Lost in Paris tour: Guest Post

 Please welcome to the blog Marissa Moss- author of Mira's Diary: Lost in Paris!  Today Marissa is talking with us about her main characters- Mira and Amelia!

                                                                                                                             

The Me I Wish I Could Be

 by Marissa Moss

    There's a little bit of myself in every character I create.  Partly, that's how I get to know my characters, by drawing on my own quirks and those of people I know (one of the dangers of being friends with a writer!).  For main characters, like Amelia and Mira, these characters also become stand-ins for how I'd like to be, showing traits I wish I had.  
    Amelia is heavily based on me as a kid and the notebook I used to keep.  Except where I was gawky and awkward, Amelia uses her sense of humor to define herself.  She embraces the weirdness that I tried to hide.  When I get fan mail from girls saying they're just like Amelia, I think, “Where were you when I was a kid?”
    Mira shares my love of history and art, my compulsive need to draw everything, but she's much braver than I am.  She thinks quickly on the spot where I usually come up with the perfect come-back the next day, not the next second.  She has the same curiosity, the same willingness to experience other cultures, other times, but where I time-travel by reading and writing, she gets to do the real thing, meeting the people I'd love to meet, having the adventures I can only experience on paper.  That's one of the magical things about writing.  You can create whole worlds and people them with characters you want to know.  And those you want to be.

                                                                                                                       

Mira is shocked when she receives a postcard from her missing mother from Paris. Her father decides it's time for a trip to France to search for her. While visiting Notre Dame, Mira touches a gargoyle and is whirled into the past. There she meets the famous painter Degas and catches a brief, shocking glimpse of her mother. Mira begins to suspect that her mom didn't run out on them but is a prisoner of the past. Can one family on an incredible worldwide adventure stop a plot in time?

Mira's Diary: Lost in Paris by Marissa Moss- available now from Sourcebooks Jabberwocky!