Author interview with Johanny Ortega

Author Johanny Ortega weaves her Dominican roots, love of classical music, and fascination with the supernatural into stories that explore identity, heritage, and the complexities of family. Her upcoming novel, The Ordinary Bruja—releasing November 4, 2025—invites readers into a world of dark magic and self-discovery, where one woman must face the haunting legacy of her ancestors. In this interview, Ortega shares how her grandmother’s influence shaped her storytelling, why representation remains central to her work, and how she balances creativity with the realities of indie publishing.

Q: What/who were your early literary influences, and how do you think their writing has shaped you as a storyteller today?
A: I was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, and my grandmother raised me. She was a big advocate of literature and education. She believed that it was a way out of poverty. While I resisted at first, once I got a hand on reading, it opened a whole new world for me, and I hadn’t left that world ever since. My grandmother was not an author, but she influences tremendously what I write about and how I write. I proudly represent my background in my book as an ode to her and my beginnings.

Q: What’s been the most unexpected lesson you’ve learned about yourself through writing?
A: As someone who doesn’t see herself as an extrovert, I love connecting with people through my stories. It gives me great joy to read that a character of mine reminded someone of an aunty or someone they love or how something a character went through was something they went through as well.

Q: How do you nurture your creativity when life gets busy or overwhelming?
A: I read fiction and craft books. I watch movies that make me think. Doing those things brings me back into a character or a story that I want to write.

Q: What’s one writing habit you can’t live without and one you wish you could break?
A: Playing classical music in the background when I am drafting. Listening to my books with text to narration software to hear how the story sounds and identify clunky language or gaps in the story. However, as a recovering procrastinator, this is something I wish I never had to guard myself against. I must be on the lookout for that small voice that tells me it is better to wait and put something off, only to bring me anxiety and unneeded stress later. Thankfully, I have figured out a way to help myself through it, but I still go through it.

Q: When do you feel most “in the zone” with your writing—early mornings, late nights, or somewhere in between?
A: Hands down, early mornings while my mind is fresh and I remember my dreams.

Q: What’s a book that changed how you think about writing or storytelling?
A: Story Genius by Lisa Cron. This book cracked storytelling for me, going beyond beats and more into getting to the ‘why’ behind the character. I love to read and write character driven stories, and this book gave me the how-to for that.

Q: Do you find inspiration in other art forms (music, film, visual art)? If so, how does it shape your work?
A: For sure! Music is a big one for me. Classical music in particular just inspires me and pushes me to envision the story I am writing even more clearly and writing longer and staying in the zone. Most of my stories have that dark, mysterious vibe because I incorporate the supernatural so the Requiem Mass in D Minor by Mozart is a must for me.

Q: Do you have your own circle of writer friends? If so, what other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
A: I have one. We haven’t met IRL, but we have a good connection. Like in real life my circle is small… (insert embarrassed emoji here). Nevertheless, I am grateful to have her in my life. Dal Cecil Runo writes sci-fi through a multicultural, dystopian lens and incorporates the supernatural as well. Seeing how she incorporates different aspects of genre to build a story that is interesting and entertaining is inspiring, comforting and truly joyful. We cheer each other on, which is always fun.

Q: If you could collaborate with any writer, past or present, who would it be, and what would you create together?
A: Talking about sci-fi, my favorite author is Octavia Butler. She’s currently alive through her books and not her physical body, I would love to embark on a Latine-Dominican Gothic Sci-Fi I think that will be such a smash.

Q: What themes do you find yourself returning to again and again in your work?
A: Latine/Dominican representation because it is important for me to make sure that my works represent that and give back to the community I come from. I also go back to complex mother/daughter relationships because of my own lived experience. It’s almost like through storytelling I am trying to untangle my thoughts and emotions of what I lived through.

Q: How do you approach writing characters with experiences different from your own?
A: Read about it and use sensitivity readers as a sanity check to ensure that an unconscious bias or stereotype didn’t slide through my fingers and onto the page. Because I know how much it hurts to be demonized based on identity, I want to ensure that I don’t do that in books.

Q: Do you ever feel pressure to include (or avoid) certain topics in your writing? Why or why not?
A: No, the beauty of being an independent author is that I get to write what I want. However, I am conscious of how any idea, narrative, or dialogue may cause harm. For example, in my current work that will be out on November 1, 2025, The Ordinary Bruja, the MC has a thought about a potential supernatural risk to any person that is a woman who is in her life. I didn’t want to use the word female because it denotes that a woman is only one with reproductive organs, when I don’t believe that to be true. So, when drafting that, I used the words, woman and femme.

Q: What’s your go-to snack or drink while writing?
A: Water and coffee. That’s it. Anything solid will have my brain power focused on digesting rather than creating fake worlds.

Q: What’s a quirky or unexpected detail about your writing space?
A: It’s a mess but I know where everything is at. If I clean it, I forget where everything is at. But eventually I will clean it. I am hopeful of this.

Q: What’s the most rewarding feedback you’ve ever received from a reader?
A: That I was their first Latine/Dominican author they read, and they loved it. It gives me hope that this reader will now reach out to other Latine or Dominican authors which will expand their world view a little bit more. I believe reading diversely helps to build empathy and I am glad to be part of that diversity in literature.

Q: What’s a challenge you’ve faced in your writing career, and how did you overcome it?
A: Self doubt and writing in Spanglish. At first criticism crushed me and I spent a year not writing because someone thought that my stories were not worthy of publication in the United States because of the number of Spanish words that are in it. Then I realized that when someone goes against the grain, those things will happen. I went and got an MFA in creative writing so I can learn the rules and break them better and once I gained some confidence in myself and my writing abilities, I got back on that proverbial horse.

Q: Where have you found the greatest return on your investment (whether it be time or money invested?)
A: Book Covers and editing. Those are the two things I throw money at while publishing books and I have found them to have paid off big time. I don’t see myself skimping on these two. However, marketing is all me since I put my money onto book covers and editing LOL.

Q: How do you define success as an author? Has that definition evolved over time?
A: At first, I just wanted one reader. Now I want 100 readers, and I want them to recommend my books to other readers they know would love it too. I want to connect. I want to represent so each year my goal grows because I want my audience to expand so they can be entertained and learn a bit about family dynamic, brujeria, Dominican culture, etc.

Q: What’s one question readers ask you the most about your books, and what’s your answer?
A: Is it real? Is it about you? And the answer is no. However, it feels real because I am drawing from real life experiences of abandonment, self-doubt, rejection, complex families, crappy family members. But none of my books are memoirs.

Q: What do you wish readers understood better about the writing or publishing process?
A: That it takes time. I have so many stories I want to work on, but I can only do one at a time. It takes time so we can draft, put distance, self-edit and then give it to editors to make it better, get artists to do the book cover, get ARC readers and then publish it.

Q: What have you written that you found to be the most fun to write?
A: The Alvarez Girls. It is not a happy book, but I found myself remembering how my sister and I grew up while writing it.

Q: What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?
A: It is not a novel per se but indie books. When I first started reviewing. I only did indie books, and I was finding their ARCs on Reedsy. I did that because I knew, I wanted to embark on that same journey and wanted to see why people had the perception that indie books are less quality and let me tell you, out of all of the books I read and reviewed during that entire year, I gave one star to only one and not because the writing was bad, but because of a problematic idea about a young protagonist falling in love with the person who trespassed her and I didn’t think that was right. I felt then as I feel now that we have a responsibility to not propagate harmful rhetoric and I felt this book was doing that. All the other books were four and five stars. I found quite a lot of gems during that year. Obviously, I still read indie books but now I also read trad books as well. But I make it a point to focus on marginalized identities whether indie or trad.

Q: If you could live in the world of one of your books for a day, which would it be and why?
A: The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop. Not only do I love cherry blossoms and their symbolism, but I love an appearing bookshop that comes out of nowhere to give you some life lessons. That is right up my alley.

Q: If your life were a novel, what would the title be?
A: The Alchemy of Becoming. I feel like I’ve taken what life has given me (good and bad) and turned it into something, a book, a family, a life, a career.

Q: What’s a new genre or style you’d love to experiment with in the future?
A: Romance is my comfort genre. That is what I read when life is too much. So, I would love to one day be able to write something in it. But I think romance writing requires a specific skill that I don’t currently have or maybe after I finish writing all my sad books, I’ll write something fun and romantic…who knows.

Q: What’s one thing you hope readers take away from your latest book?
A: To embrace oneself, faults and all because that’s when one truly starts living.

Q: What do you think the future of storytelling looks like in a world of evolving technology?
A: Ethics will be something that the individual will be more responsible for understanding and upholding because while things may be legal, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are right. We also have the responsibility to evolve and learn new technologies and new ways of doing things ethically.

Q: What projects are you working on at the present?
A: Currently marketing The Ordinary Bruja, a coming of witch reckoning where Marisol Espinal has two options. She will have to decide whether she will continue to hide from who she is, or face and accept herself to defeat a manipulative ancestor that has been part of her family tree from way before she was born. It is a Mexican Gothic meets The Inheritance of Orquidia Divina with a dash of The Haunting of Hill House.

Q: What do your plans for future projects include?
A: To finish book two in Las Cerradoras Series: The Forgotten Bruja

Author Bio

Through her work, Ortega explores themes of identity, generational trauma, and cultural memory, centering Latine voices and queer narratives. She is also the founder of Have a Cup of Johanny, an indie press and creative platform dedicated to inclusive and diverse storytelling. 

Now available in print and on Kindle!