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Episode 139: The Book That Wouldn’t Die: Thriller Author Cindy Fazzi on Persistence, Rewrites & Fate
Thursday, 20 November, 2025
You know that saying about how most overnight successes are really just people who refuse to quit for like a decade?Every time I hear it, I think about my own story. I wrote a bunch of books before I got my first book published by a publisher. I had a couple that I really wanted to get published. I have one that I'm still rewriting to this day because it did not get published.And I wrote these books back in my 20s and early 30s. I was positive especially with one of these, that it was going to be the book. And it might still be, because I'm still rewriting it. But no — it almost got published once at a small press and then it did not. They ended up passing.And then the opportunity fell into my lap to start my first cozy mystery series. And that was a decade after I started trying. A decade after I started going to conferences and pitching and editing and rewriting and pitching again and getting a lot of rejections.So it really is true that “overnight” successes are years in the making.And today's guest is someone else who knows that journey inside and out — the persistence, the rewrites, the revisions, and that long stretch between who you are as a writer and when you finally get recognized by the industry and picked up by a publisher (if that’s the path you’re choosing).This story is awesome. I love my guest today, Cindy Fazzi. She's the author of the Domingo the Bounty Hunter series which she started writing in 1995. It was rejected everywhere, rewritten multiple times (do you see a theme here?), dropped by publishers, resurrected again, and ultimately sold twice to the same editor at two different houses. I mean, you can't make this stuff up.Cindy's story is one of the most hopeful and necessary conversations that I've had lately about resilience, representation and just really sticking with the book that you believe in.We cover:✨ The “Unsellable” Book That Wouldn’t Let GoHow Cindy first wrote the earliest version of Danger No Problem in 1995, had it rejected everywhere, and kept coming back to it over decades.✨ Immigration, Identity & Why Representation MattersWhy Cindy, a Filipino-American immigrant and former Associated Press reporter, felt compelled to center Filipino-American characters and humanize immigration beyond the headlines.✨ The POV Shift That Changed EverythingHow changing the narrator from a non-criminal undocumented immigrant to a Filipino- American bounty hunter organically turned the story into a thriller and made the book click.✨ Selling the Same Two Books — TwiceThe wild publishing ride:• Selling the series to one publisher• Watching that house shutter six months after release• Then selling the same books again to the same editor at a different publisher, who relaunched them and released both books simultaneously.✨ Agents, Rejections & the Myth of “Once You Have an Agent, You’re Set”Cindy’s journey through three agents, what actually happens when agents can’t sell your work, and how she learned to stop tailoring her writing to someone else’s idea of “marketable.”✨ Community as a Career Shortcut (and Lifeline)How joining Crime Writers of Color and Sisters in Crime later in her journey changed everything — and why she wishes she’d done it years earlier.✨ A Brand-New Series with a Brilliant HeroineCindy’s next project: a new series starring a female FBI intelligence analyst — a procedural featuring a heroine who doesn’t carry a gun but fights crime with her intellect and her instincts.About CindyCindy Fazzi is the author of the Domingo the Bounty Hunter series, including:• Danger No Problem• Sunday or the HighwayThe series follows Domingo, a Filipino-American bounty hunter who specializes in tracking criminal undocumented immigrants — and finds himself drawn into increasingly complex, high- risk cases involving non-criminal undocumented people as well. Through Domingo’s world, Cindy tackles the human side of immigration, justice, and belonging.A former Associated Press reporter, Cindy brings her journalist’s eye for detail ad clarity to her thrillers, blending pace, human stakes, and nuanced social issues.Where to Find Cindy• Website: CindyFazzi.com• Social: Instagram, Facebook, BlueSky, YouTube → @cindyfazziPerfect ForThis episode is especially for you if:• You’ve been working on a manuscript for years and feel like it might never find a home• You’ve been rejected so many times you’re wondering if it’s a sign to quit• You care about representation and want to see more immigrant and Filipino-American characters in genre fiction• You love hearing real talk about the business side of publishing — agents, editors, imprints closing, books getting resurrected• You need a reminder that persistence + the right match can change everythingListen + SubscribeYou can listen to this episode of Get Writing with Liz Mugavero wherever you get your podcasts.If this conversation gave you hope, a nudge, or a new way to look at your own “drawer novel,” it would mean the world if you:• Hit follow/subscribe• Leave a quick rating or review• Share the episode with a writer friend who needs a reminder not to give upAnd if you’re craving a little more support, come hang out with me inside The Creativity Lab— it’s where we write together, keep each other accountable, and make space for the kind of progress that actually feels good.
