Speculative Fiction | Author Alicia Dean

Please help me welcome today’s guest, Mitra De Souza

Thank you for joining me, Mitra. Please tell us a little about yourself, where are you from? Where do you live now? Family? Pets?

I grew up in San Diego County and currently live there with my husband, two kids and two big fluff ball rescue dogs. We lived in Trinidad and Tobago for 16 years (my husband is from there) and moved back to Southern California in 2018. In addition to being an author, I work full time at a local community college.

Where did you get the idea for THE FRAGILE?

I woke up one morning with the idea and knew I had to write it. The concept really spoke to me as a highly sensitive and empathic person. I wanted to reframe sensitivity as a strength and let young people know that who they are is more than okay. I really like how the main character learns to embrace her own inner strength.

Why did you choose this genre?

I love reading and writing speculative fiction. Growing up, I enjoyed watching The Twilight Zone and reading Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. With respect to writing speculative fiction, I love the freedom to imagine “what if’s” and to think outside the box. Most of what I write has at least some speculative element. I gravitate to YA fiction because I’ve spent the last 25 years working with young adults as an educator.

What do you dislike that most people wouldn’t understand?

I really dislike soda/soft drinks (especially Coke/Pepsi).

Do you collect anything?

I have a collection of keychains from various countries and states that people have given me. It started when I worked at The University of the West Indies, and students would go home over break and want to bring me back something from their islands. Key chains are relatively cheap and easy to find so I’d usually request one of those. So, my collection started with islands from throughout the Caribbean, but has grown to keychains from all over the world. It’s cool because the collection represents all the places that people I care about have been.

What was your first job?

Serving frozen yogurt at TCBY for $4 an hour.

What’s the main thing that you could get rid of in your life that would give you more writing time?

My full-time job, but I need that to live. Despite enjoying my job, I look forward to when I can retire and spend my days writing.

What do you want readers to come away with after they read THE FRAGILE?

I hope readers feel seen and inspired to fully embrace their unique selves. I’d also love to spark conversations about how we can make the world a better place.

Would you rather have a bad review or no review?

It depends on why the review is “bad.” If they simply say they hate the book or give it a 1 star without any reason, I would definitely prefer no review. However, if the review contains constructive feedback that would be more helpful than no review.

What is your favorite quote?

“Justice is what love looks like in public.”- Cornell West

How did you come up with the title?

The title came to me one morning along with the idea for the book. In the book, children are called “Fragiles” because they are highly sensitive. Society often equates sensitivity with being weak and fragile, and the books seeks to reframe this.

Your favorite…

Movie – The Shawshank Redemption and Free Guy

Music – We Close our Eyes by Oingo Boingo

Place you’ve visited – Cuba

Place you’d like to visit – Barcelona

Food – grapes and fries (but not at the same time)

Thank you for the interesting interview…you’re right, I don’t understand how you don’t like soda, Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke are my jam 🙂 Now, please tell us about your book…

TAG LINE: An institutionalized teen with debilitating empathy and the secret ability to transfer feelings into people with her hands must choose between her longing to be cured and her will to fight back against a man bent on destroying everyone like her.

BLURB

Seventeen-year-old Maya is a Fragile—someone deemed too weak to function in society —and has spent the last decade institutionalized at the Academy for the Rehabilitation of Children. Maya wants nothing more than to be cured of her neurotic hypersensitivity which causes her to experience the pain and emotions of others. Instead, she begins to have vivid nightmares where she connects with a young girl’s trauma, leading her to uncover a plot to destroy the empathy centers in children’s brains.

Desperate to escape the girl’s pain, Maya learns she has the ability to transfer feelings into people with her hands when she accidentally hurts her best friend, Jacob. Lacking faith in her new ability, Maya must choose between fighting a man bent on destroying everyone like her, and finally being free from the burden of empathy.

In doing so, she might discover that she’s not so fragile after all…

Excerpt:

One summer evening about a year before her assessment, [Maya] watched the neighborhood boys catch fireflies. The jars lit up like lanterns as the sky faded into darkness. To her horror, the tallest boy with messy blond hair took a firefly between his fingers and smashed it until his fingers glowed with the firefly’s light. As the other boys gathered around to try, she screamed at them to stop. But they just laughed and continued to crush the fireflies. She lunged at the blond boy who shoved her to the ground. While the other boys laughed, one spat at her and mumbled “stupid Fragile” under his breath. Her bruises healed, but the words left a permanent scar.

Buy link: https://a.co/d/dYGf0lJ

About the Author:

Mitra has loved to write for as long as she can remember. In elementary school, she used to tape her short stories to the back of her chair for her classmates to read. She is drawn to stories that encourage people to view the world from a new perspective. When she lived in Trinidad and Tobago, she authored a series of children’s books published by a local NGO to foster empathy and promote animal welfare. She currently resides in San Diego with her husband, two kids and two big rescue dogs who think they’re still puppies. When she isn’t writing, she loves walking on the beach, laughing uncontrollably with her kids, and continuing her quest to find the perfect mango.

You can read more about Mitra at https://mitradesouza.com/
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mitradesouza

Please help me welcome Joie Lesin…

Please tell us a little about yourself, where are you from? Where do you live now? Family? Pets?

I was born on the East Coast, the youngest of five to parents who both came from large families. My father was one of 18 children, and my mother was born fifth in a family of 13! While I’m originally from Massachusetts, my family relocated to my mother’s birthplace, Minnesota, when I was six years old. I consider myself a Midwesterner with a splash of the East Coast still lingering on the inside. On occasion, the accent I lost while in elementary school still pops up in my day-to-day conversations. The funny thing is, it’s happening more and more lately. My husband never shies away from pointing out when I say “water” with just the right inflection. Even funnier is my young adult daughter does the same though she and her older brother were born and grew up right here in Minnesota.

I met, dated, and married my husband while in the midst of the Covid pandemic. We now live in St. Paul with our blended family which includes a very rambunctious grand-corgi named Posh.

Where did you get the idea for The Passenger?

The original idea for The Passenger came to me when I was 16 years old. I was on the city bus on the way home from school playing the “What If” game I used to create fictional stories for the random people I would encounter throughout the day.

On this particular day, I noticed a man sitting at the back of the bus who seemed a bit down on his luck. I wondered, what if he were alone in the world? What would happen if this man collapsed there on the bus? Would he die right there on that bus alone? What if I, or someone else, comforted him in his dying moments?

The tale bloomed from there and went through many metamorphoses until I finally sat down to truly write it 16 years later when I was 32.

Why did you choose this genre?

The genre chose me.

The Passenger came to me as a ghost story.

Now, when I write try as I might not to, a ghost always haunts my stories. Someday, though, there might be a story where there isn’t a restless spirit lingering on the pages with some unfinished business. For now, all of my stories are ghost stories in one way or another.

One thing I do know is there will always be something otherworldly in my fictional worlds.

Do you collect anything?

When I was a child, I collected unicorns. These came in the form of trinkets, picture books, story books and even music. I still have most of these—some on display, others stored away for those rainy days when I take them out and remember the story behind each of them.

Now, I would say—books. Does that count? I have shelves of books. I never quite realize just how many books I have until I decide to move, and the heavy boxes of books outnumber everything else!

What’s your favorite book of all time and why? What’s your favorite childhood book?

My favorite book of all time is the time travel thriller The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser.

Not only is this my favorite book but one I can honestly say has had the biggest influence on me as a writer.

Originally released in 1978, The Mirror made its way from my older sister’s hand into mine in 1984. From page one, I was transfixed. I remember sitting in my teenage bedroom, devouring every word. It excited me that this story evolved from another person’s imagination. That the author’s vision could whisk me away to the 1900s Boulder, Colorado and back again to 1978 with the help of a cursed mirror. Through the words, I could live vicariously through the two main characters, and I loved it. I knew this was the kind of story I needed to write—that I could put my limitless imagination to good use.

As for my favorite childhood book, there are many. I read voraciously. Those that do spring to mind are The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare and The Pearl by John Steinbeck.

What do you want readers to come away with after they read The Passenger?

The message that love—be it romantic, parent-child or friendship—endures through the passage of time and across the plains of existence.

What is your favorite quote?

“My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage!”

~Aunt Frances Owens – Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

What I like about this quote is that while I was growing up, I always felt a little out of step with other people. I don’t know why but maybe it was how I lived so often in books and my fictional worlds. This quote embodies how I accepted who and how I was. Doing so has fueled me throughout my life, enabling me to create the stories that I do.

Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?

The simple answer is—entirely from my imagination. That’s the simple answer because the characters, especially those who live inside The Passenger, have become fully realized people in my mind. I’ve lived with Elizabeth and Gio, Paolo and Adriana, Anna, Marco, and Esteban for so long they cannot be compared to anyone live or fictional because they are who they are.

How did your interest in writing originate?

It started with books. Books are and always have been a form of magic to me. As a small child, I loved to be read to and I loved to make up stories. To add to that my oldest brother, who’s 15 years my senior, is a writer. I knew I would be a writer when I grew up before I truly comprehended what that meant. It’s almost as if it is in my DNA.

Your favorite…

Movie: A Walk on The Moon

Music: 80’s and Current Indie Rock

Place you’ve visited: San Luis Obispo County in California

Place you’d like to visit: Madeira, Portugal

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Thanks so much, Joie…fun interview. And, wow, your book sounds fabulous. Can’t wait until it’s released! Readers, check it out below…

She’s a 1940s ghost whisperer. He’s the son of a ghost.

Burdened with her empathic gift, Elizabeth Reilly wants to be free of it and fit in with normal people. Nevertheless, when the spirit of an old man asks for her help, she travels across the country to help him return home.

Gio Clemente is still angry with his father who abandoned him as a child. To help the father pass on, Elizabeth must persuade Gio to let go of his anger. Though he resents her intrusion, they are both stunned to find themselves fighting a profound attraction. Elizabeth can accept his headstrong brand of love, but can Gio accept her gift—and believe in her?

Excerpt:

Elizabeth’s stomach churned in nervous knots. She squirmed on the cloth seat, and her foot twitched. If he heard her erratic heartbeat, he’d realize how frantic she was—and hot. Perspiration built up on her forehead. Grabbing the metal handle, she rolled down the squeaking window, and inhaled the pure air. The fragrances of the forest filled her senses—the resinous scent of pine, the earthiness of soil, and damp detritus of fallen branches and decaying leaves. The surrounding land was alive, vibrant, and something more she couldn’t quite identify. Somehow, the vehicle they drove in and the path it traveled seemed out of place.

Gravel on the uneven road crunched and ground under the truck’s tires. Elizabeth sat straight in her seat and stole stiff, awkward glimpses at Giovanni. A frown marked his lips. His lean, well-defined face held soulful eyes bringing to her mind images of the sad little boy he must have been.

A thin red scar stretched down his right cheek and she itched to run a finger along the faded edges. She’d caress his stubble-shadowed chin and tell him how terribly his father missed him. Instead, she stared out the truck window.

The Passenger is coming soon from The Wild Rose Press.

About the Author:

Minnesota-based author, Joie Lesin is a life-long fiction writer and the author of The Passenger. She has long been fascinated by anything otherworldly including ghosts. She loves to write a good ghost story—especially when it includes a touch of romance.

Originally from Massachusetts, at six years old, Joie moved to her mother’s birthplace, Minnesota. By eight, Joie lost her New England accent, however, it’s gradually returning as the years go by. She grew up in Minneapolis but now resides in St. Paul with her husband and their blended family—which includes a rambunctious grand-corgi.

Joie misses the ocean, but she often finds herself walking by one of Minnesota’s many lakes and travels to one of the coasts as often as she can. In fact, she considers California her home away from home. When she’s not writing, reading, or walking, you can find her listening to music. She absolutely loves music—especially live—and songs have sparked most of her story ideas.

Website: https://www.jlesin.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoieLesin

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorjoielesin

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoieLesin

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joie.lesin