My Tragic Mafia Life | ✔️

Q&A

Hello everyone! This is Mel, the author. If you've made it this far, then I thank you for reading the hot mess of my first novel. I never actually thought that I could make it this far (actually complete a novel). I decided to make this so if any readers have more questions about the story itself or about me, I could answer them.

How did you start writing this novel?

I've been writing ever since middle school, but never actually got myself to commit to a novel. I always got bored of my ideas. One day last year I found myself feeling bad about wasting so much time and never finishing something I started when I could have years prior. So I choose this, a random idea I thought of in middle school. 

It was easy because I already had the character names picked a while back. I was intrigued by the plot idea but I knew it would never be a serious novel. I wanted to finish SOMETHING, so I wrote this, and now I've actually become an author! 

How did you come up with the idea of My Tragic Mafia Life?

In middle school, I was actually a creator on an app called Episode. 'My Tragic Mafia Life' was actually a story I wanted to put on there but I slowly drifted apart from the app as I realized that I didn't want to code. I wanted to write. During that time, I was in love with mafia stories but the ones that were really popular got into the dark aspect of it.

Mine isn't accurate at all, but the mafia stories I've read focus more on the romance than the worldbuilding. I was sick of innocent protagonists where the focus of the plot was romance and while the books claimed it was graphic and dark... it wasn't. I thought, why can't the main girl be mean? It's always that the protagonist is weak, abused, bullied. I wanted to change that.

And thus, Josephine was born.

Most books have this idea of the 'femme fatale' manipulating people. So I wanted to do that BUT with the love interests. I knew Camillo and Dante would be a cliche so it was easy to work with, but I haven't read many morally bad characters as the protagonist. It was a struggle, but over time I really liked the story.

Is mystery your favorite genre to write in?

God, no. The only reason this became a mystery is because one day I was asking my friends why two groups who hate each other would meet up. My friends told me if someone died maybe they would meet up to figure out who. They also told me if the person died was important, like an heir (You see where I'm going with this).

I ended up going with the idea before realizing that this was going to become a mystery novel.  I barely any idea how to plot this. So if this isn't the best written, you know why.

So if you aren't an expert in mystery did you always plan to have Isla as the murder?

Yes. I wanted someone who is extremely sweet and kind to do something bad. It's odd and something you don't expect. At least I hope it wasn't obvious.  

What are some hints that the murderer was Isla and Houston?