Today’s guest is an author with amazing spirit and spunk! She wrote and published her first novel while in college and is working on her third. In addition, she runs a book blog where she shares reviews of all the pageturners that capture her attention. This is a great article to share with the young, aspiring writers in your family because Sandra is proof that it’s never too early to manifest one’s dreams. Way to go, Sandra! Her essay is below…
Coming back a celebrity
By Sandra Lopez
Sometime ago, I got an email from a lady that works for the district. She was ecstatic to learn from the Internet that I was from the local area and now an AUTHOR. She called me a great role model for young kids and absolutely insisted that I meet up with her to discuss a possibility of talking to the classrooms of the district. So that’s what I did.
I met up with Ann (that’s her name, BTW), who hit the floor at the first sight of me (maybe I should’ve brushed my hair or something, or it might have something to do with the fact that I’m some sort of celebrity now.) Anyway, after she breathed a few times, I proceeded to talk about how I got started in writing and what, if anything, led me to take on this goal when I was in school. For a second, I thought Ann was going to have a stroke. Apparently, she couldn’t contain herself because before I could even say anything else, she rushed to the phone to ask if the superintendent could spare a few moments to meet me at that point. Then ten minutes later, we met up with the superintendent, who I relayed my life story and writing career to. Both of them were so amazed by my accomplishment that they purchased 8 copies of my books right on the spot. Even the secretary was in awe. And when I told him that I was the designer of my website, they were that much more impressed.
By the end of the meeting, they referred me as “a product of their school system.” It actually made me wonder: Did I have anything to do this, or was it all them?
In any sense, it was good to go back and recall all those memories in school. I even met up with my old Vice Principal in Jr. High. Of course, he didn’t remember me, but I remembered him (vaguely). See, I’m not that old.
It’s going to be great to speak to the students next year. I will tell all of them that it IS possible to make something of yourself and come back a celebrity.
Sandra’s Bio: Born and raised in Hawaiian Gardens, CA, Sandra C. López is one of today’s influential Latina authors in Young Adult literature. Her first novel, Esperanza: A Latina Story, was published in March 2008 WHILE she was still in college. Shortly after that, she wrote the follow up to Esperanza called Beyond the Gardens, published in October 2009. Now, this young writer is a full graduate of Cal State University Fullerton with a BFA in the arts. She was named as one of “2011 Top Ten New Latino Authors to Watch” by Latino Stories. See Sandra at the Tucson Festival of Books.
Felicidades,
Kathy 🙂