King, Mia 1968– [A pseudonym]

(Darien Hsu Gee)

PERSONAL:

Born 1968; married; has children. Education: Attended Wellesley College, 1987-89; Rice University, B.A., 1991.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Kamuela, HI. Agent—Jenny Bent, Trident Media Group, 41 Madison Ave., 36th Fl., New York, NY 10010. E-mail—mia@miaking.com.

CAREER:

Co-owner of a golf academy; has also worked as a tax manager for Price Waterhouse, in Houston, TX, Beijing, China, and Palo Alto, CA, and for Sephora.com and Venture Strategy Group, both in San Francisco, CA.

WRITINGS:

Good Things (novel), Berkley Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Author of the blog Mia Musings and contributor to the blog Debutante Ball.

SIDELIGHTS:

Mia King is a pseudonym of Darien Hsu Gee, who began to tell stories when she was still a child, using her parents' manual typewriter to compose her tales and keeping a journal faithfully. Although her earliest ambition was to grow up to become a writer, she took a more practical stance, attending college and going to work in an accounting firm. She eventually quit to write her first novel, learned more about the publishing business, and even went so far as to acquire a literary agent before deciding she was not quite ready to take the plunge. Only years later, after marrying, having children, and settling in Hawaii with her family, did she finally dust off her writing dreams. The result is her first published work, Good Things, a book that follows a young woman as she loses everything she thinks she possesses in order to learn who she truly is. Deidre McIntosh lives in Seattle and hosts a television show on how to make your home beautiful while still keeping your life simple. When the show gets canceled and Deidre finds herself homeless and without a roommate, her own life becomes far more complicated. King maintains her home-economics theme by including recipes that Deidre mentions over the course of the story. Patty Engelmann in Booklist dubbed King's effort "a fresh and thoroughly enjoyable story as enticing as the delectable recipes at the end of the book." Curled Up with a Good Book critic Karyn Johnson called the book "a pretty smart and sassy novel."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 1, 2006, Patty Engelmann, review of Good Things, p. 30.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2006, review of Good Things, p. 1191.

Publishers Weekly, November 27, 2006, review of Good Things, p. 30.

ONLINE

Armchair Interviews,http://reviews.armchairinterviews.com/ (August 28, 2007), Jilian Vallade, review of Good Things.

Curled Up with a Good Book,http://www.curledup.com/ (August 28, 2007), Karyn Johnson, review of Good Things.

Mia King Home Page,http://www.miaking.com (August 28, 2007).

Mia King MySpace Page,http://www.myspace.com/mia_writes (August 28, 2007).