My blog

…And takes me with it! I set up a new Twitter account strictly for Secret Side of Empty book news.  I have not historically been the world’s best tweeter, so I’m giving it [...]

You burst into my life, all sticky fingers and demanding cry.  I was not ready for you.  When you were small, my day was a triumph if I managed to sneak in a shower while you slept – so [...]

My kids go to my ex-husband’s home country with him for three weeks every summer.  They left this morning.  I want to say I’m an old pro at saying goodbye to them.  And I am.  But [...]

Here is some ridiculous video of me running into a wall, all in the spirit of avoiding my dreaded final edit. Okay, okay, and also enjoying my son’s birthday party.  Check me out sporting a [...]

Gearing up my little guy for a trip abroad with dad, we happened to walk past the deodorant aisle in a big retailer. “You need deodorant,” I said.  Vvvzzzp… I detoured the cart. [...]

Inspired by the Carlos Danger Name Generator, I figured I’d do a quick post about the most fun ways to waste time online.  Link to the Carlos Danger Name Generator also included. [...]

On behalf of Latinos, let me send this message to Anthony Weiner:  step off our names.  Of all the undignified handles this pathetic little man could have come up with, why one with the name [...]

Twelve years ago today, right around this time, my youngest was a couple of hours old.  (Born at 8:12 a.m., always a morning person, just like his father and so unlike his mother).  The bustle of [...]

If there was ever a poster couple for a bitter divorce, it was my ex-husband and I.  We are both from traditional cultures, where marriage is understood to be forever.  We did not have a good [...]

I was not thrilled to read the headline,  Obama: ‘Trayvon Martin could have been me’  People are already injecting emotion into this case enough without the leader of the free world [...]

This week in New York, the only accepted greeting has been, “It’s disgusting out there.”  A statement of the obvious on a par with, “That sky sure is blue,” and [...]

I am notoriously bad at endings.  I am all creative flash at the beginning of things, then progressively less useful as the process wears on.  Call it not being a detail person, self [...]

Yesterday, I rewrote a chapter from my work in progress to give my protagonist and her love interest a bit more backstory. I sent it to a trusted and talented fellow writer and critique partner [...]

Although I’ve lived in the U.S. all but 2 of my many years on the planet, I still think of myself as an outsider.  I always marvel at the things “Americans” do and make up stories about what it [...]

Observation: everyone who supports Donald Trump has beady little eyes. Or at least everyone who does so publicly, on television, does. Check it out. It’s a thing.

I have always believed that it’s important to be an independent thinker and not follow a “party line” when it comes to opinions on current events.  That said, it’s comfortable to have a tribe.  [...]

She got all dressed up for the occasion in a pink dress and the daintiest earrings I’d ever seen her wear.  She looked heartbreakingly grown up.  At 13, she could easily pass for 17 in that [...]

The commercial begins with a man asking another man, “Who do you think is healthier, you or your car?”  The askee,  tall, strapping, seemingly in great health says, “Probably my car.”  The answer [...]

I love the 4th of July.  Growing up as an undocumented immigrant, I had a conflicted relationship with it.  On the one hand, I loved everything about it – the flags, the red, white and blue on [...]