This week, TheLatinoAuthor.com is featuring the critically acclaimed novelist Anjanette Delgado. Ms. Delgado began her career as a Journalist, has written for major magazines, and has also written and produced several documentaries. She currently resides in Miami, Florida. Read our interview with Anjanette Delgado and see what compelled her to become a success in her many endeavors as well as an award winning author.
Your career started out as a journalist, then you went on to produce documentaries, you have written for some major magazines, created sitcoms, and then went on to write a novel. Which of these arenas do you prefer or are they equally rewarding for you?
I absolutely prefer novels. I enjoy the length of time and level of intimacy involved in creating a world where my character can resolve something on her quest for happiness.
What are some of the challenges that you found in working and writing in some of these various arenas; career as a journalist, producing documentaries, creating a sitcom, writing for a magazine, or writing a novel?
Each has their challenges, and those challenges have changed and continue to change even within the same area or arena. They will also vary from person to person. So I think that it’s about you being clear as to why you’re giving your time to any particular endeavor. The most important question in the end is: do you love doing it? Then the challenges become fun hurdles and great lessons.
What’s a typical working day for you and how do you juggle these various projects? Do you tackle one or multiple projects at any given time?
Well, because I have such a demanding day job these days, I only engage in one long-form project at a time. Since my kids are grown, in college and out of the house… and my husband gets home later than I do, my week days begin with a regular work shift and a drive back home just like everyone else’s… but instead of cooking dinner or family time, i have a couple of hours every night write. weekends I do at least one full day of it, and sometimes more as I get closer to the completion of a project.
What was the toughest criticism you received on any of your works and what was the best compliment someone has given you?
The best compliment was from a reader who wrote me that she gave my book to her mother in law and that it was the first time in years she’d seen the woman laughing out loud and looking genuinely happy.
The worst was from someone who read an early draft of something I’d written and asked me why I’d made the protagonist so conventional. I was so sad. Conventional feels like code word for boring and my characters have to be anything but that, I feel. So go figure, you call my character a slut and I’m okay with that. But call her conventional and I have issues. 🙂
What advice can you give to anyone wanting to be a journalist or wanting to write for TV?
The main tool of your craft is language. Learn to use it well. Second… the best thing you can learn in school is how to think, create arguments and defend them, feed your appetite for knowing what’s going on in the world. The worst thing in the world is a journalist with no curiosity.
What advice can you give to anyone wanting to break into writing for a major magazine?
Besides everything I just wrote… spend time researching the editors of the magazines you want to pitch, and then write great pitch letters, always including a little something. Not a bribe, but if you’re pitching a story on bikinis, include an inexpensive vintage bikini top inside your Fedex envelope. Some pitches will be fine by email. Others require making an impression. If you do your research, you’ll know which is which.
What advice can you give to anyone writing and publishing a novel?
Read. Then sit your butt on the chair and write. Do the same thing every day of your life. Until you’ve written, forget about just how on earth you’re going to get the thing published. Just read. Then sit your…
Can you tell us about any upcoming projects in the near future?
My next novel is The Clairvoyant of Coffee Park due out next year. You can find more info on it on my website: www.anjanettedelgado.com. The Spanish-language audio version of The Heartbreak Pill (la píldora del mal amor) is out from Recorded Books on Audible. I read it for the recording and it was a fabulous experience.
Also, that book will be out this year in Mexico and Latin America and I couldn’t be more excited to finally reach readers I thought so much about while writing that book.
Finally, I’ve completed a poetry book called “Heartbreak Nation” and am currently considering several publishing options. None of them are grassroots and it’s what I’m hungering for, so I guess that’s why I’m hesitating. As much as I love my editor at Atria Books (Simon & Schsuter) and my agent at Indent Literary Agency, this project just feel like the thing to try my hand at grassroots or community publishing. We’ll see.
Visit me at: www.anjanettedelgado.com!
