Author Name:
Patricia Magdalena Redlin
Book Title:
Gringa Apestosa (Stinky Gringa) – a Memoir
Website URL:
http://predlin.wix.com/author-blog
Link to book:
The memoir is not published yet.
Social Media Links:
https://www.facebook.com/GringaLoca
https://twitter.com/GringaApestosa
What is your book about?
The year I lived in Mexico as a young teen with my Mexican relatives, attended high school, became fluent in Spanish and realized I could and would (eventually) permanently escape my mentally ill, abusive mother.
What inspired you to write your book?
This year (when I was 13-14 yrs. old) was THE pivotal point in my life. I discovered I have a talent for languages and realized that I could and would (permanently) escape the hell I was living in at home with an abusive mentally ill mother.
If you have a business related to your book, tell us about it:
Fairly long career in international marketing + I have been working as a freelance translator/editor for the past nine years.
What is a typical day like for you?
Wake up, check for client emails from Europe and the East Coast of the USA; reply to emails accepting translation/editing jobs. Figure out how many pages of translation/editing I need to do for the day. Work until around noon or 1 p.m. Eat lunch, shower, get dressed. Continue working (unless I am done for the day). Go for a 45 min.-1 hr. walk at around 4 or 5 p.m. Participate in a virtual 1-hr. yoga class at 6, 7 or 7:30 p.m. Play a couple games on my phone. Read. Watch TV. Talk to husband when he gets home from work at around midnight. Go to bed.
What do you most enjoy about what you do?
I love being able to use all my languages (German/Spanish/French/Italian) to translate documents into English. My favorite subject matters are medical/health care (especially psychiatry and psychology reports!), literatures (I have translated one historical novel from Italian to English, a criminal thriller from German to English, and a German family’s genealogy book from 1600 to the 2000s). I love learning new words and phrases and maintaining my fluency in my languages.
What are some favorite books you’d recommend to our readers?
Anything by T. Coraghessian Boyle. The “Outlander” series by Diana Gabaldon. Ray Bradbury’s short stories and novels (esp. The Illustrated Man and Fahrenheit 451), anything by Isabel Allende, etc.!
What advice do you have to offer our readers?
Try to either gain the courage to write about your truth in your memoir, even if you know that your truth and your experiences were probably nothing like your siblings’ or other family members’ truths and experiences. Use that courage to get yourself through the process of getting your memoir published and selling. If the people (siblings, other family members) who experience different truths and experiences tell you that you are lying/nasty/ungrateful (any other “bad” description related to what a rotten person you are), let them say whatever they want. Don’t argue; don’t try to talk them into seeing your truth in the memoir; just let it go. If they choose never to be associated with you again, mourn the loss and let it be.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
People are always surprised when I tell them I am half-Mexican because I don’t look like a “typical” Mexican (or at least one that an American would have encountered here in the U.S.). This is because the Mexican side of our family/ancestors only have around 10% Native American (Native Mexican) blood. Our ancestors came from Spain (mostly; some came from France and Italy) to Mexico and they purposely tried to keep their European blood “pure” (only one great great grandmother married a Native Mexican). My father was German and Irish. So I look German/Irish/Spanish/French but not “typical” Mexican!
What’s next for you?
I am working on completing my book proposal and query letter to send to literary agents who focus on “creative, partly fictionalized” memoirs to get one of them to sell it to a publisher. I have finished a second memoir (still needs editing after my readers give me critiques), and I am working on a third memoir.
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