[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6OsGjelmbo&hl=en&fs=1]
Project Reina
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW1WXhg7peo&hl=en&fs=1]
If you click on the video you will see the face of HIV and AIDS. The CDC reported in 2001 that African-American and Latina girls, ages 13-19, accounted for 84% of AIDS cases; women ages 20-24 account for 78 percent.
I’m a very proud hermana of Project Reina, a group of Latina and African-American women who are dedicated to keeping our younger sisters free of HIV/AIDS. Founded by Gina Ravera, who co-stars in ER and The Closer, Project Reina has one mission and that is to get the following message to girls everywhere: Cherish and protect yourself and you will save your life.
Today is National Latino AIDS Awareness Day and I hope if you have daughters, nieces, sisters or god daughters (Latina or not) that you’ll remind her every day of how special she is and how much she is loved. It’s not enough for us to preach condoms or abstinence; we need to continually build up their self esteem from childhood through adolesence by reminding them how much they matter to us and to the world. And then we need to show it.
When I was in the third grade, some boys chased me into the girl’s room, threatening to rape me or squeeze my tits. Not only was I terrified but I also didn’t get to finish my lunch.
The next morning after I asked my mom what rape meant and then spilled out what had happened, she took off work and marched her way into the Principal’s office. I saw my mom grow ten-feet tall and breathe fire and smoke when that unfortunate man accused me of being at fault. She then got those boys suspended for a week – oh it was beautiful -and thrown off their swim and Little League teams. I didn’t know it at the time, but she was sowing the seeds of my self worth. Sure, I went on to make some pretty dumb mistakes and frankly, when I read the current statistics of STDs and HIV/AIDS I realize how easily I could have accounted for those numbers. But I’ve never doubted that I was entitled to success, respect and dignity through dedication and hard work and I credit my mom, my Grandma Margie and the many female role models who came into my life at various times. (I also never cried in public or at work but that’s another story.)
You know I’m not big on waving my politics for all to see. In fact, I’ve been accused of complacency because I don’t talk about politics on my blog. However, I think we can all agree – conservative and liberal and irregardless of gender or race – that our little sisters are worth taking care of.
Fires in CA
I’m interrupting our regular programming to ask for your thoughts and prayers to go out to the fire fighters who are battling the blazes out here in California. My dad is on-call and my brother, who is now with the Federal Fire Department, may be deployed if more fires break out. Last night, the Santa Ana winds died down, but its still hot and dry out there.
Thanks for your time and energy and now please enjoy my Q&A with Diana Rodriguez Wallach!
Between the Pages with Diana Rodriguez Wallach
I think it was the end of spring when Diana Rodriguez Wallach contacted me through MySpace and told me about her upcoming YA release, Amor and Summer Secrets. This is not just her first book but it’s also the start of a whole new life for this former business journalist.
Chica Lit: Please tell us about your series starting with Amor and Summer Secrets?
Diana: When I started this series, I wanted to write a multi-cultural novel from the perspective of a girl who didn’t quite identify with either of her parents’ cultures. My main character, Mariana Ruiz, is half-Polish and half-Puerto Rican, like I am. But I don’t think it really matters what your specific background is in terms of enjoying this series. In my opinion, Amor and Summer Secrets speaks to all people (and specifically teens) who can relate being torn between two very different ethnic groups. It’s a very American story.
That said, Amor and Summer Secrets tells the story of when Mariana’s father ships her and her brother off to Puerto Rico for the summer to live with relatives they’ve never met. She doesn’t speak Spanish, nor does she appreciate the culture. All she wants is to be back in Philadelphia celebrating her best friend’s Sweet 16.
And though the trip wasn’t what she wanted, Mariana does eventually open up. She makes friends with her cousin Lilly, she helps plan a quinceanera, and she meets her first love. All this while unleashing a secret her family hid on the island more than 30 years ago.
Chica Lit: When your wrote your first book, how did you transition from business reporter to novelist?
Diana: I actually don’t think the two fields are that unrelated. Having a job where you write all day, every day can only help improve your skills—whether you’re writing about business or for children. Additionally, in journalism you’re taught to be succinct. You don’t bury your lead, and you don’t add in a lot of purple prose. I find writing for YA to be somewhat similar. We’re trying to maintain the attention of teenagers, so you often don’t find a lot of long-winded passages. Not to mention, when you work for daily publications, you learn to write a lot of copy very quickly. This definitely contributes to the speed and ease in which I write today.
Chica Lit: In your bio, you said your agent signed you right away but that book has not yet sold. Were you disappointed and how did you overcome it to write Amor and Summer Secrets?
Diana: Of course. I was incredibly disappointed. Who wouldn’t be? But, truthfully, that initial submission was a whirlwind. I started querying in June and by July 4th, I had signed with an agent and my book was on submission. The day after it went out, we got a call from an editor (I won’t say the name, but I still remember it) swooning about how much she loved it. My agent thought it was a done deal, and then the whole thing fell apart. Apparently, the publisher didn’t feel the same way.
But I think I needed that to happen. Rejection is a part of the game, and every author has to learn how to take her lumps. But we keep writing. That’s the point. I didn’t stop when the success wasn’t immediate, and if I had, I would have never written Amor and Summer Secrets and I wouldn’t be published today.
Chica Lit: Please tell us about where you were when you got “the call” that your book had been picked up by Kensington?
Diana: I love sharing this story! Amor and Summer Secrets sold quickly. It was submitted to Kate Duffy at Kensington on a Thursday, and by the following Tuesday, I got THE CALL. It was Fat Tuesday. I was at Mardi Gras.
My husband, Jordan, and I had spent the morning catching beads from parade floats in New Orleans. We stopped into our hotel room for mere minutes (to dump the 50 pounds of beads we were carrying) when my cell phone rang. It was my agent.
I was wearing a sequined mask with feathers and my favorite strings of gold, purple and green beads that I had caught during the trip. (On my website, there’s a photo of me on the phone with my agent during the exact moment I got the news.)
Let me just say that there is no better place on Earth to be when you get good news than Mardi Gras. There was an actual parade going on outside of my hotel room. I hung up the phone and spent the rest of the day dancing in the French Quarter with hundreds of costumed strangers and drinking hurricanes at Pat O’Briens. It was amazing.
(Editorial note: for all the details click here!)
Chica Lit: Now that you’re writing full time, what challenges do you face? (I ask this because when I started writing full time, I wasn’t as disciplined with my time and then I had a baby!)
Diana: That’s an interesting question, because truthfully the biggest challenge I’ve faced is from friends and family thinking “working from home” means I don’t have a real job. Seriously. I wrote three books in one year, and I still have people who ask, “What do you do to fill your time now?” They think I sit around watching soap operas.
The reality is I’m a workaholic. I work much harder now than I ever did when I had an office job. Those jobs ended at 5 o’clock, whereas my writing process can go until midnight. It’s a rare day I turn off my laptop off before 11 pm. Whether I’m writing, editing, promoting, blogging, setting up events, updating MySpace, etc., there’s a lot of work that goes along with this profession. But the beauty of it is, when you love what you’re doing, it doesn’t feel like work. Plus, it’s nice to wake up and be in charge of deciding what I’m going to do that day.
(Editorial note: Amen to that!)
Chica Lit: Do you enjoy being a writer?
Diana: I love it. I write a lot on my website about how I didn’t always know I wanted to be an author. And that’s true. But the entire time I was working as a journalist, I had a nagging feeling inside me that there was “something else” I should be doing; I just hadn’t figured it out. When I sat down to write my first novel, it flowed naturally, it didn’t feel like work, and I knew I had finally found “it.” Everything clicked.
Chica Lit: What’s next and what are you working on now?
Diana: The sequels to the series, Amigas and School Scandals and Adios to all the Drama, will be released in November 2008 and January 2009, respectively. I think readers are going to be really happy with how the story plays out—at least I hope so!
Also, I’m currently working new YA project. It’s a complete departure from what I’ve done in the past—lots of spies, suspense, fight scenes and, of course, a love triangle. I’m really excited about it. Plus I get to travel because I’m setting some scenes in Europe. The character is a lot of fun—all about girl power. I hope to have it ready for the publishing world soon!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kwCsXujb3I&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1]
Thank You Phoenix
Here I am with Kathy Cano Murrillo (the fabulous Crafty Chica) at the booksigning event last Friday at the National Hispanic Women’s Conference. We shared, we laughed and I made sexual references in my speech about the power of a writer … you had to be there.
Thank you to the organizers of the event for not just having us, but also for gathering 2,500 Latinas under one roof to inspire one another. Also, I send a very heartfelt thank you to our bookseller who sold our books with enthusiasm.
Portrait of an Author Who Should Be Writing
To those of you diligently return to this blog even though I haven’t updated it in like a week or so, thank you. I don’t know why you put up with me. I must be funny or sexy. Or, maybe you enjoy laughing at me versus with me.
Anyway, the Little Dude murdered my laptop last week when he picked up it (the kid’s strong, I tell ya) and then threw it down on the floor. I had to do the mental equivalent of stop-drop-and-roll to keep from drowning him. The wireless card was busted and the bus drive that housed it was knocked off the motherboard and y’all know what that means. Best Buy happened to be having an awesome sale and yesterday, I picked up a brand new HP laptop with a case and wireless mouse for $700. (See, there’s a silver lining to our world’s financial crisis.) Never mind that I really could’ve used that $700 to buy things like oh … groceries, gas and the Little Dude’s pull-ups; I got a great new laptop!
Even though I haven’t been blogging, I have been writing. For the first time I’m drafting the synopsis of a new book before I write it. Usually I dash off an outline and plunge in and then rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. But since this story takes place in 1926, I kinda need to know the lay of the land. This new character is really pushing me to get started and her circumstances have infected me to the point where I have to sometimes stop myself and remember that I’m me and she is make believe. I tend to have this problem with all of my characters but this one is “special.” Next week I’ll be starting on page one and won’t stop till I get her out of my head, or to the end … whichever happens first.
By the way, did I mention that I’ve lost 17 pounds since I started working out in April? I have biceps and best of all, the muffin top has vanished! Unlike someone we won’t name, it took me three years to get back to my size six jeans. I have this woman to thank:
If you’re looking for a safe way to lose some extra lbs and upgrade your well-being, this works, mija. The best part is watching your body get strong and your clothes get bigger. At first the weight just dropped off (I lost eight pounds the first two weeks of using the video), but then I noticed the weight loss slowed down while my extra waistlines disappeared. Also, I don’t have shoulder and lower back pain like I did before I worked out.
So that’s all for now. Tomorrow I fly out to Phoenix for the National Hispanic Women’s Conference. I’ll be doing a panel thing with Alisa Valdes Rodriguez, Kathy Cano Murillo and Ann Marie Gonzalez at 2 p.m. and then a booksigning afterwards. If you’re going to the conference, or you work by the Phoenix Convention Center and want to step out for a coffee, come on over and say hey!
Cheers,
Mary
Portrait of an Author Who Should Be Writing
To those of you diligently return to this blog even though I haven’t updated it in like a week or so, thank you. I don’t know why you put up with me. I must be funny or sexy. Or, maybe you enjoy laughing at me versus with me.
Anyway, the Little Dude murdered my laptop last week when he picked up it (the kid’s strong, I tell ya) and then threw it down on the floor. I had to do the mental equivalent of stop-drop-and-roll to keep from drowning him. The wireless card was busted and the bus drive that housed it was knocked off the motherboard and y’all know what that means. Best Buy happened to be having an awesome sale and yesterday, I picked up a brand new HP laptop with a case and wireless mouse for $700. (See, there’s a silver lining to our world’s financial crisis.) Never mind that I really could’ve used that $700 to buy things like oh … groceries, gas and the Little Dude’s pull-ups; I got a great new laptop!
Even though I haven’t been blogging, I have been writing. For the first time I’m drafting the synopsis of a new book before I write it. Usually I dash off an outline and plunge in and then rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. But since this story takes place in 1926, I kinda need to know the lay of the land. This new character is really pushing me to get started and her circumstances have infected me to the point where I have to sometimes stop myself and remember that I’m me and she is make believe. I tend to have this problem with all of my characters but this one is “special.” Next week I’ll be starting on page one and won’t stop till I get her out of my head, or to the end … whichever happens first.
By the way, did I mention that I’ve lost 17 pounds since I started working out in April? I have biceps and best of all, the muffin top has vanished! Unlike someone we won’t name, it took me three years to get back to my size six jeans. I have this woman to thank:
If you’re looking for a safe way to lose some extra lbs and upgrade your well-being, this works, mija. The best part is watching your body get strong and your clothes get bigger. At first the weight just dropped off (I lost eight pounds the first two weeks of using the video), but then I noticed the weight loss slowed down while my extra waistlines disappeared. Also, I don’t have shoulder and lower back pain like I did before I worked out.
So that’s all for now. Tomorrow I fly out to Phoenix for the National Hispanic Women’s Conference. I’ll be doing a panel thing with Alisa Valdes Rodriguez, Kathy Cano Murillo and Ann Marie Gonzalez at 2 p.m. and then a booksigning afterwards. If you’re going to the conference, or you work by the Phoenix Convention Center and want to step out for a coffee, come on over and say hey!
Cheers,
Mary
Random Thoughts on Gardening and Writing
Last week the Little Dude and I did some serious gardening. We tore out a bunch of overgrown, rosemary bushes that revealed something resembling lavendar that had been smothered to death. We encountered peril in the form of black widows the size of quarters, pincher bugs and nosey neighbors. We weeded, tilled the soil, planted irises, daffodils and calla lillies and when that wasn’t enough, we mulched it all.
You’d think I’d have a rockin’ garden after all that toil but not so much. You can see the mounds where the iris rhizomes promise to break through the soil in triumph. But that won’t happen till the spring. Ditto on the daffodils. The callas are a little limp from the shock of relocating under the pine tree and I won’t see a flower until March if we have a warm winter.
The Little Dude was happy having flung dirt every which way. I was scratched, sweaty and sore but hopeful … kind of like how I feel looking at the outline of my next book. Like the garden, there’s not much to look at. I once showed the outline of Switchcraft to my agent and she immediately called me expressing much concern that there wasn’t a book in it. I explained it was an outline, you know, like the charcoal sketches that Michelangelo did detailing hands, feet and I think a nose or two of the characters he’d eventually painted onto the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. My explanation was met with tense silence. It was a tough road but as you know, it all turned out okay for both Michelangelo and to a lesser extent, Switchcraft.
Anyway, I got to thinking that us gardeners and writers have to have a lot of patience and a lot of hope to pull it off. We have to look at the bald spots and churned up soil and imagine the the gray-green spires of the irises and their ruffled flowers. We have to hope that the vulnerable seeds will work their magic in the dark soil. Even when their brave, tender bodies break ground, we fear some careless shoe will crush it. Of course, there’s work to be done in the watering, feeding and weeding; a garden, nor a book is possible without work … sometimes very tedious and repetitive work.
So keep that thought in mind when you hit page 200 and wonder if maybe you oughta go back and rethink this idea. Or, when you get revision notes from your agent/editor/critique partner on the eighth draft of your book. In other words, when you’re this close to giving up, remember that gardens and books are only as good as those who tend to them. Wimps need not apply.
Okay, I admit that I wrote that more for my benefit than yours but if it works for you, cool. If not, sorry. I’m sure my buddy Margo Candela is blogging about something much more interesting than I am.
But if you have little people running loose in your house, may I recommend the following? The Little Dude gives it two thumbs up.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLw3ExL18r8&hl=en&fs=1]
Between the Pages With Margo Candela
Margo Candela was standing on a street corner in downtown Phoenix when I picked her up. We had lunch. We had a few laughs. We then did our thing at the Celebrating Chica Lit panel at the National Hispanic Women’s Conference. I distinctly remember when someone asked us how we balanced writing with our family lives. Margo is not one to mince words. She took that mic and said, “You make the time. If it’s really that important, you just do it.”
With her third book, More Than This now in stores (it is a Target Breakout book!) and a fourth on the way, Margo has the goods to back up her convictions.
Chica Lit: What was the biggest challenge in writing More Than This?
Margo: In More Than This I got explore the ‘what if’ period before anything actually happens. I also wrote it from two separate and alternating male and female perspectives. Usually I write about what happens after the relationship implodes from a single perspective. I was forced to step out of my comfort bubble, plus it’s a love story. But I figured if I was going to do it, I was going to go all out.Chica Lit: Do you feel that you accomplished what you set out to write?
Margo: My intention was always to write a love story between two people who don’t meet. Some people want a nice tidy ending but for me it was more interesting to see Evelyn and Alexander, the main characters, as individuals, not as a couple. I wrote the book I said I was going to write and it was published. I think that’s pretty wonderful.
Chica Lit: When do you know you’re done with the book? Do you miss your characters?
Margo: When I start a book I always know what’s going to happen at the beginning, in middle and at end. The work comes with filling in the gaps in-between. Sometimes situations or locations change, characters evolve but my basic points usually remain the same. I really haven’t had a chance to miss any of my characters. I’ve gone from book to book, by the time one is out, I’m in the middle of the next one. My hope is to take a bit of a break this fall and enjoy what I’ve accomplished. Maybe I’ll even read my own books, because I haven’t since I turned in the final profs. Is that bad?
Chica Lit: Does writing get any easier with each book?
Margo: Yes and no. I just turned in my fourth and I became an spaced-out incoherent zombie for a while. I work well with outlines, they keep me on track, and I find them reassuring since they tell me where I should be and where I’ll be going. For the book I just finished (How Can I Tell You?, Touchstone, Summer ’09), I didn’t have one and it made life not so fun for a few months. I’ll be outlining the hell out of my next project. Lesson learned.
Chica Lit: More Than This has been out for almost a month. What has surprised you about the readers’ reactions?
Margo: Readers have been very supportive. It made me realize I should have written a love type story a lot sooner. When my editor, Sulay Hernandez at Touchstone, told me Target had picked it up as a Breakout Book because the buyer loved the story, I knew I’d done something right.
Chica Lit: Do you enjoy being a writer?
Margo: Some days I do, some days I do a lot of laundry and sighing. That being said, this is by far the best job I’ve ever had. I’d like to branch out in my writing but this is what I’d like to do for the rest of my life.
Chica Lit: When did you know you were a writer?
Margo: I was applying for my first passport years ago and when I came to the line that asked for my occupation, I put down writer. Just like that. No second guessing myself or trying to justify it. It was a great feeling once I realized what I’d made that mental leap.
Chica Lit: I heard that you just turned in your fourth book. What is it about or what
can you tell us at this point in the process?
Margo: After More Than This, I wanted to focus on a single first person perspective again. How Can I Tell You? tells the story of how Raquel Ortiz makes a royal mess out of her life and then tries to pretend nothing has changed. She goes as far as to fake going to work so her family doesn’t find out she’s been forced to leave her dream job. A line from cover copy of my next book reads that I’m “a writer who thrives on creating morally ambiguous situations in her novels” and I’d have to say that’s pretty accurate. She’s not going to do the right thing and things may not work out for her, but it’ll be a fun ride.
Margo and I will be appearing together along with our fellow authors Jamie Martinez Wood and Sandra Lopez next month. Check out the details at my Events page and get your signed copy of More Than This.
Behind The Scenes With Ruth Livier
(From left: Ruth Livier, Alejandro de Hoyos and Marlene Forte)I’m not sure how I found Ylse. I was poking around MySpace and there it was and when I watched the first episode, I was hooked. It’s a comedy with bite. Ylse unabashedly pokes fun at the hypocrises of Latinos and especially women in the entertainment industry. Incredibly, Ruth Livier, creator/producer/star agreed to make an appearance here on Chica Lit.
According to her bio, Ruth is best known as a series regular on Showtime’s groundbreaking drama Resurrection Blvd for which she won the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, the Viva Los Niños award from the March of Dimes, the Breakthrough in Entertainment Industry recognition from Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante and the NAMIC Legacy Award. Among her guest-starring and recurring television credits are: Mission Road, Haunted, NYPD Blue, According to Jim, Becker, King of the Hill, The Pretender, Beverly Hills 90210, Soldier of Fortune, Profiles and Reyes y Rey.
Chica Lit: What was the inspiration for Ylse and please share your journey in bringing it to the web?
Ruth: Ylse is the result of the intertwining of many things. First, as an actress, I just had to start laughing at the number of times I went out for the role of the “stereotypical Latina” and 99% of the time the character’s name was “Maria.” A beautiful name but, you know, that as a writer the names we baptize our characters with are important because their names are a reflection of their personalities. So, that’s what was amusing…this idea that we’re all the same…we are all Marias.
I live in the world of “show-business” so I wanted to write something I knew…and I decided on the talk-show setting because I thought it would lend itself beautifully to inviting guest-stars from both the Spanish & English speaking worlds. You know; bands, authors, actors, politicians…I thought it would be a flexible setting.
Also, I wanted to write something that reflected my reality, from my, as you call it wicked (LOL!) point of view which to me was not a matter of Language; it was a matter of culture. This is what I strive for; writing from the gut. People are smart. One smells honesty 10 kilometers away!! English, Spanish, Spanglish….who cares? Just focus on being real….speaking your truth…that’s what I tell myself anyway.
Which brings me to the second part of your question/and your next question….the journey and decision to bring it to the web.
Well, I’d never been produced as a writer. This is my first finished piece; ever. So, I thought, the chances of being taken seriously…as “an actress who thinks she can write”…LOL…AND on top of that convince anyone…that there is this HUGE sleeping giant of a bilingual/bicultural audience…that I am a member of…! Well, I thought it would be smarter to put all of that energy into actually producing YLSE. Then, I would have something to show. And the response we have been getting so far…OMG has been amazing!
Chica Lit: How did you decide to make it a web series?
Ruth: These new technologies…the access we have to “world-wide” distribution via the web…How could I not make it into a web-series!! And my producing partner and YLSE director, Joe Camareno, is heaven sent. This man is smart, talented, easy to work with, we get each other’s sense of humor…and he had produced a web-series with other friends (Pasiones Obsesionantes…I participate as an actress in that show)…so he had the web experience and the creative vision that just worked perfectly for YLSE. He came on board and we invited our talented, brave friends to work with us and we all just got it done.
Chica Lit: Girl, you have one wicked sense of humor. Are you always this witty or more serious in your “real life”?
Ruth: LOL! Thank you for the great compliment!! I think I’m much more serious in real life…I used to be shy…LOL “used to be.” I was happy being left alone with a good book (still am) but, I quickly learned that if I was going to find work as an actress I had to get over it…fast.
Chica Lit: So did you get started as an actor and did it prepare you for writing and producing your own series?
Ruth: Yes, absolutely. I started working in theater in my native Guadalajara when I was ‘en la secundaria’ there. Scripts and books and stories have always been a huge, huge part of my life. I love a good story…I find myself reading a good book slower and slower as the chapters go by…because I don’t want it to end! But, yes….being around scripts and writers and artists most of my life…I hope that helps make me more objective when it comes to my work as a writer. One recognizes good writing immediately…(I’m hooked from page one of Switchcraft BTW…and it is sexy & hot…can’t wait to get to know these women!!!)
[Editorial note: oh stop, you’re making me blush!]
Chica Lit: Ahem. So which was your first passion: writing or acting?
Ruth: Uuuh, good question I want to say acting…because that’s how I started…that’s how I set foot into the arts…and I love it…but, I’ve also always wanted to be a writer….it just took me longer to write something I was finally brave enough to share.
Chica Lit: How long will YLSE run and when will we get a new episode?
Ruth: There is something new up every Friday Ylse.net , YouTube or iTunes. One week it’s a webisode, the next week a ‘behind the scenes’ interview then the following Friday another webisode…and so on. We shot a total of six webisodes (in 2 ½ days…we had to with our budget.LOL)….but, we are gearing up for another twelve webisodes for season two!!!! This time with a writing team which includes, I’m thrilled to say, Herbert Siguenza from Culture Clash!
Watch Ylse episode 1:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt1FdHRslww&hl=en&fs=1]