Debut Author Interview: Michelle I. Mason and Your Life Has Been Delayed Giveaway and IWSG Post

Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today I’m thrilled to have one of our IWSG coordinators and debut author Michelle I. Mason here to share about her YA time travel, Your Life Has Been Delayed. I’m super excited to read it because I love time travel stories, and Michelle has put a new spin on her story. I have it on reserve at my library.

Here’s a blurb from Goodreads:

Past and present, friends and crushes collide in a YA debut about a girl who takes off on a flight and lands 25 years later.

Jenny Waters boards her flight in 1995, but when she lands, she and the other passengers are told they disappeared . . . 25 years ago. Everyone thought they were dead.

Now contending with her family and friends fast-forwarding decades, Jenny must quickly adjust to smartphones and social media while being the biggest story to hit the internet. She feels betrayed by her once-best friend and fights her attraction to a cute boy with an uncomfortable connection to her past. Meanwhile, there’s a growing group of conspiracy theorists determined to prove the whole situation is a hoax. Will Jenny figure out how to move forward, or will she always be stuck in the past? 

 New Podcast You Might Like

 The Rights Agency, a literary agency, has started a new podcast, Agent Provocateur, which is produced and hosted by literary agents. They post on Tuesdays and discuss what goes on behind the scenes in agenting and publishing. You can find out more about it here and listen to it on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, etc. 

IWSG Post

 

Before I get to my interview with Michelle, I have my IWSG Post.

Posting: The first Wednesday is officially Insecure Writer's Support Group Day.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The awesome co-hosts for the September 1 posting of the IWSG are me, Rebecca Douglass, T. Powell Coltrin @Journaling Woman, Karen Lynn, C. Lee McKenzie!

Before I answer the optional question, I want to let you know that I contributed to a blog post by Twinkl on the best books of all time to read before the age of 13. We were asked to recommend our favorite book as a child. I hope you'll check out the post and find out what mine was.

Optional Question: How do you define success as a writer? Is it holding your book in your hand? Having a short story published? Making a certain amount of income from your writing?

I don’t define success as a writer by getting published or making any income from it. I measure my success by whether I’m writing consistently and getting better as a writer. It’s also really important to me that I continue to enjoy the process of writing.

I don’t stress out about having publishing goals or income expectations because they aren’t things I can control. After losing my husband, getting laid off, and having other things happen that I couldn’t control, I really focus on what I can control in life. I’ve found this is the best way to be content and happier in life.

What about you? How do you measure your success?

Interview With Michelle I. Mason

Hi Michelle! Thanks so much for joining us.

1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer.

Hi, Natalie! Thanks so much for having me.

I’ve always loved to write, from back in grade school when we used to make books in class and laminate them (I still have some of those). But even though I loved it, I didn’t really see a clear path to becoming a writer as a kid or teen. I pursued a degree in English Lit thinking I might become an editor, but I was also doing a minor in journalism, and my freshman year I discovered public relations. Working in PR is a lot of writing, just a different kind—and I got paid for it! I did that for ten years, but I was itching to write fiction again.

I’m not sure exactly what year it was, but Mary Higgins Clark came to speak here in St. Louis, and she inspired me to start writing again (a story that didn’t go anywhere). Then I had a dream about a 10-year-old boy that made me start investigating middle grade fiction—a whole new world since I was a kid. Ultimately, I found my voice in young adult. I’ve never looked back.

2. I used to read Mary Higgins Clark’s books. How cool she inspired you to write again. You have such an interesting premise in your story. Where did you get the idea for Your Life Has Been Delayed?

I’ve always been fascinated by time travel, from when I first watched all the Back to the Future movies. Then, a few years ago, I tagged along on my husband’s business trip to Australia. On our return flight, we left Sydney on Feb. 27 at 11:30 a.m. and arrived in L.A. on Feb. 27 at 5:35 a.m. I know it’s really just moving across time zones, but it felt like traveling back in time.

I think it sort of lingered in my mind, because a few months later I thought: what if you got on a plane, but when you landed it was many years later? And the rest of the story just came from that central question.

3. Going on a trip with your husband is a cool way to come up with a story idea. Many people who read an ARC of your book said they enjoyed it even though they may not read in your genre and that they couldn’t put your story down. How did you plot out your story and keep the pace moving fast?

I wonder if some of those comments are due to the fact that my book is classified as science fiction because of its time travel setup, but aside from that, it’s basically a contemporary YA. So if you go into it expecting heavy sci-fi elements, you’ll be disappointed (sorry if that’s you!). Either way, having someone say they can’t put my book down is the best compliment of all!

But as far as plotting, I started with the premise and then made a list of the worst things I could do to Jenny. My goal was that with almost every chapter she would be left with some new revelation to make her life worse. It’s hard to be mean to characters you love, but it’s also the best way to keep readers turning pages!

4. Jennifer Nielsen, one of my favorite authors, also recommends doing the worst things you can to your main character too. Did you have to do any research into how life was different in 1995 to show the contrast with our current time when the story is set?

Yes, lots! 1995 is Jenny’s entire world view. So she’s looking at everything in the present from the viewpoint of a 20^th century girl. I had to be on top of everything from what people were wearing and how people were using the brand-new internet to popular TV stars and just everyday habits. All of this informed how Jenny would react to a 21^st century world. Because I was a teen in 1995, I found myself triple-checking my information. Memory is tricky—you think something happened around a certain year, but when you look into it, you may find you’re off by five or ten years. I watched movies and shows from the nineties, documentaries, and even read through my old yearbooks to make sure I was getting her perspective right.

5. It seems like you had to think out a whole lot about the character arcs of Jenny’s family and friends to show how their lives changed in 25 years. What was that process like for you?

The relationships were the most important part of the book for me. It’s interesting to look at how the world has changed, like all the new technology, or what everyday things someone in the 21^st century just accepts that Jenny would be completely clueless about. But really, people and their issues are even more fascinating.

So for the family and friends, I looked at those closest to Jenny and considered what she would care about most, how those people would have changed/remained the same, and then, once again, what would hit her hardest. Even the characters who hurt her the most with the decisions they made while she was gone are still at heart the people she loved. Life is bound to go on—or end in the case of three of Jenny’s grandparents—over the course of twenty-five years. Unfortunately for Jenny, she just keeps getting hit over the head with that fact.

6. That’s great that you focused on the characters most important to Jenny. What was a challenge you faced in writing this book and how did you overcome it?

Oh, that’s a fun question! So, right after I finished drafting this book in 2018, a writing friend sent me a message with a link to an announcement about the show Manifest, which is about a plane that jumps forward five years. I basically freaked out and thought I would have to scrap the book, but my Pitch Wars 2017 group and critique partners urged me to whip it quickly into shape and query, which is what I did. I signed with my agent before the show came out (she was aware of it), and then we went out on submission quickly too. Now, Manifest is on its third season and was just added to Netflix. My publisher has been pitching my book as Manifest meets YA contemporary, so it’s all worked out!

7. Thanks for sharing your challenge. It’s a great reminder not to freak out too much if you see something like your story idea. Your agent is Elizabeth Bewley. How did she become your agent and what was your road to publication like?

Through the query trenches! But it definitely wasn’t my first book. I queried six books over seven years before signing with Elizabeth on this one (my seventh). And signing for this book was a bit like a fairy tale after that long wait. I had three agent offers and an agent within a month of sending out my first queries. Once I signed with Elizabeth, we revised and signed with Bloomsbury within three months. But then the wait for the book to come out was two years (not unusual) and extended further by the pandemic, so it’s been two years and nine months. If you’re counting, in all it’s been 10 years since I started querying! But I learned something from every single book I wrote, and I don’t regret any of it!

I did a blog series on what I learned querying, in case it may be helpful to anyone else: https://michelleimason.com/category/querying/what-ive-learned/

8. I read your blog and have watched you count down to your release date. Share a bit about how you’ve done that and how it’s kept you organized as you got closer to the date you book released.

As I mentioned above, my professional background is in public relations, so I don’t think I can help that PR mindset. At the end of last year, I added a widget with a countdown on my blog, and then at nine months out I started doing blog posts with behind-the-scenes info about the book. At six months, I added a newsletter. In these final few weeks I’ve been doing a character focus every week on Instagram and Twitter. I hope readers enjoy them!

As to how I keep them organized—spreadsheets! I love my spreadsheets and have them for all sorts of things, but for marketing, I have a social media calendar. It includes all the milestones (how many days or weeks are left before release), as well as when I have interviews or events so I can promote those. I’d never be able to keep track of it all otherwise!

9. How are you planning to market your book? Have you learned anything from watching others in The 21ders who already became debut authors?

The best advice I’ve received about marketing is to do the things that you enjoy from a marketing standpoint, so that’s what I’ve been doing. I like making fun graphics in Canva (what a fantastic resource!) and have a pro account. I really enjoy talking, even on camera. I’ve already done one podcast and would love to do more. I also have some virtual events planned. I try to consistently post on Twitter, Instagram, my blog, and newsletter. I would love to do school and other events if that becomes more feasible in the coming months. Basically, any time someone wants to talk with me about my book, I’m there!

As far as learning from other the21ders, absolutely! Our debut group is so supportive, lifting each other up and offering advice on the best marketing tactics. I’m so grateful to have them going through this with me!

10. I’ve heard the same advice to focus on what you enjoy when marketing from other authors too. What are you working on now?

I just turned in revisions for my second book, coming from Bloomsbury September 2022. I am so close to announcing more about it, but for now I’ll just say it is another YA contemporary with a speculative twist. Keep an eye out for more details soon!

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Michelle. You can find Michelle at www.michelleimason.com, on Twitter and Instagram at @michelleimason, and sign up for her newsletter at bit.ly/MIMnews. 

Giveaway Details

Michelle has generously offered a hardback of Your Life Has Been Delayed for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by September 18th. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog and/or follow me on Twitter, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. The giveaway is International

Upcoming Interviews and Giveaways

Tuesday, September 7th I’m participating in the September to Remember Giveaway Hop

Monday, September 13th I have an interview with debut author Alda Dobbs and a giveaway of her MG historical Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna

Wednesday, September 15th I have an agent spotlight interview with Nicole Eisenbraun and a query critique giveaway

Monday, September 20th I have an agent/author guest post with Chloe Seager and  Brianna Bourne and giveaway of Brianna’s YA dystopian You and Me and the End of the World and a query critique by Brianna

Wednesday, September 22nd I have an agent spotlight interview with Crystal Orazu and a query critique giveaway

Monday, September 27th I have an interview with debut author Jessica Vitalis and a giveaway of her MG fantasy The Wolf’s Curse

Hope to see you on Tuesday!