My blog

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 [...]

The news is getting out!  MediaBistro’s GalleyCat, “the first word on the publishing industry” has just blurbed the announcement of The Secret Side of Empty! Read the full piece here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Former DREAMer Inks YA Novel Deal Secret Side of EmptyPortrays Life of Undocumented Immigrant  Leonia, NJ (May 21, 2013) – Maria E. Andreu (www.mariaeandreu.com), writer, [...]

In today’s birthing world, no decision about pregnancy and newborns seems easy.  Epidural or not?  Midwife or doctor?  Breastfeeding and pumping, or supplemental formula?  Every decision is [...]

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 [...]

Okay, it’s official.  The irises are popping up faster than I can write about them.  This morning when I left the house, the only one that was new was War Chief (finally, a red in my red, [...]

Aggressively Forward tall bearded iris has the honor of being the first iris to have bloomed for me this season, which is surprising since many others, like Batik or Old Black Magic, are supposed [...]

Type: Tall Bearded (TB) Style: Amoena Height: 33″ Color: Blue Originator: Cayeux, Richard Year: 1989 Bloom Season: Early midseason This is one of those irises that looks pretty in pictures [...]

 Type: Tall Bearded (TB) Style: Self Height: 38″ Color: White Originator: Schreiner Year: 2003 Bloom Season: Late Although the descriptions of Porcelain Angel say it blooms late, it was the [...]

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). [...]

I finally signed my book contract.  Since it’s the culmination of a lifelong dream, you’d figure I’d be in absolute bliss. And I am.  Sort of. Once a goal is achieved, it’s my nature to think of [...]

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, [...]

I’ve always been ambivalent about Mother’s Day, but I’ve never been able to put my finger on why that is. Then I read this essay by Anne Lamott and I think I figured it out. As [...]

The day I signed my book deal, I returned to my desk to find an email letting me know that my dating blog, 51 First Dates After Divorce, has been named one of the Top 10 Best Dating After Divorce [...]

Oh, come on, you know I can’t just blurt it out. As you may know, the working title for my YA novel was Illegal.  It was its title before it was even a YA novel.  Then, when I got the notes [...]

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 [...]

Today, after something of an Arizona spring (in NJ), the heavens unleashed a torrent that flooded sewers and made the inside of my car sweat.  Some cheesy Facebook acquaintance posted a [...]

Answering reader questions.  

“This is never going to work.”

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 [...]

The irises are just about ready to bloom:  

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 [...]

There are lots of  reasons I love this commercial: it’s subtle, it’s simple and it leaves most everything for the viewer to imagine.  But there are more personal reasons too: it tells [...]

Where to begin with hating this commercial:  first, as a soon-to-be-liberated AT&T customer, I cringe at the thought of AT&T bragging it’s got more of anything.  (A post for another [...]

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 [...]

When the interviewer gets through the question but the interviewee chokes: