There’s some blog hopping going on…

Recently, mystery writer Wendy Tyson tagged me in a blog game called:  Next Big Thing Blog Hop.  The idea is we answer a set of questions about our new or upcoming releases and then tag fellow authors to keep the game going. 

• What is the working title of your book?

What Tears Us Apart.  While I was writing the book, to me it was Leda & Ita, but that’s because I am a self-confessed terrible title-er!  The team at MIRA, thank goodness, is not.  They are amazing.  Both times, with this book and with my debut The Summer We Came to Life, they created my favorite kind of titles - evocative of the book’s plot and mood AND with multiple meanings.

• 
What genre does your book fall under?


Funny you should ask.  In interviews I’ve talked about how the issue of genre gets my goat sometimes.  Women’s fiction.  What does that mean exactly?  I mean - what is men’s fiction?  My books have been labeled different genres (literary, romance, relationships, sci-fi) by different readers or reviewers, something I find fascinating.. and revealing of our culture’s biases and stereotypes.  

• Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?


For Leda, I had a picture in my head somewhere between Rachel McAdams and Natalie Portman.

For Ita, I mostly pictured Columbus Short, from his role in this really cool movie The Girl is in Trouble.  Although, Michael B. Jordan or Rob Brown would do a good job with Ita’s gentle soul.

Chege - hmmm… I have my own picture in my head.  But maybe Denzel Whitaker?

Estella - Michelle Pfeiffer.  Glamorous by nature, secretly seething at the ravages of time

• What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book?


What Tears Us Apart is a non-linear love story set against the 2007 political violence in Kenya. 

(however that doesn’t tell you this:  A disaffected Angeleno heiress flees a life of privilege for an orphanage in the Kibera slum, and finds connection with its charismatic founder.  Their newfound bond is threatened by his complex history with a local gang leader.  When the slum erupts in violence, an attack exposes disturbing secrets, and leaves all three to grapple with regret and dreams of atonement.) 

• How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?


Three months or a year, depending on how you look at it…

• What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?


Not that I would ever compare myself to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s writing abilities yet, but I suppose I had the haunting effect of her Half a Yellow Sun in the back of mind while writing and researching - the brilliant job she did of painting a relationship story against the backdrop of revolution.

And I looked to books like The Time Traveller’s Wife & Before the Storm to research moving back and forth in time.

• Who or what inspired you to write this book?


I was inspired by the time I spent volunteering in Kenya, in the summer before the election violence broke out that took thousands of lives.  I watched coverage of the riots and murders from my comfortable room in snowy Virginia and I knew that eventually I would have to write about it - the mystery of how people turn on each other, how they survive or succumb to inner demons.

• When and how will it be published?

This is my second novel being published by the amazing MIRA Books/Harlequin and I couldn’t be happier.  It hits stores March 26th 2013.  Soon!  Pre-order your copy here or here or here.  Oh, or here.

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So, THANK YOU Wendy!  If you want to read more about Wendy Tyson and her upcoming release Killer Image (Henery Press October 2013) please visit her website.

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And… Tag!  Please check out Jeanine Minge’s recently released book Concrete and Dust:  Mapping the Sexual Terrain of Los Angeles (Routledge December 2012)

“Concrete and Dust is a haunting excavation of identity, geography, and sexuality told in multiple literary genres and artistic media. The scholarly insights are deep, the artwork profound, and the cautionary tales—for women, ecology, and relationships—are frighteningly rich.” 

- Elizabeth Bell, Women’s and Gender Studies, University of South Florida

** Purchase the book here.

Jeanine M. Mingé is Assistant Professor and Director of Performance Ensemble in the Department of Communication Studies at California State University, Northridge.