![]() ![]() "It's just that the industry wasn't ready to publish them." They're ready now. "These writers have always been there," she says. Valdes-Rodriguez hesitates to take any credit. Since Dirty Girls made its debut, similar works by Latina authors, like Hot Tamara by Mary Castillo, have found their way into bookstores. Two more women's novels as well as two works of teen fiction are in the pipeline. Her second book, Playing with Boys, has sold 130,000 hardcover copies. Dirty Girls has sold more than 350,000 copies and is in development to become a series on the Lifetime network next spring. Latino life has found a diverse and willing audience. She has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and has worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe. "That's not my reality." Born 36 years ago into a middle-class family in Albuquerque, N.M., she lives there now with her husband and young son. "I didn't want this to be 'Oh, here we are with our mantilla, praying to the Virgin of Guadalupe,'" says Valdes-Rodriguez, who is of Cuban-Irish descent. They include a reporter, a rock star and a news anchor none of whom ever gets absorbed in ponderous debates about the immigrant experience. The six women of The Dirty Girls Social Club are smart, funny and, most important, professionals. Then in 2003 Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez put pen to paper and produced a hip, fast-paced novel about six young Latinas trying to get ahead at the office and in the bedroom. Latino fiction was a realm of magic realism, stuck somewhere among clichéd visions of grandmas, mangoes and the sea. Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez tells the story in Paski's fresh, original voice that will have readers craving more.For almost three decades, U.S. HATERS was an entertaining, fun read that kept be hooked up until the very last word! Maybe it's not a hugely original idea-there are tons of young adult books about rich, popular teenagers in California. But with the Haters there, is that where she wants to be? Apparently, Paski has what it takes to get to the top. At first, they're able to dismiss her as just an "apartment girl," but then they find out her dad is going to be really well paid for the movie (about a superhero named Squeegee Man) that he's animating. She and her friends (some of the Haters the book is named for), confident as they may seem in their place at the top, are a little threatened by Paski, who is just as pretty as they are. ![]() And gorgeous, rich (and evil) Jessica Nguyen has both. At her new school, Aliso Niguel High, certain things are very important. She quickly makes friends with Tina, a girl who has a slight obsession with anthropology. After all, there's super-hot Chris Cabrera! It's not like Paski is a social leper, either. Paski misses the mountains around her old home of Taos (she's a mountain biker), her psychic grandmother (whose talents she has inherited), her best friends, and tons more, but maybe the O.C. And it seems a lot like the television show. A New York Times bestselling writer, Alisa has several published novels available. She was named one of the nation’s 25 Most Influential Hispanics by Time magazine for innovating a profitable new genre in American publishing. She's a New Mexico teenager who, because of her father's new job, moves to Orange County, California. Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez is the nation’s first and most successful author of contemporary commercial women’s fiction featuring Latina professionals. HATERS is the first young adult book by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, but anyone who reads this book (myself included) is sure to hope it's not her last! In the novel, readers are introduced to Paski (her full name is Pasquala Rumalda Quintana de Archuleta, but that's way too much of a mouthful). ![]()
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