An Interview with Marinela Ortiz

Marinela was born with a rare form of Retinitis Pigmentosa, where she lost her central vision but not her peripheral vision. She has written her blog, Nerdy Shique Universe, which is a variety blog that aims to all types of nerds, such as books, anime, music, and more. She has also done press for conventions and interviewed such actors as Richard Epcar, Tia Ballard, and Christopher Kayman Lee. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Humanities and a Minor in Writing & Rhetoric in 2014 from the University of Central Florida and her Master’s in Assistive Technology from George Mason University in 2023.

She has written her Backwards Fairy Tale Series as an homage to the classic fairy tales and Disney princess movies she has grown and loved. Love Found in Cinders is the first book, which tells the modern twist on Cinderella; Rose Thorns of Love is the second, which tells the twist on Beauty & the Beast; and the latest, A Lovely Sleep, is the modern twist on Sleeping Beauty.

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Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I was not expecting to become a writer due to how much I wrote in notebooks back in middle school. I remembered buying so many of them and bought so many pens almost every week due to how much I wrote. I even found a typewriter in my parents’ garage that my dad had brought home once from one of his jobs and I enjoyed typing on it until we got our first computer from Gageway and continued from there. I mostly focused on romance stories and tried getting something published into a magazine to showcase it but didn’t get published. After that I mostly worked on college papers and didn’t start writing until a little after graduation from college.

I did look up to Jim Butcher since my fiancé got me into the Dresden Files, and I read the Cinder Spires series as well. I also looked up to Lara Adrian; I enjoyed her Midnight Breed series since it was set in Boston, which is where I was born. I also enjoyed Mimi Jean Pamfiloff’s comedic writing in her romance and Kaz LaFave with her dystopian series and how she wrote it.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I teach Assistive Technology as my day job. I’m visually impaired and have been teaching other blind people how to use their technology to get a job or get into school for a degree for where they want to go in life. Technology has been important to me and it has helped me to write my books as I go along.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

It’s an interesting way of finding it. I was in my room and was watching a movie and thought aloud, “What if the prince was the one who fell asleep in Sleeping Beauty?” Then I came up with Backwards Fairy Tale and tried writing the book, but didn’t like how it came out in the end. I decided why not turn it into a series and start with Cinderella and name them based on each book with either love, lovely, or even romance or hearts in the title. Love Found in Cinders came to be with the Cinderella one and of course when coming up with Rose Thorns, I liked to incorporate the rose since the characters end up having rose tatoos for the rose element. Then with A Lovely Sleep, I kind of felt it was slightly sarcastic since Aurora was the one to be asleep and it was a deep one so why not just make it like that as a title. I can’t wait for the next one since it is going to be Alice in Wonderland but named Wonderland Hearts.

What part of publishing your book made it feel real for the first time?

Feeling the paperback for the first time since my first publisher actually made the paperback option easier and I decided to add it on after a scam publisher try to have me work with them and I was glad someone snapped me out of the Cloud Nine back to reality by searching the scam publisher and got back to the first one to do the paperback. I knew self-publishing is about doing it yourself and that I can do it. It even became more real seeing my books available on Books A Million and Barnes & Noble since they are such big retailers. Books A Million was the most due to how much I used to hang out at the old location near where my parents lived in Orlando and enjoyed looking at the books after a trading card league had ended.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

This is going to be fun since there are many songs I thought of leading up to the current one. “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls for Love Found in Cinders, “Kiss From A Rose” by Seal, but I would use Johnathan Young and Caleb Hiles’ version for it for Rose Thorns of Love. Two for A Lovely Sleep, which are “A Rose for Epona” by Eleveauti and “What Hurts the Most” by. Backstreet Boys and Rascal Flatts. And for Wonderland Hearts, which will be my next one, I hear it in my head sometimes: “Dangerous Woman” by Ariana Grande.

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

I would say it is to enjoy the ride that the story takes you. It is a bit of an adventure with magic and romance, so it will be one of those you would enjoy and sometimes may hate a character or two.

What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?

I couldn’t believe I got to where I am now. Seeing my books out there and available to the public is amazing!

What creative projects are you currently working on?

Right now I’m taking a break from writing. I will start Wonderland Hearts soon when I’m ready to do so. I am writing my blog still to keep things going.

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