Love Maia has worked construction, flown planes, and starred in an infomercial. She loves the freeing energy of the club world, as well as pizza, butterflies, death metal, and underground hip-hop. Her debut novel, DJ RISING, was released on February 6th. When not hard at work on her next novel, Love can be found playing drums in an alternative rock band around San Francisco. Here she talks about writing, music, and butterfly wings.
February is the “month of love” and I’m hoping it will be a big month for me. My birthday is Feb. 1st, the day of love is Feb. 14th, and in between the two, my novel DJ RISING will finally be released. I was in the mood for a Q&A, but didn’t have anyone to interview me, so I decided to interview myself. Here’s how things went:
Interviewer Love: So what’s your novel about?
Author Love: DJ RISING is a story about having dreams and choosing to fight for those dreams no matter what. My main character, Marley, is a DJ, but his dream could be anything and the moral of the story would be the same. My hope is that readers will relate this story to their own lives and be moved to fight for their own dreams.
IL: What made you choose this story as your first novel?
AL: I didn’t really choose it as much as it was chosen. DJ RISING is my debut novel, but it’s actually the third novel I’ve written. I dig the fact that this one was picked as my debut novel because the story of a boy who fights for his dreams even when the odds are against him, paralleled my own story so closely. I’m such a believer in perseverance and in encouraging others to never settle.
IL: Will you publish your first two novels?
AL: I’m not sure. One is kind of out there and the other is really out there. When I’m writing, my imagination goes where it wants and I let it. I write whatever comes to me and when I’m into a story, I can’t always tell if I’m writing reality or fantasy. The result is usually a book that’s not completely realistic. I need an editor to sort of reign me in, so it depends on whether those stories would still work once they’re reigned in. DJ RISINGwas definitely reigned in, but there is no doubt the story still has a fantasy-like appeal. To me, it’s a modern fairytale. It’s not meant to be a “happily ever after” type fairytale, but it’s totally meant to be inspiring.
IL: What’s with the butterfly wings?
AL: I get asked that a lot. I love butterflies. I love their journey and what they represent. I tend to be a tomboy so when I like anything girly, I go a little overboard with it. Book industry peeps don’t dig the wings. I have two bookstore appearances coming up and provided pics for both wearing butterfly wings. One bookstore cropped them out of the pic. The other bookstore simply didn’t post a picture of me for the event. That’s okay though because I’ll be wearing wings at both appearances. ;-)
IL: It’d be SO awesome if the music in DJ RISING really existed.
AL: Wouldn’t it though? Part of my goal was always to find a way to create real music to accompany the book. I’m not a fan of reading to be honest. I lose focus easily which is challenging when you’re a writer and have to read books all the time. Creating a soundtrack felt like a way I could help other reluctant readers. Problem was, no one had ever released a soundtrack of original music created specifically for a book. And when you try to do something no one’s done before, you get lots of doors slammed in your face. But I kept fighting for it and the doors finally opened. I partnered with a charity called H.O.P.E. and in the coming months we’ll release the soundtrack on www.djrising.com a song at a time.
IL: What artists will be on the soundtrack?
AL: There’ll be big name artists, absolutely. We’ll also have up-and-coming artists and since Marley is an unknown, I wanted unknown artists too. We’ll use djrising.com to find our unknown musicians. Anyone will be able to submit original music based on the book. We’ll post songs on the site and consider them for the soundtrack. If you’re a DJ or other musician, or know of someone really talented, please spread the word and definitely check out the site.
IL: Well, it’s been fun, Love. Even if I did already know all your answers before you gave them.
AL: Yeah, it was cool, Love. Even if I did already know all the questions!
Love Maia enjoys hearing from readers. You can visit her at lovemaia.com.
