SIX MINUTES WITH CARMEN FERREIRO-ESTEBAN:

Today’s guest on LitPick’s Six Minutes with an Author is Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban! Carmen was born in Galicia (Northern Spain) and went to college in Madrid, where she received her Ph.D. in Biology. She wrote a few nonfiction books before jumping into the world of YA lit beginning with Two Moon Princess, which won the bronze award by the ForeWord Magazine in the Juvenile fiction category. When she’s not busy writing, Carmen enjoys traveling and spending time with nature.

How did you get started writing?

I have always loved making up stories. When I was young, I wanted to become a writer, but when the time came to go to college, I chose to study biology and became a researcher. After I moved to the United States and gave up working in my field for personal reasons, I took classes at the Institute of Children’s Literature and fell in love again with telling stories. Two Moon Princess is the result of my master course in writing a book for teenagers.

Who influenced you?

So many authors, so many books, so many movies. To mention a few writers and books: Rosemary Sutcliff, Bernard Cornwell, Lindsay Davis, Megan Whalen Turner, Frank Herbert’s Dune . . . I love the way Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels bring Britain’s early history to life. Reading them made me want to do the same with Spain’s medieval past. I’m a great fan of Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales and of his Sharpe series.

In Young Adult fiction, I love Lene Kaaberbol’s The Shamer's Chronicles and Megan Whalen Turner's books of Attolia. My favorite movie is Pan’s Labyrinth. The way that Guillermo del Toro intertwines the brutal fascist society of post-civil War Spain and a fantasy realm of fauns and fairies is just perfect.

Do you have a favorite subject to write about?

I write about strong girls and medieval worlds, about the struggle to fit in and make friends while staying true to yourself. I write about falling in and out of love and all there is in between.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an author?

First of all, study the craft by taking classes and reading books about writing. Having a good story is vital to writing a good book, but writing well also requires an intimate knowledge of the language and its grammar.

Don’t rush your writing. Give yourself time. Fall in love with your characters and let them tell you their story at their own pace.

Above all, have fun. If you have fun writing your story, it’s more probable that your readers will enjoy it too.

After you finish your first draft, join a critique group and listen to other writers’ critiques with an open mind. Then revise, submit to critique, and revise again until the story feels right.

Finally, ask editors or agents that have published or are looking for your particular kind of book. Take your time writing your query letter. You have spent one, two, three years writing your book, so why hurry now? The query letter must be perfect. You only have one shot at that particular person, so you must get her or his attention in those few paragraphs.

When rejections start coming, don’t despair, but query again.

Above all, believe in yourself and never give up.

Where is your favorite place to write?

When writing for long periods of time, I always do it on my PC. But because I have to write my ideas as soon as they come to my mind and they seem to pop up at the most unexpected places, I have written everywhere, and on everything that is available at the moment, from fancy notebooks to grocery receipts forgotten at the bottom of my purse.

What else would you like to tell us?

In her wonderful LitPick review, sixteen-year-old reviewer CMy suggests that the ending of Two Moon Princess opens room for a sequel. Read her five-star review here: http://www.litpick.com/review/two-moon-princess-review-cmy

I want to tell her that, yes, the ending of the book is the beginning of a new story. I have called it The King in the Stone. As CMy predicted, this new story takes the main characters from Two Moon Princess in a totally different, and, I hope, exciting direction.

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Thanks for spending six minutes with us, Carmen! We’re excited that Two Moon Princess will have a sequel. :) Adult readers may be interested in Carmen’s paranormal romance: http://www.carmenferreiroesteban.com/welcome-to-the-website-of-carmen-ferreiro-esteban/becquer-eternal/