Mia P. Manansala Writes "Rom-Coms with Dead Bodies"

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2018 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, the 2017 William F. Deeck - Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers, and the 2016 Mystery Writers of America/Helen McCloy Scholarship.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.