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Finding Magic in Life & Words
by Sylvia Mendoza
Feburary 28, 2008
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Mrs. V's Reviews
GO TO ACTUAL ARTICLE HERE!
Yesterday Rogelia's House of Magic by Jamie Martinez Wood came in the mail. I had been so excited to receive it that I set aside the other two books I was reading to get started on it. I read until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, and continued today to finish it. The three main character teen girls each have distinct personalities and dreams, but are linked together by magic and friendship. Under the guidance of Rogelia, a curandera, they learn magic and begin to overcome their individual obstacles and become better people by realizing the power within.
Xochitl is grieving the loss of her twin sister, and in the process has lost faith in magic. This is a theme that many people going through difficult times can relate to whether it is losing faith in magic, such as Xochitl, or losing faith in other core beliefs. Xochitl is not sure whether or not she can trust her new friends or if they are just using her because of their fascination with curanderismo that they can learn from her grandmother Rogelia. Xochitl's magical talent is the ability to disappear, but she has to learn that she should not use the talent to run away when faced with fears.
If you would like a press kit, please send request to Jamie@jamiewood.com
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BLOG CRITICS MAGAZINE
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Written by Mayra Calvani
Published June 02, 2008
A former assistant to reknown literary agent Julie Castiglia, Jamie Martinez Wood is the author of several books in the young adult and nonfiction categories, including The Enchanted Diary, Como Te Llamas, Baby? and A to Z of Latino Americans: Latino Writers and Journalists, for which she recently won the 2008 International Latino Book Awards for Best Reference Book.
Congratulations on the award and thanks for this interview, Jaime. Why don't you begin by teling us about your latest young adult novel, Rogelia's House of Magic?
If you would like a press kit, please send request to Jamie@jamiewood.com
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BOOK CHIC CLUB
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Author Interview- Jamie Martinez Wood
1) How did you get the idea for Rogelia's House of Magic?
Since I've got four books on earth magic (two directed for teens) and two books on Latino culture, the editor came to me asking if I could write a book about Latinas, teens, and magic. I had the basic structure, and beyond that I knew there had to be a mentor. As a practicing Wiccan, mentors have been key in my magical and spiritual life. Magic is actually much more complex than memorizing some chant or finding rare herbs or incense for a potion. It's a matter of recognizing patterns, reading symbols, and above all a deep connection with nature. The mentor, in this case, Rogelia, a curandera (spiritual healer,) would guide Fern, Marina, and Xochitl, the characters in the book. I also wanted to show the different subcultures within Latino heritage. Lastly I wanted the book to be based in Orange County, California, because I've lived here all my life and have such a love-hate relationship with the place, it's perfect for novels.
2) This is your seventh book, but your first fiction novel. What brought about this move from non-fiction to fiction? And YA fiction, at that?
I began as a fiction writer for children, having studied at the Institute for Children's Literature. My greatest dream was to have an article published by Highlights Magazine (the one they usually have in dentists' offices). I always knew I'd write for teens – it's the reason I have a shoebox full of notes passed in class and all my diaries and yearbooks. I even kept corsages I got from dances with little notes tied to them about the highlights of the evening! I've lost most of these. The point was to remember, the best I could, about what it meant to be a teen, bursting full with so much emotion and dreams. I wanted to be a true mentor through my love of writing for that time of life when I felt not only much feeling, but also so alone. My first published article was for a magazine called Listen. It was an article from the point of view of a girl watching her friend suffer from bulimia.
If you would like a press kit, please send request to Jamie@jamiewood.com
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By NANCY REDWINE
CUIDAD LOS ANGELES
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Jamie Martinez-Wood mixes spells, drama, and growing pains
She writes about magic, but not the abracadabra kind, nor anything like what the sexy witches on Charmed would have you believe. Jamie Martinez-Wood’s brand of magia is earthy and rooted in her Latina heritage. She’s written many books on the subject, as well as a textbook with more than 100 biographical essays called Latino Writers and Journalists, which earned her a 2008 International Latino Book Award. At a time when Latina authors are just beginning to get the attention they deserve in the publishing world, Martinez-Wood stands out as a writer who focuses on what she loves, rather than what the publishers want Latinas to write about. In her new book, Rogelia’s House of Magic (Delacorte Press) Martinez-Wood explores a world of magic as three teenage girls spend a summer full of spells, drama, and growing pains (no, Kirk Cameron does not make a cameo). Here she discusses her new book and the magic that inspires her.—Ileanna Portillo
Where did you get the idea for the relationship between the protagonist, Marina, and her mother, an arrogant and pushy woman?
I think all Latina mothers are something like Marina’s mother.
Did you have a mother like that?
Totally! I actually had to tone Marina’s mother down. My first editor, who grew up in New York, said, “This is child abuse!” I’m like, “No, it’s just life in the 1980s with a Mexican mother.” I called her Juanita Crawford. She was so bad! My mom’s maiden name is Martinez, and when I took her maiden name she scoffed. She grew up having friends who couldn’t hang out with her because she was Hispanic.
If you would like a press kit, please send request to Jamie@jamiewood.com
READ MORE HERE!
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Article by: Aurora Anaya-Cerda
LATIN WEEK NY
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This week I spoke to author Jamie Martinez Wood. She was eager to share the news about her debut novel, “Rogelia’s House of Magic,” in which three fifteen-year-old girls find friendship and special powers as they are trained in the ways of curanderismo by a wise old woman. In one amazing summer, their lives will change forever. Geared towards readers ages 12 and up, “Rogelia’s House of Magic” is enjoyable combination of mystery, magic, and friendship.
10 Questions
with Jamie Martinez Wood
1. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Orange County, California, when there were more orange groves and less people
2. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
In Ms. Kneedler's second grade class. My first story was about a runaway hamburger. The second one was called The Floating Bed and I still have it, complete with pictures. I have all my diaries and a shoebox full of notes passed in class from junior high and high school because I always knew I wanted to write for teens.
3. What was the inspiration behind Rogelia's House of Magic?
If you would like a press kit, please send request to Jamie@jamiewood.com
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LISTEN HERE:
A diary helps you...
1) Find your voice. Being a teen there are so many things thrown at you, spending time along with your thoughts helps you decide which thoughts are yours, and which are opinions of someone else. Knowing and trusting who you are improves your self-esteem.
2) Organize and articulate your feelings, opinions, or thoughts,
3) Separate drama from reality. When you write, you get a chance to realize your responsibility in a situation and save "face" at the same time. You see things from a more objective position.
4) Process your feelings - like going from rage to anger to sadness to hope.
5) Express things you might never say outloud.
6) Set goals and visualize your dreams
Questions Jamie answered include: How can I convince my child that I won't read her diary? Should I read my child's diary? What questions should I ask myself when I write in my diary? Is it okay that I most often write dark, horrible thoughts?
Want to know more? Go to...
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Sarah-Newton
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By PAT MICHAELS
From The Orange County Register
Kevin Wood walks in from the garage where he's doing the laundry and holds up a black T-shirt that says "Witch and Famous" in white letters.
"That's Jamie," he says about his wife.
Meet Jamie Wood, modern-day witch.
She's a wife and mom who lives in a two-story house in Costa Mesa with a view of a park and "MAJIK" written on the mirrors. She likes butterflies, hummingbirds and fairies, and has a blue butterfly tattoo on the nape of her neck. She lights candles and burns incense when she pays the household bills to make an onerous chore seem a little fun.
If you would like a press kit, please send request to Jamie@jamiewood.com
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From the Staff of The LatinaVoz.com
As gifted as Isabel Allende, Sandra Cisneros and Rudolfo Anaya -- the stars of the book cover -- are, the treasure of Jamie Martinez Wood's "Latino Writers and Journalists" compilation is the personal way she gathers scattered literary "jewels" into one tome.
Wood interviewed more than 70 of the 150 writers she profiles in a book that defies one-niche-fits-all categorization. Reference-style, the book's indices group and regroup the writers by age, subject matter, style, ethnicity and year of birth covering topics from oral storytelling to the expatriate experience to Nuyorican literature to border culture to feminist issues to Cuban-American literature to postmodern works to the Chicano Movement to gay/lesbian issues to magic realism to the immigrant experience to Native literature to the barrio experience to social protest writings to New Mexican literature and beyond.
If you would like a press kit, please send request to Jamie@jamiewood.com
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Los orígenes literarios hispanos son puestos al descubierto
La Palma
Por LORRAINE CARBONELL LADISH
Friday, September 21, 2007
READ ENGLISH TRANSLATION HERE
Diseñado principalmente como libro de texto para escuelas, el libro Latino Writers and Journalists escrito por Jamie Martinez Wood incluye los perfiles de más de 150 escritores y periodistas latinos.
Cada una de las entradas del libro comienza con un párrafo que explica los logros más relevantes de cada persona. Luego sigue una biografía y finalmente una lista de lecturas sugeridas.
Según su autora, se trata de una colección de historias motivacionales que explican cómo autores y periodistas de éxito tuvieron inicios muy humildes.
If you would like a press kit, please send request to Jamie@jamiewood.com
READ MORE HERE!
READ ENGLISH TRANSLATION HERE!
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It's a good time to be a witch, says a Costa Mesa wife, mom and author of 'The Enchanted Diary.'
By VALERIE TAKAHAMA
From The Orange County Register
Kevin Wood walks in from the garage where he's doing the laundry and holds up a black T-shirt that says "Witch and Famous" in white letters.
"That's Jamie," he says about his wife.
Meet Jamie Wood, modern-day witch.
She's a wife and mom who lives in a two-story house in Costa Mesa with a view of a park and "MAJIK" written on the mirrors. She likes butterflies, hummingbirds and fairies, and has a blue butterfly tattoo on the nape of her neck. She lights candles and burns incense when she pays the household bills to make an onerous chore seem a little fun.
If you would like a press kit, please send request to Jamie@jamiewood.com
READ MORE HERE!
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By Cyndie Claypool de Neve
North County Times
As a Wiccan, Jamie Wood noticed that the ceremonies she and her fellow witches celebrated lacked a significant ingredient: food that represented each nature-based festival.
Though the Wiccans would gather in Cardiff to honor the changing seasons, said Wood, the potluck meals that followed rarely included produce from the appropriate time of year.
"A lot of times the food didn't coincide with the ceremony," explained Wood, a children's book author and former Encinitas resident.
If you would like a press kit, please send request to Jamie@jamiewood.com
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By NANCY REDWINE
Santa Cruz Sentinel
The Middle Ages are not exactly considered a time of high culinary achievement. The Medieval kitchen was blurred with smoke, hung with smelly carcasses and populated with goats and chickens.
So why would anyone want to read a cookbook that bases itself in a period of time most people are glad to not have been born into?
Combining a gentle introduction to Wicca, the history of Medieval cooking and eating, with a solar-calendar-based collection of recipes — ancient and modern — "The Wicca Cookbook: Recipes, Ritual and Lore" weaves a convincing case for looking at the wisdom — culinary and spiritual — of that formative period of human history.
If you would like a press kit, please send request to Jamie@jamiewood.com
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La Bloga
Jamie Martinez Wood
Facts on File, 2007
This book profiles more than 150 writers and journalists, beginning with Oscar Zeta Acosta and ending with Val Zavala. It has been nominated for the Carter G. Woodson Book Award, which honors the most distinguished social science books appropriate for young readers that depict ethnicity in the United States. The purpose of this award is to encourage the writing, publishing, and dissemination of outstanding social science books for young readers that treat topics related to ethnic minorities and relations sensitively and accurately.
Designed for grades 9 and up, the book is an intriguing collection of interview answers (the author interviewed more than 50 writers for this project), research results, and the author's personal opinions about the writers, their works, and their impact on Latino culture and sociology. Several photographs are sprinkled through the book, including pictures of literary icons such as José Martí, Jovita González, María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, and Fray Angélico Chávez. The writers are poets, playwrights, screenwriters, children's book authors, journalists, editors, publishers, and novelists.
If you would like a press kit, please send request to Jamie@jamiewood.com
READ MORE HERE!
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"Until now, there wasn't a quintessential book on pagan cuisine. To fill the glaring void comes The Wicca Cookbook ($20) the definitive guide to witch food by real life wiccans Jamie Wood and Tara Seefeldt. Find it at booksotes. Recipes include Stuffed Nasturtiums and Dandelion Wine for Spring Equinox; Apple Scones and Magickal Mushrooms for Halloween; and Snowflacke Cakes and Walnut-Oion Bread for Candlemas, a midwinter festival. Come May Day, I'll go to any wiccan dinner party - that's when they start serving homeade mead (fermented honey booze) for summer. Lace me in a corset and grab me a chalice: I'm ready to rock. By the way, the cookbook also taught me that wiccans honor a main goddess with a sidekick god. Right on."
--Gina Guerra, Jane Magazine
"The Enchanted Diary is for teen girls, but I had so much fun reading this book that I couldn't put it down.... It is wonderful book for teenage girls and I recommend it to any parent."
--Altar Magazine
"Jamie Wood writes with wisdom and charm. From the very start, you feel as if you are spending time with a marvelous friend."
--Brigid
"I can not even begin to express my happiness with the newest release from Jamie Wood! Not only has she approached the subject of teen paganism with insight and bravado, she’s done it without talking down, or gathering groupies. The basics are covered, there’s a large spell section, and a huge list of resources."
--Prolific Pagans
"(The Teen Spell Book) straightforwardly describes the basics of witchcraft, provides suggestions on how to incorporate magick into your everyday life and provides instructions on spell casting."
--Teenmag.com
"This book (The Teen Spell Book) does much to educate the young and Wood deserves recognition for this outstanding book."
--The Unicorn
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