Mariana Zapata: On the Universal Pain of Rewrites
Mariana Zapata lives in a small town in Colorado with her husband and two oversized children—her beloved Great Danes, Dorian and Kaiser. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, spending time outside, forcing kisses on her boys, or pretending to write. Follow her on X (Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.
Mariana Zapata
In this post, Mariana discusses how grief became a surprising part of her new romance novel, All Rhodes Lead Here, her advice for other writers, and more!
Name: Mariana Zapata
Literary agent: Jane Dystel
Book title: All Rhodes Lead Here
Publisher: Avon Books
Release date: January 30, 2024
Genre/category: Romance
Previous titles: The Wall of Winnipeg and Me
Elevator pitch: Following the end of her long-term relationship, Aurora de la Torre is going back to the small town in the mountains where she grew up. Too bad the man she’s renting her garage apartment from has no idea she’s moving in.
Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]
What prompted you to write this book?
I wanted to write a story that takes place in the town where I live for a few years, but I hadn’t found the right characters for it until Aurora’s sunny personality popped into my head. From there, it developed into this idea of her starting her life over, and I couldn’t think of a better character to go through something like that, with so much hope in their heart. It’s hard not to root for her along the way as she learns to live in a different environment … and (emotionally) conquers her grumpy landlord’s heart while she’s at it.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
This story took me almost a year to write from start to finish, mostly because I changed my mind about the themes for the story along the way. Growth is a wonderful thing, but I realized that exploring things in the past are—at least in Aurora’s case—necessary to deal with before moving forward. I really wanted to make her story arc full circle.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
When you think you’re done, you’re probably not! Ha. I wasn’t expecting to send it off for editing then begin to second-guess the pacing. It took me another four months after getting it back to rewrite a significant part of the last half so I could get it to have the “feel” the way I wanted it to.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I change my mind a lot along the way in every book—I’m sure every author does—but with this title, I hadn’t been expecting the theme of grief to be as predominant as it became during the final drafts. It ended up being my favorite part of the book.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I hope that readers finish the book being happier and more hopeful than they were before they started it.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
I know how much of a pain rewrites are, especially major ones, but sometimes, you have to write scenes/things that don’t work out to figure out what will.
With a growing catalog of instructional writing videos available instantly, we have writing instruction on everything from improving your craft to getting published and finding an audience. New videos are added every month!