Category Archives: Blog

Summer time and the reading is easy…


I am so excited about this summer. So super excited about it all. I plan on chilling on my porch with some cold ice water, listening to music, and enjoying the sweetness of a southern summer.

If you’ve never had the privilage of enjoying summer in the south, just know this…it’s hot. Like super hot, humid, and at times blistering. I enjoy all of that and then some.

So before the weather gets steamier, I’m putting together my summer reading list designed to not only help me grow as a writer but to enjoy my time on the porch.

Obviously, I’m looking for additional suggestions to USA Today’s Summer Books List and my Houston book club. (We’re reading Caridad Ferrer’s It’s Not About the Accent this month.)

So leave some suggestions in the comment section.

Want some free books?

Fellow Nunca Sola member Mayra Calvani is giving away five books from Latino authors every week during May.

In order to win, you have to leave a comment on her postings to the Examiner.com website. Among the titles is Gwen Zepeda’s Houston We Have A Problema, whose awesome and incredibly funny blog I link to on the right hand side.

Confessional: Becoming the writer you need to be

What I learned was that to write a book you have to first become the person you need to be to write that book. I had to, like, literally change. I had to become a new person. I had to grow the f— up.
– Junot Diaz

I love Junot Diaz. Not in the I wanna have his babies way that most people think about when using the words “I love” in front of a name. No. My love for Junot is strictly literary and really pride. I’ve described awhile back what his winning the Pulitzer means to Latinos and me in particular. So I’m not going into that.

But this quote is so true. To write the story you want to write you have to change. It’s like the old advice that if your character has a hobby, you should learn about the hobby and do it so that you can write about it better.

So as I’m gearing up to finish the murder mystery and dive back into Boleros (still haven’t found my index cards by the way) I wonder what type of person should I be?

I guess this anxiety comes from my characters and their wants and needs. And probably because I like one more than the other. But although the character that I like does take over part of the narration in my book, the other character isn’t one that I can identify with. Mostly because I’m not heartless and partially because I’ve never been married or made a rash, straight from the gut, careless decision.

So does that mean I have to be that type of person, too — careless and irresponsible?

Admittedly, that’s what I love about writing this book it’s NOTHING like my first one and therefore nothing like me. The Year of Us (which is looking for a home, hint, hint.) is chick lit. Straight fun in the sun, like The Last Single Girl. Boleros is opposite, more literary and it’s kicking my butt. I like that challenge.

But the think is, The Year of Us and The Last Single Girl are me. I was characters, in that, we had enough things in common so that I can write with authority. As a founder of Single, No Chaser, what do I know about the decisions to end a marriage?

What I do identify with is living with a decision you’re not crazy about, Caridad’s whole life is a bad decision. How long, though, will I be able to hold on to that connection?

This will be tricky and I hope to give the story justice. I guess I’ll have to “grow the f— up.”

Writing while having a day job

Being a writer is the best job in the world. They pay, however, sucks.

I have a have a day job that required lots of writing but not a lot of creative writing.

So getting around to the novel or the short stories takes some balancing on a VERY narrow rope.

I’ve been using tips from this guy. Even though he’s a screenwriter, same principal exists.

Here are some of the top tips:

  • Take daily action toward your goal – He’s right. Walter Mosley, mystery writer with a new book out, said to write everyday. Though I technically do that, I have to disagree with the author. I think we have to do something toward our project everyday. Whether its outlining a chapter, doing some research, or even writing out a rough scene on the back of a napkin, there should be some progress every day.
  • Set a writing goal to accomplish by the time you get home – Total fan of this. Goals, deadlines, etc are all part of writing. If you’ve followed me on Facebook long enough, you’ve probably read update about me knocking out a story. This is something reporters do naturally. When we start the day with writing an article we know we need to talk to a list of people by a certain time to be able to write and make a deadline. Same concept for fiction writers. I start off with, today after work I will work on chapter 3 and figure out that plot twist.
  • Wash the day away- Maybe not literally. The point is to separate your work-self from your writing-self. Taking a shower or working out is a way to do it. Working out is strongly recommended by other writers because the same endorphins you get working out are the same you get when you write. So if you’re already going, it’s easier to get into the writing. Personally, I’m a fan of getting into my PJs. But I’m an old spirit.

Good tips, huh? It’s helped me finish one book and a couple of stories. It’s all about focus and though I’ve been guilty of losing it lately, it’s all about getting it back when you need it.

Finally a writing post about writing. Duh!


Maybe it’s because the writing has leveled off in the past couple of weeks. Or maybe it’s all the work on Single, No Chaser.

But I haven’t talked about my writing for awhile. So let’s do that.

My short story about how two women kill their man is still sitting on my thumb drive. I know the how, and the who, but I’m a stickler for details (obviously).So I want to make sure I get the method of killing correct. For the record, Tylenol gel caps–how well does the powder in them dissolve in liquid, you think?

Of course while I’m thinking about killing I also thinking about Boleros, the book not the love songs. I have a new beginning I want to try that I think may solve the problem I was having, which was getting the action to move without too much explaining. I wanted to show my character’s emotional state that lead to her life changing decision, which is the back bone of the book.

Now if only I can find my index cards where my plot is outlined. That would be a BIG help.

Cupid, ABC TV show
I’m a stickler for accuracy. Maybe it’s the six plus years in journalism or the fact that Greek mythology has ALWAYS appealed with me.
But Cupid the show is getting on my nerves.
It’s a cute show yes but if Cupid continues to talk about the Roman and Greek interchangeably, I may just shut off the set. Really. It’s a thing.
So when I hear stuff like “I got a heads up. Zeus is off his meds again.” when two seconds ago Mercury the Roman God of War was reference, the hairs on the back of my neck is just stand up!
Cupid is a Roman God. Eros is the Greek equivalent. Get it right!

Affluency

My mom’s first Starbucks

When I was a young Diva in training and living in my mother’s house, I was poor. Not dirt poor but barely clinging on to a middle class existence.

So whenever I got a present from Bath and Body Works or anything that came from the mall, I cherished it and hardly used it. Not because I didn’t like it but because I wasn’t sure when I’d get a gift like that again. The bottles of Country Apple or Romantic Pear would sit in a drawer, only spritzed on special occasions.
Even Starbucks at one point was a treat. The coffee would be colder than the first day of winter by the time I was finished drinking it. I wanted to look cool carrying the paper cup around.
But that was years ago, before I earned a college degree (first in my family) and got a job where I could get such things with some regularity.
As my mother’s house is being fixed due to damage from Hurricane Ike, I came across a bunch of tiny bottles from Bath and Body and Victoria’s Secret only half emptied…or full depending on your world view.
Those bottles represent how far I’ve come and how far my family has come in our affluency. My mother is the same way with clothes and shoes. Her garments look like new. She was poor growing up, too.
So it was with great pleasure that I’m moving my mom into the “finer” things. A cup of coffee and a trip to the mall to get an actual purse that wasn’t from Wal Mart.
I’m not going to go into the pressures of a first born Latina life. Or how the worries and dreams of a family are on my shoulders. But what I can say is that my heart feels good that there are signs of my family moving forward, together, away from past lives and past philosophies of poverty.

We’re moving into form of middle class and that makes me happy. Surprisingly.