Like, this happy:

And if you’re one of those incredible people who’s not only bought my books, but also left a review? Well, you are just top-notch and I appreciate the crap out of you. You’re awesome! Kitten high-fives for you all the livelong day!

Thanks for sharing!

That’s No Moon, It’s a GIVEAWAY!

All this could be yours…

Want to win this awesome Death Star shirt (size L) AND a signed copy of one of my books? All you have to do is review Blood Money or Bai Tide on Amazon or Goodreads (or copy/paste your review to both sites for extra entries). Easy peasy! I’ll pick a winner next week.

Busted Tees sent me the wrong size, but I bet it’s just right for either you or that special Star Wars fan in your life.

Click here to review:

Bai Tide on Goodreads.

Bai Tide on Amazon.

Blood Money on Goodreads.

Blood Money on Amazon.

Good luck!

Thanks for sharing!

Good things happen in July

I’m a firm believer that some months are just better than others. For example, January usually sucks. I don’t know why, maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s the inevitable holiday hangover, maybe it’s the uncertainty of how the new year is going to go, but whatever it is, January is never my favorite month.

May usually rocks. Even though last year I had surgery in May, it was almost balanced out by the awesome one-two punch that is Mother’s Day and my birthday all rolled into the same kickass month. Hard to beat that combo!

I think it’s now safe to add July to the “Awesome Month” category because my daughter was born during that month, Fourth of July is patriotic fun, and, drum roll please…

TAKE THE BAI ROAD COMES OUT JULY 3, 2017!!!

Oh yes, you heard me correctly. Take the Bai Road, the second installment of the Bai series, is coming out next year. I’ve worked my butt off on this story. The first act alone has been written and rewritten half a dozen times, to say nothing of the weeks of nonstop research and planning. Believe me, by the time you finish reading this book you will feel like an expert on shipping freighters and Mexican drug cartels. (Oh, and you’ll also know the best way to dispose of a body at sea {hint: it’s not overboard}).

For more info on the story, and, of course, info on my previous books, hop on over to my website.

Until then…Ready? Set?? Wait, I guess. But wait secure in the knowledge that a new book is coming. Soon. July 3, 2017 in fact!

Thanks for sharing!

We Interrupt this Blog Silence to Bring You…

…the chance to win a cameo in my upcoming book!

That’s right, you heard me. I’ve been diligently working on the follow up to Bai Tide, Take the Bai Road, and will be submitting it to my publisher at the end of the month, which means it’s time to select my next lucky reader for a cameo in the book! This one’s a fun one: Mexican drug cartels, high-speed chases, gun fights, giant freighter ships, and treason, oh my!

Where do you fit into that mess? It’s time to find out.

Look at this cute kid. Don’t you want to help him?

I’m doing this a little differently this time. Instead of spreading the word about my books to your friends and family, which I always appreciate, all you have to do to win a cameo is help. Yep, all you have to do is donate to the Haitian Health Foundation and not only will you feel like a good person, you could soon be an immortalized forever in my book AND still feel like a good person.

Win-win!

The reason I picked the HHF is, poor Haiti. They’ve barely been able to rebuild after the massive 2010 earthquake that destroyed so much of their infrastructure and killed so many people, and now they have to deal with Hurricane Matthew, which swept through on Wednesday, killing hundreds more. The HHF is an established charity that uses over 91% of the funds it collects to directly fund programs and medical supplies for the people who need them.

Hurricane Matthew. What a jerk.

To enter, simply donate through their website, click the button to dedicate your donation to someone special, and type in my name (Erika Mitchell) and email address (erikamitchellbooks@gmail.com). Or, if you prefer, you can donate and then just email or or comment here that you did it.

This is an excellent cause and believe me, you’ll enjoy your cameo if you do win so donate now and hopefully I’ll be drawing your name out of a digital hat soon!

Thanks for sharing!