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Thursday, June 12, 2014

Author Interview with Jorge E. Ancheytta


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I am very honored to have local author Jorge E. Ancheytta on my blog. He's the author of the children's book, The Last Garden.



Welcome to Vonnie’s Reading Corner! Please describe the world you created in your book.

The Last Garden takes place in the present day. It is an apocalyptic, dark plot. Destruction and darkness are everywhere. There are dead trees, rusted out vehicles, collapsed buildings as far as the eye can see. Oh, yeah, let’s not forget the demons.


    Where did you get the inspiration to write the The Last Garden?
TLG, is a bedtime story we created with my 12 year old son, Jorge, AKA: Coco. He created the characters and I created the story line. My intention was to have a story for him to read. He’s not a fan of reading and I thought this way he would be forced to read. It worked. I never imagined it would turn into a book.

     The main characters are Heidi, Checo, and Coco. What three words would you use to describe each of these characters?
The characters are based on my son (Coco, 12), my niece (Heidi, 14), and my nephew (Checo, 11). The characters are older than their actual age, but I took their physical characteristics and their personalities and gave it to the characters. Checo is the funny one. Coco is the calmed one. Heidi is very analytical. 

      Give us a random quote from The Last Garden.
“Her whole hand began to mutate into something that appeared to be a bear claw.”
  

     What do you hope to accomplish with your book?
It changed the way my son looks at reading. I want my book to do the same for others.
 
     Who designed the book cover?
My friend Martin Pinedo did an awesome job. He took a lot of pictures of my son, niece and nephew. He illustrated them as he imagined they would look like when they get as old as the characters; 17, 18 and 19 years of age.

If this was to be turned into a movie, who would you like to see play your characters?
I would be Okay with anyone except Justin Bieber.
    

     Did you ever think you were going to become a published author?
Never. That was not my intention. What I wanted was to have something to share with my son. Then, I started sharing the story with my friends and family, they were the ones who encouraged me to pursue that path. Now, book one of the series has been published. TLG is now a trilogy.

It is great to see another Latino author making it into the literature world. How do you feel about that?
This world of letters is amazing. I don’t know how far this project is going to go. All I want to do is tell stories that have never been told before and entertain young minds with them. I want young readers to read my books and fall in love with reading. I don’t want them to just read them. I want them to visualize them. I want to make them feel like they have a movie projector inside their head and when they read my lines I want that projector to be going one hundred miles per hour. I have achieved that with my son. I am proud of that accomplishment. That was my goal at the beginning of this journey. Whatever happens next, it will be just a huge bonus.

     If you were written about in the newspaper, on the front page, what would the headline say?
My story has been featured in a few local newspapers including La Opinion. Each reporter has entitled the interview as the saw it. Here are a couple of examples:

Latinheat.com called it, “The Last Garden a trilogy: X-men meet Harry Potter.”

Norwalk Now called it, “From Father-son Bedtime Story to Hollywood Feature?”

But there’s one I like above all…

La Opinion called it, “Padre e hijo se unen en obra literaria.”

If all I achieve with this project is for people to know me as the dad who wrote a story with his son, I think I’ll be Okay with that.
 

Thank you Mr. Ancheytta for taking the time to answer my questions!

Visit Jorge E. Ancheytta at:


In a remote mountain hideaway, Heidi, her brother Checo, and their cousin Coco live with some of the last humans on earth. Their world was destroyed long ago by a force known only as The Shadow, and only a few survived. When Heidi's and Checo's father crosses over to the dark side, the trio is called upon to find and rescue him. They learn that their father possesses the key to the mystery of the world's destruction and possibly the answers to their future. Armed with three instruments endowed with special powers, Heidi, Checo and Coco bravely descend to the dark side, not knowing what they'll see and who they'll meet. Joined by Koby, a dark side inhabitant, who is on their side, the teens seek both the man and the truth. What they discover on their adventurous journey is far from what they expect, and they soon find themselves faced with the task of saving both their own lives and the lives of those they love.

Review of this book will soon come, so stay tuned!

2 comments:

  1. TERRIFIC interview, Vonnie!!! You asked some great questions, and gave us readers a nice peek into how this author created his story. I also like the fact that Ancheytta is giving his son credit for co-writing the story. That's so AWESOME.

    The plot of the book itself is very interesting -- it sounds very exciting!! So I'm really looking forward to getting a copy and reading it! And yes, Latino authors do need to get more publicity. It's very sad that they don't....so it's FABULOUS that you're helping to get the word out about this book, and this author!!

    Thanks for bringing this to us!! : )

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    1. Thank you, Maria! I too agree that Latino authors don't get as much recognition and I am determined that they do.

      The book looks amazing and I cannot wait to read it. The fact that this is a father and son project makes me love it already.

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