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Check out the article about Eye of the Mountain
God from International Thriller Writers:
http://tinyurl.com/2RudolphELLAInterview
Thomas Dunne
books releases Penny Rudolph’s thriller, Eye of the Mountain
God, April 13, featuring a crime-solving photographer named Megan
Montoya. Rudolph has crafted a strong character, a devoted mother of
uncommon intelligence in Montoya, and a plot that draws on the Spanish and
Native American history of New Mexico.
ELLA will be
reading this book as our May 2010 pick.
I believe a true
measure of a community’s equality in the greater culture is often best
measured not by the art we create about ourselves – after all, we know we’re
terrific! – but rather by work written about us by those who do not belong
to our group.
While many Latina
characters in mainstream fiction by non-Latina authors painted us as
stereotypical in the past, I am pleased to see that the new wave of novels
by non-Latinas but featuring Latina protagonists present us a whole,
well-rounded, interesting and unique individual human beings who are
American everywomen. This is a major step forward, and one we should all
support!
Alisa Valdez Rodriguez - Herald de Paris Newspaper
Please visit The
ELLA Book Club.
http://web.me.com/aviar5200/ELLA_Book_Club/Welcome.html
Advance Praise for Eye of the Mountain God:
"An exciting thriller with a Southwestern flavor,
this latest work by Penny Rudolph combines elements of Rudolfo Anaya's and Tony
Hillerman's novels".
Warren Murphy
2-time Edgar award winner
“...an over the top of Wheeler Peak thriller...seemingly zillion zingers....
The audience will root for marvelous Megan and lovely Lizzie.... readers
will enjoy Megan’s misadventures in the not so Land of Enchantment.”
Mystery Gazette
“Fans of independent women striving against the odds will appreciate (this)
thriller with Megan Montoya, a single mom with an eight-year-old autistic,
hearing-impaired daughter and a terrorist, who's planning an attack in
revenge for the U.S. government's violating the treaty that ended the
Mexican-American war.”
Publishers Weekly
Fast moving...Arrowheads,
apparently emeralds of immense historical and monetary value, become the
root cause of photographer Megan Montoya's troubles...she stumbles onto a
cabal of mysterious people who plan a terrorist attack to draw public
attention to wrongs committed against Hispanics in the Southwest. Miguel may
have been patterned after Reies Lopez Tijerina, who is referenced in the
novel. Tijerina led a 1967 raid on the Rio Arriba County Courthouse. Where
is Lizzie? Mildly autistic and hard of hearing, Megan's daughter has special
qualities that her mother doesn't recognize. And where is Alma, Megan's
savvy, spartan mentor? Rudolph has written a mystery with a gritty,
endearing lead character.
David
Steinberg
Albuquerque Journal Books editor
ELLA BOOK CLUB
Interview Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Q: How did you
come up with the idea for your wonderful book, Eye of the Mountain God?
A: I became
fascinated with the legend of the five emerald arrowheads: Sometime in the
autumn of 1535 the first Spaniards to reach the Rio Grande met a band of
Pima Indians who showed them five emerald arrowheads and told them of rich
cities to the north, possibly the first reference to the cities of Cibola. A
Franciscan friar later sent to check out the tale dispatched an advance
scout who was to send back a cross each time he found something worthy. The
bigger the cross, the more important the find. The scout sent back a series
of crosses, each larger than the last, but never came back himself.
Q: What is your
writing process like?
A: I do a loose
outline and sketch in chapters and scenes. Everything is subject to change
when the characters begin to talk or the plot takes an unexpected turn.
Then I search
online photos of actresses/actors who look like the characters in my head.
Somehow that gives me a better feel for who they are.
Then I do a
painful, halting, first draft, sometimes with big gaps between scenes.
Finally, I do what I love. I rewrite. My first major literary effort was a
play that was produced in several cities. Plays go through workshops where
much is contributed by the cast, and scenes are continually rewritten. Maybe
that's why I love it. I rewrite a novel line‑by‑line as many as 10 times.
The opening pages two or three times that.
Q: You have won
more than fifty writing awards. What is it like to be so distinguished?
A:
Distinguished! I don't think I've ever been called such a thing. The first
award was presented at a conference in Los Angeles, and of course you don't
know until they call your name. As I made my way to the stage, all I could
think was how could a kid who grew up in a cold‑water flat next to a
Replogle Map factory in Chicago win this? I got a little more used to it,
but oddly, the main feeling was that I had somehow fooled everyone.
Q: Why do you
write?
A: I began
writing because I needed a hobby and couldn’t afford paints. Really. As a
journalist, I think I liked imposing a kind of order on a subject so I could
better understand it. As a novelist, it’s a remarkable experience to walk
through a computer screen into a different life.
Q: What is your
relationship like with your character Megan Montoya?
A: Like all my
major characters Megan is a composite of several people I have known,
including bits of me and bits of people I have only met in books. I came to
New Mexico, for example, about the same way Megan did, by accident, and fell
in love with it. That’s the part of Megan that is me.
Q: New Mexico
feels like a character in your work. What is it about that state that keeps
you there?
A: I love the
sharp contrasts and variety in the landscape and in the people. I began Eye
of the Mountain God, and an earlier novel, Listen to the Mockingbird—a
historical mystery set in New Mexico against a Civil War backdrop—when I was
living in Pennsylvania and homesick for New Mexico.
Q: Does being a
journalist influence your fiction, or vice versa? How so, or why not?
A: Journalism
definitely affects my fiction writing. I like to think it makes my fiction
direct and to the point. And being a journalist gave me an introduction to
many people I would never otherwise have met (some of whom have found their
way into my novels, such as the archeologist in Mountain God). Journalism
also honed my research abilities. In reverse, I think the willingness to
walk in the shoes of others has to be a plus for a journalist.
Q: Why did you
choose to make Megan a Latina character, and what reaction have you gotten
on this decision from editors or readers so far?
A: I have long
been intrigued by the Hispanic experience not only in New Mexico but in the
U.S. Maybe that dates from a Chicano Studies class I took in college. When I
thought more about it, I began to see Latinas as women at a crossroad in two
cultures, both in today’s mainstream and outside it. To me, that’s the
makings for a wonderful character.
Megan, by the
way, is not my first Latina protagonist. Rachel Chavez, a recovering
alcoholic who owns a parking garage in Los Angeles, was the first.
Interestingly,
from editors and readers so far at least, I’ve had only positive responses.
I had expected (perhaps feared) being challenged for the audacity of
portraying Latinas, not just Megan and Rachel, but also Corazón, an
important secondary character in Mountain God.
Q: Who are your
favorite writers, and why?
A: My all‑time
favorite is Alan Paton, the South African author of Cry the Beloved Country
and Too Late the Phalarope. And it just now dawns on me (!) that my current
favorite is another South African, Deon Meyer, author of Heart of the
Hunter. Both these men write characters from cultures not their own. That
tells me a little more about my own choices of stories and characters and
adds another shade to my answer to your previous question.
Q: How would you
like to be remembered?
A: As a thinker
and an interesting person.
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