Award-winning author Isabella Maldonado wore a gun and a badge for two decades in real life before turning her talents to writing about crime, rather than chasing criminals.
Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and today Isabella talks about how The Cipher, the first book in her series featuring FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera, is currently in development with Netflix starring Jennifer Lopez. She talks about how she came to crack the thriller suspense market.
We’ve got a free book giveaway, the Historic Spring Fiction book offer, 30 authors getting together, all offering free books. Check the show notes for this episode for the link to that offer. That’s where you will also find links to Isabella’s books and website.
HISTORIC SPRING FICTION
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What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.
Links in this episode:
Nina Guerrera Series: https://isabellamaldonado.com/fbi-special-agent-guerrera-series/
J Lo Production Company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuyorican_ProductionsBrad Thor: https://bradthor.com/Greg Hurwitz: https://gregghurwitz.net/Orphan X series: https://us.macmillan.com/series/orphanxJA Jance: (On Binge Reading) https://thejoysofbingereading.com/in-the-cross-hairs-j-a-jance/JA Jance: https://www.jajance.com/
Susan Kiernan-Lewis: Next week on Binge Reading: https://susankiernanlewis.com/
Where to find Isabella Maldonado:Website: https://isabellamaldonado.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorisabella/Facebook: @authorisabellaTwitter: https://twitter.com/authorbella1Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabella-maldonado-b8474b150/Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6436742.Isabella_MaldonadoAmazon: https://www.amazon.com/Isabella-Maldonado/e/B06Y5LYNQRBookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/isabella-maldonado?list=about
Introducing crime writer and thriller author Isabella Maldonado
Isabella Maldonado - crime fighter to crime writer
But now, here’s Isabella.Jenny Wheeler: Hello there Isabella, and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us.Isabella Maldonado: It's my pleasure to be here.Jenny Wheeler: You are a former police officer. You had over two decades in the Force, and you're also a graduate of the FBI National Agency at Quantico.
It seems that background has enabled you to move seamlessly into writing novels that are attracting wide attention.
You're very much regarded as a writer to watch, and you've had awards for your work, and now you have got some exciting news about a movie project. What's happening there?Isabella Maldonado: Yes, it is very exciting. What happened is that right after The Cipher came out, which is the first book in the Nina Guerrera series, Hollywood called. It’s a good way to put it. Actually, there was interest from several different studios and different people in Hollywood. I have a literary agent out of New York, and I then had to get a Hollywood agent and brokered a deal.
What ended up happening is, Jennifer Lopez has her own production company, Nuyorican Productions, and she teamed up with Netflix and they came in with the strongest deal. They did a great job and so we went with that. It’s very exciting. It is going to be wonderful to see my book come to life in that way.
Jenny Wheeler: Yes. I can believe why she would be attracted to the story. I don't know if she'll be playing the main role as well, but it is a wonderful main role for a Latina actress, isn’t it?
Jennifer Lopez will star as Nina in Isabella Maldonado story
Jennifer Lopez loved Isabella Maldonado story of a Latina FBI officer targeted by a serial killer
Isabella Maldonado: She is going to star in it. She's going to produce and she's going to star. What they are going to do is make changes. People who have read the book will know that the lead character is 27 years old. They are going to make changes so the character will be more age appropriate.Jenny Wheeler: It is a great role because Nina is a marvelous character, both in terms of her strength of character inwardly, but also she gets a lot of kick ass action as they say. It is a great combination of the emotional and the action side of it.
It seems to me that is something you like to introduce into your stories – the emotional growth as well as the very strong plotlines of action. Would I be right in that?Isabella Maldonado: Yes, absolutely. I love reading thrillers as much as the next person, but I think today's more modern thrillers are bringing in more of an emotional component. I've noticed that, and so I wanted to have a fully developed character arc where the reader goes with the character, first of all on a physical journey that is extremely tough, but also an emotional journey.
It seems like it's really resonating with readers. They're enjoying the dual level with that.Jenny Wheeler: In the first book, The Cipher, she has had a very narrow escape from a serial killer when she's only 16, although at the time we don't realize it's a serial killer. But she had this very narrow escape.
Isabella Maldonado's Cipher - a real nail-biter of a story
Now, years later, she's a police officer and she's jumped by some random hoodlums in a park and a video of that attack goes viral because she gets the best end of the deal. Her previous attacker sees this online and is suddenly enraged about the thought that she got away the first time, and he's going to come after her again.That is an amazingly dramatic way to start it, and it becomes a real nail-biter of a story. There is a lot of social media involved as well, so she gets a lot of external pressure about what's going on. It suddenly becomes a national story. That's the way you tag team the action and the emotional side of things, isn’t it?Isabella Maldonado: Yes it is. I wanted to include a social media component in there. From my own experience in law enforcement, the public do sometimes get heavily involved in a case, especially a headline grabbing case. It can be nightmarish at times to work a case and have the public also talking about it and trading information and gossip about it.
But it's no longer just gossip around town. It's gossip all over the internet. I wanted to put that forward. People get sucked in, and I wanted to show the effect that had on the investigation for the FBI agents.Jenny Wheeler: The second book in the series, A Different Dawn, came out last August. Once again there is a strong social media component. They are very much 21st century stories.
Social media and police work now intricately linked
Isabella Maldonado: Yes, exactly. Traditional media and social media get involved. That is such a realistic part of what you do in law enforcement nowadays. Nothing is done in a vacuum. Everything you do, you can assume that someone is recording what you're doing, and people are posting it. They're streaming about it. They’re doing live commentary when you're in the middle of doing it. It's a part of what goes on in law enforcement nowadays.Jenny Wheeler: It's wonderful too that the reality aspect of it comes through so strongly because of your personal experience in that area. One of the things that is interesting is the way the local police force sometimes has to interface with the FBI. The FBI come in and there's maybe a little bit of a territorial thing going on. You've personally experienced that as well with your FBI training, haven’t you?Isabella Maldonado: Yes. A lot of people don't understand it and so I try to make it really clear that the FBI has jurisdiction only in a certain kind of case. Your average murder – I hate to use the term ‘average murder’ but for lack of a better term – a normal murder that would occur in any city or town, is investigated by the local police, not the FBI.The FBI can be invited in to assist by the local police. That is always the case unless the FBI have primary jurisdiction, and those are certain kinds of cases. If it’s federal land or if it involves an abduction over state lines, or if it's a case like a bank robbery – there are specific cases where the FBI has primary jurisdiction. Otherwise, it is local law enforcement.
A police officer who always dreamed of being a writer
Sometimes there can be different feelings about it, but the FBI are always invited in. As a local law enforcement officer, a lot of times you like to have them come in because they bring a ton of resources. They have a huge budget and they have tens of thousands of agents and they can bring a lot to a case, even for a large police department.Jenny Wheeler: Did you always have a passion for writing? All the time you were a police officer, did you have this secret dream that some time you might like to be a writer?Isabella Maldonado: Yes, absolutely. Starting from when I was a young girl. I remember the book that was transformative for me in that sense. It was A Wrinkle in Time. I read that book as a young girl and it transported me to such a different time and place that I felt, wow, this is magic – that you can take someone with your imagination and your words into a totally different world. That’s when I knew I wanted to write.I ended up going into law enforcement but the whole time I was in law enforcement, I was avidly reading all the time. I always figured when I retire, by that time I will have some stories to tell. Not necessarily true stories. I write fiction,
