Episode 125: Interview with Candice Yamnitz

This week, Fable and the Verbivore are thrilled to share our conversation with YA fantasy author Candice Pedraza Yamnitz.

Candice’s debut YA fantasy novel Unbetrothed is being released on February 8, 2022. This story has a Latin flare and revolves around princess Beatriz, who as a young child is passed over for a gift of magic which is given to all young children in her kingdom. Years later, she makes a deadly vow to venture into a place where no one has returned in order to claim the magic that should have been hers.

In this episode, Candice talks about the work over the last five years that led to finding an agent and selling her first book for publication. She discusses getting connected with critique groups with writers of many different levels of experience, asking for advice from writers at a conference about how to help readers connect with and feel for a character that starts out unlikable, and the many drafts and rounds of beta feedback it took to get her book to the point that it was ready to share with the world.

She speaks about the benefit of letting the work breath for a stretch of time, until she’s able to disconnect with how the story is in her head so that it’s easier to see what the story really is and any errors that need fixing. Also, she talks about using people watching and moments from her everyday life to help find the little human moments in her work. The funny things that feel real and relatable to the human experience, how we act when no one is watching.

Towards the end of our interview, Candice reminds us of the importance of setting aside time for writing - even as little as 15 minutes will keep the work moving forward. As well as, transitioning into the author aspects of this job – such as being more audience oriented in social media and helping to instruct and encourage other writers.

Candice was such a pleasure to speak with and had many encouraging and wise pieces of writing advice to give. We both greatly enjoyed Unbetrothed and would highly recommend checking it out.

We hope you enjoy this episode, we’re so grateful to have been a part of this conversation!

Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

Candice is a homeschooling mom, blogger and teacher who taught in an elementary dual-language classroom for seven years before having her three spirited children. She has been mentoring teen girls for another many years and aims to inspire through stories. In 2017, she joined the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) to improve her craft, and today she is vice president of the Chicago chapter. Her work has placed in four contests.

Her writing contains a Latin twist which comes from her Puerto Rican and Mexican upbringing. She also adds a heavy dollop of mystery and sometimes an extra helping of romance. She fell in love with Lord of the Rings and Pride and Prejudice in high school and hasn’t stopped reading since. In between reading lessons and converting cardboard boxes into pirate ships, she writes and illustrates fantasy stories. She lives in her native Chicagoland.

Candice regularly posts encouraging, entertaining, and educational content on social media inspired from her writing life. You can connect with her on Instagram @candiceyamnitz , Twitter @CandiceYamnitz and on Facebook @candiceyamnitz.

Candice talks about her writing group that she connected with through the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). Information on this organization can be found at: https://acfw.com/

Candice also talks about participating in a Fall pitchwars competition. Information can be found at: https://pitchwars.org/

We’ve also had the pleasure of having Candice on the podcast once before, answering a question that we put out to the writing community regarding her unique writing process. That mini-episode can be found here:

Books and Movies Mentioned:

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

interviewBethany Stedman