Its All Write

It's All Write to Claw at the Moon

• It's All Write • Season 1 • Episode 10

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In Episode 11 Loretta Lopez joins us. Her middle grade novel, City Girls, chronicles the lives of three middle schoolers facing some pretty big challenges, such as immigration, adultery, and a parent with cancer. Loretta explains how the book is intended for all audiences and was originally conceived for adults. She talks about how her work as a translator and therapist informs her writing and how an obsessive nature fuels her desire to write anywhere she can, even the public bus.

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Loretta Lopez is a Mexican-American author living in Brooklyn, NY.  She is also a therapist and board member at The Brave House. Her debut novel, City Girls, published by Seven Stories Press in Spring 2024.

City Girls, was inspired by the lives of the girls she has worked with at The Brave House, a non-profit offering holistic services to immigrant girls. Part of the book's proceeds will go to supporting their mission.

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Buy City Girls on Bookshop.org or at your local bookshop.

Pre-Order Meryl's debut novel What You Should Worry About at Bookshop.org or  Barnes & Nobles (coming out summer 2026)!

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Follow us on Instagram @itsallwritepod. And send us a note at itsallwritepod@gmail.com.



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Loretta:

After college, like no one gives a fuck. That you're a writer, like no one cares. They could care less. So you have to care with all your body and soul and mind, and you have If not like you'll, you won't be a writer. And guess what? No one will care.

Ariana:

Hi, my name's Ariana McLean.

Meryl:

I'm Meryl Branch Mc Tiernan, and you're listening to, it's All Right, A podcast about the writing life and those who live it.

Ariana:

Today we have in the studio basically a family member, Loretta Lopez. Welcome. Loretta Lopez is a Mexican American writer and therapist living in Brooklyn, New York. Her debut novel City Girls came out in spring 2024 and was named a New York Public Library best Book for Kids. City Girls was inspired by the lives of the girls she worked with at The Brave House, a nonprofit offering holistic services to immigrant girls, and part of the book's proceeds went to supporting their City Girls is a A middle grade book that explores the inner lives of three middle schoolers, And as readers, we get really sucked into this authentic girlhood and all its feelings and judgments and confusions. And it really doesn't shy away from really adult themes including immigration, abuse, divorce, cancer, and grief. And I know Meryl, you said that you felt more captivated reading this book, than any other adult book.

Meryl:

what I felt, and so I hadn't read a middle grade book in a while like maybe 30 years. Yeah. And so I didn't know what to expect. Like I, I've been a big fan of Judy Bloom and what's her name? Beverly Cleary. Mm-hmm. But I, what I felt reading this was. It didn't feel baby-ish. I mean it, it felt like for any adult reader I think would enjoy it. And so emotionally raw, like I feel like we were just really with the girls. So much. So believably. How did you do that?

Loretta:

First of all, thank you so much. What a high compliment. So the thing about this book is I didn't really write it thinking it was middle grade. I was told like later in the process, if you're writing books where the main characters are 11 years old and the writing is through, their POV, then it is marketed as a middle grade book. Yeah. So I've always been like, this book is for everyone. Everyone should read it, when you're gonna publish a book, the publisher wants to know where you're gonna place the book in the bookstore. Really wants to categorize and label it it just makes it easier, I guess, for readers. I don't love that. I, I understand it. Um, sort of, I'm not in the publishing business clearly. So yeah, so I, I wrote it for everyone,

Ariana:

yeah, that was definitely, that was my first question. I was like, was this always a middle grade book, or, and obviously yes, it was. It was just a story.

Loretta:

Yes. And thankfully really thankfully Marina Budhos, who's also a middle grade author, she gave me a lot of really good guidance as I was writing it because at first there was some sections that were in the point of view of the adults. So like Elisa's mom, or Lucia's mom and Marina helped me understand that's gonna be a really hard book to sell because it's so mixed and it's all over the place. It's better just to stick to the girl's perspective. Which was super helpful for me to hear and you know this, I've written novels before that, aren't published, like maybe two before this one. So I was like, no this novel. I really want it to get published. So let me just follow the rules a little bit more or like follow the publishing agenda. And so I was like, okay, let me stick to some sort of format.

Meryl:

Do you think you lost anything in not having the adult perspective?

Loretta:

Yeah. I think it would've been a completely different book. Yeah. Completely different. I think I also gained something by not doing it.

Meryl:

Yeah. As a reader, I didn't feel like I needed it. Like I felt there was such power in hearing from the girls.

Loretta:

Yeah. And may, it may help me be more focused, there's, yeah, there's something good about paying attention the market's needs and wants.

Ariana:

And I guess how did you put yourself in the perspective of these girls? It felt so authentic, like even though I didn't have these lived experiences mm-hmm. I was like, oh, I know those feelings.

Loretta:

Yeah. Yeah. First of all, I know a lot of girls who are con, what's that word, conglomeration of Elisa. So Elisa as 11-year-old, undocumented child, she came to United States to reunite with her family. So I worked with those children for a long time. I heard a lot of their stories and um, each one was so interesting and I'm so happy I was able to work with them and draw from that. Then again, it's like there's something very universal about being a middle school girl. We,

Ariana:

It's like the raw, it's the rawest of emotions

Loretta:

experiencing. Yeah, yeah,

Meryl:

Yeah. I mean, The changing friendships, I really enjoyed tracking, you know, Uhhuh being like, I want this one to be my best friend, but do I? Yeah. Yes I do. No,

Loretta:

I want that one. Yeah. Yeah. It's such a poignant time in life. And then Lucia. She's me like, I just felt like I was channeling my middle school girl self through her. And then Alice is very much based on Ruby, who Ariana knows. Oh yeah. Um, And Ruby is my cousin, and now she's a grownup, beautiful woman. But at one point she was, uh, a crazy little middle schooler with a lot of angst and really big things that she was going through.

Meryl:

What I thought was amazing with the the Alice story is I felt she was going through a fucking crazy ass shit like her mother having cancer and like all this stuff, and none of the adults were really giving her what she needed. Mm-hmm. Like I felt a lot of sympathy for her, in school and her aunt and all that stuff. Like she just wasn't getting the support and I could understand why she was acting out.

Loretta:

Yeah. Me too. Me too.

Meryl:

too.

Loretta:

And also she's annoying, right? Yeah. Like,

Meryl:

But fun.

Loretta:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Gosh I don't know. I still feel a lot of the feelings that these girls are feeling All the time. They just don't have the tools to

Ariana:

the word,

Loretta:

the

Meryl:

And that was a difference I feel like, for, from adult literature is somehow, I guess I felt like it was straight into the point of the emotions all the time. It wasn't obscured. It

Loretta:

like, mm-hmm. this is what I feel. Yeah. You feel things very rawly in, in middle school, but then you don't know where to place it. Yeah. Yeah.

Ariana:

Bringing us back to the writing, to the page, I imagine for middle grade book you had to use simpler language Simpler sentences. Yeah. But the poignancy and the beauty was still there, I felt. How did that work in the editing

Loretta:

def it definitely was something that I thought about. Like, Would a, would an 11-year-old use this word? Would she say this something that I just had to like,, keep thinking about over and over again, but The thing about kids is that they're super smart and super sophisticated. So there were some topics in this book where I'm like, oh my gosh, no one's ever gonna publish this. No one's gonna wanna talk about. You want me talking about sexual abuse and all this, these really difficult really heartbreaking topics. And thankfully, you my mentor Marina, she was like no, no. You can write about this. Like kids are thinking about this, kids are talking about this. There's books being published on this. you can go there. So I didn't really feel too restrained in, that sense. And also in the language too. Like kids are, are so eloquent and sophisticated. I I just had to keep, you reminding to really, truly respect their full intelligence and then re remembering myself, right? 11, like was a smart 11-year-old. I

Ariana:

you knew what was going on. I mean, you, You still had places to grow,

Loretta:

Yeah. Yeah.

Meryl:

So like Elisa's situation in with the sexual assault did you ever did you ever intend to get into that more and cut back? Or how did you deal with that?

Loretta:

Yeah. Yeah, it was one of those topics I was scared to deal with, but then I was like, it ha it just, I had to deal with it. So many of the girls that I worked with in this population had gone through that, and that was number one reason why they were leaving their country of origin and getting asylum. So it's, horribly common. Maybe it's not, but I just felt like in my it, felt very common. So I, it was definitely something I needed to write about and also for me, so that I could process just hearing so much about that, like I needed to write it, write through it. I, I needed to explore that for really mostly selfishly for me. Yeah.

Ariana:

There is a selfish to that, to create something and think yeah. It has to be a selfish drive. Like you have to be like, I'm doing this. No one can tell me Mm-hmm.

Meryl:

Also, it's the idea, because I'm thinking about these things. There have to be other people thinking about this, who wanna write about And I'm giving them that

Loretta:

yeah. You have to be very selfish to be a writer. For sure. For sure.

Ariana:

So that was last year. 2024. How was that ride of publishing your first book? What do you remember from that?

Loretta:

It's funny. It's mostly very unglamorous.

Meryl:

great.

Loretta:

yeah. It's, you gotta do this work because you love writing. The stuff afterwards oh, people saying oh, that was really great and I loved your book, and that's lovely and it's beautiful, but it lasts two seconds. And just, it's such a beautiful experience to be like, wow, my work, I made something and this is a book that is in libraries and that's it's so cool. Really there's very few experiences feel that satisfying, but at the same time it's, yeah. That part is so short. Like you have to love writing.

Meryl:

Did you have events in which middle grade kids were there

Loretta:

yes. I had two events at Center for Fiction. And then one event at the New York Public Library. But yeah, so grateful to Center for Fiction for hosting me.'cause Center for Fiction is so cool. Yeah. It's like one of my favorite places in Brooklyn. It's the best. Right. It's the best. And they have this beautiful, which I didn't know, I didn't really understand'cause I'd only been there like during the day, but they have a stage and everything. So they brought in several classes of middle schoolers, a lot of them who had the book in, in their hands. And I was just like, ready to cry. But I don't wanna cry in front of a bunch of middle schoolers.. Yeah. And they were so fricking cool and so fricking smart and asking questions and just really engaging. Those events were definitely my favorite. And then there's one, one, the second event that I did with Center for Fiction, a lot of the kids were recently arrived undocumented children. So they were Elisa in a lot of ways. And we were talking in Spanish at the end and they were, yeah. So that was so awesome.

Meryl:

You have a very few actual Spanish words in there. Yes. Yeah. Did you think about, did you ever have more? How, like how much did you just side to.

Loretta:

Yeah. My first novel that I wrote and isn't published is totally Spanglish. Oh. so so I'm like, that's gonna be difficult to market. I don't know, maybe later I'll come back to that book, but I was just you know what, stick to English and then the really necessary words. Put it in Spanish and then just cross my fingers and hope the book will be translated, which it is getting translated. Oh, great. Yeah. Yeah, so it'll come out in Spanish in 2026, which is so cool because my dad doesn't really speak English. He doesn't, he can speak a little bit of English, but he doesn't read English, so then he'll be able to read it, which is really nice. Yeah. But it was tempting to do more Spanish stuff, but with this book I was just like, stick to something just focus.

Meryl:

yeah. Uhhuh. Yeah, I remember. What is that line about the clawing at the moon? Oh, yeah.

Ariana:

That's such a good one.

Meryl:

Yeah. Yeah, yeah,

Loretta:

arranando la luna. Yeah. Yeah, That's like you're just like someone who's constantly unsatisfying is like clawing out the moon uhhuh because you're never gonna get it. Yeah. Yeah. Uhhuh

Meryl:

So I noticed that like Elisa refers to herself as illegal. Mm-hmm. And one of my good friends. Father had been undocumented. She says un, she says illegal and rather than undocumented because she's like, it felt illegal. that's true to the experience. So I was wondering about your decision to use illegal and homeless. Which are not like politically

Loretta:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Meryl:

Feel maybe real to the experience

Loretta:

Yeah. I think, yeah. You're hitting a, what's the expression, right on the Nail on the head, Nail on the head. nail nose, head on the nose. You're doing that. Yeah. So I felt like the word illegal did mirror her experience more because she and a lot of these children feel like. oh my gosh, I'm not allowed to be here. It's scary to be me. And it's just something that, it, that feeling doesn't go away. It's like this constantly in the background feeling of I'm not safe.

Meryl:

Was there ever any pressure to change it or

Loretta:

no, not pressure. I really love my publisher Seven Stories. They've let me write whatever I want. There was like, wait, can I swear on the I had one, one part where I was like Alice was like, you're a fucking cunt, or something like that. And they're like,

Meryl:

So they're like,

Loretta:

and they're like, no, you can't do that. But that was the only thing. That was really the only thing That they changed everything else. They were like, yeah, that's fine. they trusted. Yeah, the seven seven stories is really great. they publish a lot of kind of d different work.

Ariana:

What has your relationship to writing been in your life Were you a journaler as a kid?

Loretta:

I've, yeah, I've always, written you know, Little stories. I think, a lot of kids are writers and then they just something It's taken a, it's they're pressured to be something else or, but like all kids are artists or writers or so, but I was lucky to have my mom and my dad, and they're both artists, especially even my dad's a musician. My mom's an educator like our Ariana's mom. Really? Yeah. And they

Ariana:

both practice the Regio Emilia style with the hundred language of children. Yes. So you might not have the verbal skills at a certain level, but there are so many other ways to share.

Loretta:

Yes.

Ariana:

Yeah. Yeah.

Loretta:

So I think Ariana and I grew up probably in a similar environment in that sense. We're very like, Influence to be creators and just we're so lucky. Right? Yeah. So yeah, so I've always written, but like seriously been like, I need to write every single day and this is like a part of my identity. I started that in high school. I don't think I was writing every single day in high school. That's probably a lie. But I wanted to write every single day. And that was like my high school teacher, Doug Parker. He just, he was like, you're a writer. Like you need to write. And we all have those amazing people who just see us and they're like, take yourself seriously, like you're a writer. Which, hopefully I can do that for someone one day. And then that's when I was like, okay, so if I'm a writer, that means I have to go to school for writing. I have to go to college for writing. And not thinking at all oh, that's like the most impractical idea on planet earth. But I, I did it anyway. or? Yeah, so I, I went for, at Bard College, they call it written arts, which sounds better. Oh, written arts Than creative writing. Right. It sounds a little better. But still, yeah. Most impractical idea on planet earth. Okay.

Ariana:

We went to we met, me and Meryl met in MFA for creative

Loretta:

Amazing. Yeah. Super impractical. Yeah.

Ariana:

back

Loretta:

back to school to make more money. Bad. Terrible decision. Really bad. The commit

Meryl:

to poverty.

Loretta:

Yeah. Committing to poverty. But obviously like the best decision ever also. But yeah, so then I'm like, okay, I'm, I've always taken myself really seriously, which is, a blessing and a curse, but you've gotta do it if you're an artist, like right, no one gives a shit.

Ariana:

No, they, you have to give a shit. Yeah. No one gives a shit.

Loretta:

And I had really good teachers who, who said that? Like another one of my mentors, Michael Ives, he's he he told me, he was like, you have to keep this fire burning in you. Because once, especially once, like here in college, people are like, oh, your stuff. Like the teachers that are paid to, to do that. And obviously genuinely care, but like after college, like no one gives a fuck. That you're a writer, like no one cares. They could care less. So you have to care with all your body and soul and mind, and you have If not like you'll, you won't be a writer. And guess what? No one will care.

Meryl:

One of the things that Ariana mentioned is, that was interesting about the book, is that you used like a drawing. Yeah. Like the characters were all drawing and that was kind of their bond. that something, I dunno, she said you were an artist as well, so that

Loretta:

I definitely wouldn't say I'm a visual artist. I, I think I, in a parallel. Universe I am and a parallel universe that there's Yeah, that that's what I'm doing. I think I, I decided. In my young adulthood okay, Loretta, you need to focus. And if you're gonna be really good at something, choose one thing. And it's writing for me. I could have been a musician, I could have been a visual artist. I think you just made a choice. I just made a choice. And it's sad, like I'm sacrificing other things, but I also need to work so I don't have time to do all these things.

Ariana:

That's, is what I need I. try and do exhausted.

Loretta:

No, but that's beautiful. I so admire my friends who do that. Oh, one week they're working on an album. The next week they're doing a collage piece. And then after that they're like, in the play I am like, I love you. Like you're amazing, but I'm like really what do you call that? Like a whew. Tunnel vision a little bit. Yeah. With writing. Like I also write one novel at a time. I'm not like writing really short stories on the side or very much poetry. I'm like, I, no, I needed to complete a project. And that's just my personality. But I love artists who are doing all these different things.

Ariana:

I get frustrated or bored and I'm like, let me just do something Yes. but I do wish. I wish I was more obsessed which I think Meryl, you have that tendency. I'm

Meryl:

writing. I'm not good at anything else in that's a lie. The world, that's a lot.

Loretta:

lie.

Meryl:

sure that's, it's not hard because it's not like I have to push any other things away. I am like, nope. Yeah. So

Ariana:

But I did wanna add, I guess this is a comment I really did, like how you told a lot through the girls other artistic mediums right? their even dreams. I felt like that was doing a lot on the

Loretta:

Mm-hmm.

Ariana:

Whereas especially as an adult reader, you know what all these things can And it makes you involved in the book.

Meryl:

Yeah. Like the dreams were short enough that you're like, oh, I get it. Without being like bogged into a

Loretta:

Yeah. Yeah. The really long dream sequences in fiction can be a little annoying, but

Ariana:

what is it

Loretta:

doing? Like it's, did it just happen?

Ariana:

happen? Yeah. Yeah.

Loretta:

Exactly. Yeah. So I was careful with the, I was careful with the dreams, but the, yeah. I wanted to show that these girls are they're creators. They're. They have things to say and they say it. And children really do that, right? They really say things in many different ways. And unfortunately, as adults, we like forget that, that we forget

Ariana:

We also forget to pay attention. I just remember being so frustrated in the beginning of the book with Elisa's mom. And it's can't you see her? Like she's struggling, but then I guess spoiler like she does, and then I was like crying. I was like

Loretta:

yeah.

Meryl:

I literally cried for 80% of reading this book. Oh God. yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yay. I really did what made you decide to do Lucia's story as like a epistolary

Loretta:

oh, like with you and I what you were saying I get, I do get bored when of my own writing and while I'm writing. So I try to break it up for myself and make it interesting. I don't want it to first whatever. So really mostly, again, selfishly for me just exploring a different format, but also I wanted to make Lucia a, a writer. An emerging writer. Mm-hmm. So I was like, oh, that's through journaling.

Ariana:

Was this story always in this format of they're almost like connected stories? I guess you could call it that. Which each character having sort of their own chunk of the book. And were there other, and you said there were adults who had dropped off from the Yes. Were there other city girls?

Loretta:

Yes. So it started with Elisa. I was like, okay, I definitely have to write about Elisa. Writing something about Elisa wasn't my idea. It was my friend Lauren Blogits idea. She's an attorney and she was working with me while we were working with the unaccompanied minors. And she was like, you know what Loretta, I'm gonna write this book about a children's book about unaccompanied And I was like, i'm a writer. I write it?

Meryl:

Yeah.

Loretta:

That's a really good idea. And like she helped me so much. We did brainstorming at the beginning. And then I, I. Kind of grabbed it and ran with it. And she's just that type of, she's such a beautiful person where she just, I'm not the only one. She gives people amazing ideas and then they do amazing things. She's just she's a giver. So I started with Elisa and

Meryl:

did you meet like Elisa, like girls yourself or just hear about them through

Loretta:

her? No, I met girls like Elisa and I was their interpreter, Okay, Yeah, so I'm in the story, I'm like tucked in the story. I'm like the interpreter in the story. Yeah, it started with Elisa. I was gonna be a whole book about her. I was gonna have the adult sections too. I was even thinking like, oh, there's gonna be an Octavio section. Octavio's, like the boyfriend of the mother. Like I, I was really going. Somewhere else with this. Then Marina was like, no. And she helped me rein it in and then I was like, okay, if it's 11 year olds, I don't really wanna write. 200 pages or whatever on Elisa.'cause not that she's boring at all, she's so interesting. But I just, I get restless. I wanna write about different people. So then that's when I was like, okay, then maybe, three's in a good number, So I'll write about two other girls and then connect them. Just because yeah, I haven't found a way to write yet in a, like a straightforward through manner. My next book is the same format, but it's three different girls and they're in high school. So it's that's just a format that I like and it gives me a lot of room to explore many different voices styles. So yeah. That's how that happened. Yeah. Oh,

Ariana:

so this is just like the form

Loretta:

Yeah, Not boring to

Ariana:

boring. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Meryl:

One thing I also thought was a good choice was having Elisa being undocumented in the Bronx and in public housing, but then having An Uber rich Mexican girl. Mm-hmm. Just as far as showing the different faces of Latinas

Loretta:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Being Latino in, in New York is a very diverse experience and like everyone, like we, we get lumped into our, Latinos, but it's yeah. What does it mean to be like, it just, you're just a person. You're in a very different person and there's very wealthy Latinos living in very not wealthy. Yeah. Yeah.

Meryl:

And also that they weren't being snobby, like that they would drive her to public housing and not make a big deal about it. Stuff like that.

Loretta:

That was great. Yeah. Some people are just rich. Yeah.

Meryl:

We have a member of the studio audience today.

Ariana:

Yeah.

Loretta:

We have

Ariana:

Aaron, and Aaron

Loretta:

Aaron.

Ariana:

question

Speaker 5:

Hey, Loretta, I have a question on that same topic that you were just talking about, Um, so as a Mexican American, would you have done anything differently in the book if you wrote this book in Mexico versus in New York York

Speaker 2:

Mm.

Loretta:

Right now I'm writing a book set in Mexico because while I was writing this, I was like, oh, I really wanna write something with the Mexican setting. Am I doing things differently? Yeah, I think setting is a character, right? Changes everything.

Speaker 2:

Um,

Loretta:

no, I'm pretty, I'm doing things similarly actually. Like I'm showing the many different ways of being Mexican and Mexico. You have, a large middle class a, also a large very elite, very ultra wealthy, and then, yeah, you have people poor. And I think a lot of people who have visited me in Guadalajara are shocked by that. They're sometimes expecting to find like a more homogenous culture. And it's not at all, it's very complex. It's extremely, Ariana's been a few times. It's extremely classist. It's extremely complicated.

Ariana:

Yeah. And even so Guadalajara by itself is diverse, but then

Loretta:

yes,

Ariana:

Like Mexico is such a diverse like country, Yeah. Uhhuh, like each state is so different. And, yeah. Tell us a little bit about your creative practice. Is there anything that you, you say you have a need to write daily? What does that look like? Do you do anything to support that?

Loretta:

Yeah, it's, yeah, very unglamorous. I write, it always It always is I write every day. I write at least for 45 minutes, and then on the weekends I write a little bit more. I try to I write more. More. Yeah. Because I have more time. more time. I write on the bus while I'm going to work at the Brooklyn va. My coworkers know not to bother me. They're so sweet I look crazy. I wear like sunglasses and then sometimes I have my hoodie on and I headphones on and I rain. I look so weird. You're like, yeah,

Meryl:

don't bother

Loretta:

like do not talk to me. And they know and they're so sweet. So they just wave and then. Yeah. I get to the office and I'm ready to do my other work. You just gotta, you gotta squeeze it in.

Ariana:

Yeah. How do you, I hate to say like, how do you balance the, working with veteran mm-hmm. your creative work

Speaker:

And

Ariana:

protecting yourself?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Loretta:

It's hard. It's hard. I don't know.

Ariana:

I I was like,

Loretta:

that's a terrible A terrible question. No, it's not like what,

Ariana:

what,

Loretta:

I just do it. I'm a machine. I go, I'm the type of person that just go. I have anxiety that's my way. I, Anxiety can be a wonderful thing. I just can't stop. I can't. Right. I have to go. I have to be doing something. So thankfully. Who knows why I chose to write. Like That's a really good coping skill. I can't. I really I'm working on it, on, finding more stillness in my life, but no, I'm here. Let's do it. Yeah.

Meryl:

do you do workshop or have writing groups or anything? You do it all individual. Interesting. Yeah.

Loretta:

Activity. Very lonesome. What do you do?

Meryl:

I workshop constantly. I am That's beautiful. Always in workshop.

Loretta:

How many are you and you're in? I'm

Meryl:

in three. Three? Yeah. It's a lot. that's amazing.

Loretta:

Yeah. That is a lot. constant yes. to be

Meryl:

oh, this is worth doing.

Loretta:

Yes. Yeah. That's beautiful. Maybe at some point in my life I'll do that. I feel, thank God that my job is very social, so I get the human connection all the time, all day, which is so fortunate. But yeah, if I didn't have that job, I think I

Speaker 2:

would be like you. I'm

Loretta:

I'm a hyper social being. But my husband Nick he reads everything I write. Oh, cool. That's good. Um, and

Speaker 2:

and tells me up.

Meryl:

Is he a writer.

Loretta:

He's also a writer. And then my mom

Speaker 2:

reads everything that I write.

Loretta:

yeah. Ariana, does your mom read your stuff?

Ariana:

Yeah. Um, I feel like I've been struggling to write lately, but it's funny. I think it is. because writing is so solitary. Mm-hmm. I was very underemployed for the majority of this year and it's just been a struggle with the entertainment out of whack. But a lot, many people, yeah, a lot of industries are out of whack. But this one I was really blessed'cause for 15 years I was freelance and I just constantly had work. So this was new for me. But now that I'm working five days six days a week between teaching and working at the farmer's market I'm like, when am I going to write? I have so much to say now. yes. Yeah. like when you have the time, I had nothing to do and I was just sitting there like and

Loretta:

isn't that weird? Uhhuh,

Ariana:

couldn't pull it out.

Loretta:

Yeah. I think being really active actually helps you be a writer. Yeah. It's like you have that energy building in you, you, have to like, push it out somehow. yeah.

Ariana:

yeah. It's like a, oh, it's almost like our exhaust, right? We have our, Yes. Like we're, if we're machines, No.

Loretta:

Yeah.

Speaker:

I, I have,

Loretta:

I have, to. it's so healthy.

Speaker:

Yeah. Ugh.

Ariana:

what's inspiring you right

Speaker:

now?

Loretta:

Me? No,

Ariana:

Good. I lo I, I

Meryl:

I love it. Being

Ariana:

unapologetically

Loretta:

Me, myself, and I so I'm writing about three girls. It's the same, like I mentioned, the same format. Three girls. They're in high school in, in Mexico at basically a version of the same high school that I went to. So just, yeah just me and my, and what it's like to be a teenage girl and me and my friends. I'm very most way more inspired actually by my friends and their lives. I think my friends are so cool and interesting and have amazing lives, so I just. I pick some of my friends and I write about them. That's what I'm doing right now.

Ariana:

And how are you getting back to the mindset of high school

Loretta:

Oh I'm listening to a lot of this is cringe, A lot of

Speaker 2:

like indie

Loretta:

slease Oh, yeah Music which is so good. Like the Strokes and Arctic Monkeys and Always and Forever. Lana Delray, who's my. Goddess I But yeah, it's just Spotify is like two thousands Playlist.

Ariana:

Oh, the best. the best. Yeah. I never get sick of

Loretta:

it. I never get, it's so it's such a thing, right? That you like, liked the music that you liked when you were in high school forever. it's such a

Ariana:

thing. I always wonder, I'm like, was it good music or is it just so ingrained in

Loretta:

don't know. I think it's really good music. so

Meryl:

I think that this book is so important and that as far as building empathy, especially right now what's going on with Trump and ice

Loretta:

mm-hmm.

Meryl:

Is

Ariana:

antipathy thing happening? with certain populations.

Loretta:

what's happen? what

Ariana:

What do you like lot of, white the white christian entity they're really like pushing an antipathy

Loretta:

Really. propaganda. That's what they call it, antipathy.

Ariana:

Like they literally are like, empathy is a bad word. Empathy. Yeah. Like empathy is not good for us.

Speaker:

Interesting.

Ariana:

Or at least I've seen videos. I don't know how pervasive it is, but it really

Speaker:

I don't know. It

Ariana:

affected me to hear that.

Loretta:

What's their idea

Speaker 2:

behind that?

Meryl:

Are they like associating empathy with like wokeness, you're

Ariana:

think they're associating it with

Meryl:

weakness. Feminity and femininity, right? I guess, I don't know what my question is, but I feel like if children read this book, it would stick with them as far as like building their empathy. But I don't know if that

Loretta:

I think children are very empathetic. Right? That's true. The most of the children I, I met I'm very open to thinking about other people's experiences. Yeah, the publisher's they're doing their job. They're trying to get it out there, and then we will see what happens. It's hard to sell books. It's hard to. Yeah. it's people, it's hard for people to, to read. I'm just I'm so impressed that anyone I've read this and Wow. Thank you so much to both of you for reading it. I I'm just I'm so impressed that anybody reads it. Yeah. I just feel thankful for that. It's all right to do something

Speaker 2:

nobody cares about.

Ariana:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And just.

Loretta:

Keep doing it. Keep doing

Speaker 2:

keep doing it,

Ariana:

it. Keep doing it. Or it's all right to be into yourself.

Loretta:

It's all right to be into yourself and your life. Your life is interesting. Nobody else has lived your life. And no one will. So write about it. Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah.

Ariana:

thank

Loretta:

so much. This was so much

Ariana:

Yeah.

Loretta:

my book.

Ariana:

Tune in next time. Follow us on all the things It's all right

Speaker:

on.

Ariana:

City Girls. Read City Girls. Available where you get books.

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Ariana McLean

Host
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Meryl Branch-McTiernan

Host