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Author Interview: Melody Delgado
Author Interview with Melody Delgado
What was the inspiration for your latest work of fiction?
I have a music degree and sang professionally for many years and also taught music in the schools and was a private voice instructor. Some of my students were quite gifted. Most never did anything with their talent, others let it go to their head. I wanted to follow the advice that says, 'write what you know', so I wrote about the ups and downs of a vocal student at an arts magnet school and some of the students she rubs shoulders with in a book called OOPS-A-DAISY.
What was the most interesting research you had to do for any of your books?
For my recently published YA Historical Romance, ROYALLY ENTITLED, I had to do research on European royalty during the renaissance. I found out that royals would sometimes pick their mate merely upon seeing a small portrait of them. I thought this was fascinating and based a major part of the story upon this fact..
Are you currently working on any new book projects?
I am writing the sequels to both OOPS-A-DAISY and ROYALLY ENTITLED.
Do you have any advice for beginning writers on how to write a book?
I wrote about what I knew in OOPS-A-DAISY and researched what I didn't know for ROYALLY ENTITLED. At the end of the day, I wrote about topics I love for both books. You are with a novel for quite a long time. Every story has a world and a main topic. If you are going to spend so much time in that world and genre, makes sure it's something YOU care about. Don't worry about what's hot right now or what your writing buddies are doing. Do what's right for you..
How did you find your publisher?
I was fortunate enough to land an agent who sold my novels.
What was your journey to publication like?
My first short story was published in 2000. My first novel was published in 2017. If you do the math, you'll see it took a while to go from point A to point B. ;)
How have your friends and family received your career as an author?
Everybody has been great. My husband and immediate family have been especially understanding. I feel truly blessed, because I know that's not the case for every aspiring author. Are they supportive? People take my writing time seriously now, when I say that's what I am doing. They understand that stories don't just magically appear.
What's the most challenging aspect of writing for you? ~ POV issues; using too much passive voice and not enough active voice; trouble creating active and engaging dialogue; using too many similar words in starting sentences; or something else?
The revision process after the first draft. That's where I am right now with both of my sequels. The self-doubt that comes when deciding which plot lines and characters to keep and what needs to get buried and who needs to take a very long hike and never come back.
About Royally Entitled
When her family's cider business is ruined and other local businesses are vandalized, Anika Pembrie wonders if the recent bout of unrest is merely a result of rivalry between local merchants and noblemen or if something more sinister is at the root of the recent crimes. Along her journey Anika befriends Prince Valdemar, future king of Brevalia but their relationship hits many twists and turns along the way. Lady Winifred Paxel Flemming pursues the prince relentlessly.
His grandmother, Queen Marguerite, expects him to wed whoever she thinks is suitable, even if it means marrying a foreign princess he's never met. Anika's mother, Lady Sarah, wants Anika to help ease the family's financial burdens by marrying Erland Riccats, National Chairman of the Merchants' Guild. Lady Sarah also harbors secrets regarding Prince Valdemar's mother, Princess Karin, who met an untimely death years before. In the end, will both Anika and Prince Valdemar be forced into loveless marriages, or will they be able to outwit their enemies?
About OOPS-A-DAISY
Who wants to be stuck wearing a shaggy dog outfit or a chicken suit on television? Twelve-year-old aspiring singer, actress, Daisy De la Cruz, that's who. She'll do and wear just about anything to get ahead in the entertainment industry
But will all her embarrassing moments pay off and land her a spot in her arts magnet school's coveted master class where she'll be rubbing shoulders with top professionals in the entertainment industry? Or will she be doomed to play the role of an animal, vegetable or mineral forever?
Melody Delgado's first short story was published in 2000. She has since published a picture book with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and was commissioned to write a book for Little Debbie/McKee Foods in 2016. Clean Reads published two novels in 2017, ROYALLY ENTITLED, a Historical Romance for women and teens, and OOPS-A-DAISY, a humorous novel for children 8-12.
Connect with Melody online on her website, on Twitter, and on Facebook.
A short trailer of ROYALLY ENTITLED may be seen here:
A special thank you to Melody Delgado for being interviewed today. You can read her column on the 3rd Thursday each month here at Pandora's Box Gazette.
#AuthorInterview #CleanReads #MelodyDelgado #InspirationalFiction
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