Book Blog Tour: Interview with Marissa Bañez (1 of 3)

I am delighted to have this interview with Ms. Marissa Bañez, author of Hope and Fortune. I participated in the Book Blog Tour for Hope and Fortune a few weeks back and my review opened doors for Ms. Bañez and I to exchange views on the themes and topics of her new book. 

Here now is a three part interview where Ms. Bañez generously walks us through her writing journey. 

Parts 2 and 3 will be posted on the blog in the coming days.

Congratulations on the publication of Hope and Fortune. My first question is how – how did it all begin for you, the idea or desire to write for children?

Thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity to introduce myself and my book. 

The whole book-writing thing came about organically.  Writing children’s stories was not  something I deliberately chose; it was more like it chose me.

My husband was 49 and I was 40 when we got married.  As we were both no-longer-young, I did not expect to have a child.  Yet, one night during our honeymoon, I had a wonderful, extremely vivid dream.  I still remember every detail to this day.  In the dream, I found myself in a beautiful, very colorful floral garden, feeling peaceful and happy.  Suddenly, singing, laughing, and dancing angels and cherubim surrounded and enveloped me into their midst, giving me a joyful and warm feeling beyond all imagination.  Then, a dark-haired cherub kissed me on the lips.  I immediately woke up and, still very much feeling the cherub’s kiss on my lips, told my husband that we were going to have a baby.  Nine months later, my daughter Angelica was born. 

For no particular reason, I wrote a little book about that dream and the words almost wrote themselves.  Whenever I read the story to my friends, everyone always got a bit teary-eyed in a good way, which led me to think that I might be able to write stories that affect people positively.

When my daughter was a little girl, I wrote other original children’s stories for her and her friends and created puppet shows out of the stories.  I made stage scenery and puppet characters using foam board, painted bedsheets, paper bags, popsicle sticks, and just about any available useable household item.  Whenever I wrote a story, it seemed that the words and story lines just came to me almost unbidden, without a lot of effort, angst, or self-doubt.  After all, I was just writing kids’ books, not novels.  I had fun, the kids had fun, so why not keep doing it? 

For her 7^th birthday party, my daughter wanted a story about cowgirls, fairies, and her little stuffed horse.  She and I brainstormed a bit, and I came up with a story entitled, The Lost Foal.  This was the party invitation:

In The Lost Foal, the stuffed horse was the one that got lost in the forest and encountered “cowgirl fairies” played by my daughter and her guests, each of whom wore fairy wings and pink cowboy hats and gave the horse life advice to get it back on the right track.

Fast forward 16 years later to the pandemic and lockdown in 2020.  I felt bad for my daughter, her peers and those younger, all of whom faced unprecedented uncertainties in life.  I then took The Lost Foal, modernized it with a diverse cast of characters, and created a message that I hope will resonate not only with the very young but also with those less so who may feel rudderless and lost (in however way you want to define and contextualize those terms) at some point in their lives. 

Who are your mentors in writing and in life, in general?

 I don’t have a mentor in writing. 

 I confess that I’ve never taken a creative writing course or workshop.  That’s not to say such courses or workshops have no purpose because they certainly do.  It’s just that my lawyering and my responsibilities as a mom had taken up so much of my time and energy in the last 40 years that I simply couldn’t bring myself to prepare for yet another vocation.

 However, I’m an avid reader of many different genres.  So, I’d like to say that all the writers whose work I’ve devoured throughout the years collectively are my mentors in writing.

As for my mentors in life, the first and foremost that comes to mind is my late mother.  My mom was a quiet woman who worked hard as a hotel maid to provide for her 10 children the best that she could and who succeeded in raising each of us to be good people.  She modeled that work ethic for us so that I’m proud to share that I have a sister who’s a retired Administrative Law Judge for the State of California and a lawyer, another sister who was a Director of Public Health Nursing, and my youngest sister was one of the very first women to be accepted to the U.S. Air Force Academy.  I memorialized my mom as the Fortune Fairy of Hope in Hope and Fortune, who also represents the Philippines and Filipino culture with her dress.

I also must credit my older siblings in this regard.  I have an incredibly multi-talented family and the competitive part of me simply didn’t want to be left behind.  So, I taught myself to sew like my oldest sister, do arts-and-crafts projects like my third oldest sister, play a little guitar like my brother and second oldest sister, compete in speech/oratory contests in high school like my remaining two older awards-decorated sisters, cook something out of nothing like all of them, etc.  I’m not as good as they are, but it is in the trying that’s fun for me.

Author Bio

A first-generation immigrant to the U.S. from Baguio City, Philippines, Marissa Bañez is a graduate of Princeton University and a lawyer licensed to practice in New York, California, and New Jersey. She has published legal articles for the prestigious New York Law Journal and the American Bar Association, but her true passion for writing is her children's stories.  At almost age 65, she is embarking on her new venture as a children’s illustrated book author with the debut of Hope and Fortune.  Her second book, Hues and Harmony (How the Rainbow Butterfly Got Her Colors) is scheduled for publication on July 20, 2023.  You can find her online at https://www.marissabanez.com/, https://www.linkedin.com/in/marissa-banez/ and https://www.facebook.com/marissa.banez.7.