Thank you for joining us for part two of our conversation with novelist Elodia Strain. If you missed part one, click here.
Elodia, I understand that before you were a novelist, you were in advertising? How did your background in advertising influence your approach to writing a novel?
I think I may have thought more about the reader than I otherwise would have. Advertising taught me to think about my audience, and so when I wrote I thought a lot about that. I wanted to have my audience from word one and keep them riveted to the very end.
My work in advertising also helped me when it came to naming things like places, etc. This is actually one of my favorite parts of writing. For example, in “The Icing on the Cake,” Annabelle has worked for an organization called ‘Pets are People Too’, meets Isaac at Bob’s Bait and Tackle: “Where the Catchin’ is Good,” and eats pizza from a place called ‘Stuff Your Face Pizza.’ Writing this stuff is so fun for me!
Advertising also helps with the part that comes after the novel has been published—the part where you go to book signings and events to tell people about the book. In advertising I was taught that they key is to believe in your product. Well, the weird thing is, when I’m talking about the book, I kind of don’t feel like I’m talking about my own book. I feel like the characters wrote the story and that I was just the fingers getting it all down. The story makes me laugh, makes me feel uplifted, so it’s natural for me to tell others about it. It’s a very strange feeling.
Being a genealogy buff, I have to ask – your name is so beautiful and unusual. Where is it from? And your maiden name?
I am one-half Mexican-American. My father’s parents were from Mexico, and my name was my dad’s grandmother’s name. My dad told me it means “queen of the day,” which is just fine with me!
Saavedra, my maiden name, is a Spanish surname that is fairly common in Central and South America. The coolest part about it is that the writer of Don Quixote was actually named Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra. Most people just know the Cervantes, but I like to tell everyone about the Saavedra, because I like to think that I am distantly related to him. I like to think that writing is in my blood.
Thanks for joining us for this installment of our conversation with Elodia Strain. We’ll be concluding this interview tomorrow. Be sure to join us then, and in the meantime, you can visit Elodia at her website.
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