1--What is the title of your latest release?
GUILT AND GINATAAN
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
When the body of a local politician’s wife is found inside a corn maze and signs point to her best friend as the main suspect in the murder, a small-town cafe owner turned amateur sleuth must utilize her skills to prove her best friend’s innocence.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I thought, “What’s more Midwestern than corn? And what’s more seemingly wholesome than a corn festival?” So of course, that naturally led to me dropping a dead body in a corn maze during the Shady Palms Corn Festival.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Absolutely. She’d keep me well-fed with all her tasty dessert experiments.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Loyal, nosy, work-in-progress
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
That a person’s eyes have to be open to use the facial recognition option to unlock a phone
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I write and then edit the first act until I feel like I have a solid handle on the story, then I write the rest of the draft and wait until I’m done to do any more editing.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
all you can eat hot pot, Korean BBQ, or sushi
9--Describe your writing space/office!
A cramped alcove full of books, geek collectibles, crystals, tarot cards, and my awards (though I’m currently fixing up a room in my house to finally have a proper office!)
10--Who is an author you admire?
Answer: Kellye Garrett
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
I don’t know that there was any one book, but I attribute my lifelong love of mysteries to the Encyclopedia Brown series from my childhood, as well as the Mary Higgins Clark books I used to buddy read with my mom.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
GUILT AND GINATAAN is part of my second contract. I was very lucky that my debut, ARSENIC AND ADOBO, exceeded expectations for my publisher, enough that they wanted me to turn in my option proposal as soon as I’d finished the manuscript for the final book in my first contract. My agent called me during my break (back when I still worked at my local library) to inform me that not only had my publisher offered on the next book in the series, but she was also able to negotiate an additional three-book deal and other favorable conditions. It was sooo exciting and so difficult to get back to work because I had to fight the urge to tell EVERYONE what had just happened.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
mystery and romance
14--What’s your favorite movie?
My favorite changes depending on my mood, but Everything Everywhere All At Once will always be somewhere near the top
15--What is your favorite season?
summer
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
with good friends and good food
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I recently read an early version of The Matchmaker by Aisha Saeed and it was SO good!
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Hard to narrow it to a particular cuisine, so I’m going to cheat and say Asian noodle soups
19--What do you do when you have free time?
play video games and annoy my dog and husband
20--What can readers expect from you next?
My YA debut, DEATH IN THE CARDS, comes out May 13, 2025, and the 6th book in my Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series, DEATH AND DINGUAN, comes out Fall 2025.
Tita Rosie's Kitchen #5
Autumn is in full swing for the town of Shady Palms—the perfect time for warm drinks, cozy cardigans, and…dead bodies?
The annual Shady Palms Corn Festival is one of the town’s biggest moneymakers, drawing crowds from all over the Midwest looking to partake in delicious treats, local crafts, and of course, the second largest corn maze in Illinois. Lila Macapagal and her Brew-ha Cafe crew, Adeena Awan and Elena Torres, are all too happy to participate in the event and even make a little wager on who can make it through the corn maze the fastest—but their fun is suddenly cut short when a dead body is found in the middle of the maze…and an unconscious Adeena lies next to it, clutching a bloody knife.
The body is discovered to be a local politician’s wife, and all signs—murder weapon included—point to Adeena as the culprit. But Lila knows her best friend couldn’t have done this, so she and her crew put on their sleuthing caps yet again to find the killer who framed Adeena and show them what happens when they mess with a Brew-ha…
Mystery Cozy | Mystery Culinary [Berkley, On Sale: November 12, 2024, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593549186 / eISBN: 9780593549193]
Mia P. Manansala is a writer from Chicago who loves books, baking, and bad-ass women. She uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture.
She is the winner of the 2018 Hugh Holton Award, the 2018 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, the 2017 William F. Deeck - Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers, and the 2016 Mystery Writers of America/Helen McCloy Scholarship. She's also a 2017 Pitch Wars alum and 2018-2019 mentor.
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