Raquel V. Reyes's Blog, page 4

OjO-> Abby Vandiver

 

Abby L Vandiver writes cozy mysteries with a Southern flair. Romaine Wilder, a big city medical examiner, must return to her small East Texas hometown in Secrets, Lies & Crawfish Pies. Book two is Love, Hopes, & Marriage Tropes. Book three will be titled Potions, Tells, & Deadly Spells. With unforgettable titles like that I know you will be keeping your eye on Abby L. Vandiver. Her social media links will be listed a the end of the interview.

Plotting and writing a full-length story is not...

OjO ->Jennifer J. Chow

Jennifer J. Chow writes multicultural cozy mysteries. Robot Revenge is the 2nd Winston Wong book. She has a pet mystery in the works. Definitely keep your eye on J.J. Chow. Her social media links will be listed at the end of the interview.

Plotting and writing a full-length story is not easy. It is time consuming and often leads to late nights or early mornings staring into the mocking glow of a computer screen alone. Why do you write? Is it affliction or solace?
I love writing because creat...

It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day.

It is a new day and a new year to be more specific. I’m feeling like I need to get back to interviews. So, watch this space!

Ojo (eye in Spanish) is an expression with a gesture. Sometimes, you don’t even need to say the word you only need the gesture. Put your pointer finger above your cheekbone and pull down thus opening one’s eye. It means watch out/put your attention to/be warned.

This series of interviews will be with writers you need to keep your eye on. Check back bi-weekly for new i...

Writing is a Spiritual Practice

Occasionally, I talk about the fact that I am a UU. UU is  abbreviated because the full name is hella long.Unitarian Universalist. Spellcheck doesn’t even like it. My path to UU is interesting and a story for another post. Here is probably a good place to put that UU is a LIBERAL religion. I know my readers are going “Like, what does that mean?” It means UU believes you are the captain of your spiritual path and that ALL people are worthy. They have these 7 principles that guide them. You mig...

Deadlines are good.

I love a deadline. I was the kid at school that handed in the report a week early. I’m a little older and my life is a little (a lot) busier now, but still I push to make my deadlines. Deadlines are a motivator.

Another thing about me is that I like to strike while the iron is hot. That is not the same as being impulsive. Nor is it the same as being a poor planner. I’m actually an expert level planner. Maybe the best way to say it is I dive in but I look for rocks in the shallows first. My d...

I bought a new chair

Writers have a lot of sub-conscious things they do to avoid writing. Like needing the perfect new pen or notebook before they can begin writing. Let’s be honest. What writer do you know that writes a whole manuscript long hand? None of us do that. For me, it is having a clean desk. I am always cluttering and decluttering my desk. But lately, my excuse has been that my room is too hot to write in. Which is true. It gets the afternoon sun and hell, it is Miami. But this last week the weather tu...

Confidence & Impostor Syndrome

I don’t know if this is life as a woman or life as a writer or life as a woman writer or life as a bi-cultural person or all of the above, ( psst. It is all of the above.) but some days I am full of confidence and other days I feel like the pejorative hack.

Am I Latina enough?

I don’t have an Masters of Fine Art in Writing therefore I am unqualified.

Your spelling is bad in English & in Spanish. 

Your sentence structure is weird. 

You are too old.

Followed by, you are too late.

That feelin...

12,151 words give or take 2,000

What have I been doing since last month?

I’ve been writing! 12,151 words in three weeks to be exact. Actually, I’ve written way more than that, but the backspace button has eaten at least 2,000 words. My average for 2 hours in the chair should be 1,000 words. BUT —>I’m learning a new genre. Middle Grade Fantasy. Some days are filled with  self-doubt at each and every sentence.

So to kill the doubt, I am going to a children’s literature conference I can’t really afford. It’s not that the confe...

#OwnVoices #WNDB Follow-up & Reading Assignment

This is a follow-up post to my WWYD? musings about switching genres in order to get my #ownvoice heard.

Wow, synchronicity! The book twitterverse has been electric these last two weeks. The issue of diversity (or lack there of) in popular fiction has been everywhere in my feed. After my musings (or was that a vent) about finding #ownvoices like mine in the mystery genre, I had  many good facebook, private message, and blog comments discussions. I was encouraged to write an updated Nancy Drew....

WWYD? Genres, #WNDB, and #OwnVoices

What would you do?

Would you change genres in order to get a bigger audience?

I love my sub-genre (cozy/traditional/amateur-sleuth) and I desperately want to see myself (Caribbean-Latina) reflected in it. Representation matters! BUT it is not happening. We are seeing more PoC represented in the genre and that is GOOD! So, very very good! Alexia Gordon & Kellye Garrett (love her debut novel) are two that come to mind.

But I’m not seeing a lot of Latina mysteries written by Latinas. KWIM! The...