Turns out being an Author is not just about the writing. We chat with Vanessa Montalban about her journey working through being an introvert in a job that asks you to stand out from the crowd and all things bookish.
About Vanessa:
Fueled by the magic of espresso, Miami-born Vanessa Montalban channels her wanderlust for far-off worlds into writing young adult fiction. She’s a first-generation graduate from the University of Central Florida and is hard at work creating a collection of stories. She is represented by Danielle Burby of Mad Woman Literary and her work has appeared in Diabolical Plots and Entropy Magazine.
About the Vanessa's latest book These Vengeful Wishes:
A teen girl moves to a small town and discovers a mysterious wishing well possessed by La Cegua, a vengeful female spirit with the face of a horse skull, in Vanessa Montalban’s new YA fantasy standalone.
When her stepfather is arrested, aspiring artist Ceci moves back to her mother’s hometown of Santa Aguas, an eccentric small town steeped in the legend of La Cegua, the specter of a wronged witch who appears on lonely roads at night, luring untrustworthy men to their deaths.
Ceci and her mother take up residence in the abandoned manor of the Sevilla family, rumored to have been cursed by La Cegua, where she begins to uncover a past that seems to be connected to her mother. The more she learns of the Sevillas, the more Ceci finds herself forming a strange affinity with the feared Cegua, who she suspects is the one inspiring her paintings of a mysterious door in the forest.
When the very door Ceci has been painting appears in the woods, she decides to venture through it with her new friend, Jamie. Together, they discover a well, guarded by the statue of a veiled woman. A well for granting wishes. The well of La Cegua.
What starts off as harmless fun quickly escalates into something sinister when Ceci realizes that the wishes are putting the people she loves in danger and testing her own penchant for vengeance. After learning others are also searching for the well, Ceci must confront the truth of her mother’s past and prevent La Cegua’s wishes from being used for the wrong reasons. Ceci knows too well how much people will sacrifice for power. Every wish has its price, and La Cegua never forgets the ones who have wronged her.