Category: Author Interviews

Mary’s interviews with authors

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Between the Pages with Gloria DeLa Torre-Wycoff


Back when I was in high school, my mom worked with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s niece. When Mrs. Reneau discovered how much I loved her uncle’s books – I carried his collection of short stories in my backpack – she let me read a book she had written about her father, Vice Admiral Clifton Sprague.

What I remember most about her book – other than Mrs. Reneau’s memory of Scotty Fitzgerald and her French nanny coming to the dinner table in evening wear – was the way she referred to her father as “daddy.” It was a little strange because this was a man who was one of the first to open fire on Japanese planes on the morning of December 7, 1941.

(Ironically, the same week Wonder Woman first appeared as a comic strip!)

Anyway, writing about your parents can be tricky business. When I met Gloria DeLa Torre-Wycoff at the California Comadrazo earlier this year and saw the cover of her book, I bought it without hesitation. In Scarred by Scandal, Redeemed by Love, Gloria tells the story of her mother, Maria DeLa Torre, a young woman who grew up in the priveleged household of her uncle and aunt in Mexico City. But her parents who had fled for the U.S. during the Revolution called her back to live with them and Maria entered a different world in the barrio of East Los Angeles circa the 1920’s. At the age of 19, Maria was pregnant by her brother-in-law and then banished from her family.

Even though her love for her mother is apparent, Gloria steps back to show Maria’s strength and weaknesses; her mistakes and her triumphs. It’s an extraordinary book about a single mother who in spite of a life of poverty and humiliation, leaves an enduring legacy of love. Please meet Gloria DeLa Torre-Wycoff.

Chica Lit: When did you start writing this book and why?

Gloria: I actually began writing this memoir in 1997. Although I didn’t consciously realize it at the time, the seed for this book was planted on the day my mother died in October 1993. I had asked my daughters to call family and friends to let them know of her passing, and that we would mail details about the funeral. During the phone calls, one of my daughters came to me upset and frustrated because a family member on my father’s side had reacted sarcastically to the news about my mother and referred to her own mother’s death 60 years earlier. Because of the vulnerable state of our emotions at that moment, my daughter and I agreed to just “let it go” and talk about it another time.

I began writing random notes about my mother which took the form of a poem of sorts about the tender, lonely nurturing of a single mother – lovingly breastfeeding her babes, picturing my mother, alone with her infant. (These writings became the book’s Dedication). I also developed a list of all the places we had lived, beginning in 1927 when Ruben was born, until 1950, when I married. It took quite a while to tie this information together because we had lived in so many places. I wanted this to be as accurate as possible, so I mailed a copy to my brother, Ruben in New York City. He appreciated it, made a few changes and interesting comments. This list served as a guide for me, an outline for writing the book.

In 1997 when my husband and I moved to Orange County, I was planning to retire and decided it was time to write something for my children about my mother – their Nana –and for my grandchildren and great–grandchildren. My intention was to write something to serve as a loving legacy for my family. I would write it, print it out, take it to Kinko’s and have it set in a nice binding. And that was it. But the more I thought about it, and the more I wrote, the more my husband encouraged me to develop it into a book. This is when I realized that it was time to write a book in honor of my mother.

Chica Lit: Would she have approved?

Gloria: I believe she would have approved, or rather, she would have agreed, especially if she could have seen the finished creation. Mama and I had implicit trust in one another. Also, knowing it was written as a loving legacy for her grand-and great-grandchildren, yes, I believe she would have approved. She would have loved the photographs!

Chica Lit: I’m curious … what happened to your father after your marriage? You never mentioned him again after that chapter.

Gloria: The last time I mentioned my father was on page 237 in a discussion with my nephew about my mother being perceived as passive. She was not passive, rather, she was unobtrusive. Back to your question: the last two chapters were devoted primarily to the memory of my mother. Not mentioning Ezequiel was not intentional; he simply no longer played a role in my mother’s life once Ruben and I had married. I stayed in touch with him until he died in 1976. He and his 2nd wife were fond of my children, liked my first husband – no negative vibes…

Chica Lit: How did you mother feel about your father after all was said and done. Did she resent him or did she still love him?

Gloria: She always loved him. I don’t recall being aware of overt resentment from my mother toward my father. Her attitude, her actions told me she accepted her responsibility for her part in their relationship. Although there were times when I did sense her great disappointment, sadness and sorrow where my father was concerned, but she rarely talked about it. She never blamed him for her situation. I’ve conjectured that she may have acted out her resentment when Ezequiel remarried because that was when she began seeing other men.

When he died in 1976, I took her to his funeral in East Los Angeles; she was greeted by some and ignored by others. It’s a vague memory for me. The next day, after I had gone to his burial, I went to see my mother and she had taken out a formal handsome photograph of him and placed it on a shelf in her front room. In later years it “disappeared” otherwise it would have been in my book. To repeat, yes, I believe she still loved him.

Chica Lit: One of the most poignant moments of your book is your mother’s regret over leaving Mexico. How did she not let her regrets get the best of her?

Gloria: Leaving Mexico was a major turning point for her. She was a young 18 and had lived a relatively affluent, albeit lonely lifestyle in Mexico City as a result of living with her aunt and uncle. According to my cousin, when she first came to the U.S., my mother was not happy and hated living in East L.A. Unfortunately, she did not stay in touch with her aunt and uncle ~ probably because of her relationship with Ezequiel.

My mother often reminisced about her early life in Mexico City with some regrets, but she didn’t allow them to consume her or to dwell on them. My mother had an innate ability to adapt to life’s changes even under the harshest of circumstances. One of my reader’s wrote in her Reader’s Review: “…such a profound story of a woman who lived life on life’s terms.” And that’s what she intuitively learned to do at an early age; she learned to accept what life dealt her. She was not without regrets, yet didn’t blame others for her situation. She had moments of depression, sadness, longing – probably for my father to re-enter her life…

Chica Lit: I’ll never forget when you told me that your mother’s story is one of the oldest stories in the book. Why do you think her tale is so prevalent among our mothers and grandmothers’ generations?

Gloria: Two sources have made me aware that my mother’s story was not unique. My first source was the local library when I became curious about the term “illegitimate births.” I could only find census data beginning in 1940, but it was enough to indicate that “births to unmarried mothers” have grown exponentially since then. In 1940 there were 90,000 “Illegitimate Live Births to Unmarried Mothers” and in 2006 there were 1.6 million “Births to Unmarried Mothers.”

The other source has continued to be more personal and anecdotal; it evolves after I do readings and presentations of my book. This is where I hear very moving, touching stories, often from young Latinas/Chicanas who buy my book and tell me tearfully, proudly about their unwed mother’s or grandmother’s who struggled to raise their children; or they tell me about themselves as single, unwed mothers struggling to get through college to make a life for themselves and their children. I’ve also been approached by older women, mostly Mexicanas/Latinas, who have stories about their husbands, grandfathers. In fact, my very special friend/colleague of 20 years, told me (after reading my book) about her father having a relationship with her mother’s (his wife’s) younger sister who had his child. Sound familiar?

Chica Lit: What do you hope the younger generations of Latinas will take away from reading your book?

Gloria: My hope is that they will recognize and take away the experience of the great power of mother love which endures beyond any other love. It is my hope that this book carries a motivational message for Latinas of all ages – unwed mothers in particular – who struggle with family and with bettering their lives. I hope they take away the message of the value of education; the richness of reading; the gift of encouraging young children to read at an early age. As she struggled to learn English, my mother discovered the public library and literally opened the doors to the wonderful world of books for us – her young children. No matter how poor we were, we always had access to library books – and they were free!

My hope for the younger generations of Latinas is that that they recognize that there is no shame in giving birth as an unmarried mother. The shame is when the attitude of others – family in particular – see this chosen birth as shameful act. The shame is also when a child born out of wedlock is treated as “less than” by family members, by the school system, by society.

My greatest hope is that the younger generation of Latinas will ultimately be inspired to make wise choices for herself and for her future.

Chica Lit: To order a copy of this amazing memoir, please visit Gloria’s website.

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Between the Pages with Lorraine López


One day Selina McLemore asked me if I’d like to add points to my karma. Who can say no to that? She sent me a copy of Lorraine Lopez’s book, The Gifted Gabaldón Sisters. I made a grave error of cracking open the book when my husband was away because once I started it was very hard to put it down to play fire fighter with the Little Dude. (When you’ve played fire fighter as much as I have, dude, it’s cruel and unusual.)

Anyway whether I get good karma points or not, I’m really happy to introduce you to Lorraine and her beautifully written story of three sisters who are each gifted with a power by their late housekeeper, Fermina. This story is not what you’d expect and so without giving too much of the story away, please enjoy my Q&A with Lorraine.

Chica Lit: How did you learn of the story of your grandfather?

Lorraine: We always knew that our paternal grandfather was adopted. For as far back as I can remember, my mother talked about this, but she never disclosed the circumstances of his adoption. It wasn’t until I was an adult, with children of my own, that two of my aunts told me who he was and why he was adopted in response to my questions about him. No one discussed this openly with me before this time, but I knew there had to be a story here. By the time I asked about his origins, things had relaxed some with regard to notions of propriety, and people were more open to acknowledging, even taking pride in their indigenous roots. My aunts readily told me that my grandfather, their father, was the biological son of his adopted father’s brother and a Pueblo woman who worked as a servant in the family home, something they would have never dared to admit a decade earlier.

Chica Lit: Did you know that it would inspire a novel?

Lorraine: In the moment, I didn’t necessarily see this information as inspiration for a novel. It took me a few years to think this over and to think about the woman who had given birth to him and to his sister before I could articulate the information in a fictive way. It was the women–his mother and his sister–who moved and inspired me. My grandfather was extremely lucky to have been adopted by this childless couple of some means. Due to an accident of birth–because he was born a male–he lived a life of relative privilege as the son of property-owning Hispanos in Central New Mexico. Unfortunately, his mother and his sister had very different lives.

Chica Lit: Also, what happened to his sister?

Lorraine: I was told that she was sent to an asilo de huerfanos, literally an asylum for orphans, or an orphange, though in those days, these institutions were more like asylums than sunny places where childless couples found children to adopt. Basically, they were warehouses for unwanted infants and children.

Chica Lit: Do you feel that Latinos will always be at odds with our indigenous ancestors?

Lorraine: I believe this is changing for the better. I think it’s a good sign that people who once considered the circumstances of my grandfather’s birth and adoption to be too scandalous to discuss can now speak candidly about such things. That my very conservative family is ready to dismantle the denial and finally honor the complexity of our heritage is a terrific step in the right direction.

Chica Lit: You’re published short stories in literary journals and with small presses. How different was it to work with a large publisher?

Lorraine: Working with a large publisher certainly has its advantages. My book is more accessible than my first two books ever were. Friends and family members are calling and writing to let me know that they’re seeing it in bookstores. Whereas, unless ordered on-line, my earlier two books were and still are challenging to find. Nevertheless, I miss the intimacy and personal connection I had with Sandy Taylor of Curbstone Press. Sandy, who passed away last winter, was a great man. He was resourceful, imaginative, talented, and extremely well respected and well loved in the independent publishing industry. I’m certainly grateful for the benefits of working with a large press, but in my heart, I’m still a Curbstonista, and I miss Sandy terribly.

Chica Lit: Please tell us how you sold your book.

Lorraine: I responded to an on-line call for book proposals sent out by an editor of what was Warner Books. She liked my proposal and asked to see the manuscript, which she also liked, but she urged me to find an agent. With the help of my friend and fellow writer, Tayari Jones, I found an agent at Dystel and Goderich, and the deal was made. Of course, this is the short version that leaves out the two editors, two agents, two publishing houses (Warner was sold to Hachette Book Group USA–Grand Central Press), and the three years it took from the time the manuscript was first accepted until the book came out this month.

Chica Lit: What are you working on now?

Lorraine: Right now, I’m at work on a first-person narrative about a Latina woman named Marina who is on a quest for spiritual enlightenment and inner peace, despite the fact that she has no affinity for enlightenment and no aptitude for peace. Her goal is akin to a tone deaf person’s desire to become a concert musician. I am having a great time writing this voice. It’s bawdy, outspoken, indignant, funny, and sad. I like when a character acts out in startling ways, and I’m discovering that Marina is full of surprises.

Chica Lit: The Gifted Gabaldón Sisters makes a great book club read! For a sampling of questions and an excerpt, go here.

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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]

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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.

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Between the Pages with Jamie Martinez Wood

I’ve had the privelege of watching my friend, Jamie Martinez Wood’s new book, Rogelia’s House of Magic come to be. When we first met, she was in revision hell. But then I got to sneak a peek at the copy-edited manuscript and then was one of the first to see the cover. This summer, readers will go on a journey with Fern, Marina and Xochitl, who discover their powers through Rogelia, a housekeeper and curandera.

Chica Lit: Tell us about the first moment you came up with the idea for Rogelia’s House of Magic.

Jamie: The project came to me and I was so excited that I immediately got into a car accident. Claudia Gabel, an editor at Delacorte Press, decided she wanted to see a book about Latina teens and magic so she began casting around for a suitable writer for the project. Marcela Landres knew that I had written four nonfiction books on magic (two for teens: The Teen Spell Book and The Enchanted Diary) and two books of Hispanic culture (Hispanic Baby Name Book and Latino Writers & Journalists) and recommended me. So I took the bus everywhere – like a teenager seeking independence (the car was in the shop for a month), and by putting myself in their shoes, I was able to create their individual stories. The girls of course needed a mentor, who became Rogelia, named after the nanny who took care of my baby sister when I was a teen.

Chica Lit: You’ve written several nonfiction titles but how different was it to write a novel?

Jamie: In a non-fiction book, the writing is linear and straight-forward. In a fiction book, writing moves in circles that weave back and forth. I love writing dialog (I can finally put those voices in my head to work!) Non-fiction is telling people exactly what you want them to know. Fiction or storytelling requires symbols and relationships to convey your message. I love creating a world that runs like a movie through your imagination.

Chica Lit: How much of yourself is in these three young women?

Jamie: I am these three girls rolled into one. I am an impetuous Wild Child like Fern, more often barefooted hugging some tree, and like Marina I tend to worry, had a trying relationship with my mother, and we share family history. In my quiet moments, I tend to mimic Xochitl’s autonomy, determination and solemnity about what’s important to me.

Chica Lit: You have a really interesting family history and deep roots in California. Would you share?

Jamie: My family history dates back to the Spanish soldiers and Mexican civilians that came with Father Junipero Serra in 1770s. Jose Antonio Yorba and Juan Pablo Peralta (mentioned in Rogelia’s House of Magic) were granted the first land grant, 72,000 acres, from the King of Spain in what is now Orange County. I also have reason to believe (by virtue of some pictures) that I have Native California heritage as well, perhaps Tongva or Ajachemen (aka, Gabrieleño or Juaneño). I became aware of this heritage when I was nine and it seems to me that is when I began feeling the spirit of my ancestors all around me.

Chica Lit: When did you tap into your spirituality? Do you hope that the book will encourage readers to find their spiritual calling?

Jamie: I was one of those kids tapped into their spirituality from a young age, probably seven or so. I was raised Christian Scientist, a mystical Christianity, (not the Tom Cruise one – but the one where people would say “oh, you’re the ones who don’t believe in doctors”). This upbringing taught me that Sacred Source is male/female, loves me dearly, and that all things and ideas – metaphysical, physical, or emotional are available to me whenever I ask for them with “faith as a grain of mustard seed… nothing shall be impossible.” Combine this belief with a tarot-reading nana, a Catholic mama who loves ritual and symbology, a nana whom I only knew from the spirit world (my mom’s mom died a month before I was born, but stayed around to be my guardian angel) and a bent toward nature, you get earth spirituality with a healthy dose of magic.

My hope for my readers is more that they find their gift or talent and begin sharing that with the world. I personally believe a spiritual calling helps us discover our unique specialness because by believing in a loving, positive source energy greater than ourselves, we begin to believe that something really wonderful lives within us. And when we are connected to this source and everything and everyone, we intrinsically know that sharing joy with others expands the joy within.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4m7izCxVrA&hl=en]

Enter to win a signed copy of Jamie’s upcoming novel, Rogelia’s House of Magic. Go here.

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Between the Pages With Frederick Smith

I remember the first time I saw Frederick Smith. We were in Miami for the Chica Lit Fiesta sponsored by Alisa Valdes Rodriguez and Fred walked into the room with Patrick Sanchez and Erasmo Guerra. In a conference of women, they were the three lone rangers but having read their books, they are some of the most talented writers I’ve ever met.

Two weeks ago, when Fred sent me a copy of his book, The Right Side of the Wrong Bed, I made a terrible mistake. It was the last stretch of NaNoMo and I cracked open the first page and in that moment, I was hooked by the story of Kenny Kane, a successful thirty-something who has been betrayed by the love of his life and has to start all over again. He meets Jeremy, a gorgeous, charismatic twenty-one year old who attracts him like a bee to honey. And that honey traps Kenny into a relationship that threatens his professional life as well as his heart.

By the way, it wasn’t a terrible mistake (it just sounded more dramatic) and I finished NaNoMo at 30,000 words!

Anyway, Fred took the time to talk with me about his new book.

Chica Lit: What inspired the story of Kenny and Jeremy?

Fred: I started writing this novel on the day I got dumped by someone I was dating. He said he was no longer interested in me and had started dating someone I thought was a friend of his, but was actually more than just a friend. My intuition had told me one thing about their “friendship” while we were dating, I’d chosen to not to follow it, and I wondered how I’d been so stupid. Instead of continuing to put myself down, I decided to channel that energy into writing. And while this story isn’t a play-by-play of our relationship, the real life breakup inspired the creation of Kenny, Jeremy, and all the fun and not-so-fun situations the characters face in the novel.

Chica Lit: The thing I took away from The Right Side of the Wrong Bed was the issue of integrity. Kenny has been a victim of a dishonest partner and he has so many reasons not to trust Jeremy.

Fred: Integrity and intuition are two areas I think are important to relationships. Sometimes, though, we’re blind to or choose to ignore signs that tell us that the person we’re with may not be the right one for us. We do it for a number of reasons. For the character Kenny, he doesn’t want to appear to have failed at yet another relationship. He also fears to some extent that at age 33 he might not have another shot at meeting someone as young, exciting and attractive as Jeremy, even though in his heart he knows they shouldn’t be together… and even though deep inside he knows he can find someone else who’s more compatible. Those same factors might influence us in real life to ignore issues of integrity because we’re acting out of fear rather than out of genuine love of self.

Chica Lit: Looking back on your two books, what is a common theme and why?

Fred: I tend to write characters who are culturally-empowered, meaning they’re not ashamed of their ethnic or class backgrounds, and aren’t looking for validation from majority culture per se. This is important to me, because sometimes young people of color who decide to come out but don’t get affirmed immediately by their families/communities, may search for acceptance from people and communities that don’t necessarily have their interests at heart. They feel they have to choose sexual orientation over ethnicity. But these characters navigate all their labels and communities well and have a strong sense of identity.

Chica Lit: What was your process in writing this book? How long did it take to complete?

Fred: This book came so quickly to me. Partly because I had so much energy from the break up, and also because I absolutely loved all the characters created in the book. They were fun to write, so full of life, and really leaped off the page for me in the creative process. I generally get up around 4:30 or 5 in the morning and write for a couple hours before going to my day job. I finished the first draft of RIGHT SIDE in about three and a half months, and my agent and editor thought it was in pretty good shape, though I did do some extensive revision work. I wish I could go through a break up every year and maybe it would help my writing productivity, lol.

Chica Lit: Which authors and books have inspired you?

Fred: I was inspired when Terry McMillan and E. Lynn Harris came along on the fiction scene. When I discovered their work, while in my late high school and early college years, in the early 1990s, I knew that one day I could write a novel that might one day be published. They opened so many doors in publishing, and I always have credited them for giving me hope that I could realize my dreams in fiction writing. Other authors I admire for their works or their career paths are J. California Cooper, Eric Jerome Dickey, Alisa Valdes Rodriguez, Lorrie Moore, and Tayari Jones.

Chica Lit: What are you reading now? What was the best book you read in 2007?

Fred: Right now I’m reading two books: Them by Nathan McCall and Boston Boys Club by Johnny Diaz. The best books I read in 2007 weren’t written in 2007: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller and Chasing Destiny by Eric Jerome Dickey.

Get to know Fred or order your copy of Frederick Smith’s The Right Side of the Wrong Bed at:

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Between the Pages With Michelle Herrera Mulligan

When I was in college, a friend of mine told me that her mother would say to her and her sisters that when it came to sex, they had to sit like they were holding a dime between their knees. My mom never put it that way, but it was understood that I would die if I came home and told her that I was pregnant before I got married.

Even though us Latinas are portrayed as spicy sex-kittens who render men powerless, most of us walk around with the specters of our disapproving parents looming over our shoulders. When I saw the cover for Juicy Mangos, my first thought was: what would the authors’ mothers think?

So I had to ask the editor and one of the contributors, Michelle Herrera Mulligan about her experience.

Chica Lit: You write in the Editor’s Letter that Johanna Castillo approached you with the idea. How do you know each other?

Michelle: Johanna contacted me because she liked the work I’d done on Border-Line Personalities, a new generation of Latinas dish on sex, sass and cultural shifting. The anthology had a raw, honest sexuality, and I think she liked it and wanted to tap me to edit Juicy (not to mention the fact that she heard I was a slavedriver editor!).

Chica Lit: How did the story of “Juan and Adela” come to you?

Michelle: Juan and Adela came to me as I started reflecting on characters I hadn’t seen before. I started to visualize this woman who fascinated me, a complex, sexy older woman who hadn’t had the opportunity to realize her dreams, someone like my mother. I wondered what would happen if her world got shaken up by a younger man. I experimented with a lot of voices for the narrator that would tell her story and once I had that down the rest just flowed.

Chica Lit: Did you have any fears about writing erotica? How did you overcome those fears?

Michelle: my fears about writing erotica were that one: my work wouldn’t be taken seriously and two: people would judge or speculate about my sex life personally. I definitely had the subconscious Catholic bad girl fear thing…I was so worried about what my family or my boyfriends family would think if they found out. Ultimately it was doing good work that got me over those fears. When you write good sex scenes, it is hard work and it was a great challenge to my writing.

Chica Lit: How did you find the contributors?

Michelle: We found the contributors by seeking out diverse authors we admired. We didn’t look for “erotica writers”; we wanted incredible authors who made sex and sensuality pivotal parts of larger works. We wanted the sex to reveal something deeper about their characters. Once we had a small list of people we wanted to target, it was surprisingly easy to get people to agree–the writers were really excited to write about sex in an unexpected way.

Chica Lit: What were the challenges you faced while editing the stories?

Michelle: The editing challenge was for all of us to find the patience to go through many drafts together–these were erotic novellas and I wanted the stories to be really strong on their own, without the sex. I really loved doing the anthology and the challenge of writing amazing love scenes. I would consider doing another–but when my schedule frees up some day! (I don’t want to give my agent a nervous breakdown!)

****CONTEST ALERT****CONTEST ALERT****

Enter to win a signed copy of Juicy Mangos by emailing me with “Juicy Mangos Contest” in the subject line. I’ll announce the winner on Wednesday, Oct. 10th! Enter now.
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Between the Pages With Mindy Klasky

Last year at around this time, Selina McLemore gave me a copy of Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft by Mindy Klasky. I started reading the book while waiting to board my flight home and finished it just before we flew over the Grand Canyon. I’ve been dying for the sequel, Sorcery and the Single Girl ever since! But as of yesterday, Switchcraft and Sorcery are bookshelf neighbors and to celebrate, Mindy tells us all about her series!

Chica Lit: Wow, book eight … does writing get easier or harder with each new story?

Mindy: It gets easier *and* harder… It’s easier, because I know that I can play this game – I’ve figured out the time management aspects, and I know that no matter how much I hate, hate, hate the middle chapters, I’ll get through them, and it will all work out in the end. It gets harder, too, though. With each book, I meet more great people and I want to spend more time at conventions, and online chatting with people, and building my presence as a writer. (And when I win the lottery, I just might follow through on those desires! 🙂 )

Chica Lit: This is the second book in the series. Did you know what was going to happen to Jane over the course of three books when you sold the idea to Red Dress Ink, or did she refuse to go away after book one?

Mindy: I sold the first book, Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft, on a three-paragraph blurb (not even a synopsis – it didn’t include the ending!) We negotiated a contract that called for a total of three books. As I wrote Girl’s Guide, I discovered the strands that could be pulled into Sorcery. By the time I had completed my outline for Sorcery, I knew the full, complete story arc, which will conclude in 2008 with Magic and the Modern Girl.

Chica Lit: What aspects of your heroine frustrate you the most and what makes you like her?

Mindy: I love the fact that Jane Madison refuses to stay down, even when the world around her is falling apart. She may have her bad days — days that can only be redeemed by fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and/or mojitos — but she never believes that the bad times are going to last forever. That said, Jane can be a bit too wrapped up in some details of life — most notably, fashion. (I’m nowhere near the makeup fiend that Jane becomes under the expert tutelage of her familiar!)

Chica Lit: What’s next?

Mindy: I’ve finished drafting Magic and the Modern Girl – it will go into production over the next year and appear in bookstores in October 2008. My next writing venture starts a new series – The Sisterhood of the Flame. In the first volume, a stage manager discovers a magic lantern when she’s cleaning out the prop closet. Nothing in her theatrical background prepares her for the show that her genie is about to stage!

Chica Lit: How did you get involved with First Book and would you tell us more about it?

Mindy: I discovered First Book when I started looking for a good cause — a charitable organization to which I could donate 10% of my profits from the Witchcraft books. First Book – http://www.firstbook.org/ – is a non-profit that gives underprivileged children their own books to own forever. I remember the joy I took in reading, from a very young age, and I’m thrilled to find an organization that is so well-run and so dedicated to helping children throughout the country.

Visit Mindy’s website or just go for it and get her books today!

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Between the Pages of Switchcraft

It really does feel like yesterday and yet, it seems like a different lifetime ago.

I was just a few weeks pregnant when I was hit with the idea for my new book, Switchcraft. I was on the phone with my friend in New York, turning just an envious shade of green at the tales of her dating adventures. But then I wondered what would happen if we switched lives.

Initially the idea was too crazy. I mean, who would read a book like that? Convinced that my agent and editor would laugh at me, I went back to working on the sisterly drama story I was writing at the time. (Which then became a comedy: “Till Death Do Us Part” in Names I Call My Sister.)

Anyway…where was I? Oh yes. The characters of that nutty switcheroo idea—one a single entrepreneur and the other a suburban mom—wouldn’t shut up. Frankly, they ganged up on me when I was slaving away at my sisterly drama, washing the dishes or sleeping. Worn down and frankly, intrigued by these women I sat down and wrote their story. When I proposed it to my agent; we had a deal the next week.

But conceiving the idea was easy compared with writing it.

I wrote the first draft during the second half of my pregnancy, and then revised it after my son was born. At the time it seemed like a great idea: I’d write while he slept. Bwah ha ha ha! (So young, so naive…)

It turned out that the Little Dude was easier to deliver than the book! If it wasn’t for the two wise grandmas, Baby Einstein videos, and nights out with my girlfriends (after all, there’s nothing more grounding than a martini and sympathy), I couldn’t have finished Switchcraft.

No one ever admits to a favorite book or that their book is even good. I have no such pretentions in proclaiming that Switchcraft is my favorite because it was inspired by real emotions: envy, anger, frustration, loss, and, most of all, love…love between friends, a man and a woman, and a mother and her child. And in Switchcraft, love truly does conquer all. I cried when I wrote the final chapter because those two characters went through alot to get their happy ending. (And no, it wasn’t because I wrote it at 4 a.m., hopped up on Pepsi and chocolate during a 24-hour writing spree!)

Now that Nely and Aggie are out of my head and are on the pages, I hope you’ll enjoy reading their adventure as much as I loved writing it.

Order the e-book!

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Between the Pages With M.J. Rose

Chica Lit: Describe your writing process with this particular book. What were its challenges?

M.J.: Three months before I start any new novel, I start my main character’s scrapbook. The very process of collecting his or her past –preferred poems, swatches of favorite colors, letters, postcards, memorabilia allows me time to find him or her.

I collect everything — the ticket stubs for a performance of the Metropolitan Opera that she went to, a postcard from his mother’s first trip to Europe, a piece of the red and white string on the pastry box from her grandmother’s apartment: it’s all in the scrapbook.

Only when I’ve found all the knickknacks of that imagined life and I’ve done a fair amount of procrastinating do I sit down to write. By then, I’ve unconsciously worked out a lot of the plot of the themes of the book.

This time in addition to that I read about 60 books – reasearching both reincarnation and ancient Rome.

The challenge was keeping all that info organized so I could get to it when I needed it.

Chica Lit: How do you know when the characters are present and the story is coming alive?

M.J.: It takes a long time, usually the thrird draft of the novel, and what happens is I start to see the people in my head operating of their own accord without me pushing them around the page.

Chica Lit: When you’re not writing, what other interests do you pursue?

M.J.: I love to paint. I don’t get to do it often enough but I pick up a paintbrush as often as I can. No one sees what I do; I’m just not good. But this I do for me and it recharges me like nothing else. I think because compared to writing its physical versus intellectual and cerebral versus philosophical. Paintings, like music move you without logic. Writing and reading for that matter requires thinking, logic. I love the movement of painting. I can stare at colors for hours, mix blues and greens into each other for no other reason than seeing them bleed together like the ocean. I love the smell of paint, the sting of the turpentine in your nose, the overwhelming scent of the linseed oil, the feel of brushes, buying new brushes and running one down your cheek and feeling that smooth silky touch of the sable. I love touching thick rich watercolor paper with its tiny indentations where the color pools. And I lust after the idea that when you paint you can create something in an hour or an afternoon and look at all of it at once. See the whole. Take in all of it all at the same time.

Chica Lit: Do you feel that you chose to be a writer or that it chose you?

M.J.: A little of both I think. I wanted to be a writer for along time but never wrote. Then at a certain point I didn’t really want to be a writer anymore and tried to move on.

That’s when I really became compelled to write. How perverse, right?

Chica Lit: What are you working on now?

M.J.: The Reincarnationist is the first in a series of at least three books. I’m doing this series a little differently. There won’t be continuing characters but rather a continuing group of objects.

The first book, The Reincarnationist, is about the modern day discovery of and adventure around an ancient memory tool that helps people access their past lives. I’ve suggested in this book that there were 12 such memory tools created in ancient India over 5,000 years ago. In each book in the series, a different one of those memory tools will surface and the story will flow from there. I’m working on book two now.

****CONTEST ALERT****CONTEST ALERT****

Win a copy of M.J.’s new book by emailing me with “MJ Rose Contest” in the subject line. I’ll draw the name of the lucky winner on Sunday, Sept. 23, 2007. Enter now!

And check out my guest blog, “The Five Qualities of a Writer” at The Writing Playground!