Speaker 1: Ah, there's Cindy Favey. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: How are you doing today, Miss Cindy.
Speaker 1: I am so excited, really thrilled to be here.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm excited to share a conversation with you because
I too, am a writer as well as a published author.
And the fact that you are releasing two books at
the same time, you are in touch with what is
really going on in the world, because this is where
people are. They want to binge watch, they want to
binge read, they want something that they can go to
immediately or read simultaneously.
Speaker 1: Yes, I feel very lucky of two books on the
same day coming out.
Speaker 2: In that amazing How did that even happen? Because there's
no way that I could write two books at the
same time. What was the separation period?
Speaker 1: And this is the real story. I started writing this
books a long time ago in nineteen ninety five. Book one, Danger,
No Problem, Book two Sunday or the High Rate. For
the longest time, Row, I couldn't find an agent, I
couldn't find a publisher, yep. But when the time finally
came that an agent signed me, she was able to
offer publishers two books, all written and ready, and so
that is how it happened. Thomasin Musser decided since I
am ready my books are ready, that they would publish
both books simultaneously.
Speaker 2: Wow wow see And that inspires me because how many
writers will they? You know, they start getting those negative letters,
say no, no, no, no, no, no no no no,
and they stop, and you prove to yourself that I
am not going to stop. I'm going to continue writing
because obviously I have to do it.
Speaker 1: Exactly, it was basically a gamble. That's the thing with
fiction because unlike nonfiction, with fiction, you actually have to
finish writing your book before you can even approach an
agent or an editor and publisher. And so with me,
I just get I kept getting rejected, but I figured,
you know what, no matter what happens, the stories I
have to write, I am destined to write this book,
and I just wrote them. So basically I took the gamble.
I took a chance and the gamble paid off.
Speaker 2: Yeah see, I love talking it. I love that because
once again, you took a chance, and that isn't that
what being creative is all about. We take chances and
if you fall on your face, you pick yourself back
up and you do.
Speaker 1: It again exactly. Yea.
Speaker 2: So now to put these stories together and you're holding
on to them. To me, I call that fermenting time.
How As that author, didn't you go in there and
rewrite Because we're perfectionist, Cindy, we really are, and we'll
go in there and you have one of those moments
where we feel like we've got a better idea.
Speaker 1: I because I've written Book one specifically a long time ago,
and I kept getting rejected. I actually had to adapt. Originally,
I had written this book as a literary novel, and
all the agents and all the publishers were telling me
that it was a very uncommercial book. I had a
Philippine American protagonist and it talks about immigration, and so
they told me right off the bat, this are this
is really tough. So and so after a while it
occurred to me to rewrite the entire book from a
different point of view. Originally, my Domingo, the bounty hunter protagonist,
was just a secondary character. But I wrote it completely
and I wrote it from his point of view. Once
I did that, the book became a thriller because he
is a bounty hunter and he is all about the chase.
And once my book became a thriller. It organically became commercial.
That is how I got a literary agent to sign
me up once I have written it and made it
into a thriller. That is also how she was able
to sell the books. I think that if I had
stopped writing this serious, you know, literary fiction, I'd still
be unpublished today.
Speaker 2: See I understand that term because I mean, you've got
to learn how to find out where your voice is
when it comes to the literacy world, because and you know,
for some people they may never find it, or others
feel like they know it, but like you're discovering here
is that? Well, no, you had to be in some
paths and stuff in order to find a different writing voice.
Speaker 1: Exactly. I think as a writer, you writer yourself. I
think we have to ask ourselves why are you writing?
You know? You know, for maybe for literary novelists, it's
really because they want to write that serious book. For me,
I am writing because I want to introduce Silpin American
characters to mainstream readers. And I felt that if Rollo
is the best chance for me to introduce my people
to readers, that I was more than willing to do it.
It was it's exactly the same story, it's just from
a different point of view.
Speaker 2: Please do not move. There's more with Cindy Fosse coming
up next, the creator of Domingo the Bounty Hunter. We're
back with Cindy Fosse. And you know what I find
out very fascinating about authors is the fact that you're
doing something that a lot of people can't do, and
that is that you are captivating the imagination of one
person at a time. Whereas in radio we try to
talk to a group of people, television a group of people,
but as that author you are, you are sharing that
story with one set of eyes at a time.
Speaker 1: It is fiction is very personal. Yes, I believe arrow
that when I write the book. While I'm writing the book,
the book is mine. But today, on release day, the
book is the books are no longer mine. And by God,
I mean that once the reader picks up that book,
they may read that book according to their own perspective.
They're gonna maybe they're going to get exactly the way
I want them to get it, but maybe they're going
to inject their own experiences and look at it in
a completely different way. That is the beauty of fiction.
I think I share that with the reader. It is
not just my book now it is also the reader's book.
Speaker 2: How do you handle those moments though, when when a
book or many books arrive at the house in a box,
because now you physically have those books, and it's almost
like the first step of your mind, body and soul
saying it doesn't belong to you anymore. Go ahead, do
what you got to do as a real person. And
then and then you've got to relinquish it. It's theirs
and you, like you said, I love that when you
say it's their interpretation of your story. It's now theirs
to continue growing with it.
Speaker 1: Exactly. You know, a lot of the beginning, like with
my very first book, I felt very I don't know,
I felt like, oh, this is my book. But I
think I learned along the way that no matter what,
people are going to read it the way they want
to read it, and it should be. That should be
how it's supposed to be. Fiction is very very personal
and it is subjective and they own that and I
give it to them. And so ultimately, as a writer,
arrow you and I we have to think of writing
as the ultimate way to give it is really giving
that story to the reader.
Speaker 2: So true. That is so true. I never thought of
it that way. That it is giving.
Speaker 1: It's really if you have to think of it that
way otherwise, you know, are you going to get bothered
when people criticize it? Because that is the flip side
of it. When people read it, Oh, they might think
all kinds of horrible things about it. That is fine too,
that because that is how they see it. And so
once you once you accept that as a writer, you're
a giver. You're giving that story away the reader, the world,
then everything is cool, positive, negative, it's okay.
Speaker 2: What what I do at that time, Cindy, is that
when I get a bad critique and stuff like that,
what I'll do is I try to turn it around
and say, what would you have done? What if you
were put in the same situation, your fingers on that keyboard,
what would you have done in this situation to regain
the confidence and the and the attention of that reader
and and get Now they're part of the the You know,
you've got to get a solution somewhere, So make them
a part of your solution.
Speaker 1: I always learn from feedback, so positive or negative. But
I think that the one thing though, is once you
have that mindset that writing is giving, you don't get
crushed with every negative comment. But they say, oh, these
characters so hard to understand. I take something from that,
and you know that's always at the back of my
mind with the next book. But at least I don't
feel like devastated, you know, because I felt like it's okay,
you know, I give I give it to you willingly.
Speaker 2: Now are you going to market Domingo in the way
of you know, because I mean when you got Domingo
the Bounty Hunter first of all, those those words right
there say that that to me is a selling point.
That's stuffed animals, that's other books that are going to
follow that. There's so much there to Domingo the Bounty Hunter.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I'm really hoping that books wanted to it
would fly and you know, everybody would enjoy it. I
think here's what's the unique good. My protagonist, Domingo is
the first brown immigrant, the first silpin American bounty hunter
in a novel in The Bounty Hunter truth. Yes, and
so I really theo it is again, I am taking
that chance. It's a big gamble. I am subverting the
trope because when we think of bounty hunter, we think
of Dog the bounty Hunter. Yes, who, by the way,
is very very gracious. He actually reached out to me
and came up and he's very gracious. But it's true
that when we think of Boundy Hunter, we think of
Don the bounce Hunter. We think of white male bounty hunters.
And so I'm hoping that readers are ready for Domingo
the Bounty Hunter.
Speaker 2: Wow, Cindy, You've got to come back to this show
anytime in the future because I love growing with an
author as they continue really to release their brand new books,
and I just I really want you to be on
that list to where every year we get to talk.
Speaker 1: I would love to thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Will you'd be brilliant? And thank you for giving yourself
permission to continue on with being an author, because, like
I said before, other people would have given up. You
have not. And because of that, look at how many
lives are going to change inside their imaginations.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Erro, will you be brilliant today? Okay,