I'm pleased to welcome Stefanie Auerbach Stolynsky to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Stefanie's novel Goddess of the Flowers: One Girl's Journey was released earlier this year.
Kathy: In Goddess of the Flowers we meet Xochitl (pronounced “so-she”) Gonzalez, a fifteen-year-old Mexican girl taken by a Cartel leader. While your book is fiction, it is based on a real person. Why was it important to tell this story?
SAS: Well, I was counseling at-risk kids at the time I met the real Xochitl. I never used her last name in the book and she would not be recognizable now (25 years later), but at that time she was stunningly gorgeous. I mean “Miss Mexico” time. She was involved with a 31-year-old gang-banger who was in jail at the time and the company I worked for made me write out a child-abuse report and turn it in! I was not thrilled, worried I might be cornered somewhere, but as I counseled her for about 6 weeks, I was so upset that this beautiful child wasn’t getting the best out of life. Well, I left after getting my psychology hours, and I got licensed, etc.
Literally 25 years later, while my husband and I were watching America’s Most Wanted on TV, a picture of a vaguely familiar woman is shown on the screen and she is on the top of the FBI’s most wanted list. Then John Walsh, the host, names her and it’s my ex-counselee (not a client because I was working at the center). I almost fell off my bed.
I wanted to fill in the time between when I saw this kid as a teen to when she was sought for robbery and murder. What must have happened to her? Why did she do it? Was that guy her pimp? Someone who stole from her? I devised what I think might have happened between the time I counseled Xochitl and when she was put on the FBI’s list. In the book, I hope I do her justice in that I have basically a happy ending even though she went through some harrowing experiences. She comes out a winner, not a loser. That was what brought me to write this particular book.
Funny anecdote: The week after this book was published, the “real” Xochitl was apprehended and arrested in Chiapas, Mexico, a hot-bed of gang activity. Is that serendipitous or what?
Kathy: How has being a psychologist framed your storytelling?
SAS: Human behavior is always fascinating and I think it’s the backbone to all storytelling. My clients, my studies, my framing everything in psychological terms might help people understand motives and the “why-s and wherefore—s” of a story.
Kathy: With all of the problems in the world, do you think it's important to have a "happy ever after" book?
SAS: Actually, I don’t think the problems of the world should be the reason for any ending, happy or not, to a novel. I think the only thing driving the ending should be the objectives of the protagonist and the antagonist which are the only criteria for whether or not the story ends happily, unless you are writing a political story.
Kathy: What first drew you to thrillers?
SAS: I have always been a “noir” freak. I just love Dashell Hammet, Mickey Spillane and others and more recently Robert Parker (even though a lot of his stories are definitely tongue in cheek). I really wanted to write comedy/mystery which I have in my other books. This one is a stand-alone because I really thought Xochitl’s story could have gone either way. If she’d become a double-agent for the cartel and the U.S. Homeland Security, she’d have a much better chance (alive!!!) to become a series of ways she’s aided both countries in stopping human trafficking.
Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?
SAS: Yes, yes, and yes. As I mentioned in the question above, I write comedy/mysteries. My last five novels have all been comedy/mysteries where the protagonist is a bumbling idiot (well, not an idiot, but definitely confused) and because of their attention being on their own problems are inadvertently able to solve complicated mysteries where the FBI, CIA, Homeland, MI-6, were not able to.
Kathy: Tell us about your book.
SAS: Goddess of the Flowers is about Xochitl Gonzales, a fifteen-year-old street waif whose harrowing escape from the hands of a vicious drug lord, get her involved in solving a drug smuggling case for the gang-unit, aiding the U.S. to intercept human trafficking, international corruption, and the unbelievable amounts of money involved. Her story is shocking and eye-opening, not only in its life-threatening brutality and non-stop danger but for the sheer reach of the cartel’s power and influence. However, even the cartel is no match for her resilience, determination, and inextinguishable hope for a better life for herself and her unborn child.
Xochitl (meaning “Goddess of the Flowers”) is just days shy of her sixteenth birthday when cartel leader Carlos Morales, who keeps her as his sexual plaything, coldly murders a thirteen-year-old girl who is in their mansion headquarters to be trained to perform sexually for her buyer across the border in the U.S. She’s known all along that she’s just a cog in the horrific sex human smuggling machine and her usefulness to Carlos, too, would soon reach its expiration date as she aged. But Xochitl had connected with the younger girl when she’d arrived that day, and her ruthless execution galvanized Xochitl into action to get herself and two more of the new girls out of the cartel compound and to safety across the river.
Xochitl had been aware that Carlos had a network of connections in the U.S., but it wasn’t until she made her desperate run for freedom that she realized just how far and wide his reach really extended. He has eyes and ears everywhere she turns, and she constantly feels she’s still easily within his grasp and that he is just toying with her before snatching her back up. Xochitl quickly finds out she can trust no one and with good reason. Even the ‘good’ guys have agendas where she is just a pawn and an expendable one at that. There’s no respite for this poor girl: no real moments free from fear or pain. Still, she perseveres—and that’s my “author’s message.”
The story unfolds from Xochitl’s point of view, and I try to give her a voice, attitudes, and emotions that I hope will feel starkly authentic. The narrative is, at times, stream-of-consciousness, and the language and actions are raw, desperate, and uncensored. Characters are brutalized, and many die. The picture that is painted is shocking and grim, yet throughout it all, Xochitl continually taps into inner sources of strength, replenished by hope. My hope is that readers will flock to Xochitl ‘s side and appreciate her fight to find freedom and justice, compelling her to see the story through to its resolution.
The review in Reedsy—some of it quoted above--was most favorable and I truly appreciated that.
Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?
SAS: Well, I guess Xochitl would be my favorite character, but I think all the characters in the book focus toward pointing to a satisfying outcome. Each one contributes his or her bit to helping Xochitl or themselves to a piece of the freedom pie.
Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for your book?
SAS: Sure: the girl herself. And the feeling that no one likes to feel controlled, dependent, unable to care for themselves. Even those who appear to be dependent, must at times hate the people who are “guiding them”, pushing them towards their own ends, and basically “lording” over them. And I think Xochitl’s demands on herself never to be controlled like that again, speak universally to audiences.
Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?
SAS: Haha. I didn’t want to wait two years for an agent to push the book and then two more years for a publishing house to buy it, then fear of an editor changing my voice or what he or she wants in the book rather than having my own choices and sticking with them. It’s a control issue, again. But in this case, I think it’s warranted. I mean, I experienced this child first hand and know how she speaks, thinks, etc. and I want that to come across to our readers so they can justify some of the things Xochitl needed to do to survive. I wanted the book out there right now and then to advertise it as much as I can. A lot of the traditional publishers are demanding that author’s tout their own books anyway, so why not publish it yourself, too?
Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?
SAS: Well, first and foremost, simply because I love his work, Robert Parker. He definitely had a tongue-in-cheek writing style that automatically put me in a good mood. I love Donna Tartt, too although that is totally at the other end of the spectrum. I like John Grisham, but who doesn’t? And lastly, I guess Dickens, because his stories were so compelling and spoke to the government and the society of the day.
Kathy: What are you currently reading?
SAS: You know, I try to read everything I can. I usually start with the New York Times Best Sellers list and go down from there. Right now, I’m reading Brett Easton Ellis, although his work is very complicated and I’m not sure I would be published if I sent in some of the manuscripts he has. But he’s a satirist and I find myself going through his titles like I usually do with any author I like. I started with American Psycho and was confused how that one got published after Patrick Bateman kills a dog, for heaven’s sake. My husband would have stopped reading right there and then. But I also enjoy some of the works of B. J. Daniels who has simple objectives and wraps up her stories in a tidy knot. I love that she sees the arc before she writes. And I read a lot of Harlequin because I want to write for them someday. I love going through an author’s entire list of books. If I like their writing, I’ll read everything they write.
Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?
SAS: One of my biggest hobbies is traveling. I just love to go to Europe during Christmas and see the Christmas markets. I love cruising and have been on maybe five cruises, but it’s wonderful to feel relaxed on the water and then stop at a port and see a city, but eat on the boat and then travel down a waterway. I also love to cook and own a bunch of cookbooks. Someday I’d like to go through an entire cookbook’s recipes the way Amy Adams did in that movie about Julie and Julia, where she makes every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook. That cracked me up. I also love tennis and swimming and taking short boat rides around harbors like in San Diego where my husband and I used to regularly take the harbor cruise.
Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry.
SAS: Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and chocolate. (Sees Candies, chocolate cake with chocolate icing), buttercream. Oh, and sometimes healthy stuff too: peas, carrots, fish, cranberry sauce, always donuts and pastries. Lots of bread, especially sour dough. Recently I wanted to make sourdough and my cousin talked me out of it saying the whole house will “stink” for a week with the dough that’s required. But I absolutely love sourdough bread.
Do you have plans for future books?
SAS: Right now, I’m back on the Harlequin track with a book for their Intrigue series about an author who leaves New York after writing a true story about her brother-in-law getting murdered when he pulled over to the side of the road on a trip up the eastern seaboard and was shot dead by unknown assailants. The dead man was a best friend of an actor colleague who never got over it.
Kathy: What's your favorite thing about being an author?
SAS: My favorite thing would probably be the creative side of creating a character—sometimes out of whole cloth, sometimes a take on a real person—and you better be careful there, you don’t want anyone coming back at you accusatorially.
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Blurb:
Gorgeous Xochitl (pronounced “so-she”) Gonzalez is a Fifteen year
old street waif in rural Mexico who is seized with her mother, by Cartel
leader, Carlos Morales, to be his “queen” at his massive hacienda.
Life
becomes a dream of wealth, gold, expensive cars, bag loads of cash and
jewelry. And all she has to do is “train” new girls to the tricks of the
trade. How to please the men they will be sold to across the Rio Grande
and into the U.S. Not realizing these girls will also be sneaking drugs
and other contraband into the States, Xochitl entices them into the
life of fantasy that a gang girl can have riches in America.
During
a trafficking exchange, something goes terribly wrong, and Xochitl
witnesses the brutal murder of a 13-year-old who appeared to be
investigating Carlos’ cocaine stash. After realizing the same thing will
happen to her when she “ages-out” at sixteen years old, she decides to
escape the hacienda, taking with her two new girls, a stash of coke to
trade at the border, and a gun.
She discovers she is pregnant
with Carlos’ child and as she is chased down by the vicious gang,
arrested by the U.S. Government, incarcerated in an El Paso detention
hall, bailed out and saved by a Madame who puts her to work in an
“upscale” brothel, she makes a deal with Carlos to trade her son for the
release of her mother and other girls primed for slavery. If she can
help other girls out of the life of crime and despair, her own life
would be saved. Through strength and determination, she never realized
she had, she escapes from them all.
When the politician who
really owns the brothel is murdered, Xochitl puts into play her bribe
with Carlos in order to save her mother, the new girls about to be
enslaved and, and through fear and a desperate desire for safety, she is
able to stop Carlos with the help of her new found lover, FBI agent Guy
Morton, and emerge as one of the most powerful allies the country has
ever had for rooting out the brutality of human smuggling.
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Author links:
https://www.sastolinsky.com
https://www.facebook/sastolinsky.com
twitter; @sastolinsky
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