Name of Author: Califia Montalvo
Title of Book: WICCA Girl
Favorite Authors: Joseph Campbell, John Fowels, Jacob Bronowski Stephen Nachmanovitch, Henry Miller, William Blake
Bio: I spent most of my young life in southern California. There I found people existing on consumerism and living basically with a "Baywatch" mentality-fun in the sun on the beach. After exhausting that mantra through passing into adulthood, I migrated north to the quaint artist community of Carmel-by-the-Sea. There, I found a view of life much deeper and more fulfilling with regard to Nature and my own personal engagement with it. Art, writing and quiet introspection became my nirvana those few years there, where I managed to get a book of historical fiction published under a different, more academic pseudonym. But soon I felt the call of adventure once more, and a restlessness drawing me this time to the ancient world of Europe-and Greece in particular. I live there now in a small port town on the Aegean Sea. I teach English when I am not writing or exploring islands and villages near my new home.
WICCA Girl
http://www.wattpad.com/story/23221045-wicca-girl
What is your book about?
"WICCA Girl" is a story of a young girl born in a small New Mexican mining town. The place was abandoned since its heyday and merely a touristic village today. Simi's grandmother Theresa had lived in the same old house during the "hippy generation" a half century before. According to the old-timers who remembered Theresa, she had survived there making jewelry and dabbling in the "dark arts"-a popular pastime for youth in the 1960's and 70's. But no one could explain her murder. Simi, since the time of her infancy, is seen by her parents to be a very different child. Early-on she shows a phenomenal affinity for animals and can communicate with them to the astonishment of her parents. As other curious events occur which defy explanation, they try to keep them secret from the other villagers of Madrid. As she matures into adolescence and begins attending high school, we see that she is precocious, attractive, and strikingly independent. Uncannily she has adopted many of the ways of her grandmother-wearing black and having tremendous insight about the future and people's thoughts. There are flashbacks in this story to parallel chapters running tandem to Simi's story. They involve a young woman in 15th century Spain named Beatriz who is desperately on the run. In her own age she has been seen as different and imbued with certain powers which quickly label her a "witch." These chapters take place in Spain just when the witch-burnings were beginning to sweep across the provinces as part of the Holy Inquisition against heretics. As the story develops, a closer thematic relationship between these completely separate protagonists forms, establishing the blight of intolerance, which each of the females must endure in her own age.
Who is your target audience and why?
I have targeted this story to young females in their teens and twenties, but it can resonate with females of any age. It is intended to show the familiar pattern of ostracizing and marginalizing women with power. Historically, those who were seen to possess any demonstrable 'paranormal' talent which was "unacceptable" to the norm were brutally persecuted. I wanted to show that hysteria against women and stigmatizing them still exists-even today in most parts of the world.
What is paranormal about your story?
The fact that Simi has such uncanny communication with animals and Nature is 'paranormal.' By raising her hand she can bring a flock of birds down close to the ground. She attracts a mountain lion by her mere presence at night. And as a small child she could emulate the callings of animals which would congregate outside her window. As an adolescent she can also embarrassingly see into the sexual fantasies of a boy in the town. Lastly, and more dramatically, Simi is suspiciously associated with the accidental deaths of several nefarious characters in the book.
Does it contain other genre elements? Why?
The genres of historical fiction, romance, and mystery are heavily infused in the plot and action of this is book to add to its drama.
Tell us about your writing process? From story idea to published WP tale.
I am always thinking about ideas for stories 24/7. When I meet new people they become the basis for potential characters. When I am impressed by a physical location, a house, a town or village, I begin to picture that setting for a tale. My personal well-spring of ideas comes to me strongest when I am engaged in prolonged exercise-swimming, biking, hiking or running. During the vacuous monotony of these acts I can actually see in my mind the whole arc of an anticipated chapter materialize. It's as if I'm watching a video clip of it. Then I just go back later and write it all down. This is a very special and inexplicable process which I somehow thankfully possess.
Did you encounter any challenges when writing? How did you overcome them?
My only challenges to writing anything are hunger, sleep, and other bodily functions which can not be denied. Fortunately, I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account so my productivity is maximized.
What does "writing well" mean to you?
I happen to be in love with the well-crafted, precise, and beautifully expressed sentence. I will work with one obsessively until I am happy-not only with the way it may grace the page, but the way it sounds upon being read aloud. Is that crazy? Yes! Being a fan of poetry and the short story, and the Sisyphean act of trying to get them published in literary magazines has fostered this personal OCD of mine. But the trade off is-it can enhance one's writing.
