Author debuts with ‘Fat Chance, Charlie Vega’
CT NATIVE CRYSTAL MALDONADO PUBLISHES DEBUT NOVEL
Crystal Maldonado is trying to do a lot with her debut novel, “Fat Chance, Charlie Vega.” It’s a story of first love and all the ups and downs of wondering if your crush likes you back.
It’s a story of a female friendship, and how it can be both empowering and a source of jealousy and frustration.
It’s a story about family, and how hurtful it can be to have a parent who isn’t supportive.
But mostly, the book is about Charlie — a self-described “fat girl” — and how she never stops learning to love herself.
“The center is Charlie and her relationship with herself,” says Maldonado, 32, a Plainville native who now lives in Springfield, Mass. “She goes on this journey of ‘What does it mean to be fat, and what do I take from these messages from other people?’ ”
That story is what compelled Maldonado to write “Charlie Vega,” which comes out Feb. 2. As someone who, like Charlie, describes herself as “fat,” Maldonado says she seldom saw people in movies, television and books who looked like her.
When she did, the character in question was either completely preoccupied with losing weight or merely a sidekick or best friend.
Maldonado wanted to write a book, based partly on her own teens years, about an overweight girl who “got to have her own story.” Indeed, Charlie’s story is rich, complicated and fraught with problems battled by teenagers the world over.
Her beloved father has died, and her mother, after recently losing a lot of weight herself, keeps plying Charlie with weight-loss shakes and exercise classes.
She has a beautiful, popular best friend named Amelia, whom she loves and is jealous of in equal measure.
And she has crushes on boys — at least one of whom quickly proves himself unworthy of her attention and another who might just see her for who she really is.
Charlie is also an avid writer, who is constantly crafting stories and posting them online in her spare time. That’s a passion she shares with Maldonado, who has been writing stories most of her life.
“I had always loved reading and writing in general,” Maldonado says. “I did it for fun, as a hobby. I always wanted to be an author — I just didn't think it was possible.”
Instead, she studied journalism in college and had a career in that field.
“I wasn’t writing as much for fun,” she says.
But, eventually, she couldn’t let go of the idea of being a writer. Though Maldonado says she made other attempts at novel writing, “Charlie Vega” is one that stuck.
She says she started writing the novel around the time of the 2016 presidential election, in which Donald Trump was eventually elected president.
“I was not in the greatest of head spaces” after the election, she says. Writing the book offered her an escape.
“I could write a fluffy rom-com about first love and pretend none of this other stuff was happening,” she says, laughing.
But writing a book about first love meant putting herself in the mind of a teenager, which presented challenges, Maldonado says.
“It was pretty challenging to channel the teen energy. I don’t know what it’s like to grow up using a smartphone all the time.”
Maldonado says she was grateful for editors who told her when a reference or trend was too dated. She recalls having a character wear something in leopard print and being told to change it because “kids don’t really wear leopard print anymore.”
Ultimately, she says, she hopes readers, particularly young ones, will find something to relate to in her heroine.
“I hope that people who are fat are able to find (the book) and see themselves reflected back at them,” Maldonado says. “They are beautiful as they are and can love themselves as they are.
“It took me a really long time to get to that place of not apologizing for what my body looks like. Even if the book helps one person to be a little bit kinder to themself, that would be a dream come true.”
“EVEN IF THE BOOK HELPS ONE PERSON TO BE A LITTLE BIT KINDER TO THEMSELF, THAT WOULD BE A DREAM COME TRUE.”
Maldonado will appear with fellow author Kate Albus at a virtual event for the Fairfield University Bookstore at 7 p.m. Feb. 11. For more details, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/ 219806813207488/.