TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books who will tell us about their new work as well as offer tips on writing, stories about the publishing biz, and from time to time, a recipe.
Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?
Against the backdrop of the Cold War and civil rights eras, Living
Color: Angie Rubio Stories delivers the milestones of American
girlhood—slumber parties, training bras, proms—through the eyes of “brown, skinny,
and bespectacled” Angie, who learns early that pageant winners, cheerleaders,
and the Juliets in school plays are always white, and that big vocabularies are
useless in navigating cliques and clubs. Living Color traces Angie’s
formation as a writer, from the diffident, earnest child who jots down new
words in a notebook to the emboldened high school student publishing unpopular opinions in her new “loud-enough-to-be-heard” voice.
Which character did you most enjoy creating? Why? And,
which character gave you the most trouble, and why?
I loved creating Angie Rubio, endowing her with all of my
insecurities but also giving her a sort of innocence – not a blamelessness or
goodness – but an earnestness with which she pursues her goal of finding where
she fits within her family, among her classmates, and in the larger world.
I had some trouble with Angie’s nemesis Judy Wiekamp. It was
easy to paint her as Angie’s antithesis, but I had to remember that Judy had to
have depth, had to be faceted, had to have humanity so that she wasn’t a
caricature. I hope I succeeded. At any rate, I think the thorny relationship between
Angie and Judy consists of complex, layered behaviors rather than breezy,
one-note exchanges. While most of the revelatory moments belong to Angie, there
are subtle insights into Judy as a full human being.
Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s
road to publication.
The lows were what many of us experience – rejections or
unanswered queries that make you question yourself and your work. You’re about
to give up or at least take a break from querying and submitting when you hear
back from the small press you thought would be a good fit for your book.
Relief, gratitude, and delight ensue. Jaded Ibis Press’s mission to publish “socially
engaged literature with an emphasis on the voices of people of color, people
with disabilities, and other historically silenced and culturally marginalized
voices” corresponds precisely to who my protagonist is and what my book is
about. That is definitely a high.
I like to remind myself often of these words attributed to
Cynthia Ozick: Play what feeble notes you can and keep practicing. It
acknowledges the self-doubt we all feel but implies reward through persistence.
My favorite writing advice is “write until something
surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?
Each story reflects a different year in Angie’s life, which
means a slightly different way of looking at the world and Angie’s response to
it. I was surprised at how comfortable it felt to write from Angie’s point of
view as she progressed from year to year, grade to grade, each time confronting
some new challenge or obstacle. What surprised me the most was that I wasn’t
entirely aware that each story had at some level Angie’s inclinations as a
writer, each story contributed to that not entirely visible aspect of Angie’s
make-up. It wasn’t until the penultimate story that this was so plainly
revealed.
What’s something about your book that you want readers to
know?
Almost every story contains some little nugget from my life.
It’s the most semi-autobiographical thing I’ve written. And yet, it was so easy
to separate myself from Angie and to let her take on a life and personality of
her own. At the same time, I could still identify with her awkwardness, her
mortifications, and her deep desire to find herself and her way in life. Even
if my readers don’t happen to have had the experience of growing up as a
skinny, brown girl, my hope is that they will connect with her as she negotiates
the obstacles of microaggressions and her own wobbly self-esteem to emerge determined
to claim a path for herself.
Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any
food/s associated with your book?
Unfortunately, school lunches and cafeteria fare are the
foods primarily featured in the book – bologna sandwiches, little side bowls of
steamed-to-death peas, dust-crumbly cookies, that sort of thing. Also, there
are the menu choices at Bob’s Big Boy mentioned in one story. There is a bit of
haute cuisine at the French restaurant Angie and her prom date go to where they
eat “garlicky, squishy things.”
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READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AND AUTHOR: https://donnamiscolta.com/
ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR TBR STACK: https://www.indiebound.org/search/book?keys=donna+miscolta
READ AN EXCERPT, “First Confession”: https://crate.ucr.edu/first-confession/
