Esmeralda Santiago

How did you become a writer? My writing career began as a proposal writer for grass-roots organizations and charities in Boston. The potential funders often commented my proposals included human interest stories that supported the statistics, budgets, mission and financial statements. Around that time, my husband and I founded a documentary film company, where I learned how to write narrations and script educational films. It was a slow process of learning and accepting writing was my strength: telling stories in my second language where, at the time, I had a limited but enthusiastic audience.

I explored writing personal essays, taking a chance at publication with magazines and newspapers. Merloyd Lawrence, an editor at an educational publishing house, had her own imprint, and after reading one of my essays, queried me. She liked what she’d read and wondered whether I had more essays like the one in the Radcliffe alumni magazine. I showed up at her office with clippings from the mélange of publications where my essays and opinions had appeared. She suggested I write a memoir about my life as a rural Puerto Rican migrant to New York City. She nurtured me through the writing, always compassionate, encouraging and supportive. My first memoir, When I Was Puerto Rican, was published under her care and imprint. Thirty years later, it’s still taught in schools and colleges, has been translated into several languages, and is being updated in 2024 with prologues by prominent writers and a new Reader’s Guide.

Once that book was in the world, I dedicated to writing full-time. As of 2023, I’ve written three memoirs, three novels, have co-edited two Latine anthologies with Joie Davidow, wrote the story for an illustrated children’s book, a radio play, a film version of my second memoir for Masterpiece Theatre, and countless personal essays and opinion pieces. At the moment, I have a finished novel at my agent’s, and am halfway through another. As I get older, time compresses. I feel as if I were on a race track, slogging toward an invisible finish line.

Name your writing influences. My earliest literary influences were Puerto Rican poets Luis Muñoz Rivera, Julia de Burgos, lyricists Bobby Capó, Tite Curet, Rafael Hernandez, Mirta Silva and Silvia Rexach, Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral, Mexican poet, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Nicaraguan Ruben Darío, Spanish authors Juan Ramón Jiménez, Corín Tellado and Federico Garcia Lorca.

I learned English by reading, and my earliest influences in that language were lyricists Cole Porter, and authors Langston Hughes, Carson McCullers, an untold number of Harlequin romance writers, Archie comic books dialogue-bubble writers, and newspaper writers.

When and where do you write? Public speaking, lectures and keynote addresses support my writing, so I’m frequently on the road. I write when I can in airports, planes, hotel rooms. Between trips, I work in my home office, and, when I can manage it, I take extended writing retreats in friends’ guest houses and AirBnBs. I carry an A.5 notebook and fountain pen but have written an entire essay in a Japanese restaurant, in very small print, on the inside of an opened chopstick envelope, and another on the back of a greeting card I’d plucked from my mailbox as I left earlier that day.

I ruminate for days, weeks, months, or years before setting anything down on 3x2.5” index cards. The cards are big enough to hold one idea, theme, question, or piece of dialogue. Once I have enough of them, I organize them on my wall. I assign colors to each character so I can track the plot along a timeline. I draw  topographical maps of the neighborhoods where my characters live, and floor plans of their homes. If they have a striking physical feature, like Conciencia la jorobá, a character in my second novel, Conquistadora, I draw a portrait. Admittedly, I’m not much of an artist, but they give me a sense of what I’m after during the outlining phase.

Once it seems a book is gelling, I number it. For example, Las Madres is N.4 (novel #4). N.3 hasn’t been published yet, but it was written long before N.4. I create a journal for each new book where I scribble ideas, research leads, quotes, complaints about the progress, emotional outbursts, frustrations, and insecurities about that particular book.

I usually work on more than one book at a time so that when I reach a wall, I don’t fret. There’s another book in progress that needs my attention.

What are you working on now? I’m working on N.5, a novel based on interviews with Puerto Rican elders who told me fantastic stories about the early 20th century on the island and in the US.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? When I reach a brick wall with one of the books, I open another in-progress work. I also find a visit to a museum clears my head and inspires me by the creative choices of other artists. And of course, when I’m not writing for whatever reason, there’s the endless hole of internet research.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? When I began my writing career, I had a conversation with the poet Martin Robbins. I worried I might be spending hours, days, weeks on stories about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans when, in my experience in the USA, no one cares about us. “But you do,” he said. That’s when my writing career really started.

What’s your advice to new writers? Read everything you can get your hands on. You will likely write stories you’d like to read, so you need to be clear about what moves and interests you.

Esmeralda Santiago is the author of three acclaimed memoirs: When I Was Puerto Rican, Almost a Woman, and The Turkish Lover. She’s also a novelist: América's Dream, Conquistadora, and her most recent, Las Madres. She can be reached at EsmeraldaSantiago.com.

Jeri Westerson

How did you become a writer? I've been writing for fun since I could pick up a crayon. And then full novels when I was a teen...until I had to put my graphic design career on hold to have a baby. When he was two I thought it time to get back into it, but the whole industry had turned to computers and I, alas, had not. So I looked for another career path that I could do at home to raise my son, and decided that becoming a novelist seemed the thing. How hard could it be? [Insert laughter here.] I researched how to get started, formatting a manuscript (had to get used to word processors at last), getting an agent, how to write a query, and, of course, writing the novels. I loved many kinds of genres, but was always more drawn to historicals, so I aimed for that. It took three years to get my first agent. I wasn't peddling the same book for years. Every year I wrote a NEW book. And with each successive agent I didn't get anywhere until my original agent suggested writing an historical MYSTERY. Once I learned how to write a mystery, and a medieval one at that, I got some success with my fourth agent, and sold my first Crispin Guest Medieval Noir to St. Martin's Minotaur (only fourteen years from when I first started writing seriously for publication). Prior to that, as the years tolled on without any contracts, I wanted to see if ANYONE would buy my writing, so I began writing magazine articles on spec, and writing for several local newspapers; two dailies and about five weeklies. Yes, they paid, but never enough. Still, it was excellent training to learn how to turn out the facts fast in a pleasing narrative. 

Name your writing influences. What AREN'T my influences? I'm a big TV watcher, I've always read books, I daydreamed and wrote, listened to music...everything around me has influenced me.  

When and where do you write? First thing when I get up in the morning, in my home office. I used to be able to write all day, but I'm a lot older now and don't have the energy to do that anymore. I used to have a max of 10 pages a day. Now it's down to five. I still end up with oodles of time for research and rewriting. I insist on having my publisher give me 9 months to write, but it usually takes me six. Two books a year is really my max. Any more than that and you begin to sacrifice quality.

What are you working on now? The third in my Tudor mystery series, the King's Fool Mysteries, with Henry VIII's real court jester Will Somers as the reluctant sleuth. This one features Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour. When I'm done with that, I will write my third in my Sherlockian pastiche, An Irregular Detective Mystery series, where a former Baker Street Irregular teams up with a friend to open a detective agency in late 19th century London, in the shadow of Sherlock Holmes himself.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? Not really. I don't call it that anyway. Sometimes you have to step back and let the story percolate (since I don't outline anymore. Or can't, really). I will write in a different location: my dining room, my backyard. But what seems best is to just let it go for several days and try NOT to think about it. It always seems that when you don't force it, it comes rolling out organically. But in the end, it is my job and so you must sit down and produce.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? Let me tell you the WORST writing advice. "Double the amount you receive on your advance to promote the book." DO NOT ever do this! I got into incredible debt, and I already make too little. Certainly not enough to live on on my own (I am a hybrid writer. I am traditionally published and self-published. Self-publishing AFTER you are established traditionally is MUCH better to get your name out there). 

What’s your advice to new writers? Certainly my best advice to new writers is to hone your craft. It will take time. Do NOT jump into self-publishing right away. You will make a career if you go with traditional publishers. Do NOT under any circumstances PAY to a vanity press to publish you. Remember, THEY PAY YOU, not the other way around. Try like the dickens to get an agent first so they can get you in the door of big publishers. You are only a debut author once, and publishers make a big deal out of that with extra publicity. But know that you will have the responsibility of promoting the book yourself: blog tours (don't ever pay for those. Network instead!), bookmarks, travel, genre fan conventions, etc. And most importantly, when you send in that manuscript, immediately start on the next book. If it's a series, sometimes that SECOND book will become the first if you can't sell the first one, so write the second with that in mind.

Los Angeles native Jeri Westerson currently writes two new series: a Tudor mystery series the King’s Fool Mysteries, with Henry VIII’s real court jester Will Somers as the sleuth and a Sherlockian pastiche series called An Irregular Detective Mystery, with one of Holmes’ former Baker Street Irregulars opening his own detective agency. She also authored fifteen Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mysteries, a series nominated for thirteen awards from the Agatha, to the Macavity, to the Shamus. She’s written several paranormal series (including a gaslamp-steampunk fantasy series), standalone historical novels, and had stories in several anthologies, the latest of which was included in South Central Noir, an Akashic Noir anthology. She has served as president of the SoCal Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, president and vice president for two chapters of Sisters in Crime (Orange County and Los Angeles), and is also a founding member of the SoCal chapter of the Historical Novel Society. See JeriWesterson.com for more info.

Brinda Charry

How did you become a writer? I’ve enjoyed writing ever since I can remember— language, narrative, playing with all of the building blocks of fiction.  

Name your writing influences. Books are my biggest influence. I immersed myself in them since I could read. I am very, very fortunate in that the books I was exposed to were very varied, from a large number of literary traditions (British, South Asian, African, Russian, American) and languages. There are so many books and writers that have shaped me, it would make a very long list if I were to name even some of them. I think much of my writing comes from all of these different voices having left traces of themselves in my head. 

When and where do you write? I have no fixed routine. It depends on my teaching schedule – but I try to write in the mornings, whenever possible. I write every day when I have a project at hand. Where do I write?  I grew up in a small house where we did not have our own desks (let alone rooms) and the idea of privacy was mostly unknown (or ignored!), so I’ve learnt to write wherever there is a bit of space. I still don’t work in an office or at a writing desk – the dining table is fine by me, or the couch, or even the bed.

What are you working on now? A historical novel set in New England in the early 1800s. It is about magic shows (and their performers) in the early American republic – a wild, wonderful, also very complex world!

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? Of course! Things happen that make it hard to write/write well – one is simply tired. But I try not to make too much of it. I think most blocks can be moved, though on some days a little extra effort is needed. 

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? I don’t know if I received this from anyone in particular, but I’ve learnt over the years that it is best if one makes writing a habit – do it every day (or nearly every day). It should become part of your life, almost a way of being, a practice. The more one practices the better one gets. 

What’s your advice to new writers? The above! Also, keep at it. It can be a long journey, disheartening at times, but it’s worth it if you truly think you have a story worth telling.

Brinda Charry came to the United States from India as a graduate student and has been living here since. She has published novels and a short-story collection in India and the UK. Her writing has won several awards and prizes. THE EAST INDIAN is her first novel to be published in the United States. Also a specialist in English Renaissance Literature (Shakespeare and contemporaries with a focus on race, cross-cultural engagement in the 1600s and 1700s, and the early history of globalization), she has published a number of books and articles in her field. She currently lives in Keene, New Hampshire.