Cocktails With The Chicas
Mary sat down with her fellow authors of Friday Night Chicas to talk about their stories, personal journeys and always the crowd pleaser, sex.
> Q: In one sentence, what is your story about?
Mary: “My Favorite Mistake” is about ambition and pushing the limits of what one woman is willing to do to achieve her most precious dream.
Berta: “In Revenge of the Fashion Goddess”, Cali Montalvo returns to Chicago for her tenth year reunion where she’s determined to show off her success to all the girls who made her miserable. But she falls all over again for her dangerous and sexy high school crush.
Cari: “Hearts Are Wild” is about a woman who finally decides to shake up her vida-not-so-loca on the night of her thirtieth birthday.
Sofia: “The More Things Change” is about four college friends who reunite for a bachelorette party but the bride-to-be disappears with a male stripper.
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> Q: Why did you choose to have your heroine go through her journey?
Mary: I talked to Latinas who had one night stands and a few were proud and even liberated by the experience. Others carried a lot of guilt, so Isela’s conflict was based on the emotions of the women I had talked to.
Berta: I loved the idea of a revenge fantasy.
Cari: Many successful professional women hit a certain age and suddenly find out that life has become boring and predictable. I experienced similar feelings when I hit thirty and so I decided to do a story where a normally by-the-book woman finally throws the book away and takes a chance.
Sofia: I think that we’re always coming-of-age even if what that means changes every decade of our lives. A major lesson from my twenties is that some friendships are meant to last a lifetime, while it’s normal and even healthy to let other friendships go.
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> Q: This is a spicy book with some very hot love scenes. Why did you chose to go as far (or not) as you did?
Mary: It was all up to Isela. And it’s interesting how the first person voice makes readers feel like they’re watching everything unfold.
Berta: The characters and plot drove the level of sensuality. Cali and Rick had to make up for a lot of lost time.
Cari: I wanted the love scene to be playful and teasing since it was between two strangers who are both trying to figure each other out. I found that their verbal exchanges and the physical actions that followed were much more exciting by taking it slower and letting the anticipation build.
Sofia: It’s more a story about friendship than sex or romance. Since none of these friends are sexually interested in each other, a spicy love scene would've been obviously gratuitous!
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> Q: What do you hope readers will walk away with after reading Friday Night Chicas?
Mary: I hope they question and debate the decisions that these characters make because all of the heroines are very human and gutsy women who take chances.
Berta: I've noticed that all the stories feature women who are professional and ambitious, and who have flaws, too. I love that, and hope readers will, too. Perfect people are so boring!
Cari: The feeling that they've just read four very funny, intelligent, sexy and very enjoyable stories about four very different successful women.
Sofia: I love this book and honored to be a part of it because it depicts very different Latina characters navigating universal territory. We all grapple with balancing relationships and careers, struggle with our friends and relatives, and similar issues so readers of any color will relate to these novellas.
Links:
Berta Platas
Caridad Piñeiro Scordato
www.chicaluna.com
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