What’s New

I once heard that life is about being dissatisfied.  The thinking goes it’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Dissatisfaction is what drives progress.  Dissatisfaction with foraging led to [...]

Writing a book about something you’ve considered your biggest secret for most of your life has its challenges.  One is, well, telling the secret.  For the most part, telling has opened me [...]

Check out my very first interview!  Talking about my book was everything I thought it would be.  The reporter asked great questions and put me at ease.  NJ.com profiles  The Secret Side of Empty. [...]

I am really enjoying this book publicity stuff, as I knew I would.  I am living the dream! When I was a little undocumented girl living in a ratty basement, I would entertain my parents by [...]

Word is starting to spread about The Secret Side of Empty!  My 30-stop blog tour will kick off on a very special day:  June 14th, Flag Day in the U.S. and… oh, yes!  My birthday!  One of [...]

I will confess to having made it through advanced placement English classes all through high school and an English major in college without having read The Great Gatsby.   (There, I said it). [...]

On Wednesday, May 15th, I took a stroll over to my wonderful agent’s office to sign my book contract. I didn’t think signing the actual contract would feel like much of anything, [...]

When I was little, I would lament the fact that I didn’t have blue eyes to my mom. “Why are my eyes not blue? Why are my eyes so ugly?” I would ask. “Be grateful [...]

I didn’t know Tim Hetherington, but I kind of wish I had. Although I don’t know what a war photojournalist would have had in common with a soccer mom, I somehow think he would have [...]

So… I can’t use my book’s title.  The title which has been its title since the book started as a glimmer of an idea.  The only title I’m SURE is its title.  The same title [...]

The first time I saw Barack Obama speak, in 2004, I knew one day he would be president.  He just had to be.  On a business trip to Chicago, I read Dreams From My Father and the feeling [...]

I read this post last week and I put it on my (ridiculously, incredibly long) list of things to write about.  George Bush Presidential Library?  Seriously? I  decided I would write a post about [...]

Three and a half years ago I went through what can only be characterized as a bloody divorce.  We had been estranged for years before that, but my ex-husband still did not cope well when I [...]

Anyone who knows me knows that my birthday is a month-long event.  Coming smack-dab in the middle of June as it does, I have long considered June “Maria Month.”  So it stands to [...]

Recently, I went to brunch with an old friend I hadn’t seen in about a year.  We used to be very close, talking every day, but then life took us in different directions.  She’s the [...]

Because, you know, the Port Authority isn’t bad enough on its own. Initial reports seem unclear but someone posted that some clown left a box with toy granades.  Freaking hilarious, loser! [...]

She turned my life upside down in the most painful way imaginable 10 years ago.  Then she disappeared.  Yesterday, she wrote me on Facebook, asking for a big favor.  It was something of a shock, [...]

Okay, okay, it’s wrong to blame it on the cab.  But “When dumb criminals carjack cabs and wedge them in front of my supermarket” was too long for a title. So… this morning [...]

One of the reasons I began to tell my story about having been an undocumented immigrant was 9/11.  More specifically, the way it became acceptable to talk about immigrants following the terrorist [...]

I’ve been meaning to start a video component to this blog for a while now.  Finally, here it is.  Most of my videos will have to do with topics in my book, but today I felt like introducing [...]

Watching Humvees with army-type guys armed to the teeth rolling down the quiet streets of Cambridge is hard for me.  For one, I have spent significant time in Cambridge and I love it there. For [...]

Within the last six months, events have rocked my convictions to the core.  Sandy Hook and all those murdered children.  The Boston Marathon and all that senseless suffering.  But I am still [...]

I’m Maria, the author of the young adult novel, The Secret Side of Empty, which will be published by Running Press in the spring of 2014. If the book’s not out yet, why have I invited [...]

Today my beloved high school English teacher changed her Facebook profile picture.  The only catch?  She’s been dead two years. The first time it happened, it stopped me (pun totally intended, in [...]

My first novel, Illegal, will be published in the Spring of 2014 by Running Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Look for frequent updates on the book’s website here:  [...]

There is a magic that happens when I have enough time to be still.  A fog lifts – the fog of checklists and running and oh-I-forgot-to-go-to-the-grocery-store and late buses and workplace [...]

In the jumble of feelings and paperwork that is a divorce, my naturalization certificate disappeared.  My ex said he didn’t have it.  I knew he did.  Last week, 5 years after it went missing, it [...]

I turn the channel away from the wedding shows, even the ones in which the brides are being impossible.  I secretly thrill when I read about the break-ups of celebrities.  When the ladies at work [...]

When I first got on to Facebook, I had it bad. It was so beautiful. So pretty and white and blue. In fact, like a teenager discovering the opposite sex, I wanted to be with Facebook all the time. [...]

I’m a faker.  I’m a faker and a poser and, what’s worse, I wear the evidence right on my head.  But it’s so wavy and luscious I can hardly feel bad about it. When I was growing up, my mother told [...]