An Interview With A. J. Garrotto

Interview by Lynn Goodwin, Editor

Haven's List (Feb. 2000)

How long have you been writing?

I've been writing professionally since 1979 when the writing bug first bit. Up to that time, I was living on another plane of existence that demanded strong public speaking skills but not much formal writing. In 1979 and 1980, I put together some adult religious education materials I'd developed during my years as a Roman Catholic priest and sold them as a three-volume set to Winston Press (MN). With that publishing success, I was hooked . . . for life.

Did you find the story of Analisa in your experience, your imagination or both? (The first line of your dedication intrigues me.)

The basic premise of Finding Isabella comes from adopting our two daughters in Central America in the late 1980s (thus "my two Analisas" in the dedication. I learned through that experience that there are two sides to adoption, referred to as the "gains and losses" of adoption. The rest emerged from my imagination.

Was the story triggered by a character or an event? See above. Have you had an encounter with a group like Los Dejados?

Believe it or not I have, although not as violent as Los Dejados. For dramatic purposes, I pushed the concept to its extreme. In 1988, my wife and I were on a panel about adoption on a local (San Francisco) talk show. A woman in the audience spoke passionately against international and cross-cultural adoptions (stressing the "losses" of adoption: mainly the loss of family, birthright, language, and culture). This was my first exposure to the darker side of adoption. Before Finding Isabella came out, I received several e-mail messages from people who were outraged that I would write a book that featured a militant anti-adoption group. I believe I have presented both sides of the issue, with respect for both sides (although I confess a bias in favor of the adoption of relinquished and abandoned children).

You write so believably about the feelings of an adopted woman. What enables you to imagine her point of view?

Living with two adolescent female adoptees certainly helps. I've also had a great deal of volunteer experience working with an international adoption agency in the training of new adoptive parents.

The settings from Moraga to Anaheim, places I know, are perfectly detailed. How did you research all that is in Santo Sangre or is it a composite community?

I live in Contra Costa County (CA) in the San Francisco Bay Area and am familiar with St. Mary's College, Moraga. I also lived in the Anaheim/Seal Beach areas for ten years, before moving to Northern California. My first assignment as a priest was St. Boniface Parish (Anaheim), images of which I use in Finding Isabella. Santo Sangre is a fictional composite of El Salvador and Honduras, from which we adopted our daughters.

How do you hope readers will be changed by your novel?

I want them to understand the adoption triad better (birth mother, child, adoptive parents), not from a clinical professional viewpoint, but from insight into their joys, anxieties, fears, hopes, fantasies. I also want them to identify with Analisa at the end of the book and understand how her life experience influences how she feels about herself and motherhood on the last page of the book. How changed? I hope my readers will tell me how this story affects them.

What piece of writing advice has helped you the most?

Most helpful was the advice to give myself permission to write a perfectly dreadful first draft. Just get the story on paper (beginning, middle, end). Not much of the first draft of Finding Isabella survived to the final version. The real writing begins with the second draft.

What advice can you give about marketing?

First, author participation in marketing is essential. The smaller the press, the more involved the author must be in finding avenues to expose the book to the public and boost sales. If you don't want to market, there's not much point in publishing.

Second, see if there's a special niche market you can reach. For example, in marketing Finding Isabella I am targeting every international adoption agency I can find an address for (thanks to Internet search engines). I especially want adopting and adoptive parents to read this book.

Third, I've contacted over 200 English- and Spanish-language newspaper book reviewers around the country. I hoped to get two reviews from these, but we have about 8 or 10 now who asked for advance copies.

Fourth, network, network, network. Online. Offline. At church. Clubs. Anywhere. Hard as it is, we must be shameless (but humble?) self-promoters. And finally, write for the pleasure of it, not for the money. It has taken me a long time to arrive at this. I now have modest financial expectations (and a day job in freelance writing and part-time church ministry). Any review, interview, book signing, panel discussion--no matter how small--receives my best effort and dedication. One reason I write is to pass on to my children a body of writing they can read later in life and share with their children. They'll get to know a part of my spirit that they missed in our everyday living together.

How did you find your publisher?

Although I have an agent, I actually found Genesis Press through a fellow author who had just placed a book with them. It was a perfect match with their Tango 2 imprint, since my stories have strong hispanic themes.

What is next for A. J. Garrotto?

I'm currently working on a third novel that might be suitable for Tango 2, although I have not yet submitted it. The general theme is the healing power of love. After that, I'd like to try for a real mainstream novel, but I say that every time.

Where can we find Finding Isabella?

It's available by order through your local bookstore. I don't expect to see it on the shelves, unless it finds an audience (a la Bridges of Madison County). The three major online book sellers (Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, Borders.com) have it. 

(Author photo by Hunter Anderson)

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