Orsayor: What’s your writing process? How do you get in the mood? Music? Wine? Snacks? Other?
Marissa: I start out writing a thirty-chapter outline, and I go from there, one word at a time. I prefer to write early mornings in my office on my desktop. No music, no TV, no interruptions. Just me and my muse. I snack on veggie chips and fresh fruit and drink lots of water and coffee. When writing sexy scenes, usually reserved for nighttime, I do prefer wine.
Orsayor: Is there an author or book that inspired your journey?
Reading Terry McMillian’s Waiting to Exhale convinced me that I, too, could and should take a shot at writing characters who lived like me, and looked like me. She ignited me with her words.
Orsayor: Is there one question above all else that you don’t want to answer about yourself ?
Marissa: Yes.
Orsayor: What is the question?
Marissa: When do you plan to stop writing?
Orsayor: If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?
Marissa: A biography about me should probably be called This Woman’s Work. I kinda did the autobiography thing, in that my first book, May December Souls, is semi-autobiographical. However, I’ve always wanted to write a book based upon my life called Kiss and Tell, about all of the celebrities I’ve dated. And there were a lot of them! Not sure if that’s good or bad, lol!
Orsayor: What song best describes your work ethic?
Marissa: “Girl on Fire” by Alicia Keys
Orsayor: Can you tell readers about any upcoming books/projects?
Marissa: Coming in October of 2016 is The Practice Wife, about a woman who finds out on Facebook that her boyfriend is getting married the very next day. Also in 2016, my second non-fiction title debuts called The Mind of a Man.
A former relationship talk show host, FOX News reporter, and commercial actress, Marissa Monteilh (Mon-tay) is the bestselling author of over twenty women’s fiction titles, as well as a recent non-fiction title called The Mind of a Woman.
Originally self-published in 2000, the following year Harper Collins offered Marissa a three-book contract, and she has not looked back. She has also been published by Kensington Books, Hachette Book Group, and Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Five of her titles have been African-American Literary Award Show nominees, and in 2010, she was voted amongst the Women of Influence in Publishing by Written Magazine. Her titles have debuted as top-ten bestsellers on Black Expressions, and also voted Best Reads. In 2015, Marissa was named one of Conversations Magazine’s 25 Women Changing the World.
Marissa also writes under two pen names, and she is currently taking on ghostwriter and developmental editing projects under her company, SilentINK, which includes celebrity memoirs and contemporary novels.
2016 will bring Marissa’s second non-fiction title, The Mind of a Man, and a novel devoted to women who have been the bridesmaid, and never the bride, called The Practice Wife.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she now resides in Atlanta, Georgia.
