Debut Author Interview: Daniel Aleman and Indivisible and Peter Knapp Query Critique Giveaway and IWSG Post

Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today I’m excited to have debut author Daniel Aleman here to share about his YA contemporary Indivisible. I’m super excited to read it because it deals with immigration, deportation, and how a teen Mexican-American boy must deal with it. Being part of a Mexican-American family, it’s great to finally have this book and others that feature Hispanic characters and issues to read.

Here’s a blurb from Goodreads:

A timely, moving debut novel about a teen's efforts to keep his family together as his parents face deportation.

Mateo Garcia and his younger sister, Sophie, have been taught to fear one word for as long as they can remember: deportation. Over the past few years, however, the fear that their undocumented immigrant parents could be sent back to Mexico has started to fade. Ma and Pa have been in the United States for so long, they have American-born children, and they're hard workers and good neighbors. When Mateo returns from school one day to find that his parents have been taken by ICE, he realizes that his family's worst nightmare has become a reality. With his parents' fate and his own future hanging in the balance, Mateo must figure out who he is and what he is capable of, even as he's forced to question what it means to be an American.

Daniel Aleman's Indivisible is a remarkable story -- both powerful in its explorations of immigration in America and deeply intimate in its portrait of a teen boy driven by his fierce, protective love for his parents and his sister. 

Before I get to my interview with Jennifer, I have my IWSG post.

Posting: The first Wednesday is officially Insecure Writer's Support Group Day.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The awesome co-hosts for the March 3rd posting of the IWSG are  Erika Beebe, Pat Garcia, Tonja Drecker, Sadira Stone, and Cathrina Constantine!

Optional Question: Has any of your readers ever responded to your writing in a way that you didn’t expect? If so, did it surprise you?

My only readers are my critique partners and a few people who are reading chapters as I write them. Yes, my critique partners always make comments and suggestions for questions that I need to answer that I didn’t expect. I find that my writing gets stronger and my plot deeper when I listen to them. It’s been a great learning experience for me.

What about you? Are you surprised by your readers’ responses to your writing?

Interview With Daniel Aleman

Hi Daniel! Thanks so much for joining us!

1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer.

Thank you so much for having me! I have always loved telling stories. From a very young age, I would make drawings on a piece of paper and then tell my mom the story behind them. I moved on to writing short stories at age seven or eight, and full-length novels by the time I was a teenager. For a very long time, this was something I did out of pure passion. When I’m writing, I always feel like I’m home, so at first did it only for myself. Several years ago, I started pursuing traditional publishing, and so I started querying literary agents. After many rejections and several shelved manuscripts, Indivisible was the book that helped me connect with my agent!

It has been a long and difficult process, but I have learned many lessons along the way. One of the most important ones is to always persevere. No matter how many rejections you receive, as long as you keep writing and keep improving your craft, you will get to where you want to be!

2. That’s great that you’ve been writing since you were a kid. Where did you get the idea for Indivisible?

At the start of the last presidential term, I started to feel a strong urge to write a story about family separation. This was a time when we were hearing a lot about immigration, and the vast majority of the rhetoric was extremely hateful. I wanted to break through this conversation with a story that felt human, emotional, and sincere, and that spoke about immigration from a compassionate lens. I feel as though a lot of the time, we are used to hearing about these topics from purely legal or political standpoints, and so I wanted to write a book that challenged misconceptions and which served as a reminder that immigration is, first and foremost, a human issue.

3. You grew up in Mexico City and have lived in different cities in North America. How much did you draw on your own experiences or those of people you knew in writing your story?

This is, ultimately, a work of fiction, but there is a lot of myself and my family in this book. Mateo, the main character, is very similar to me, so many of his feelings, dreams, hopes, and struggles are a reflection of my own. I found that, the more pieces of my real life I inserted into the story, the more realistic the character felt, and this led to a cathartic journey of self-exploration through this book. There is something so unique about examining your own identity through a fictional character, and this experience taught me a lot about myself and the way I interact with the world around me.

4. That’s great that you could draw on your own experiences and learned a lot about yourself in the process. Your story sounds like a real page turner. What were some of the ways you kept the tension up so that readers want to turn the page?

I like to focus on my stories on a scene-by-scene basis. The golden rule I follow is that each and every single scene must be doing one of two things: Advancing the plot or revealing character. But, ideally, each scene should achieve both! This really helps keep readers engaged, as it makes the story feel as though it is always progressing.

5. Those are great rules to follow. What was your plotting process like? What did you learn from it and has the process changed at all for your current manuscript?

My plotting process is always quite intricate. I like coming up with pretty detailed outlines, and I love having a full image of the whole story from start to finish before I start writing. I learned an infinite amount of things from the process of writing and editing this book, particularly since this was my first time working with professional editors. I used to find big revisions a bit daunting, but this process has taught me that anything is possible—rewriting full character arcs, cutting entire plotlines, rewriting huge chunks of the book. I was reminded that I do have the power to create the story that exists in my mind, exactly as I envisioned it. It only takes hard work!

With my current manuscript, I’ve been trying to keep all these lessons in mind. Mostly, I’ve been trying to remind myself that first drafts are never perfect, and that it’s okay to just get the story down on the page and then go back to it later to revise.

6. I wish I could create detailed outlines like you. Share a bit about your main character, Mateo. Tell us three things that you really like about him.

Mateo is a Mexican-American teenager living in New York City. He is a Broadway enthusiast, and his biggest dream is to become an actor one day, but his life and his hopes for the future are interrupted when his parents are taken away by immigration authorities. My favorite things about him are his strength, his fierce devotion to his friends and family, and the way in which he is always able to persevere even when things feel hopeless.

7. Your agent is Peter Knapp. How did he become your agent and what was your road to publication like?

I connected with Peter in October of 2018 through #DVpit. We did a relatively fast round of revisions together, and then we went out on submission. One thing I have learned is that it is crucial to have an agent by your side who is truly your advocate. Peter has stuck by me through all the ups and downs of publishing, and I couldn’t be more grateful to be working with someone as talented and knowledgeable as him.

My journey to publication has had many ups and downs, but ultimately, I feel extremely grateful for all the lessons learned along the way, and I feel very lucky to have collaborated with extremely talented editors on this story.

8. What is your favorite social media platform? Why?

I love Twitter because of the big writing community that exists on there. I love using this platform as a way to hear about new books coming out and receive other fun updates from authors. Instagram is my favorite platform to stay in touch with friends and family, and I have also found that there is a big book community on there, so it has allowed me to strike a nice balance between those two worlds.

9. Your book was named one of the five YA books to watch for in 2021 by Forbes magazine and one of Buzzfeed’s most anticipated YA books. How are you capitalizing this and marketing your book?

What’s exciting about these features is that they were completely unexpected. I didn’t know they were coming until they had been published! I am super grateful for all the love Indivisible has received, and ultimately, my hope is that this will help get the book into the hands of readers who need it. The greatest advantage of having publications like Buzzfeed and Forbes talk about the book is that these features have allowed me to connect with more people, and that is one of my favorite things to do. The best part of this journey by far has been forming connections with readers, librarians, booksellers, book bloggers, and fellow authors who all share my same passion for books. I feel so grateful!

10. That’s great that you are making connections. What are you working on now?

I am currently working on my second young adult novel, which is coming in 2022 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers! It is both similar and different from my debut. It is, once again, a story about immigration, family, friendship, and going after your dreams, but it deals with these themes from an entirely new angle. I can’t wait to be able to share more!

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Daniel. You can find Daniel on Twitter (@Dan_Aleman), Instagram (@danaleman), or you can visit him at danielaleman.com.

Giveaway Details

Daniel has generously offered a hardback of Indivisible and his agent Peter Knapp has offered a query critique for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by May 22nd.  If you do not want to be included in the critique giveaway, please let me know in the comments. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog and/or follow me on Twitter, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. The giveaway is U.S. and Canada for the book giveaway and international for the query critique.

Upcoming Interviews and Giveaways

Monday, May 10th I have a guest post by author Jessica Lawson with a giveaway of her MG fantasy How to Save a Queendom and a query critique by her agent Tina Dubois

Wednesday, May 12th I have an agent spotlight interview with Joyce Sweeney and a query critique giveaway

Sunday, May 16th I’m participating in the Moms Rock Giveaway Hop

Monday, May 17th I have an interview with debut author Payal Doshi and a giveaway of her MG fantasy set in India Rea and the Blood of the Nectar

Wednesday, May 18th I have an agent spotlight interview with Michelle Hauck and a query critique giveaway

Monday, May 26th I have a guest post with agent Maura Kye-Casella and debut author Sam Subity with a query critique giveaway by Maura and a giveaway of The Last Shadow Warrior, a MG fantasy by Sam

Hope to see you tomorrow!