Mia P. Manansala is an APALA member and author. Her debut novel, Arsenic and Adobo, will be released on May 4th, 2021. You can find more information about her work on her website. She is interviewed here by APALA member Danica Ronquillo.
Danica Ronquillo (DR): Please introduce yourself and briefly describe your literary work and career path to date.
Mia Manansala (MM): Hello everyone! I’m Mia P. Manansala, a Filipino American author and new library worker, born and raised in Chicago. I’ve been writing since 2015 and have won several awards for unpublished authors, most notably the 2018 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award.
My first finished novel, featuring a queer Fil-Am millennial solving a murder mystery at a comic book convention, was chosen for the mentorship program/contest known as Pitch Wars in 2017 and it got me my first agent. However, once it went on submission to publishers, we received rejections that basically all said, “I love this but have no idea how to market it.”
My then-agent didn’t like my next book (which would go on to become my debut Arsenic and Adobo), so we amicably parted ways. I ended up querying again and signed with Jill Marsal of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency, where she sold that novel in two weeks at auction. It officially releases on May 4, 2021 with Berkley/Penguin Random House, and was also chosen as an April pick for the Book of the Month subscription service.
Career-wise, I was an English language instructor for almost a decade, first in South Korea and then at a for-profit language school in downtown Chicago. The school shut down at the beginning of the pandemic last year and I found myself having to make a big career change. I’m now happily employed as the Youth Services Desk Assistant at the Forest Park Public Library and love learning all the different ways I can serve my patrons and the community.
(DR): How has your own identity as an Asian American influenced your writing? The diversity of your readership?
(MM): I write the stories I’d always wished I had but couldn’t find when I was younger. Most books featuring Asian Americans were usually about the immigrant experience or “the struggle,” and while those are hugely important topics, they’re not what I want to write about. I want stories where we get to be fully human, where our identity informs who we are but is not all that we are. I write stories where we get to fall in love, solve crimes, have dreams that both succeed and fail. I want us to be able to go on adventures, be superheroes, and overall just be.
As for my readership, I’ve seen so many people on social media saying they don’t usually read mystery or have never read a cozy mystery before but are picking up my book because they’re so excited for a Filipino protagonist. We’re so hungry for representation and I hope my book proves that we need a wider range of stories out there.
(DR): Congratulations on your debut book, Arsenic and Adobo! Can you tell us more about your inspiration for the book?
(MM): Thanks! There were actually a few inspirations. First, my mom, who introduced me to cozy mysteries. We both love the genre, but until recently there hasn’t been much diversity in it. I wrote the book my mom and I wanted to see on the shelf. Second was my dad, who’s the inspiration for all the food-related content. Sadly, he passed away before I got my deal, but there’s so much of him in the book. Food was his love language and that’s something I wanted to explore. Lastly, I was joking with my mentor, Kellye Garrett, about how cozies are basically rom-coms with dead bodies. Soon after, the first line of the book appeared in my head, fully formed, while on the train to work, and I had to write it down on my phone because I knew this was my next story idea.
(DR): What drew you to fiction?
(MM): I’ve always been a big reader. I was probably the only kid in my neighborhood who got in trouble for reading too much! I didn’t visit the local library a lot as a kid because I grew up in a rough neighborhood and my parents didn’t think it was safe. Luckily, my mom had a job at Walden Books (remember those?) where she got to bring home ARCs and check out books each week as if it were a library. She didn’t restrict what I read and would often share Mary Higgins Clark novels with me so we could read them together, even though I was still in grade school. I can’t remember when I first wanted to become a writer—it was just something I always knew I’d do someday.
(DR): Can you describe an instance when libraries and/or archives played a beneficial role in your work?
(MM): I believe one of the best ways to improve your writing is 1) read widely and 2) read deeply in your chosen genre/subgenre. I have a very limited budget, so being able to check out dozens of mysteries and familiarize myself with the genre was hugely important to my process. Also, my mom is currently a page at her library, so being able to visit her, check out books for research, and then settle in a quiet nook to get some reading/writing done (in the before times) was a big part of my early process.
(DR): What current trends in publishing, reading habits, and distribution of library materials concern you the most? What thoughts do you have on these trends?
(MM): How #OwnVoices is often misunderstood and weaponized in publishing. The hashtag was originally conceived as readers recommending books by authors that shared the marginalization(s) of the character(s) in their books. It was to recognize and support often underrepresented voices in literature. It was not meant to police people’s identities or force authors to out themselves in order to prove they’re “allowed” to write certain material.
I call Arsenic and Adobo an #OwnVoices novel because we have so little representation, and I think Fil-Ams would like to be able to find and support fellow Fil-Ams. That doesn’t mean it’s representative of all Fil-Ams because that would be impossible. I’m just one voice with my own set of experiences. It also doesn’t mean I’m incapable of writing problematic content. I can’t hide behind that hashtag if my book is harmful in some way. But publishers act as if slapping on that label absolves them of any valid criticism, and readers act as if that label means the book has to meet their particular standards/their own specific experiences or it’s not truly #OwnVoices. There’s a lot of nuance that gets lost in these conversations, and as with many of the problems in publishing, I think having more books from marginalized authors representing a wide spectrum of experiences would help. More seats at the table usually does.
(DR): Who are five authors we should be reading and why?
Sherry Thomas
Naomi Hirahara
Gigi Pandian
Steph Cha
Jennifer Hillier
These are Asian women crime writers (all American except for Jennier Hillier, who’s Canadian. Sherry Thomas also writes historical romance) who all helped pave the way for writers like me, and represent a wide spectrum of what crime fiction can be.
Sherry’s Lady Sherlock series is a gender-swapped Sherlock Holmes with a slow burn romance. Naomi’s Mas Arai series has won multiple awards, and she’s also written two cozy series as well as an upcoming historical mystery titled Clark and Division. Gigi Pandian straddles the line between mystery/adventure/paranormal in her books, which are great fun for those of us who’ve read the Amelia Peabody and Vicky Bliss books by Elizabeth Peters. Steph Cha has a Korean American PI series as well as the hard-hitting crime novel Your House Will Pay. And Jennifer writes twisty thrillers that will keep you turning pages despite your growing horror.
(DR): What is next for you?
(MM): I signed a 3-book deal with Berkley/Penguin Random House, so I’m about to start editing book 2 in the series, titled Homicide and Halo-Halo, and have started drafting Book 3. Fingers crossed these books do well so I can continue writing more books in the Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series!
Editing assistance by Anastasia Chiu.