This week, TheLatinoAuthor.com is featuring author Margo Candela. She grew up in northeast Los Angeles and moved to San Francisco to attend college. Currently, she resides in Los Angeles. Read our interview with Margo Candela to see what compelled her to pursue her career as author.
Can you begin by telling us a little bit about yourself; where you grew up, where you currently reside, family upbringing, or anything you would like our readers to know about you?
I grew up in northeast Los Angeles in a family of seven so home was always noisy and crowded. Our parents kept a pretty close eye on us but we were always allowed to go to the library on our own from a fairly young age. We went at least once a week during the school year to check out books and would spend days there reading during the summer because it was air conditioned.
I moved to San Francisco to attend college and stayed for a decade. It’s a wonderful city, but my son was entering kindergarten and the schooling options were limited so we moved back to Los Angeles. Our home is within walking distance to the local library and I sometimes write there when I need a break from my home office.
What inspired you to write your first book, and why did you chose to write “Chick Lit” type books? Do you remember when you first got the “writing bug?”
I always enjoyed reading and when I was in my early teens, I saved up my allowance to buy a typewriter at a secondhand shop. I started writing short, funny stories to amuse my sisters, but mostly myself.
I joined the school paper at Glendale Community College and then transferred to San Francisco State University to major in journalism. It was such a relief to realize that I could turn my love for information and conveying it in an entertaining into a legitimate job. After college I wrote for websites and magazines, but it wasn’t until my son was born that I gave myself permission to turn my attention to writing fiction.
The chick lit genre was booming at the time and I’d read more than my share of it when I decided to write my first novel, Underneath It All. I took a chance on telling the story of a flawed, complicated young woman who has to figure out how to deal with friends and family issues as well as personal and professional dilemmas. That she was a divorced Latina, smart, funny, and just a little bit selfish also gave me the opportunity to explore some topics that I wasn’t reading in mainstream chick lit.
Is there a message in your novels that you want your readers to grab on to or grasp?
I love writing about people who aren’t perfect. I also love writing about the way women identify with their jobs. Since I work from home, and mostly alone, I have an obsession with office politics, which are just as nuanced and treacherous as family conflicts. I explore both in my books which means I’m always willing to listen to a friend who’s having issues with a jerk at her job or the jerk she’s married to. My novels don’t necessarily have happy endings. While she might not end up with Mr. Right or a fantastic new job, there’s always hope.
When you write, how much of your book is realistic and how much of it is fiction? Are they based on your experiences or those around you?
I do get inspired by family, friends and private situations, but I’m very careful when it comes to what I put into my books. This is why I could never write a memoir. I like to keep my real life separate from my writing life even though there is some of my real life in my fiction.
Out of all your books, which was the most challenging to write and why?
I had the most trouble with More Than This simply because it a story about two people who fall in love. I’m not an overly romantic person so I decided to approach their falling in love from a distance – both for them and myself. I decided to have them fall in love, but never meet. It was a real challenge to keep the story going forward, develop the characters and stay true to my initial idea.
Of the books you’ve written, do you have a favorite. If so, please tell us why?
I’m going to have to go with More Than This again. It was my third novel set in San Francisco and I like doing things in threes. Plus, I started it as we were gearing up to move away so I was feeling very nostalgic about the city and how my life had changed because I’d lived there. It’s my love letter to San Francisco and I dedicated the novel to my son.
What do you find is the most difficult or challenging barrier working in the literary world?
Money! It’s very hard to make a living as a writer, much less draw a consistent source of income from writing. I do freelance work and have a side job, and I fit my writing around that. Some days I get to write for most of the day, other times days can go by without my having a chance to work on a manuscript.
It takes a lot of determination and self discipline to go through the entire process of writing a novel. I’m glad my stubborn nature has paid off in that way because when I decide to do something, I get it done no matter what.
Your books have great titles. How do you choose your titles? Is this a collective effort with your publisher or are they totally yours?
One of my favorite parts of the writing process is coming up with the title for a novel. I can’t start writing until I have the right one. I’ve been pretty lucky because titles get changed all the time and that occurs during editorial meetings.
My second book, Life Over Easy, a story about a perfectionist caterer who goes on a frenzied dating quest weeks before her sister’s wedding after she’s dumped by her longtime boyfriend, was originally titled Starting from Scratch. But the publisher thought it sounded “too old.” My editor and I were brainstorming minutes before she went back into the title meeting and I blurted out Life Over Easy and it just clicked with the both of us. Luckily, everyone else loved it, too.
In your opinion, what do you see as the most important elements of good writing for writers?
The ability to learn from criticism and admit when you need help is an important trait for a writer. I always keep in mind that I’m not writing for myself and that my goal is to give the reader the best experience possible. Sometimes that means cutting passages out that don’t resonate with anyone except for me. While I may find something amusing, it might be too crass or even boring for others. This is why it’s important to ask someone you trust will be honest with you to read a manuscript.
Can you tell us a little bit about the marketing and publishing challenges you’ve experienced along the way?
Marketing is as important to the actual novel as the novel itself. Great marketing can turn a mediocre book into a bestseller and a lack of marketing will doom a great book to obscurity. It’s up to the writer not only write a good book, but make sure as many people as possible know about it. That in itself is a fulltime job.
I had to learn how to market not only my work, but myself, too. It’s not easy, but I believe in my writing. I also make sure not to turn all of what I do (blog, Twitter, Facebook) to connect with readers into a pitch to buy my books. Social media is such a huge part of being an author today that you have to make sure to offer something genuine (funny, controversial, provocative, etc.) that readers can connect with.
If you had to choose a person that was influential to your writing career, who would that be?
I come from a solidly working class family so there was no example of someone making a career in a creative field. I was lucky that my mother and community college mass communications professor encouraged me not to dismiss the idea of writing as something worthy of my time and effort. I was ready to be practical and get a “normal” job, but was very lucky to get that nudge at such a crucial time in my life.
Can you tell us about any upcoming books or projects?
I’m currently working on my next novel, but I’m waiting to share what it’s about until I finish the first draft by the end of the year. I still want to write a young adult novel, but shelved my initial idea because it wasn’t developed enough. I also have screenplay adaptations of More Than This and Life Over Easy in various stages of development.
Most importantly, I’ve decided to take the time to focus my efforts on one project/book at a time. In the past I was guilty of working on multiple manuscripts at once, never giving any of them my full attention. It kept me busy, but was also stressful so the quality of my work suffered. It does mean less output, but the goal is that what I do finish is all the better because of it.
Contact: www.MargoCandela.com
