Questions for the Author

1.  What gave you the idea for this book?

I was in a friend’s office, telling him I couldn’t decide what to write next. He had a Magic 8- Ball on his shelf. I took it and asked, “Should I try to write a novel?” It said the answer was unclear. I was annoyed and wished I knew a real psychic who could tell me for certain what to do.  Then the idea came to me: What if someone based all her decisions on fortune- telling, signs, and superstition?

2.  Are you Jessica Luna? How similar is your life to hers?

I’m not Jessica. There are a few similarities. I grew up in Houston, I work in insurance, I’ve worked for nonprofits, and I’m sometimes superstitious. Like everyone else, I’ve had doubts about the direction my life is going. But besides that, we’re pretty different. I’m older than her. My mom’s white, and I grew up with my dad and his family. I have two younger brothers, no sisters. I’ve been married, and I have three sons. I’ve been dating the same guy for five years now. Most strikingly, Jessica has way more time to go out drinking and dancing than I do.

3.  Jessica and her friends go to a lot of restaurants and clubs in Houston. Are those places real or fictional?

They’re fictional and yet similar to places I know and love. Come visit Houston. Walk through the Montrose and see it for yourself.

4.  Have you ever met a fortune- teller like Madame Hortensia?

No. I’ve been to fortune- tellers who weren’t worth the money. I’ve been to one who told me I’d have three boys and one girl, which was pretty eerie. When I was a teenager, I used to listen to a tarot card hobbyist who worked at my friend’s parents’ convenience store and gave long, involved readings in Spanish to the same few women, every single day. Also, both my parents used to read tarot cards. But that’s it. No one like Madame Hortensia.  She’s a composite of shrewd women I’ve met, done up with velvet and a crystal ball.

5.  What was your writing process for this book?

I started with an outline — a synopsis, actually. As so often happens, I began writing the book according to my outline, and then the story took on a life of its own, and the outline didn’t make sense to me anymore. So I abandoned it and just wrote. Then I ended up using a Microsoft Works calendar to map out the timeline and plot events. That was a really valuable tool, and now I use calendars for all my books.

6.  With three kids and a day job, how do you find time to write?

I always tell people it’s easy to find time to write, as long as you never watch TV and never clean your house. When I’m working on a project, I try to spend an hour or two per day writing, either in the evenings while the kids are doing their homework or early in the mornings before they wake up. Weekend mornings are the most productive time for me.

When I have a deadline, I take my laptop with me to work and write during my lunch hour. I usually spend all my vacation time and holidays writing my brains out.  Luckily, my kids are finally at the age where they understand what I’m doing and why, so they give me the time I need, with minimal arguing and video- game noise.

7.  What do you do when you aren’t writing, working, or being a mom?

I hang out with my kids and my boyfriend, mostly. We eat out, shop, go to movies, and walk at parks. We paint pictures and do various crafts. On occasion, I go to clubs with my friends to see DJs play. Sometimes I play video games, badly, and sometimes we do watch TV. My boyfriend likes to cook, and I really like to eat the results.

8.  Who are your favorite authors?

My taste is all over the place. Jane Austen, Nabokov, Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, and Sandra Cisneros are the authors I read again and again. I was raised on seventies science fiction, crime thrillers, and Regency romance. I read way more young adult fiction than an adult should and love Peter Pan and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to death. New authors I like lately: A. M.  Homes and George Saunders.

9.  What advice would you give to someone who wants to write for a living?

Don’t talk about wanting to be a writer. Just write. When you talk about it instead of doing it, you set up expectations that become intimidating when you finally do try to write. When you tell your ideas to people, it takes the creative urgency out of writing them down. 

I know people who talked about wanting to be writers for years and years and then finally sat down to write novels and realized that they didn’t enjoy the process at all. And I didn’t blame them — writing is really hard, boring work. Also, it doesn’t pay much, when you break it down to dollars per hour. So if you want to “write for a living,” I’d suggest that you find someone willing to support you. People who really want to write usually start out doing it for free, because they can’t help themselves.