Calling All Chicas!

by Anna Sugden

Our favourite chica is in the Bandita’s Lair … Caridad Piñeiro.

I’m thrilled to welcome my super-talented friend, multi-published and award-winning author, Caridad Piñeiro.

From the start, Caridad’s novels have helped redefine the landscape of modern romance novels. In 1999, she was published by Kensington as part of Encanto - the first line of bilingual Latino romance novels. Death Calls, one of the novels in her fabulous vampire series The Calling, helped Silhouette launch the successful Nocturne paranormal line. And her highly acclaimed Chicas novels are helping to make Latina fiction part of the publishing mainstream. Caridad also writes romantic suspense for Silhouette. And if that wasn’t enough … she’s a successful attorney!

Her eighteenth release Moon Fever, a paranormal anthology with Maggie Shayne, Susan Sizemore and Lori Handeland is a bestseller on the USA Today and NY Times extended lists.

Don’t forget to look out for South Beach Chicas Catch Their Man and Holiday With a Vampire (an anthology with Maureen Child).

For more information about Caridad, please visit http://www.caridad.com/ and http://www.thecallingvampirenovels.com/ .

Welcome Caridad! It’s great to have you join us.

Thanks - it's great to be here!

I’m a huge fan of THE CALLING series - I’ve been hooked since the first one - Darkness Calls. Can you tell the rest of our gang a bit about it?

The Calling is a vampire romantic suspense series that began in 2004 with Darkness Calls in the Silhouette Intimate Moments line. I had wanted to write something darker, but I knew I wanted to also have a mystery going on in the various stories. Each story in the series stands alone and the paranormal element varies from story to story. For example, in Darkness Calls and Death Calls, the suspense elements aren’t paranormal, but rather, are a serial killer case and an investigation into a possible terrorist attack. In other stories, the paranormal element is in the forefront, like in Devotion Calls where the villain is a chupacabra (goat sucker). I decided to vary the paranormal and suspense elements so I could give readers something new and exciting with each story. Next year you’ll see things like a Chinese vampire and vampires in Miami!

Your vampires are wonderful three-dimensional characters, who have so much depth and elicit so much empathy (and this from someone who doesn’t really read vampires!). Can you tell us how you manage to achieve the fine balance?

I think the one thing that drew me to the vampire genre was the ability to explore the many emotions that they must have experienced after such a long existence. That makes them wonderfully complex creatures and each of the vampires in The Calling have had different life experiences which have shaped who they are, much like humans, but in this case, they’ve lived with these experiences and emotions much longer. That makes resolving those issues in a happy way that much more powerful.

Totally different from these dark, emotional and intense vampire tales are your fabulous Chicas. Can you tell us a bit about them and what inspired you to write them?

It was tough to be writing dark all the time and so I wanted to try something lighter, but also something with which all women could identify. The Chicas were born! I wanted to have them explore real life events that women experience, like having friends marry and possibly leave their friends behind or dealing with their parents and conflicts with them. I also wanted to do this in a light and humorous way and so far, the response has been very positive.

How difficult is it writing two such different types of books? Indeed, with your romantic suspense novels, three?!

I enjoy writing all the different genres because each one presents its own unique challenges. Also, having to switch gears helps keep my writing fresh because sometimes you grow dependent on certain crutches when writing. Having to switch the tone and theme of what you write helps you avoid that.

Do you get any cross-over in your readers between the different series?

I regularly get cross-over readers, especially between the straight romantic suspense and the paranormal romantic suspense novels. I also get a lot of men reading the paranormals and they enjoy the empowered women in those novels. As for the Chicas, I have many of the same readers and they enjoy the realism of real life female friendships and relationships.

You write under the same name for all your books. Was that a conscious choice?

I had thought about using a pseudonym, but decided against it since I wanted readers to be able to experience all the different kinds of writing that I did. Since readers do follow me from genre to genre, I think it was a good decision to do this.

Have you got any advice for writers wanting to be in different genres?

The hardest thing about being able to write successfully in different genres is understanding the expectations of readers for each of the genres and making sure you satisfy those expectations. For example, in books like the Chicas, it was fine to leave certain romantic relationships unresolved, but that wouldn’t fly in one of the romantic suspense novels. Also, study the pacing of each of the different genres, since it will change from one genre to another. Proper pacing is key to any book.


I know your daughter has the same love of shoes as I do. What is your wicked pleasure?

My wicked pleasure is watching TV. I have been a TV addict since I was a little kid and I have it on all the time when I work. Sometimes I just watch TV, but I also often watch videos that help get me in the mood for when I’m writing. If I’m doing something dark, I’ll be watching Buffy, Underworld or something equally dark and graphic. If I’m in a Chicas mood, it’ll be a romantic comedy or a Sandra Bullock movie. Since I’m such a TV addict, one of the best gifts hubby got me was a DVR and big TV.

Caridad has got some great prizes...a copy of Moon Fever and a Chicas t-shirt! Just share your wicked pleasure with us and Caridad will draw two lucky winners!