Meet Mischa Thrace.

 

Hi Mischa! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us a little about yourself.

Mischa Thrace has worked as an English teacher, a horse trainer, a baker, and a librarian and has amassed enough random skills to survive most apocalypses. (Except a spider plague – there’s no surviving that.) She lives in Middle-of-Nowhere, Massachusetts with her husband, a one-eyed dog, and a cranky cat who rarely leaves the basement. She loves tea, all things geek, and not getting ax-murdered on long walks in the woods.

Social Media Links:

http://instagram.com/mischa_thrace

https://twitter.com/mischa_thrace

http://mischathrace.com/

 

The Interview.

In terms of surviving an apocalypse, besides a spider apocalypse that you mentioned in your bio, what would be the one thing you’d need with you even if it would drag you down?

My dog, no hesitation. I’d like to say she’d be an asset, but she’s 30 pounds of one-eyed-rescue-floof that hates strangers and would absolutely bark at the zombies we’d be trying to hide from. And if that didn’t get us killed, I’d starve from giving her my share of the food.

As a writer, how often do you find yourself people watching and plotting new books?

Always! The problem is when I do it out loud and when it’s for something murdery, which is more often that it probably should be!

Let loose your inner fangirl! Since you mentioned you love all things geek – what is your favorite fandom or longest fandom you have been apart of? Next share a little origin story for that.

Picking a single favorite fandom is like asking a reader to pick a single favorite book! Inconceivable! But to go with longest-running, it’s definitely Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I started watching when it premiered in 1997. I’ve lost count lost count of how many times I’ve rewatched it, and can recite a disturbing amount of the dialogue, and have given it has the most real estate in my fandom-themed tattoo. I would even go so far as to crediting it with teaching me how to write. In high school I wrote novels’ worth of fanfic and the repeated viewings of the series have definitely helped me internalize the principles of story and character arcs, along with Whedon’s dictum to “Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke.”

Self-defense and characters that are wholly human. What was the hardest scene or character to come to terms with in My Whole Truth?

Ooh, this is a bit hard to answer without getting spoiler-y, but Seelie’s mom was probably the hardest character to write because she’s the person who we’d like to assume would be most in Seelie’s corner and she’s just… not – and anyone who has worked with kids and teens knows that this kind of poor parenting is far more common than it should be. There already a few books with similar themes to My Whole Truth that feature strong and supportive parents in the face of trauma, so I wanted to remind people that not everyone is lucky enough to have that. Tragedy can strike anyone, not just those with ideal support systems.

Did your perception of the importance of sharing the uglier sides of life in YA change throughout writing and editing My Whole Truth?

No, I’ve always been a firm believer in the importance of having books that represent the whole of the human experience, not just the Disney versions, and the harder books are often the most important.  Readers of all ages deserve to see themselves reflected in the pages of their favorite novels, but it’s equally important to read about characters who are vastly different from you. The character that one person is able to completely relate to may be another reader’s first glimpse into a world they know nothing about. Books let people experience their wildest dreams, but also their worst fears, and I will never stop believing in the need for stories that span the entire spectrum.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with the readers today?

Remember that there is no one “right way” to be a victim. Responses to trauma are as varied as the people who experience it, and what’s ‘normal’ for one person may seem inconceivable to the next. Everyone has secrets and stories they don’t share with the world and you can never know what war someone is fighting while they serve you coffee, sit in your class, or bag your groceries. Be cognizant of that and wary of placing value on only certain types of responses or certain types of victims. The world can be a scary place, but a bit of compassion can go a long way to making it better.

 

Bonus Fun

Mischa Thrace shares 10 fun facts!

The Weird, Not-Third-Person, Stuff

1. I can sculpt cool things out of chocolate. A useless but tasty talent!

2. I’m a big fan of recreational violence – I studied mixed martial arts and would love to try roller derby.

3. I can quote disturbing amounts of Joss Whedon’s oeuvre.

4. I have a plethora of extra internal organs.

5. My favorite random fact is that the center of our galaxy tastes like raspberries and smells like rum.

6. I have specific mugs dedicated to certain drinks during certain activities. It’s a problem.

7. I love bats and opossums

8. I could happily live on carbs and cheese.

9. I hate having my picture taken more than anything in the world.

10. Despite being cameraphobic, I would love to ‘play’ a corpse on crime show.

 

Thank you Mischa!

 

Thrace’s book, My Whole Truth, comes out October 2, 2018!

Are you ready?