LAS MUSAS BOOK BIRTHDAY - The Writing Room

Today we celebrate the book birthday of Musa Marcia Argueta Mickelson's The Writing Room. We sat down with Marcia to learn more about this book.

Immediately after high school graduation, eighteen-year-old Maya is kicked out of her wealthy
dad's NYC home; he prides himself on forcing his kids to "make their own way in the world". Maya's mom lives in Guatemala, so Maya crashes with friends while working and trying to land
freelance writing gigs.

Maya struggles to find her footing until she gets access to a writing room―a shared workspace where she can focus (and get to know the intriguing neighbor, Jake, who's often there).

When she discovers her dad is bankrolling a virulently anti-immigrant candidate for governor, Maya―the daughter of an immigrant―realizes she can’t continue quietly accepting his choices. She’ll have to take a stand, using the voice she's found in the writing room.

​Read more about this exciting YA novel after the link...

How would you describe your main character and why did you create your character that way?

​I wanted to create Maya as a character who is generally good, but she’s extremely
sheltered and that colors how she sees the world. When her father kicks her out of their
home to go and make it in the world, she calls herself homeless as she’s being driven to
stay at a friend’s house. She doesn’t understand the true sense of the world. She isn’t
homeless as she had 3 different options of where she could stay. She considers herself
less fortunate until she truly understands the dire circumstances others face that give
more meaning to the word. She loves books and puts classics on a pedestal until she
understands that literature can be just as valid in different forms. Her understanding is
clouded, but she allows others’ words, lives, and examples to be instructional in her
learning about the world. As the book progresses, she comes to understand her
privilege and uses it for good.

Where did you get the idea to write this particular story?
I started writing The Writing Room about fifteen years ago. Originally, it was an adult
fiction about the rift between a woman and her father due to her conversion to a
religion different than the one she was raised in. After her religious conversion, he cuts
her out of the family. So, I wanted it to be a book about a woman who was raised in a
wealthy household, is suddenly cut off from everything she knew, and now has to make
her way in the world without that family support. 

I didn’t finish the book, set it aside, and started writing young adult fiction. After
several years, I had the idea to rewrite what I’d written and finish is as a young adult
novel. In that time, the world around me was changing. There was so much division in
our country due to the deplorable ideas of a president who targeted the most
marginalized members of our society. I saw the denigrating words used against
immigrants by people in power, and it fueled me to keep writing. Gradually, the book
became about Maya, a young woman who grew up in a wealthy household. She has a
White father and an immigrant mother who eventually moves back to her home
country of Guatemala. She is cut off financially after she graduates high school and has
to make her way in the world on her own. Again, I wrote about the world around me. I
am from Texas, and our governor is married to the granddaughter of Mexican
immigrants, and he has said very offensive and cruel things about immigrants. I used
him as a template for Maya’s father who was married to an immigrant, whose own
children are half Latino, and yet he espouses and supports white supremacist ideology.
This wasn’t how the story started off, but it is what the story became.

What comes next for you as an author?
I am so excited about my first picture book. It is called Double Enchiladas and will be
published in 2027. I’ve recently been able to see sketches and a tentative cover, and they
look amazing! The illustrator is amazingly talented, and I can’t wait to share more.

What 3 recommendations would you give writers who are starting out?

1. I would recommend that writers read a lot in the genre that they are writing.
   
2. Read craft books that will help you improve your writing, such as Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody and Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King.
3. Be patient and don’t rush things. Writing and publication take a long time. Don’t be in a rush for it to happen. Take your time with everything and know that it is not something that happens quickly. Trying to get an agent takes a long time, even up to 200 rejections. Being on submission can take months. Waiting for the book to get published can take years. If you want it, be in it for the long haul. Don’t think it will happen quickly.

What books are on your to-be-read list?
Right now, on my to-be-read list are: The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler,
The Silenced by Diana Rodriguez Wallach, and El Futbolista by Jonny Garza Villa.

grab a copy of the writing room

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Marcia Argueta Mickelson was born in Guatemala and immigrated to the United States as an infant. She is the author of several young adult novels, including The Writing Room, The Weight of Everything and Where I Belong, a Pura Belpré Young Adult Honor Book. She lives in Texas with her husband and three sons.

Connect with Marcia:
Instagram, X, Threads, TikTok @marciamickelson
Bluesky: @marciamickelson.bsky.social​

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