New Kid on the Block: Barbara Caridad Ferrer

As opposed to New Kids on the Block, because really, I wasn’t much of a fan of Joey, Jordan, Donny, Jon, & whoever the fifth guy was.  Hello, everyone, I’m Barbara Caridad Ferrer, writing as Caridad Ferrer, known to most as Barb.  It’s really not as complicated as it sounds.

At any rate, I’m here at Magical Musings, at the invitation of the lovely members here, to become a member of the tribe and add a young adult voice to the mix.  Oh, yeah…  that is what I write.  I’ve previously published two novels, Adiós to My Old Lifeand It’s Not About the Accent both with MTV Books.  After a bit of a dry spell, I’m going to be back next month with my first book for St. Martin’s Press, When the Stars Go Blue a contemporary retelling of the Carmen (opera & ballet) story.  Needless to say, I’m beyond excited about this story, not only because it’s my first release in three years, but because this story is incredibly near and dear to my heart, incorporating my love of music and especially drum and bugle corps, which is an activity which was very near and dear to my heart throughout my adolescence and actually, had a great deal to do with helping me to hone the discipline that comes into play on a daily basis with respect to writing.

Let’s see, what else… okay, yes, I’m a music geek, we’ve pretty much covered that, although like a true geek, I could go on for, you know, ever with respect to the subject.  I’m also a huge fan of procedural television shows, with Castle, Bones, and Criminal Minds among my favorites. I love GLEE and Dancing With the Stars (so bummed to not be one of the authors considered for the Facebook poll *insert sad face*) and Doctor Who (do I have enough geek cred, yet?).  Turning to the written word side of things, I not only read voraciously, natch, but I also collect cookbooks, including regional specialty books and antiques, with my collection numbering close to a thousand volumes these days.  I have kind of an unholy addiction to shows and designer gowns and just clothes in general, although most days will find me in sweats and a snarky t-shirt, because clearly, some part of me still exists as a fifteen-year-old.

And in terms of the adventurous side of my personality, this year, I packed up kids, cat, dogs, and husband, and we moved from Florida (great place to be from, not anywhere I want to live, ever again) to Seattle, Washington, fulfilling a dream nearly twenty years in the making.

Which brings us, finally, to the writing.  Yes, I’m going to be the resident YA voice around here, but let me let you in on a little secret: it’s not the only thing I write.  I actually came at this writing gig from the romance end of things (I’ve since discovered that I suck like a Dyson at writing straight up romance and it’s best left to others who are far better at it than I am) but over the last several years my style has evolved into some hybrid between women’s fiction and I guess… mainstream fiction would be the closest thing I could possibly label it as?  Which… actually, I kind of really don’t like labels much.  What I do love is writing stories.  I like letting my imagination run amok and allow it to weave threads together into a story that I hope is entertaining, usually accompanied by a soundtrack that helps to inspire and maybe even goad the story into places which it might not otherwise have traveled.

Needless to say, NKOTB is not generally part of these soundtracks, although one never knows where the muse might demand and who am I to argue with the muses?

So… in a nutshell, that’s me.  I’m looking forward to getting to know my fellow authors better and getting to know you, the readers, even better.  As soon as I get up to speed around here, I’m sure I’ll even have far more interesting blog posts.  In the meantime, you can find out more about me at my website or you can follow me on Twitter: @BarbFerrer.