Episode 3 is an interview with author Désirée Zamorano. We talk about her masterful PI novel, Human Cargo; her short story, "Quickie;" Akashic Books' Mondays Are Murder flash fiction series (hers will go live on August 1st!); and we briefly touch on her literary novel, The Amado Women.
Désirée isn't just a writer, she is a fellow mystery lover, and she gives a shout-out to a number of fabulous writers and books. I've linked to the websites of these contemporary writers: Edgar winner Naomi Hirahara, Ausma Zehanat Khan, Sara Gran, best-selling author Kate Atkinson, James Sallis (who has won the lifetime achievement award from Bouchercon, among many other mystery awards), Rachel Howzell Hall, Sue Ann Jaffarian, and the wonderful Steph Cha, whom I interviewed in Episode 2.
Classic mystery writers include Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, John D. MacDonald (the Travis McGee novels) and Patricia Highsmith. One last influential writer mentioned, although not in the field of mystery, is Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.
We talk about books and writing, but we also discussed the need for women to be financially savvy and have an "escape fund" -- not necessarily to escape a dangerous relationship (although obviously that can help), but also so you're not stuck in a bad work situation. Money is freedom.
The most important links, however, are the ones Désirée sent me on human trafficking:
Fighting Human Trafficking, and 20 Ways You Can Help
If you'd rather read than listen, here is the transcript. Enjoy!
Transcript of interview with Désirée Zamorano
Welcome to Destination Mystery: A Podcast for Readers who Love a Good Mystery. I’m Laura Brennan.
A Pushcart Prize nominee and award-winning short story author, Desiree Zamorano has wrestled with culture, identity, and the invisibility of Latinas from early on and addressed that in her commentaries which have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, NPR’s Latino USA, and Publisher’s Weekly. She is also proud of having co-authored with her sister two plays commissioned by Southern California's Bilingual Foundation for the Arts. "Reina" and "Bell Gardens 90201" received Equity productions and toured for a total of eight years.
She delights in the exploration of contemporary issues of injustice and inequality, via her mystery series featuring private investigator, Inez Leon, published by Lucky Bat Books. Human Cargo was Latinidad's Mystery Pick of the Year.
Her novel, Modern Cons is a story of psychological suspense where she explores the reverberations of being raised by a con artist.
Laura Brennan: Thank you for being here. I'm so excited.
Désirée Zamorano: Whoo-hoo!
LB: How are you, Désirée?
DZ: Me, too. I'm excited, too.
LB: Tell me a little bit about yourself. How did you get started writing?
DZ: We writers are all a crazy bunch and we probably as kids said, Oh, I want to create something so wonderful, because as kids we have fallen into this world. And as kids we have this naïve perception that writers just magically put those words on the page. Well, I wanted to magically put those words on the page! But as I got older I realized it took a lot of work to make the work look seamless. So you asked how I got into it. I always wanted to be a writer and I started sending off my short stories -- those were a big deal as I was my twenties, short stories were the thing -- and after about 100 rejections, two acceptances and $50, I thought wow, that's a lot of heartache! I mean, if I'm going to deal with rejection, I might as well go big time. So I sat down to write a novel. I'm going okay, I'm going to write the Great American novel. And I sat down to write a novel and I thought, I have no idea what I'm doing. And I thought about all the books I loved to read and I love classics, I love contemporary modern fiction, but have a real soft spot for mysteries. And what I love about mysteries, and what I loved as I sat down to write mysteries,