Troped Out

We are your hosts, Emma C. Wells & E.J. Wenstrom. (Find us on all social media—but typo productions especially loves Instagram—follow us @TypoPodcasts. If you insist on Twitter :P we are there also @TypoPodcasts. 

Today’s episode features special guest, mystery author Mia P. Manansala.

Mia’s bio and links (from her website):

Mia P. Manansala (MAH-nahn-sah-lah) (she/her) is a writer and book coach 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2018 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, the 2017 William F. Deeck - Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers, and the 2016 Mystery Writers of America/Helen McCloy Scholarship.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 2018-2020 mentor.

A lover of all things geeky, Mia spends her days procrastibaking, playing JRPGs and dating sims, reading cozy mysteries, and cuddling her dogs Gumiho, Max Power, and Bayley Banks (bonus points if you get all the references).

Her debut novel, ARSENIC AND ADOBO, came out May 4, 2021, with Berkley/Penguin Random House and is the first in the Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery series.

Find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @MPMtheWriter

Mia’s website: https://www.miapmanansala.com

Mia’s books are available everywhere books are sold, but why not check out our Troped Out Bookshop and order your copies today? 

Show Notes:

• Emma and EJ welcome Mia to the show, and Mia says she is glad to be a guest. She is excited to talk about leaning into the tropes of her genre—which is cozy mystery.
• EJ gets right to business and asks Mia what are the tropes of cozies that she used in her writing.
• Mia explains how the book came to her. Mia and Em were both in Pitch Wars in 2017. (If you are interested in pitch wars information, the link is included in the links section at the bottom of the show notes). 
• Mia says that her Pitch Wars mentor was author Kellye Garrett, and the two are still friends to this day. Mia and Kellye were talking back in 2017 about how cozies were leaning into rom-com tropes. They were joking and Mia said (quite truthfully) that cozies are just rom-coms with dead bodies. They laughed about it and didn’t think much else of it until one day when Mia was riding the train to work.
• On this train ride—the first line of her debut, ARSENIC AND ADOBO (available everywhere books are sold—link to our bookshop included in notes) came into her head all at once. Mia pulled out her phone and began taking notes. She said once she began writing notes—the second line popped into her head.
• Those first two lines that set things into motion???

My name is Lila Macapagal, and my life has become a rom-com cliché. 

Not many romantic comedies feature an Asian-American lead (or dead bodies, but more on that later), but all the hallmarks are there.

• ARSENIC AND ADOBO follows Lila Macapagal, a Filipino-American woman from a small, Midwestern town outside of Chicago, who has moved into the city. Once Lila finds her fiancé cheating, she returns home to help with her aunt’s restaurant. Of course, she runs into her high school sweetheart—who happens to be a vindictive restaurant critic trying to get her aunt’s restaurant closed. Then…one day he drops dead in the restaurant and Lila becomes the main suspect. She must solve the crime to clear her name.
• Mia explains that a cozy is essentially a Hallmark story with a body. No sex, graphic violence, or bad language. But plenty of fun with quirky characters, a mystery to solve, and a likable protagonist. 
• EJ asks what are the key tropes you must hit in order for a cozy mystery to be considered a cozy.
• Mia says so far, the only deal breaker is no sex on the page and no described graphic violence. She says that another is no bad language—but explains that is subjective.
• Just like there has to be an HEA or HFN in a romance—these things are necessary for a cozy.
• She says that typically you will find the main characters in cozies are women, and they often take place in a small town or an insulated community of some sort. 
• The setting is almost like a character itself.
• Most cozies have a theme. Mia says that hers are considered culinary cozies—because the stories are often centered around Lila’s aunt’s restaurant. 
• EJ says that she has noticed that many cozies—from the outside looking in—have an affection for food. That the authors will often share recipes on their pages and in their books. EJ asks, what do you (Mia) think it is about Cozies that makes a communal interest in food so common?
• Mia says that EJ used the word communal—and that community is a huge part of the Cozy genre. One of the most common ways to get people together is to break bread together. 
• Mia says that for her personally—food is her favorite thing. (MINE TOO, MIA!) Food plays a significant role in life, including culture. Mia explains that she is Filipino American, and food is one way to stay connected to her culture and to her parent’s home. That food is love.
• How food is often used to show love and connection. It can be used to show relationships and backstories in books.
• EJ says that it sounds like the core of cozy mysteries comes down to relationships—which isn’t something she realized before this conversation.
• EJ asks how the culinary aspect works in the ARSENIC AND ADOBO world.
• Mia says in her first book, the murder is of the food critic—so the main suspects are all restaurant owners that the critic harmed. The restaurants are all different from greasy spoon diner to sushi restaurant. The protagonist (Lila) interviews each one and in the process, we see how she relates to the town not only as it was when she left years ago—but now that she is back “home.” 
• Em asks Mia if she has a favorite food that is featured in ARSENIC AND ADOBO.
• Mia says that she has a lot of favorites. Mia explains how food is such an important part of Filipino culture. She tells the story of how she was on a panel with other Filipino authors who all wrote in different genres and age categories—and the title of the panel was, Kumain ka na ba? Filipino food is love, family, & home. You can view the panel here!
• Mia says that food is so important to Filipino culture that this is actually the way people greet you—by asking if you’ve eaten. 
• The character Lila might not seem like she is investigating, but through developing relationships with other characters by sharing a meal with them, she is learning everything she needs to solve the crime. Lila’s strength is really in developing relationships with people.
• Em asks Mia if the moment she had that lightning bolt of an opening line—fully formed—if she knew that the story would be a cozy mystery.

Thank you for listening to Troped Out. If you like what you heard—review and subscribe! To stay up to date on Troped Out, SFF+Girls, and the forthcoming ADHD Creative, follow our production team Typo Productions and @TypoPodcasts across all platforms. Links at the bottom.

• Today we are talking with rom-com and women’s fic author, Anna E. Collins.
• Emma reads Anna’s bio and encourages listeners to check out Anna’s Instagram to see her golden-doodle, Archie.
• Anna’s book, LOVE AT FIRST SPITE, released on January 4th. 2022.
• Anna shares details about her book, including tropes, such as grump & sunshine, revenge on an ex, and more.
• Emphasis on the revenge plot. (Check out LOVE AT FIRST SPITE for full synopsis of story).
• The book is a romance between jilted interior designer Dani and hunky architect Wyatt. Of course, when Dani makes plans to get back at her cheating, no-good ex-fiancé by building a spite house, Wyatt was the only one available to take on the project.
• Besides the romance of the story (which is the main point of the book) there is the revenge, which centers around the idea of a spite house. Em asks Anna where she got the idea to use the construction of a spite house for her rom com.
• Anna keeps a running list of ideas for future projects. In 2020 she was looking through her list of ideas for her next project. After tackling some pretty heavy themes in her women’s fiction novels, she was ready to write something lighter and fun. The words spite house: someone builds a house to get revenge, was on the list. Her imagination ran with it.
• Anna did not create the idea of a spite house—if you google spite house—you will find some very interesting things. However, this book was 1000% all Anna E. Collins. 
• EJ points out that building a spite house is a long term commitment to your hate—you have to keep that pettiness going for long enough to build a house. Em agrees—but says that it’s enough time to fall in love.
• Anna gives examples of why someone might go through with the construction of a spite house. Things like divorce, one person getting a house one person getting land. Or brothers with an inheritance—there are tons of stories. Anna points out that when you read stories about what caused spite houses to be built—you rarely get info on what happens afterward.
• Em asks what drove Dani to a place where she devoted time and money to revenge (building of a spite house).
• Anna explains what drove Dani to the place of investing in a long-term revenge project such as a spite house. (No spoilers in podcast).
• Dani’s fiancé doesn’t listen to Dani and then she finds out that her fiancé is a cheater. The problem is—after she calls things off, Dani is the one that is greatly impacted, even though she didn’t do anything wrong. And Dani can’t have that! 
• Em and EJ ask Anna to explain the tropes in her book in detail. Anna says that Wyatt is the grumpy one and even though Dani is the one who wants the spite house built—she is still the sunshiney one. She is bright and dynamic.
• Wyatt is gruff and a know-it-all, and isn’t the best socializer. When Dani began at the firm where she works as a designer (and where Wyatt works as an architect), Wyatt was the only one to not welcome her to the new job.
• Wyatt is the only architect open to helping Dani with the spite house. As they work together, Dani begins to wonder if maybe she was wrong about Wyatt.
• Em asks, “What is it about a grumpy hero? Do you watch Ted Lasso?”
• Anna loves Ted Lasso. EJ finally got to watch. 
• Em says, “Roy Kent, amirite?” 
• The women talk about grumpy heroes. It’s not all grumpy characters. It has to be the characters—like Roy Kent—who are only grumpy on the surface. There has to be layers.
• EJ points out that this is a great example of where tropes differ from stereotypes. The stereotypical grumpy character is flat and mean. But when it is the grumpy hero in a trope—it is almost inevitable that you are going to see something that makes you realize that he is actually a little soft underneath (like Roy Kent and his niece).
• EJ says there has to be something that is almost like “Alert alert! Peel back the layers!”
• Em asks Anna if, as a reader, she has a favorite trope that is an insta-buy.
• Anna says she loves enemies to lovers. She also likes opposites attract. She likes fake relationships and forbidden love. She says that there is a small section of LOVE AT FIRST SPITE that has the sneaking around aspect. Not really forbidden—but frowned upon.
• Anna says she really loves underdog stories—someone who is counted out by society, and they prove everyone wrong.
• Em asks if Anna notices a common thread in her writing—not necessarily trope wise but possibly theme wise—when she writes in different genres.
• Anna says yes. She is drawn to underdog stories also in her women’s fiction writing, as well as a redemption story, or inner makeover.
• We discuss the expectations in both the romance genre and women’s fiction genre.
• Anna explains what she needs as a reader to feel satisfied at the end of the book.
• EJ asks, as a reader, if there are different tropes that Anna finds herself drawn to depending on the genre?
• Anna says that she feels that in general, women’s fiction is less tropey, but she loves including strong female friendships in all of her stories.
• Em asks Anna, if outside of her own genres, if there is a trope she loves in movies or books? Example: apocalypse movies. 
• Anna says she isn’t sure that she has that—except possibly under dog stories. 
• EJ asks, the opposite question—is there a trope that Anna doesn’t care for as a consumer?
• Anna says yes. She said way back when she first read romance, she loved the alpha-hole stories but as time has gone on—she’s kind of fallen away from those stories. Though, she thinks it is because often the women in those stories are portrayed as weak and she doesn’t care for that. If it is an alpha-hole story with an equally strong female—then maybe she would like that.
• Anna plays Troped Out. We learn her favorites.
• The women chat about THE LIFEBOAT (by Charlotte Rogan), GONE GIRL (by queen Gillian Flynn), and Machiavellan characters.
• You should purchase LOVE AT FIRST SPITE by the great Anna E. Collins. You can get it wherever books are sold—including our Troped Out Bookshop! (Links below). 
• You can find Anna E. Collins across all social platforms as @AECcreates or visit her website at www.AECollinsBooks.com. All links included below! 

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Thank you for joining us for the very first episode of typo production’s TROPED OUT. Hosts E.J. Wenstrom and Emma C. Wells sit down with your favorite (and future favorite) authors across all genres to talk all things books—especially tropes! 

Be sure to follow us @TypoPodcasts on your favorite social media to keep up with everything typo productions has in the works, as well as to hear exclusive clips and be the first to know about fun give-aways and promotions. 

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We are so excited to have USA Today best selling author of historical Scottish romance (among other genres)  Hildie McQueen joining us. Her newest release, The Fox, is available in Amazon Kindle Unlimited. You can get it right HERE.

All genres use tropes—but in our opinion, it’s the romance authors who really work them to their fullest potential.

• Welcome Hildie!
• Em met Hildie (and E.J.) in 2016 at Romantic Times Book Convention. Em sat in on Hildie’s panel and was very impressed and has been following her progress ever since.  
• Hildie is deep into historical Highlander romance. She credits her time spent in Scotland for fueling her love for the location and genre. Her readers certainly can tell that she has a deep appreciation and knowledge of the Scottish Highlands—it comes across in her books. 
• Hildie was born in Mexico, has lived all over the world (ex-military) but settled in Georgia. She is always looking for adventures. This is what really keeps her writing.
• Hildie’s new book is titled The Fox and is the fourth book in her Clan Ross of the Hebrides series—all available on Amazon (a few in series are available in our Troped Out Bookshop). 
• The hero in this book is a little different. Hildie usually writes her Highlanders as kilted tough guys with a sword strapped to their hips, kicking ass everywhere they go. But this hero, Caelan Ross, is a half brother to the other heroes in the series. He grew up in the Glasgow area and is perceived as a little more English than the rest of his family.  He has gotten picked on for being too English. However, his brothers never pick on him because when Caelan gets out the sword—he is a berserker.
• Em loves (LOVES) the word berserker and takes a very on-brand tangent about the word.
• Em asks Hildie if she has a trope that she finds she is drawn to using.
• Hildie writes beastly, huge alphas who are quiet about their emotions. Hildie loves a scarred hero. She loves writing heroines who help the heroes get over the pain of their past. 
• Hildie also likes writing (not quite) enemies-to-lovers. Her couple will almost always have friction in the beginning before falling for each other and finding their HEA. It is safe to say there is no insta-love in a Hildie McQueen novel.
• EJ comments that Hildie’s grumpy heroes are very Darcy.
• EJ asks Hildie what works for her as a reader. Hildie admits she reads everything except for Scottish Romance because she doesn’t like to read in her genre. She adores cozy mysteries. She especially loves the friends-to-lovers trope that is often in cozy mysteries, and also how cozies often employ the second-chance romance trope as a secondary plot.
• Em asks Hildie if she has thoughts on what is so appealing to readers about a big, tough guy who doesn’t show the world his vulnerability, but reveals it to the heroine of the book.
• Hildie thinks it is about trust. There is something appealing about a closed off hero that trusts the heroine with his true self. There is the whole fantasy of being the one to help them change. Hildie comments that her readers must be nurturers at heart, and there is something to (in a book, at least) being the only one a scarred hero chooses to help him work through whatever has left him scarred.
• Hildie points out—she doesn’t want that in real life because she isn’t fixing anybody—but there is something about the fantasy of a big tough alpha guy trusting you to help him with his pain. The hosts agree—great for fiction. Not so much for real life.
• EJ  thinks that, as a writer, there is a fun character ARC to creating this redeemable, grumpy hero.
• Hildie says yes, she thinks as a writer it is a fun exploration. She says that she doesn’t plot, so she enjoys writing to figure out the hero’s story and what has left him broken and scarred. 
• Hildie points out that romance writers know what appeals to us and what we write best, and that is what we often (not always) tend to stick to. She knows there are talented writers who use all different tropes, but that isn’t how she works. Like she mentioned earlier, she doesn’t do insta-love. Hildie says she doesn’t think she’s ever experienced insta-love except for maybe with Henry Cavill.
• The ladies joke about the rugged handsomeness that *is* Henry Cavill.
• EJ asks if there are any other tropes that Hildie doesn’t really connect with. Not hating on other authors—but as a reader is there something that she doesn’t really like? Hildie says, secret baby doesn’t appeal to her. She says it has nothing to do with an author’s writing—she just isn’t a baby person. She likes dogs, and she has kids and they survived (lol) but that trope doesn’t speak to her. She also isn’t a big soul-mate reader or writer. She jokingly laughs that she isn’t a very romantic romance writer.
• EJ asks Hildie if there is a trope that she can’t wait to try, but hasn’t had the opportunity to tackle yet. Hildie talks a bit about writing a love triangle and admits she’s played with the trope a little bit, and might eventually go all in on a love triangle story if she can ever think of a situation that makes sense to her as a reader and a writer. 
• She says she would love to tackle the “back from the dead” trope—where everyone thinks the hero is dead, but he is actually hiding out, only to appear later. Em thinks if she makes it Scottish—then take her money now, please!
• Em circles back to the fact that Hildie isn’t a plotter. She wonders what Hildie does to prepare for a new story.
• Hildie says she is a very hero-driven writer. She knows all about the hero—what he looks like and who he is as a person—before she begins writing. The next step is figuring out what his love interest is like. She admits she has begun a book and written up to ten thousand words only to realize that the couple she was writing didn’t belong together on the page and had to start over.  
• Once she finds the right love interest and knows her back story—she’s all set. Hildie doesn’t write it down—she holds it in her head and gets to work! She is a very exploratory writer until the mid-point. By then, she knows everything that is going to happen—including the ending. Hildie says this is how she writes a book. Of course it is different for everyone.
• It is very interesting to Em, who is very much a plotter—as evidenced by her FBI-looking-for-a-serial-killer level of whiteboard notes hanging on the wall behind her.
• Em marvels at how prolific Hildie is as a writer. It is no surprise that Hildie knows and trusts her process.
• EJ asks Hildie when she writes in her subgenres—specifically cowboys and Highlanders—if there is anything she does differently.
• Hildie says for her personally—it isn’t that different, because cowboys are our version of a Highlander. They ride horses and go on adventures. They are rough around the edges. While they are a lot alike, Hildie says her cowboys are a little more flirtatious in addition to being alphas. 
• When she writes co...