Dear Reader, This is your tape. I started watching the first season of 13 Reasons Why last year after my students told me how good it was. They told me the basic premise, and I was, of course, intrigued. It was a great series. Not good but great. Until the scene. The scene when … Continue reading Why I won’t watch the new season of 13 Reasons Why.
Dear Reader, Just a quick note that my latest piece, an essay called "Letter to the Child Never Coming", has been published by Queen Mobs Teahouse! I'm excited that this piece has been published. I've read this piece for the 18th anniversary of Nuestra Palabra two years ago, but hadn't published it. When my … Continue reading “Letter to the Child Never Coming”.
Dear Reader, The first time I heard his voice was in my head and I loved it. I was living in Wichita, Kansas where there wasn't a lot of Afro-Latinos and everything was foreign. I picked up The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and I started to breathe again. I didn't know … Continue reading I Am Disappointed.
I was 19 when I started my writing career on a stage in Houston's Talento Bilingue de Houston. I wore this awful pink prom-eque dress from the 80s and talked about my life as the daughter of an exile. And that...that performance...that piece...is where I was started and I owe all that to an organization called … Continue reading Happy Birthday, Nuestra Palabra.
Dear Reader, I feel like this is a week of announcements. I promise it isn't but this once I had to share. This week, I'm interviewing my amazing and CRAZY TALENTEd friend Jasminne Mendez for the podcast InkWell. The podcast is a collaboration between Inprint in Houston and Tintero Projects, a fantastic organization that furthers writers of … Continue reading Coming to a podcast near you.
Dear Reader, There it is. The city I grew up in. The gritty, sweaty mess of a city where dreams can come true and die in the same second they are created. This is a city that knows what heartbreak is but aims for an upset. Hustle lives here, in the corners and dirty crevasses … Continue reading Noir. Houston Noir.
Dear Reader, I didn't read Devil in a Blue Dress until grad school but the first line still grabs me. "I was surprised to see a white man walk in to Joppy's bar." Good Lord, are you allowed to write that? See, up until then I understood the tenants of fiction to be that you … Continue reading Meeting your heroes: How not to fan girl when you meet Walter Mosley.
Dear Reader, I wanted to recap something amazing that happened recently. I'm really bad at self promotion. Yes, it's such an ironic statement coming from a blogger and former journalist. I am getting better at it but I am very much a work in progress when it comes to promoting what I'm doing. So...this happened! … Continue reading 20 minutes.
Dear Goodreads, Usually I address the readers of this blog. In fact, that's the name of it, Dear Reader. But for this topic, I'm addressing you because, well, you need some help. So this week you have proclaimed it Mystery and Thriller Week. YES! We all could use more thrills in our lives. And as … Continue reading Dear Goodreads: You’re missing out but I’m here to help.
Dear Reader, It's National Poetry Month! This is an awesome month when we can read poetry, appreciate it, and learn from it. Well, actually, every month is poetry month in my world. So, I was actually reading two collection before poetry month and just finished one them in time for the celebrations. Danez Smith's collection, … Continue reading Death or a reclaiming: Danez Smith’s Don’t Call Us Dead
