Episode 163 with Margo Candela: Author of the Neapolitan Sisters, Skilled Writer of Dialogue, Page-Turning Drama, and Fleshed-Out, Compelling Characters The Chills at Will Podcast

Episode 163 Notes and Links to Margo Candela’s Work   
 
   On Episode 163 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Margo Candela, and the two discuss, among other things, her love for her local library, her bilingualism, formative books and writers, writing The Neapolitan Sisters between other books, the book’s interesting and skillful takes on POV, sex scenes, and challenging cliches, her love of dialogue. and the storylines and histories that make her characters so interesting and completing and sympathetic. 
 
   Margo Candela was born and raised in Los Angeles and began her writing career when she joined Glendale Community College’s student newspaper. She transferred to San Francisco State University as a journalism major, and upon graduation began writing for websites and magazines before writing her first two novels, Underneath It All and Life Over Easy. She returned to Los Angeles to raise her son and wrote More Than This and Good-bye to All That. The Neapolitan Sisters is her fifth novel and her first after a decade-long hiatus from writing. She now lives in San Francisco.
 
       

Buy The Neapolitan Sisters
 
Margo Candela's Website
 
Booklist Review for The Neapolitan Sisters
 
Facebook for Author Margo Candela
 
Instagram: @MargoCandela 
Twitter: @MargoCandela 
 
Subscribe to Margo Candela's Newsletter

At about 7:25, Margo describes her earliest reading, her bilingualism, and her relationship with words
 
At about 9:15, Pete’s got jokes (en español!) 
 
At about 9:40, Margo talks of the enchantment on Pepper Avenue
 
At about 12:55, Margo responds to Pete’s question: “Did you feel represented in what you read?”
 
At about 14:50, Margo discusses some honesty/challenges to cliche in her book
 
At about 17:00, Margo and Pete discuss the book as a “saga,” and how Margo wrote the book through a “hiatus”
 
At about 19:00, Margo relates how Toni Kirkpatrick and her interacted in the manuscript and publishing phases of the book
 
At about 21:00, Pete asks Margo about any challenges with continuity/seamlessness around POV
 
At about 24:00, Margo gives background on the work she did and her philosophy about writing dialogue
 
At about 26:45, Margo gives some background on the character of Claudia and her dialogue
 
At about 29:05, Pete recounts the early events of the book and asks Margo about Maritza
 
At about 32:00, Pete and Margo characterize Auggie and his relationship with Maritza
 
At about 33:50, Claudia as a “giver” is described, as well as the reasons for her versatile and hardened demeanor
 
At about 36:10, Margo explains how she wrote the Hollywood scenes in the book, including basing some work dynamics on Margo’s own experiences 
 
At about 38:15, Pete uses a quote from the book that connects the girls’ parenting and Claudia’s mental health awareness
 
At about 40:20, Margo describes a story involving maraschino cherries that is illustrative of Maritza’s stubbornness 
 
At about 42:30, Pete wonders if Maritza is in love with Auggie, and Margo’s answer is intricate and perhaps surprising 
 
At about 44:40, Dooley and her background and her motivations are described
 
At about 48:00, Pete wonders about the girls’ parents, especially the father, and their lack of active parenting; Margo notes the reasoning for the parents’ depictions  
 
At about 50:45, Pete shouts out Ethan Jacobs, “too-good-to-be-true” and his relationship with Claudia, including how Claudia’s history plays in
 
At about 52:20, Margo explains the importance of the sex scenes in the book
 
At about 54:05, Pete offers to help Margo get Fabio for a future book cover
 
At about 54:50, The two talk about the sisters reconciling and telling old stories about their childhoods, with beautiful and tragic memories
 
At about 56:00, Pete highlights a stunning and sad and well-drawn scene involving Dooley
 
At about 56:50, Margo responds to Pete’s