Seriously fun audio and books
Pregnant Pause by Barbara Aliaga from Art.com
Is over but our stories are still up! Thank you to Nuvia Crisol Guerra for allowing us to use her stunning artwork for our logo. If you want to see all of her work, visit http://www.artecrisol.com/.
Mary Castillo, author of “Switchcraft”
Caridad Ferrer, author of “It’s Not About the Accent” (http://fashionista_35.livejournal.com/)
Lara Rios, author of “Becoming Americana” (http://www.lararios.blogspot.com/)
Mayra Calvani, The Dark Phantom Review (http://www.thedarkphantom.wordpress.com/)
Caridad Piniero, author of “The Calling” Vampire series (www.caridad.com/blog)
Jamie Martinez Wood, author of “Rogelia’s House of Magic” (http://jamiemartinezwood.blogspot.com/)
Berta Platas, author of “Cinderella Lopez” (http://bertaplatas.blogspot.com/)
Tracy Montoya, “I’ll Be Watching You” (http://www.tracymontoya.blogspot.com/)
Kathy Cano Murillo, aka “The Crafty Chica” (http://thecraftychica.blogspot.com/)
Misa Ramirez, author of “Living the Vida Lola” (http://chasingheroes.com/)
“Now don’t get out until I come around with the umbrella,” Dori ordered.
“Who are you to tell me what to do?” Grammy demanded.
“It’s wet outside.”
“So? I ain’t no wicked witch. I ain’t gonna melt.”
Thanks so much for checking out the sneak peek of my upcoming novel, The Guy Upstairs. I’m moving the updated version of this excerpt to the Free Reads section of my soon-to-be relaunched website. If you’d like to be notified when it’s up and ready for you to enjoy, please email me at: mary@marycastillo.com with the subject line “I want my free read.”
Or, meet Dori and her grammy in the anthology collection, Names I Call My Sister available in print or your favorite eBook!
Thanks,
Mary
Sacha Boutros, the voice behind Sela Orihuela in Names I Call My Sister, is releasing her very first CD! If you’re in San Diego, think about attending her mega release party on Wednesday, May 28th at Anthology Supper Club in Little Italy. The show will begin at 7.30 pm. There will be two sets of 45 minutes. Tickets are $10 for bar & upper level seating; $20 for first-floor dining; and $30 for first-floor booths.
Support a new voice in jazz and have the opportunity to tell your kids that you saw Sacha Boutros when she was first starting out!
To purchase tickets go to http://www.sacha-boutros.com/!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg0713xzrwk]
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.
Enter to win a signed copy of Jamie’s upcoming novel, Rogelia’s House of Magic. Go here.
More Ammunition, Ad for Western Pulp from Art.com
If you want to learn how to create tension throughout an entire story, then I suggest you watch this movie. It’s based on an Elmore Leonard short and he is the master of “anything goes.” Mr. Leonard has no sentimental attachments to his characters and as such, when you start one of his books you get the sneaking suspension that someone important might not make it to the end. His characters – heroes and heavies, equally – are capable of anything. Anyone could buy it at any moment and when they do, it’s just like death in real life – unrelenting and final.
One of my favorite death scenes in literature is at the end of Out of Sight – the book, not the movie – when a lovable secondary character dies. My second is when Jay Gatsby is shot in his pool. And when I say favorite, I don’t mean that I have a thing for death scenes. I mean that they’re so effective, they make you gasp and then at random moments, long after you’ve finished the book, you can still remember how you flinched and then reread the scene to make sure the author really killed that guy off.
The key to this idea of “anything goes” – for me – is to think of my readers as the other character riding along with the story. I’m usually into the third or fourth draft when I invite them in because at that point I know my characters and what they’re capable of doing. So when I let the reader in, I think of that person sitting there with the book in her hands and then ask myself, “how do I get a reaction out of her?” What does she expect and what can I do to turn that expectation around on her?
Donald Maas has a chapter in his book, Writing the Breakout Novel in which you take your character and then think of a bad thing that you could inflict on them. And then something slightly worse. And then something even worse than that until you bring them to the impassable obstacle that would make then turn around and give up the goal.
It is exhausting, frustrating work. When I did it with Switchcraft, the process nearly made me give up. But when I think of what I did to my girls, Aggie and Nely and the emails I got from readers reacting to those final scenes, it was worth it.
“Woman Writing a Letter” by Pierre Duval-lecamus from Art.com
Lately, I’ve been freelancing for Rise Up and Tu Ciudad magazines. In the space of two weeks, I’ve learned about custom motorcycles and cars, HIV/AIDS, libraries, city government, Hindu weddings and World of Warcraft. Not only does the diversity of subjects take me out in the world (as opposed to staying in the one in my head), the money’s good as I write my 8th book.
Anyway, I realized this morning while the Little Dude and I were watching cartoons that it’s earth day or earth week or something like that. A few years ago, I became a green writer by recycling my ink cartridges, using the “track changes” feature in Word as opposed to printing an entire 400-page manuscript and proofing it. Although I still do that occasionally, I make up for it by recycling the paper by printing on both sides of the page.
But all this green stuff got me thinking about the seemingly waste of words that happens when you write like I do, which means that you go through six, seven and eight drafts of a book until it’s ready to go. But when I was interviewing Jose Aponte, the director of the San Diego County Library, he gave me a great quote: “Power is like manure. The more you spread it around, the more successful you’ll be.”
Words are the same way. Crappy drafts invariably lead me to the good stuff, which is why I write as fast as humanly possible when I start the first draft. As I’m writing, I know it’s crap. The sentences are stilted and the pages are usually lines and lines of dialogue. But I’ve learned to accept it and just keep going because eventually, I’ll get it right by discovering a character’s motivation or stumbling on an action or thought that makes a scene come to life. There are passages of my books that survive from draft one to the final book (the first scene of Hot Tamara was just wordsmithed from the first draft to final copyedit). There are also passages that I lift from my earlier, will-be-destroyed-upon-my-death books that I like to call my organ donors.
But every “wrong” word and dead-end scene or subplot are the manure for a more colorful, resonant story. In short, when you stall out and have to start again, please don’t think you’ve wasted time and energy. You, in the words of Thomas Edison “…have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Oh and I should tell you that this Saturday, Margo Candela, Jamie Martinez and I will be at the California Comadrazo. Check it out.
But if you can’t make it, spend the day before Mother’s Day with us at ChimMaya Gallery on Saturday, May 10th.
Growing up in National City, we always drove by Cafe La Maze but never went inside. Back then it had a dive feel to it, which made it all the more intriguing. But still, I never went inside.
I’ve been researching my hometown for The Guy Upstairs, learning about places that now exist in the pages of crumbling newspapers from the 1920’s and hearing the voices of residents who are now long gone about their lives on the west side of National City. I even found Maria Duran, my great great great grandmother listed in the city directory for 1929. In writing this particular book, it feels as if my past is catching up with me.
You can imagine my delight when my friend, Jen Mahal investigated the history of Cafe Lamaze and wrote about its reopening in today’s San Diego Union Tribune.
Jen, you now get to wear the cool beans crown!
Cheers,
Mary C.
“Ask Newmann, He Knows” from Art.com
This happened to me when I wrote In Between Men … I went through two full drafts and with each draft something died inside me when I hit Act II. But I was persistent back then and thought I could force the story to go exactly the way I wanted it to. Finally, I realized two things: stories must change and evolve (for me, anyway) and Act II is the place where bad ideas go to die.
Last week, the same thing happened with The Guy Upstairs. I finished the first draft, spent a lot of time fleshing out a revision plan and then got to work. I was cruising along through Act I, but with that dragging feeling in my gut that I ignored because I was convinced that I had the story down. But as I neared Act II, the threads unraveled and it became more and more apparent that the story wasn’t working. Sure enough, it died at page 100.
But I’m glad it happened now as opposed at the end of a tepid second draft. With In Between Men, I had to go back into a third draft where I discovered that I wasn’t telling the right story. (Originally, it was about Isa fighting for custody of her son.) The story that needed to be told was about a woman who falls victim to her own recklessness and yet, without that recklessness she would never have changed her life. This discovery made the writing more difficult, not to mention longer.
When The Guy Upstairs ran aground, I realized that I had better do a writer’s version of stop, drop and roll. I stopped writing and went outside to work on my garden (we planted four types of tomatoes, squash and herbs). Within two hours of refusing to think about the book, I realized what The Guy Upstairs is really about. But I wouldn’t take notes for two days because the other thing I’ve learned is that once you start writing it down, the committee upstairs starts hacking away at your babies.
I’ve been writing the new story since Sunday and the idea has been gaining momentum. The committee grumbles when I sit down to write (which it always does), but my gut tingles with excitement and the heroine’s voice becomes much more distinct and alive. I’ve written about twenty pages of new material and I think this is it.
Or, I’m full of it and still have no idea what the hell I’m doing.
I guess I’ll know for certain when I reach page 100.
I’m one of the featured moms! If you’re interested, check it out.
Not much else to blog about. We watched Gone Baby Gone the other night and it was a very unsettling movie. If you’ve seen it, I wouldn’t have called the cops in the end. That’s all I’ll say.
Last night I finished A Foreign Affair by Caro Peacock. She had me so wrapped up in the end that I gave the Little Dude a lollipop so he’d leave me alone till the ending. If you love characters like Maisie Dobbs and Mrs. Jeffries, then you’ll really dig this book.
That’s it for now. I’m on deadline with three articles and the book is whispering in my ears.