Bronx native’s book turned into a movie
BY JASON COHEN
Bronx native Claribel Ortega is not
only fulfi lling her lifelong dream of
becoming a published author, but her
book is headed for the silver screen.
Ortega, 36, who lives in Peekskill,
but grew up in Hunts Point and Soundview,
fell in love with writing as a
child. Her fi rst book ‘Ghost Squad,’ is
due out Friday, April 7 and in February,
was announced it was being developed
into a movie.
She heard the earth shattering
news in October and has been on ‘cloud
nine’ since.
“I was in my offi ce and I screamed,”
she recalled. “I was really just in
shock.”
Her journey to becoming an author
did not happen overnight. As a child,
Spanish was the primary language
spoken in her home. She was born a
year after her parents Anazaria and
Pablo Ortega immigrated here.
Beside school, she learned English
from TV and YouTube and often helped
her parents with writing checks and
other mundane tasks.
Anazaria was a lover of arts, writing
and music and instilled that passion
in her daughter. Ortega wrote
short stories and hoped to one day be a
professional writer.
“I’ve always loved to write,” Ortega
THE
said. “I grew up with everyone telling
me I should write.”
After attending the Academy of
Mt. Ursula at 330 Bedford Park Boulevard
and Yorktown High School in
Westchester, she went to SUNY Purchase,
where she majored in journalism.
She wrote for the student newspaper
there and after graduation, worked
briefl y as a reporter for the Rivertowns
Enterprise in Westchester.
When her brother Pablo passed
away at the age of 35 in 2011 from cancer,
his death prmpted her to write her
fi rst book, ‘Witches, Punks & Cursed
Things,’ which has yet to be published.
The book project helped her cope.
“I was having a hard time dealing
with it (his death),” Ortega explained.
She worked as an assistant for Creative
Arts Agency and then for a book
company, but her passion to write continued.
So a few years ago, she decided to
merge her family’s culture into a book.
In Dominican tradition fi refl ies
represent lost loved ones and in the
book Lucely and her best friend, Syd,
cast a spell that accidentally awakens
malicious fi refl y spirits, wreaking
havoc throughout St. Augustine.
Together, they must join forces with
Syd’s witch grandmother, Babette,
and her tubby tabby, Chunk, to fi ght
the haunting head-on and reverse the
Claribel Ortega Photo Courtesy Claribel Ortega
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curse to save the town and spirits before
it’s too late.
“It’s a very personal book,” she
said. “I wanted it to be true to my own
childhood.”
She heard the novel was being
shopped around to movie studios, but
when Oscar award winning director
Brenda Chapman signed on it was too
good to be true. Chapman was the fi rst
woman to win an Academy award for
best-animated feature fi lm, ‘Brave.’
“It was a really happy moment for
me,” she commented.
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