Category Archives: Blog

To continue celebrating my blog-a-versary and now my birthday, which is next week, I’m giving another book away.

What can I say? I love books!

This time it’s  Belinda Acosta’s Damas, Drama’s and Ana Ruiz. To learn more about the book, click here. 

You know the drill. Make a comment but this time, tell everyone who’s your favorite author and why! No need for Twitter or Facebook this time, though I wouldn’t mind if there was some Twitter and Facebook action.

I’ll chose the winner Feb. 11. Good luck!

As for the last winner from Eduardo Santiago’s book, Chuy a.ka. Mirta Espinola…email me your addy to icess(at)writingtoinsanity.com! If I don’t hear from you soon, I’ll pick someone else!

Hello all!

I’m teaching a writing class at the Bossier Parish Library in Bossier City, LA. If you’re near by, come learn the beginnings of writing. Here’s the registration. Classes are twice a week–Wed and Sat –and begin March 2.

Yeah, take this class and don’t look like this guy.

Hello all!

Well with so much stuff and all the preparation I’m doing for my next residency, I completely forgot…

it’s my BLOG-A-VERSARY!

Three years ago I started on this path to find out who I was. I was 30-years-old, unhappy, away from family and  I didn’t even know who I was. Now, I’m happier, just a hop-skip-and car ride from the most important people in my life, and wiser — knowing that I’m on a journey of a lifetime.  I’m learning more and more about myself everyday and I’m creating. I’m writing some of the most interesting things I’ve ever written and I’m in grad school getting my degree in creative writing.

What a difference three years make!

So to make the anniversary special I’m going to be giving away from stuff. First thing up for grabs is this book from Eduardo Santiago:

Scandal catches up to the Cuban émigré community in America circa 1967 in this fresh, relevant first novel by TV writer Santiago. The story switches point of view among three women who grew up in Palamagria, Cuba, and now ride to work together every day at a Union City, N.J., toy factory. Single mother Graciela is a kind, insecure romantic hoping more than anything for the same true love that redeems the beleaguered women on the nightly telenovelas. Caridad, a vain gossip, and Imperio, bossy and sharp-tongued, share a lifelong indignation (“Imagínate!”) over Graciela’s nerve: in Cuba, marrying above her station and cheating on her desirable husband and in America learning English and catching the eye of the factory foreman, Mr. O’Reilly. So it’s with barely contained envy—and a comical penchant for over-justifying their bitterness—that the two try to interfere in Graciela’s attempts to better herself in America. Though the two antagonists can grate—their vitriol against Graciela is constant—the detailed immigrant community is vital and entertaining.

To win, you gotta do the following:

1) Tweet out the following phrase: “I entered the Blog-a-versary giveaway at @writin2insanity — http://bit.ly/dQrDjH “

Don’t have a Twitter? Facebook it. Or text your friends. I trust you. We’re on the honor system here.

2) Then in the comment section of this post write what is your favorite book and why.

I’ll pick a winner Jan. 28 from the folks who posted below!  Good luck everyone!

And here are the nominations for the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America.

Lovely.

Awards are in April. Enjoy!

BEST NOVEL
Caught by Harlan Coben (Penguin Group USA – Dutton)
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
Faithful Place by Tana French (Penguin Group USA – Viking)
The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books)
I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva (Tom Doherty Associates – Forge Books)
The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron (Minotaur Books)
The Serialist: A Novel by David Gordon (Simon & Schuster)
Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto (Simon & Schuster – Scribner)
Snow Angels by James Thompson (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard (Random House – Bantam)
The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn (Henry Holt)
Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski (Minotaur Books)
Vienna Secrets by Frank Tallis (Random House Trade Paperbacks)
Ten Little Herrings by L.C. Tyler (Felony & Mayhem Press) 2

BEST FACT CRIME
Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity
by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry (University of Nebraska Press – Bison Original)
The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in Jim Crow South
by Alex Heard (HarperCollins)
Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery
by Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz (Simon & Schuster – Scribner)
Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for
his Assassin by Hampton Sides (Random House – Doubleday)
The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science
by Douglas Starr (Alfred A. Knopf)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
The Wire: Truth Be Told by Rafael Alvarez (Grove Atlantic – Grove Press)
Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making
by John Curran (HarperCollins)
Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Steven Doyle and David A. Crowder (Wiley)
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and his Rendezvous with American
History by Yunte Huang (W.W. Norton)
Thrillers: 100 Must Reads edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Oceanview Publishing)

BEST SHORT STORY
“The Scent of Lilacs” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Doug Allyn (Dell Magazines)
“The Plot” – First Thrills by Jeffery Deaver (Tom Doherty – Forge Books)
“A Good Safe Place” – Thin Ice by Judith Green (Level Best Books)
“Monsieur Alice is Absent” – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
by Stephen Ross (Dell Magazines)
“The Creative Writing Murders” – Dark End of the Street by Edmund White (Bloomsbury)

BEST JUVENILE
Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon (Candlewick Press)
The Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy by Dori Hillestad Butler (Albert Whitman & Co.)
The Haunting of Charles Dickens by Lewis Buzbee (Feiwel & Friends)
Griff Carver: Hallway Patrol by Jim Krieg (Penguin Young Readers Group – Razorbill)
The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Ben H. Winters (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

BEST YOUNG ADULT
 The River by Mary Jane Beaufrand (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (Random House Children’s Books – Alfred A. Knopf)
7 Souls by Barnabas Miller and Jordan Orlando (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte Press)
The Interrogation of Gabriel James by Charlie Price
(Farrar, Straus, Giroux Books for Young Readers)
Dust City by Robert Paul Weston (Penguin Young Readers Group – Razorbill) 3

BEST PLAY
The Psychic by Sam Bobrick (Falcon Theatre – Burbank, CA)
The Tangled Skirt by Steve Braunstein (New Jersey Repertory Company)
The Fall of the House by Robert Ford (Alabama Shakespeare Festival)
BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“Episode 1” – Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)
“Episode 4” – Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)
“Full Measure” – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC/Sony)
 “No Mas” – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC/Sony)
“The Next One’s Gonna Go In Your Throat” – Damages, Teleplay by Todd A. Kessler,
Glenn Kessler & Daniel Zelman (FX Networks)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
“Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
by Evan Lewis (Dell Magazines)
GRAND MASTER
Sara Paretsky

RAVEN AWARDS
Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, Forest Park, Illinois
Once Upon A Crime Bookstore, Minneapolis, Minnesota

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER – MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 27, 2010)
Wild Penance by Sandi Ault (Penguin Group – Berkley Prime Crime)
Blood Harvest by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books)
Down River by Karen Harper (MIRA Books)
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Live to Tell by Wendy Corsi Staub (HarperCollins – Avon)

I was introduced to Edgar Allen Poe formerly in high school.  Some how, the Raven and I were one. Totally felt raven-like.  What can I say? I was a dark chick at one point in my life.

But then, back during high school, I got a hold of those little mini books that gave abridged versions of stories. In Houston, you could buy them in Fiesta supermarkets and in East Harris County that was one of the few places you could buy books. I loved the adaptations of The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado.

I didn’t know then how much Poe would shape me. He’s the grandfather of the modern mystery, a genre I adore and hope to master one day. A twisty bastard whose mind was home to all things light and dark.  There was no gray with him and that is what makes him epic.

He’s made it okay, even cool, to be twisty, dark, and sinister — a great model for a young Icess. He also lead me toward this writing path.  He’s Boston born. Close enough to my birthday to almost be an Aquarian. Tough life. Consumed with the word.

He was one of my first teachers and I didn’t even know it.

So Happy Birthday, homeboy! Hope I do you proud.

I WILL get back to work. Really soon. It’s coming. I promise.

The other big news out of Arizona lately is on the education beat, which is what I cover at work.  After nearly eight years on this beat, reading that state officials want to can a Mexican American studies program in K-12 floored me.

Really?

Of course then I wanted to know what the curriculum is like. What is being taught? What book is being used? How is it different from African American studies classes.

But then the I remembered that one day I may be teaching such a class. My friend and writer Tony Diaz is teaching a Mexican American literature class at the college level. I took one during my undergrad.

So if I were to design my own course, what would it look like?

First of all, mine would be a true Latino Literature class. Yes. There is a difference between that and the Mexican American studies class. But more on that later.

My Latino Lit class would focus more on literature from Latin America rather that U.S. born authors. Why? Because U.S. born authors are, for the most part, influenced and taught from Latin American authors.  You have to know where you come from before you know where you’re going, obviously.

So who would I teach? All the authors that I discovered by chance. Because, see, here’s the thing. I didn’t know people like me existed in literature. If you look at Texas English classes in K-12 or lit classes in college and universities it was rare to study someone with a Spanish surname. And if you did and took the Mexican American Lit class like me, they were all, you know, from Mexico. Where are the Cuban writers? The Guatemalans? Where are the Puerto Ricans?

That’s the importance of representation of curriculum because sometimes in an act of being inclusive exclusivity happens.

So my class would have Octavio Paz, Laura Esquivel, and Juan Rulfo from Mexico. May throw in some Sor Juana for fun.

From Cuba I have my pick! Obviously some Jose Marti, Reinald Arenas, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Santiago, and Daina Chaviano to balance it all out.

From Guatemala: Rigoberto Menchu (not a writer but an activist with lots to say),  Jose Maria Bonilla, Julio Serran Echerverria (because he’s been doing some interesting things lately) and Francisco Morales Santos.

And that’s just three countries. We still have Spain, Argentina, Puerto Rico, and the rest of Central and South America to dig into. And of course the BIG ones you have to teach like Garcia Marquez, Allende, Neruda, and Vargas Llosa. Just looking at this list makes me swell with pride. There are so many to choose from and it’s overwhelming.

Then I would follow the class with a part two Latino Lit class focusing on American born writers.  A two semester class! Que padre!

Yup, my class would kick butt. Now to find a college or place that would allow me to develop it and teach it. Any takers?

Let me start by saying that the title to this post is a bit misleading. I wasn’t on vacation. Far from it. But I was on break from school, which is about to gear back up in the next couple of weeks.

I took this break from packets and readings to do more reading and writing and reflecting. Ironic, isn’t it, that the thing that stress me the most is the thing I want to do the most during some much needed downtime.

I reflected on two authors: Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende – the masters of what some call magical realism or what I call, how we learned to tell stories. (That’s another post for another day.)

I downloaded Gerald Martin’ biography of Garcia Marquez on my Nook and was so surprised at the insight of this master. Gabo’s rise to literary domination was no accident. He was guided there by experiences and situations that shaped him and his art.

What also surprised me were the similarities of our lives.  I’m not saying I’m in anyway like Garcia Marquez but knowing that we were both born with our umbilical  cords around our necks gives me an strange peace. Our birthdays are exactly a month a part and both our lives are anchored by a strong male presence that somehow creeps into our art.  In fact, his art, like most art, is autobiographical and this fact gives me the most peace. Yet, it also excites me. It tells me that I’m not strange or odd for wanting this writing life for myself (though some days I think it’d be easier to just not create).  It also tells me that I’m not alone. He’s been where I’ve been. If I just keep on going, I’ll find my own way and blaze my own trail.

Allende spoke to the art of sitting down to the freedom of writing. Re-reading The House of the Spirits reminded me of the joy of creating of telling a story worth telling.  Allende taught me that although characters can do evil they are still worthy of space on the page. To write what’s difficult is to birth good art. After all, like she says, “fiction comes from the womb.”

I can see all the reading and reflecting in my thesis pages, the influence of Garcia Marquez and Allende pulsing through and giving it life. It’s exciting and yet, it still sounds and behaves like me.

So what did I do over my vacation time from school? I worked. Hard. And I loved every minute of it.

After a sickness of New Yearly proportions, I have come back to the blogosphere pumped and itching to write a post.

But I don’t want to write THAT post.  You know the ones that are like this and like this. I’m boycotting posts like those and I’m boycotting doing what leads to said posts. I refuse. And you can’t make me!

I will say this though. This is going to be such a busy year. Lots of writing. Lots of reading. More self discovery. And more insanity. I resolve to do it!

D’oh! Eh well. Maybe I can NOT make resolutions next year?