Ask the Author: Mona Rodriguez
Answered Questions (5)
Mona Rodriguez
Definitely the 1920s. It was a decade of empowerment for women and the beginning of Modern America. Music, dancing, and clothing was transformed. Prohibition was alive and well and the mafia was a real presence. It was a time for celebration and the entire country joined the party. I would dance the nights away.
“Americans were embracing the opportunities and reaping the benefits from the country’s postwar economic growth, and it was a cause for celebration. The decade was being hailed as the Roaring Twenties, and the mentality of the youth was changing with the times. The rising workforce was the children of immigrants who had been raised in America and who were much more comfortable within its borders than their parents. More and more of them owned automobiles, and the mobility opened their worlds—making the possibilities endless. They had extra cash in their pockets, and they were feeling their oats, they even dressed as if they were living the dream. They had grown up in the land of the free, and to them, it meant free spirited.” (Forty Years In A Day, page 217)
“Americans were embracing the opportunities and reaping the benefits from the country’s postwar economic growth, and it was a cause for celebration. The decade was being hailed as the Roaring Twenties, and the mentality of the youth was changing with the times. The rising workforce was the children of immigrants who had been raised in America and who were much more comfortable within its borders than their parents. More and more of them owned automobiles, and the mobility opened their worlds—making the possibilities endless. They had extra cash in their pockets, and they were feeling their oats, they even dressed as if they were living the dream. They had grown up in the land of the free, and to them, it meant free spirited.” (Forty Years In A Day, page 217)
Mona Rodriguez
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Mona Rodriguez
Looking back I think Forty Years In A Day was a catharsis for me. A way to remember my family, especially my parents. I’ve had this particular story churning in my head for many years, sparked by the stories of my family’s past. FORTY YEARS IN A DAY begins in 1900 and follows the incredible journey of a young mother and her four children as they escape from Italy into the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, New York. That woman was my grandmother. The story ends with a woman who knows the father of her children is living a double life with another, but she loves him so much that she overlooks the arrangement rather than forfeit the man. Those were my parents. In between are the stories that I had heard from family members who had lived through an era that we can only read about, intertwined with twists of fiction and sensationalism to have some fun.
We don’t realize what our ancestors went through to make life better for themselves and for us. What they faced was incredible—the living conditions, poverty, disease—and their work ethic was admirable. Although I had started with the intention of writing a story about my father’s family, it turned into a novel. There was so much more I wanted people to know about this fascinating era.
We don’t realize what our ancestors went through to make life better for themselves and for us. What they faced was incredible—the living conditions, poverty, disease—and their work ethic was admirable. Although I had started with the intention of writing a story about my father’s family, it turned into a novel. There was so much more I wanted people to know about this fascinating era.
Mona Rodriguez
There are six cousins at the end of our story, Forty Years In A Day. The idea is to take that next generation into the next forty years.
Mona Rodriguez
Read the books and works of authors you enjoy and respect, study and practice the craft, and try to develop a personal style and formula for success.
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