Episode 163 with Margo Candela: Author of the Neapolitan Sisters, Skilled Writer of Dialogue, Page-Turning Drama, and Fleshed-Out, Compelling Characters

Episode 163 Notes and Links to Margo Candela’s Work   

 

   On Episode 163 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Margo Candela, and the two discuss, among other things, her love for her local library, her bilingualism, formative books and writers, writing The Neapolitan Sisters between other books, the book’s interesting and skillful takes on POV, sex scenes, and challenging cliches, her love of dialogue. and the storylines and histories that make her characters so interesting and completing and sympathetic. 

 

   Margo Candela was born and raised in Los Angeles and began her writing career when she joined Glendale Community College’s student newspaper. She transferred to San Francisco State University as a journalism major, and upon graduation began writing for websites and magazines before writing her first two novels, Underneath It All and Life Over Easy. She returned to Los Angeles to raise her son and wrote More Than This and Good-bye to All That. The Neapolitan Sisters is her fifth novel and her first after a decade-long hiatus from writing. She now lives in San Francisco.

 

       

Buy The Neapolitan Sisters

 

Margo Candela's Website

 

Booklist Review for The Neapolitan Sisters

 

Facebook for Author Margo Candela

 

Instagram: @MargoCandela 

Twitter: @MargoCandela 

 

Subscribe to Margo Candela's Newsletter

At about 7:25, Margo describes her earliest reading, her bilingualism, and her relationship with words

 

At about 9:15, Pete’s got jokes (en español!) 

 

At about 9:40, Margo talks of the enchantment on Pepper Avenue

 

At about 12:55, Margo responds to Pete’s question: “Did you feel represented in what you read?”

 

At about 14:50, Margo discusses some honesty/challenges to cliche in her book

 

At about 17:00, Margo and Pete discuss the book as a “saga,” and how Margo wrote the book through a “hiatus”

 

At about 19:00, Margo relates how Toni Kirkpatrick and her interacted in the manuscript and publishing phases of the book

 

At about 21:00, Pete asks Margo about any challenges with continuity/seamlessness around POV

 

At about 24:00, Margo gives background on the work she did and her philosophy about writing dialogue

 

At about 26:45, Margo gives some background on the character of Claudia and her dialogue

 

At about 29:05, Pete recounts the early events of the book and asks Margo about Maritza

 

At about 32:00, Pete and Margo characterize Auggie and his relationship with Maritza

 

At about 33:50, Claudia as a “giver” is described, as well as the reasons for her versatile and hardened demeanor

 

At about 36:10, Margo explains how she wrote the Hollywood scenes in the book, including basing some work dynamics on Margo’s own experiences 

 

At about 38:15, Pete uses a quote from the book that connects the girls’ parenting and Claudia’s mental health awareness

 

At about 40:20, Margo describes a story involving maraschino cherries that is illustrative of Maritza’s stubbornness 

 

At about 42:30, Pete wonders if Maritza is in love with Auggie, and Margo’s answer is intricate and perhaps surprising 

 

At about 44:40, Dooley and her background and her motivations are described

 

At about 48:00, Pete wonders about the girls’ parents, especially the father, and their lack of active parenting; Margo notes the reasoning for the parents’ depictions  

 

At about 50:45, Pete shouts out Ethan Jacobs, “too-good-to-be-true” and his relationship with Claudia, including how Claudia’s history plays in

 

At about 52:20, Margo explains the importance of the sex scenes in the book

 

At about 54:05, Pete offers to help Margo get Fabio for a future book cover

 

At about 54:50, The two talk about the sisters reconciling and telling old stories about their childhoods, with beautiful and tragic memories

 

At about 56:00, Pete highlights a stunning and sad and well-drawn scene involving Dooley

 

At about 56:50, Margo responds to Pete’s question about how she knew the book was done

 

At about 1:00:15, Margo does some casting (Selena Gomez! Chris Evans!) in case the book goes to the big or small screen

 

At about 1:02:40, Margo talks about future projects

 

At about 1:03:20, Margo shouts out Books, Inc. and Green Apple Books, among others, as good places to buy her book, and Margo reminds readers to do reviews(!) and gives out contact info and her newsletter info and shouts out Porto’s (sooo good)

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   Please tune in for Episode 164 with Yasmin Ramirez. She is a 2021 Martha's Institute of Creative Writing Author Fellow as well as a 2020 recipient of the Woody and Gayle Hunt-Aspen Institute Fellowship Award. Her outstanding memoir is ¡Ándale, Prieta!

   The episode will air on February 3.