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WNDMG Wednesday -Interview with Kaela Rivera

By on July 12, 2023   /   Articles, WNDMG  
We Need Diverse MG Logo hands holding reading globe with stars and spirals floating around

We Need Diverse MG Logo hands holding reading globe with stars and spirals floating around

Interview with Kaela Rivera

I absolutely fangirled when Kaela Rivera agreed to let me interview her for the MUFMGA.

Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls and Cece Rios and the King of Fears

When you read this introduction to Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls and Cece Rios and the King of Fears, I bet you’ll see why I am such a huge fan.

Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls
When a powerful desert spirit kidnaps her sister, Cece Rios must learn
forbidden magic to get her back, in this own voices middle grade fantasy perfect for fans of The Storm Runner and Aru Shah and the End of Time.

Cece Rios and the King of Fears

In its thrilling sequel, Cece and her sister Juana must journey into the stronghold of Devil’s alley to challenge the criatura king El Cucuy if they, and their criatura friends, have any hopes of staying alive. 

Can’t you just feel the excitement and tension? Plus, I love a good story that touches on a type of mythology we don’t read about often—or should I say often enough?

 

Tzitzimitl

Your story places a lot of emphasis on Tzitzimitl. What is it about this Aztec God that captured your attention?

Tzitzimitl

One of my favorite things about Mesoamerican mythology is this emphasis on exploring and understanding duality. It reminds me that our ancestors were wrestling with our own duality as people, just as we do now. How we can be both beautiful and dangerous, healing and painful, loving and wrathful. That theme is perfectly captured in the legend of Tzitzimitl, a creature who’s almost demon, almost goddess.

In myth, Tzitzimitl is both the protector of children and pregnant women and also a wrathful warrior who attacks the earth whenever there’s an eclipse. She devours and destroys when her loyalties call upon it, but she also protects and uses her power to have mercy on humans. Her character is of great importance throughout the series because I wanted Cece, my main character, to learn that both good and evil wars inside people. It’s our job as we wrestle with them to choose which one wins.

That is such interesting insight. It’s not always a black and white world, and your readers can learn to appreciate that right along with Cece.

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Los Cinco Soles (The Five Suns)

Aztec Mythology

Did you spend much time studying Aztec mythology and/or culture before you wrote your books?

I’d studied all kinds of folklore and mythology before writing Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls, but very little of it had been from Latin America, despite my heritage. That changed when I went to visit my abuelo when I was in college, and he told me stories about curanderas and brujas and La Llorona. I came home with a desire to learn more, and after researching all kinds of folktales and myths, inspiration struck, and I started writing Cece.

prepara-la-escoba-llega-el-primer-desfile-de-brujas-a-la-cdmx

Las Brujas (The witches)

In fact, one of the reasons I love to write is because it’s one of the best ways to learn. Want to know more about folklore? Write an article or story about it, and you’ll find yourself encountering all kinds of questions that send you hunting excitedly for answers. That process also connected me more and more with my culture, something I’ll forever be grateful to my abuelo for inspiring.

Abuelitos and abuelitas are truly wonderful!

 

Monsters/Monstruos

Chupacabra

What do you think are the scariest Aztec monsters?

Honestly, so many Aztec monsters are terrifying! Most Latin American monsters are; in fact, most monsters from mythology across the world is—a testament to the kinds of fears our ancestors wrestled with in even harsher times. But like the horror genre itself, there’s a distinct morality about the terror in Latin American mythology and folklore. There’s usually a reason why something became terrifying, or why terror was inflicted.

In Cece Rios and the King of Fears, I got to include a few of my favorites, including Alux. In the story, he’s a dark criatura, but in actual tradition aluxes were small, magical beings similar to how those of European descent might think of dwarves or fairies or elves. But they had a ferocious side, and they could curse or harm people if they trespassed on their homes, good will, or even nature itself. I took that inspiration into my series because I think the exploration of nature itself being both benign and dangerous is fascinating.

 

Huichol

Another one of my other favorite legendary beings comes from Huichol tradition (the Huichol are direct descendant of the Aztecs): Tukákame

Tukákame

He’s something between a demon and a zombie—an animated corpse that burns at the touch of water and has skeleton birds for minions. He eats human flesh, and he seemed like an appropriate way of exploring destruction in the second book, though I did that more symbolically than outright.

Buñelos

Buñelos (yummy!)

I see that you know how to make buñelos which are amazing. What other Mexican foods do you like to make (or eat!)?

Yes, I adore buñelos! I’m quite happy to say I’ve gotten pretty great at timing exactly how long they need to fry for, too.

I also like making enchilada sauce from scratch. Well, “like” might be a strong word—it takes a few hours, so I’m sometimes reluctant to start, but chile sauce really does taste better when it’s fresh, not from a can.

Spanish rice and refried beans are also a classic, so I can’t not mention them (or I won’t, at least, hah!). Spanish rice with garlic smashed with the side of a knife? Mmm. The smell fills up your whole kitchen, and I love that. Refried beans that taste fresh, not canned? All half-smashed by hand in a pan? An absolute must.

 

This is one I don’t make myself, but I also really like gansitos. My friend introduced them to me a bit later in life, and now I can’t quite get over the perfect blend of cinnamon, vanilla cake, chocolate, and raspberry filling. It might be junk food, but it’s my junk food. I even had them at Cece Rios and the King of Fears’ launch party!

I see from your website that you’re part British, part Mexican-American. Any plans of focusing on your British roots for upcoming stories?

I do, actually! Well, I suppose I should say I have plans to combine my heritages together in my stories, to embrace the mix I was born with. I have a YA fantasy that will combine the Victorian language of flowers, and certain aspects of British culture, with an Aztec kingdom steeped in old magic. Plus, a playful middle-grade written with a narrator that nods toward old British fairytales, but focused on latine main characters and setting.

This has been so fascinating. I hope you’ll come back when Cece Rios and the Queen of Brujas comes out, and if any readers are interested in learning more about Kaela Rivera, you can find her and her recipe for buñelos at:

https://www.instagram.com/kaelacub/

https://twitter.com/Kaela_Rivera_

https://www.kaelarivera.com/

Interested in learning more about mythology. Check out

Check out this interview with author Karla Arenas Valenti and learn about her book which is named after the fun game Lotería

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What Is A Coming-of-Age Novel?

By on July 7, 2023   /   Articles  

What is a “Coming of Age” novel? The term has been applied to books ranging from Little Women to A Clockwork Orange! Still, we all know what the category is supposed to mean. It’s for books in which a young character, over time, undergoes experiences or grapples with personal or social conflicts and grows in the process. But take out the word “young” and you have the main character of most novels. The one with the most potential for change or growth.

“Coming-of-age” sets an unfortunate us-and-them tone. It suggests that we adults, having put away childish things, can  observe the young from a safe, settled, and wise distance. We forget that the young are us. Not just who we used to be, but part of who we are now. We may then miss or dismiss some great stories we need to know, perhaps even some heroes.

A successful novel only needs to be to be an engaging story. But a hopeful thing takes place when we identify with the novel’s main character. We get practice in empathy then, and that can change lives. What if that main character is a kind of outsider whom we might have avoided or made fun of in our daily life? Now in the novel we see him, not as a “kind” but as an individual, and we realize just what he or she is up against, what the stakes are.

Mark Haddon’s brilliant novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time created great sympathy and understanding for people with autism. Since then we have seen a number of popular young adult and middle-grade novels with autistic heroes. These include Siobahn Dowd’s The London Eye Mystery, Francisco X. Stork’s Marcelo in the Real World, and Katherine Erskine’s Mockingbird. Their main characters have Asperger’s and persevere in  complicated quests.

A similar thing has happened with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and dyslexia. Seeing the world from the point-of-view of Jack Gantos’s off-the-wall Joey Pigza was a revelation to readers. Then came the poignantly humorous series about dyslexic Hank Zipzer by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver (“The Fonz” is himself dyslexic, not diagnosed until adulthood). It’s his dyslexia and ADHD that get Percy, the main character of the wildly popular Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, in so much trouble at school. But these turn out to be abilities in disguise. They’re actually assets in his true role as a demi-god. Imagine the recognition and relief with which a dyslexic or ADHD student reads these books. But his classmates are reading them too. Suddenly their fellow-students’ actions may make perfect sense to them, so that they can laugh with and for them, rather than at them.

Doesn’t this increased empathy argue for having stories about every possible way of being human? And against the current impulse toward censorship or restriction of children’s access to such books?

We all have some sense of being an outsider, regardless of our background or circumstances. At around age eight or nine, we realize that we have both an inner and an outer life. We soon discover that who we feel ourselves to be cannot always be reconciled with and who others expect, even command, us to be.

Novels that focus on a young person’s struggle between those worlds remind us of our own continuing struggle to reconcile them, regardless of age. Something more important than “coming of age” or even “growing up” goes on in them. The main characters in these stories hold to something in their inner life–a dream, a conviction, a quest, a desire, a quality of self-that they believe to be essential to them.

It’s so essential that they can’t afford to give it up or give in, no matter how much pressure or ridicule they may experience from others. Sometimes very powerful others claim to know better for them or at least know better about how the world works. So they’re is tempted and discouraged along the way, and they may sustain great losses. But they gradually find the courage to be true to themselves and to bring that essential something forward with them.

Think of ten-year-old runaway orphan Bud Caldwell in Christopher Paul Curtis’s Depression era novel Bud, Not Buddy who survives neglect and abuse and hunger by clinging to three things: 1) his s dead mother’s love and assurance that he is Bud, not Buddy 2) a beat-up cardboard suitcase containing certain old playbills and rocks he believes are clues to the identity and whereabouts of his father and 3) a wry compendium he has created from his young experiences called, “Bud Caldwell’s Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making A Better Liar Out of Yourself.”

Or magical nine-year-old Thomas, in Guus Kuijer’s The Book of Everything, who “sees things others don’t see.” Tropical fish in the canals. His father regards much of what Thomas says and does as the workings of the devil. He  tries to beat it out of his son  with a spoon. When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, Thomas says. “ I want to be Happy.” His father scoffs, but a neighbor, widely regarded as a witch, thinks it’s a very good idea. She gives him books, music, companionship, and a powerful thought. That to be happy it is first necessary not to be afraid.

Remembering that thought, Thomas stands  up to his father and  inspires his sister and mother to do the same. Everyone is happier as a result, except for the now small, confused, and fear-driven father. Even Thomas’s friend Jesus doesn’t hold out much hope for change in him.

There is no guarantee that characters in these books will prevail, however much they may deserve to. Lizzie Bright, the straight-thinking free spirit in Gary Schmidt’s Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, liberates her friend Turner ’s thoughts and spirit from his rigid upbringing. But she ends up being banished by the greedy and bigoted white townspeople to an institution for the feeble-minded.   She dies there before Turner can rescue her.

Much is at stake in novels like this, and not just for the characters. We pull hard for them. We long to hope that the world can be wise enough to bend to their courage and make room for them. And for us.

For that story, any category may be too small.

 

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Author Interview – Sarah Jean Horwitz and THE DEMON SWORD ASPERIDES

By on July 6, 2023   /   Articles, Author Interviews  

I had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Jean Horwitz about her upcoming Middle Grade fantasy, THE DEMON SWORD ASPERIDES.
I’m a huge fan of Sarah Jean’s previous work – including the CARMER AND GRIT series and THE DARK LORD CLEMENTINE, so I jumped at the chance to get an early peek at her latest.
It was exactly as fun and magical as I hoped it would be. I loved it. I think you will too.

 

Tell us a little bit about your latest book, The Demon Sword Asperides.

The Demon Sword Asperides is a fantasy adventure about a two-thousand-year-old talking demon sword who tricks Nack, a young aspiring knight, into wielding the sword’s power in exchange for Nack’s soul. The two embark on a quest to restore Nack’s honor with his clan but find themselves forced into a battle against a recently resurrected evil sorcerer – a sorcerer who just happens to be Asperides’s former master.

The Demon Sword Asperides has already gotten starred reviews. Kirkus called it “…quirky and fun but also nuanced and complex” and Booklist said it’s …endlessly inventive and terrifically funny….” Can you tell us a little bit about how this story came to be? What was your initial inspiration? And how did the story grow and change as you wrote it?

The idea for the story came to me watching a Chinese fantasy show on Netflix. In the show, two young heroes find themselves stuck in cave fighting a murderous giant tortoise (as one does). The protagonist dives under the tortoise’s shell and proceeds to take a tour of its inner workings (it’s a really big tortoise), where, among other things, he discovers a very obviously evil, no good, very bad sword. Like, the sword is whispering and hissing at him with the voices of the dead! Its power clearly makes him feel ill! It is oozing black smoke! And yet, our hero is like, “Yeah, seems legit,” and plucks the sword from inside the tortoise and harnesses its dark magic to help kill the tortoise monster. Then he just trucks around with this very obviously evil sword and like…no one really comments on it? It’s astonishing. Like, “Ah, I see you have been compelled to grip your creepy ancient sword so hard you draw blood. That seems fine!”

And I just thought it was so funny that everyone in the show was ignoring how obviously bad news this sword was. Then, to make my spouse laugh, I started doing a funny voice whenever the sword would appear on screen (especially when it was accompanied by those creepy indecipherable whispers). And then I started thinking…wait, but really, what does the sword think about all of this? It’s obviously somewhat sentient. How did it occupy itself, stuck in that cave for hundreds of years? What does it think of its new wielder?

The sword ends up being a manifestation of a different mystical material on the show, and the plot obviously diverges from there, but the idea stuck with me. And so the demon sword Asperides was born.

Nack Furnival, for this part, is a direct transplant from another story I worked on a few years ago. He was an aspiring mythic hero in that book, desperate to try and get into a hero academy – so not that different from an aspiring knight! That story wasn’t working, but I loved Nack, so I plucked him out of that story and put him in Asperides.

I originally thought I would write this idea as a short story for adults, but the minute I realized that Nack would be a great addition to it, I also realized it had to be a middle grade novel.

There is so much to love in this book. One of my favorite things was the names for the entities Nack and company encountered. Gasper-cats, angel blades, were-cats, whirlpools, no-crows, plague lizards, sleeping sand – the list is endless. Can you tell us how you came up with some of these and if you have a favorite (or two)?

It always tickles me when people like my names for things, because the names are something that I either have an idea for right away and love (like gasper-cats) or never really have an idea for and just put a funny placeholder in and somehow the placeholder never changes (two words: plague. lizards.) And sometimes there’s no obvious difference in reaction to the names I put thought into versus the ones I think are so bad they’re funny, which just goes to show! Ha.

A few origin stories of my favorites: Gasper-cats come from the old wives’ tale that cats will sit on your chest while you sleep and steal your breath. I came up with angel blades because demon swords obviously need a counterpart, don’t they? And an “angel blade” sounded like something a virtuous storybook knight would definitely wield.

Whirlpool is just a word that already exists, so I’m afraid I can’t take credit for that one!

Sarah Jean Horwitz author of The Wingsnatchers: Carmer and Grit Book OneOne of the things I love the most about your books is your world building. Do you have any tips for writers who are trying to create their own unique worlds?

I am not usually an “In a world where…” writer, and by that I mean I don’t usually come up with a concept for a story world first. For all my published novels, I always thought of the characters first and built the fantasy world around them and their character’s arc/journey. I look at my character and think about what they want, what they need, and what circumstances have to exist in the world for them to be the way they are. So, assuming I have the idea for a demon sword and a young protagonist and an evil sorcerer, I ask myself some basic questions. What are the swords used for and how? What sort of world is this that thirteen-year-olds are carrying around swords? What other kinds of magic are people using and how are those kinds of magic judged by their society? Once I have answers to those basic questions, I have a decent foundation for a fantasy story world and can add details from there.

This seemed like a book the author enjoyed writing. What did you have the most fun with? Were any parts surprisingly difficult?

I did have fun writing this book! I had the most fun writing Cleoline’s point of view, probably because it’s the most over-the-top. There is a dinner scene with Cleoline, her landlord Waldo the Wise, and the evil sorcerer Amyral Venir that is probably one of my all-time favorite scenes that I’ve written, and nothing too substantial even happens in it! I just think it’s funny.

I have the most difficulty with fight scenes and keeping track of where everyone is, what they’re doing, which hand they’re holding their sword in…and then you have to be entertaining and build suspense and manage the pace to keep the reader excited, too! You may notice I have a lot of fight scenes that fade to black…

What would you like readers to carry with them after they finish reading The Demon Sword Asperides?

I will just be thrilled if people enjoy the book and it brings a little fun, joy, and tenderness into their lives, even if just for a little while. We could all use some of that these days.

 

THE DEMON SWORD ASPERIDES is out July 11, 2023. You can enter to win a copy over at Goodreads through July 10.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your process with us Sarah Jean. Want to learn more about Sarah Jean and her work? Visit her website.

 

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