ELF: What do you do to mentor others?
Willard Thompson:
I still participate in writers' conferences, but I really enjoy coaching or mentoring new writers one-on-one. Right now, I’m working with several writers, all of whom have different writing goals. One older gentleman I’m working with has a very interesting fiction project. I don’t think he really knew just how innovative and creative it was until we started working together on it. Not all the people I coach are working to write the next best seller. Some just want to improve on their writing skills for their personal satisfaction, some are working on memoirs they want to leave for their families. Any of your followers can get more information on my coaching approach by going to my website WillardThompsonBooks.com
Over the 20-plus years I have been seriously writing fiction, I’ve seen and participated in any number of workshops and writing groups and writers conferences. All have their strengths and weaknesses. A writing group first encouraged me to submit my work for publication; the Santa Barbara Writers Conference awarded me my first writing prize; and I’ve found great satisfaction in some writing groups I’ve been a member of. So, there is not “one way” to become a proficient writer. But the single most important experience I personally had in my path was working one-on-one with an accomplished writer. That is one reason I try to give back by being a writing coach for new writers who come to me for advice.
The man with whom I worked closely was not a novelist; he was a playwright. He taught me to approach my novels as if I were writing a play. First and foremost, he taught me how to write dialog. Dialog is a technique that moves the story forward and provides clues to the speaker’s personality but is not just how people talk. He also taught me story structure: 3 acts; beginning, middle and end. And he taught me as an author how to get out of the way and let my characters tell the story so there is a more direct connection between characters and readers, just like in a stage play.
As mentioned, I have participated in several writers' groups. In fact, the man who mentored me in my writing was first a leader in a writers conference I attended and then led a small group I participated in before working one-on-one with him. From those experiences I learned to trust him. Young writers need to be very careful who they trust with their work. Some writers groups can have members who are negative or jealous of other members, and some conference leaders may not have the best interests of their students at heart.
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by
Willard Thompson
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GENRE: suspense/adventure/romance
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BLURB:
When Teresa Diaz's father
is arrested in an ICE raid in a Los Angeles area city and deported back to
Mexico, her family begins to come apart. She is a student at UCLA on a
scholarship for undocumented aliens (Dreamers) looking to have a life in the
U.S. in communications. Her brother in High school and her elementary school
sister begin having serious troubles without a father in the household.
At work in a fast-food drive-through, Teri, as she wants to be known is approached by a Mexican gangbanger who offers to take you to her father. Doubting the guy wants more than picking her up, she resists, but day by day, as her sister is sent home from school and her brother is brought home dunk by the police, she gives in and goes across the border with him. Against her wishes, he takes her to a beach house in Tijuana and leaves her. She learns that illegal activities are going on in the house but without transportation, and without a birth certificate --either Mexican or American-- she can't cross the border alone.
After several days,
virtually a prisoner, the owner of the house, a fat woman known as Mama Gorda
arranges to get her across the border with a young Mexican man who rides a fast
motorcycle. On the way, he takes her to lunch and there offers to talk her
deeper into Mexico to find her father. She agrees, travels in his private plane
and begins a romance while searching for her father in Michoacan state. The
more she becomes involved, the more she is involved in activities she doesn't
understand but suspects they're illegal.
Returning to Monte Vista,
her LA area home, still without her father, she finds she can no longer return
to UCLA, seeks a job, connects with a Latina who bullied her he school. When
her brother is arrested for jobbery, Teri returns to Mexico seeking help from
the people she suspects to belong to a cartel.
Ultimately, she is
sponsored by the people in Mexico to participate in the Miss Mexico contest,
not realizing it is the Cartel that is promoting her. In the end, she will face
a life-changing decision whether to continue her romance with the son of the
cartel's head or try to stand on her own. And whether to remain in Mexico or return
to LA.
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EXCERPT
Stepping off the bus from Westwood in Monte Vista is like
stepping into an alternate reality for me. Two white-haired Mexicans wearing
droopy mustaches and ostrich boots are sitting like statues on the bus stop
bench. As I start off toward home, they talk to each other in short,
machine-gun-like, bursts of Spanish. One looks up as I pass.
“Hola, Señorita,” he says, smiling so I can see his tobacco-stained teeth,
“Often I see you at this time. From where are you coming?”
I have no idea who he is, but I return his smile. “From
UCLA,” I tell him.
He nods. “Ah, Trojans,” and lapses back into silence.
“No. Bruins,” I tell him, and keep going, smiling to myself.
It must have been the tenth time the old man had asked me the same question.
The air is heavy with the aroma of simmering pork from a
taqueria I pass, but it morphs into the smell of warm bolillos at
the panadería next door. Farther along, three middle-aged women in
drab house dresses, stockings rolled down to mid-calf, stand at a table of
Norteño CDs. They're listening to Ramon Ayala’s voice coming from inside the
store and chatting back and forth.
Hurrying home, I pass two big-bellied teenage girls pushing
baby carriages. They stop to look up at the marque of our movie theater showing
“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” and then admire the riot of red, white, and
green piñatas hanging in the doorway of a shop spilling all sorts of
imported merchandise onto the street.
When Connie, my little sister, was a toddler, she used to be
dazzled by the sights and smells of the stores along Peck Road. Even now, a
curious fourth grader, she loves to linger over the assortment of trinkets when
papa takes her window shopping.
I never liked these shops the way Connie does. For me, Monte
Vista is my nightmare, haunting me with the memory of little Antonio. It isn’t
my world. The bus to Westwood each morning is my escape, three buses actually,
and two hours each way.
“This is your culture, Paloma. Your people,” my papa used to
tell me, holding my hand, walking together up Peck Road to Mass on Sundays.
“Embrace it,” he would say. “Es lo que somos.”
“I hate it, Papa,” I told him. “I want to be an American
girl.”
Two shaved-headed gangbangers in baggy clothes, begin
following me down the street, trash-talking to my back.
“Did ya see the nice tits on her?” one of them says loud
enough for everyone on the sidewalk to hear. “They were peeking out at me on
the bus. How soft they would feel in my hand.”
I cringe and quicken my pace. I want to turn around and tell
them to leave me alone, but I know to keep my mouth shut. There are enough
people on the street that I feel safe.
“But her legs, man,” the other one responds. “Think how
those long legs would feel wrapped around your neck.”
I do my best to shut out their words. I speed up, but they
keep pace. Men and women on the sidewalk give them a wide birth.
At Garvey Avenue, they turn left after shouting obscene
good-byes that describe what they would do to me if they ever got me alone.
When they disappear down the street, I feel the tension release from my
shoulders.
Only neighborhood people are sitting about on their porches
when I reach Magnolia, my street of small, pinched, two-story stucco houses,
with iron-barred windows and doors, secure behind chain-link fences. Our little
house, two in from the corner, is my father’s pride. Even though it's rented,
he always has the best-looking lawn and garden on the block. At Christmas, our
house is a riot of blinking colored lights, competing with the neighbors’
over-the-top decorations for the gaudiest display award.
A boy in a navy watch cap straddles his bike on the corner,
chatting up three girls. They are twelve- or thirteen-year-olds, heavy with
makeup and budding breasts, competing with each other for the boy’s
attention.
Across the street, an older couple sits in folding chairs by
their front door. Protected by their chain-link fence, they watch the teenagers
while tending a small hibachi on their front stoop.
“Hello, Mama,” I call out in the direction of the
kitchen, heading for the staircase. “You home? I smell dinner.”
“Teresa Maria, come back here.”
My mama hurries into the hall. Wiping her hands on her
apron, she comes to the bottom of the stairs. “Your papa not home yet.”
“Probably stopped for a beer with the men, Mama. I’m late
for work.”
“You eat with us when he gets home,” she scolds.
I continue to the top of the stairs. “I have a test
tomorrow, Mama. No time to eat anyway. Hey, you,” I call out as I go past my
brother’s room. I get a grunt in return. I stop and backtrack to his
doorway.
“How was practice?”
“I did good, Teri. Coach says some guys from the junior
college will be lookin’ at me during the season.”
“You, the man,” I say. Then give him a more serious look.
“How was the math test?”
“Not so hot.”
“I can help.”
“Yeah. Maybe.” It’s Rico’s standard response.
Connie and I share a room. Busy with scissors and paste on a
school project, she looks up and greets me with an ear-to-ear smile, showing
missing front teeth.
“How was school?”
“I’m making a hand puppet, Teresa,” she squeals with glee,
sweeping her dark bangs out of her eyes with the back of her hand. “We’re
having a puppet show in class tomorrow. Do you like my wolf?”
“Cool,” I tell her. “He looks big and bad.”
I change into my uniform, throwing my hair into a ponytail
and fastening the red and gold baseball cap around it. Before leaving the room,
I kneel by the side of the bed, facing the icon of the Virgin on my night
table. I whisper a prayer for Antonio. Connie stays respectfully quiet. When I
finish, I hurry back downstairs. Opening the front door, I call over my
shoulder, “I’ll eat at work, Mama. Tell papa hello.”
“No good for you,” I hear from the kitchen. I start back up
the street.
I get off work at eleven. Dreading two hours of cramming
still ahead, I hurry home. I keep throwing quick looks over my shoulder,
thinking about the gangbangers. Turning the corner onto Magnolia, I’m startled
to see my house ablaze with light. I stop for a moment and stare. The house
should be dark, with everyone in bed. I run. The front door is open.
Silhouetted just inside the living room, Mama sits hunched over on the edge of
the couch. Coming closer, I can see she’s crying.
“Mama…” I run the last few steps to embrace her. “What’s the
matter?”
“He don’t come home, Teresa Maria.” A sob escapes her
throat.
I start to feel apprehensive. My father doesn't hang out
drinking with other men “Did you call around, Mama? That’s not like him.”
“No one see him.” She starts crying again. I put my arms
around her, holding her until she stops crying. We talk about what to do.
“Don’t call the police,” she warns me.
She agrees to let me call County Hospital. I ask the woman
who answers if José Diaz has been admitted to the Emergency Room. She is
impatient, telling me there are four Diazs in her computer just now, and it
would take her several minutes to pull up each one to see if any are in
Emergency. “I’ll wait,” I tell her, adding a little attitude to my voice. “This
is important.”
Papa was not there.
Buy links:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
La Paloma is Willard Thompson new suspense/adventure/romance
novel inspired by current headlines. It’s set in present day Los Angeles,
California, and various cities in Mexico.
The Girl from the Lighthouse, published last year is
Thompson's Award-winning historical romance set in California and Paris, France
in the 1870s.
He is the gold medal-winning author of Dream Helper, the
first in The Chronicles of California series of three historical novels set in
the early days of the Golden State. He and his wife live in Santa Barbara,
California.
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