Welcome to Books à la Mode, Michael! Let's get this interview started.Will you please share a brief introduction with us?
Michael Mazza is a fiction writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. His stories have appeared in Other Voices, WORDS, Blue Mesa Review, TINGE, and ZYZZYVA.
He is best known as an internationally acclaimed art and creative director working in the advertising industry. Along with being named National Creative All-Star by Adweek, his work appears in the Permanent Collection of the Library of Congress.
He has lectured throughout the country and abroad, most notably at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. He has attended the Iowa Summer Writers’ Workshop, the Stanford Creative Writing workshop, and the Wharton School Executive Education MBA program.
It's amazing to get to feature you today! Readers, here's a bit about the book, which hit shelves earlier this month:The year is 2024. Climate change has altered the world’s wave patterns. Drones crisscross the sky, cars drive themselves, and surfing is a new Olympic sport.
Mafuri Long, UCSD marine biology grad, champion surfer, and only female to dominate a record eighty-foot wave, still has something to prove. Having achieved Internet fame, along with sponsorship from Google and Nike, she’s intent on winning Olympic gold. But when her father, a clinically depressed former Navy captain and widower, learns that his beloved supercarrier, the USS Hillary Rodham Clinton, is to be sunk, he draws Mafuri into a powerful undertow. Conflicts compound as Mafuri’s personal life comes undone via social media, and a vicious Aussie competitor levels bogus doping charges against her. Mafuri forms an unlikely friendship with an awkward teen, a Ferrari-driving professional gamer who will prove to be her support and ballast. Authentic, brutal, and at times funny, Mafuri lays it all out in a sprightly, hot-wired voice.
From San Diego to Sydney, Key West, and Manila, That Crazy Perfect Someday goes beyond the sports/surf cliché to explore the depths of sorrow and hope, yearning and family bonds, and the bootstrap power of a bold young woman climbing back into the light.
Buy the book from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Books-a-Million | Kobo | Publisher
What was your inspiration for the book?
My son took to surfing at an early age. On occasion, we’d ride waves together. But then he started to surf big and left me behind. When he began to compete in the NSSA, the contest schedule dictated long and tiring trips up and down the California coast. I became a surf dad, carting him to each contest for nearly a decade. This is where I absorbed surf culture and witnessed the talented men and women competing first hand. I’ve never come across a novel about a professional female surfer and thought how much I’d like to write a smart portrayal of one living in a world of high-stakes competition and the family drama that comes with it.
As a huge fan of first lines, I'd love to hear the first line of That Crazy Perfect Someday. Can you give us a commentary on it?
My Charger clocks eighty-three miles an hour up North Harbor Drive, past the airport, headlights blazing, tachometer red-lining, the V8 roaring as if heading into war.I wanted a quick sprint out of the starting blocks, a piece of action that created both intrigue and narrative velocity that plunged the reader into the story. From there I kept the character’s voice moving at a clip that mimicked the speed of her car. My hope is that the first chapter hooks the reader.
Out of all the fantastic books out there, what makes That Crazy Perfect Someday stand out from the rest?
To my knowledge, this is the first novel to give voice to a professional woman surfer. It chronicles what it’s like to compete in a male-dominated sport, the frustrations women face, the rigors and hope. It also exposes the reader to a surfing subculture many know little about and attempts to tell it authentically.
Give aspiring writers a piece of advice you wish you had known before getting published.
Brace yourself for an onslaught of rejection. It’s part of the gig. I asked T.C. Boyle this same wide-eyed question at a book signing. He swept his arm in a wide arc as if to describe the enormity of the room where he just lectured and said. “I could paper this entire place with my rejection letters.” Go online, and you’ll find lists of rejection letters to now famous authors. Read them for inspiration and then get back to work.
Readers, click "Read more" to find out Michael's favorite novels, his goals as a writer, and how he reacts to harsh reviews. We're also hosting a giveaway for a finished copy of That Crazy Perfect Someday, so you don't want to miss that either!
