Meet Miriam Pia

When did you start writing?

Miriam Pia started writing an early age (but not "prematurely") and was strongly encouraged by her mother to write every day. She was an avid reader as a child. A one act play emerged in elementary school and she is one of those teens published in the school magazine the Senior year of high school. Due to her compliant, but friendly temperament, and having an education-oriented family, she flourished in academic settings throughout her childhood and well into her 20s. So much so, that she had thought her day job would be in education - but hoped to teach adults in universities rather than children.

What’s the strangest thing that’s inspired one of your stories?

That does not compute. That is not what happened. I read a lot as a child. Sometimes I did express my emotions in my fiction, but that is not even always what was going on.

Have you ever based a character on someone you know?

No. Not in anything published. No, but yes in that there have been characters created as a composite of aspects of 4 different people who I know plus 2 traits none of those people have and I don't either.

If so, did you tell them? If not, is there someone in your life you’d like to base a character on?

No.

What do the people in your “real life” think of your writing?

It depends who you ask. They vary from not caring to feeling threatened and jealous. Others care and are more advanced professional writers who are not too intimidated to be encouraging and some of them even mentor me here and there. Naturally, the other authors with more published books and sales than myself react differently from relatives.

Family and friends tend to seem somehow both impressed and sure it just makes me even more of a freak than I was before. They and I also look at each other because we all would feel better about it if my earnings were healthy instead of doing these things and still not having the respectable income that would really cause them to perceive me as responsible and sane rather than as an irresponsible or pathetic nut job.

Author Bio:

Miriam first wrote a novel at the age of 21 before having acquired a BS degree but having had an excellent high school education. It was because of that, that she ever considered earning money writing. Her first published novel was only released in 2015, more than 20 years after she had first written one. She hopes to get the remake of that first one released within the next 2 years, but isn't holding her breath.

During her late 30s, Miriam had a small break through and started getting paid at least a little bit regularly for writing, but normally at what might be called 3rd world wages. Despite this, her love for the craft of writing has caused her to continue to seek to improve not only in her craft but also in making the business aspect of it work.

To accomodate reality, Miriam expanded to include writing nonfiction, writing short works, and ghostwriting both fiction and nonfiction rather than only writing and submtting entire fiction novels or only fiction stories. She also writes poetry.

Awards:

Miriam has only ever won one athletic trophy. It was for women's novice martial arts sparring with LaVallee's Sport Karate in 1984 or 1985. The competition was regional. She was 17 at the time.

She did get Lifeguard Certification at age 18.

Everson Museum of Art granted her an Honorable Mention in a visual art contest by high school students in the city of Syracuse NY in 1986.

In 1986 her peers voted her Most Unique Girl of Nottingham High School, Syracuse NY. In general terms she was one of the smart girls and a lot of her friends were moderate Hippie Liberal smart girls and even also boys.

It was a long time between then and the next award, but her BS degree is cum laude (2nd Honors), 1994.

Iliad Press Summer Art Awards: Honorable Mention for short fiction: 2002.

Intl. Society of Poetry:2 Editor's Choice Award for free verse poetry, 1 in 2003 & 1 in 2008.

Angie's Diary: Participation Award: Author of the Month July 2012

Adult Events. At age 27 she became a mother. She has one living child, a son.

She did marry and has both the love marks and emotional scars to prove it. He is not with her today. She is grateful that everyone is still alive.

She has lived mostly in the USA but lived in England for 5 years, and then after 10 years back in the USA, has been living in Germany since mid August of 2010.

The philosophy booklet was published in 2012 by Wilder Publications, and The Double Life of Tutweiler Buckhead is published by SBPRA.

Tell us about your book. 

The Double Life of Tutweiler Buckhead is what I like to call a "law enforcement fantasy story" about getting the upperhand on the bad guys despite great difficulties.  One can think of it as simple urban crime fiction.  It is about a group of people who are not vigilantes nor cops but a lot like vigilantes.  The style was influenced by my history with role-play fantasy games, esp. D&D.  A main feature of the story, the way I write, is that I like readers to have the intimacy of getting into characters' minds as well as seeing how they behave.  I use both a great deal throughout the story, so readers really get to feel like mind readers.  

It is set in Indianapolis and is about one of the areas embarrassing crime problems, but safely fictionalized.  The city is aware of the problem - so it is not 'whistle blowing'.  I lived in the city for 10 years and wrote the novel there.  The story is interracial because that is what it is really like there.  

Unlike the novel, Five Big Questions in Life and how to answer them can be viewed as philosophy or as self help.  It gives practical guidance and introduces some of the best and most powerful features of philosophy.  Compared to the more academic versions it is simple and clear.  Anyone who has been through to at least 10th grade can read it.  Graduate students and professors of philosophy would only be interested in seeing if they could use it as a supplemental booklet to teach their intro students.  It is a good introduction to the entire field and has a few practical tips.  In that regard maybe it is like those bags of flour with a recipe on there in case you were looking for an idea.