Dale, my former neighbor, used to say, “Where I come from, keeping your garage door closed is just plain rude.” The same principle applies to the internet. Here are few links to the work of my wonderfully creative friends. I love your words!
Her Perfect Affair by Priscilla Oliveras
PRISCILLA OLIVERAS is a 2018 RWA® RITA® double finalist who writes contemporary romance with a Latinx flavor. Proud of her Puerto Rican-Mexican heritage, she strives to bring authenticity to her novels by sharing her Latinx culture with her readers. Since earning an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, she serves as English adjunct faculty at her local college and teaches an on-line continuing education course titled “Romance Writing” for ed2go. Priscilla is a sports fan, a beach lover, a half-marathon runner and a consummate traveler who often practices the art of napping in her backyard hammock. To follow along on her fun-filled and hectic life, visit her at Priscilla Oliveras, on Twitter and on Facebook. Her Perfect Affair received Starred Reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist and was selected as “must read Romance” by the Washington Post.
Sugar and Dirt: Memoirs of a Tortoise by Fernando Prol
Sugar and Dirt is the inspiring coming-of-age story of a young émigré during one of the stormiest eras in recent American history. F.P. Romero’s stirring memoirs begin in Cuba, where his affluent family loses everything to Fidel Castro’s revolution and is forced to flee with scarcely more than the clothes on their backs. Having to start over in Miami, the family struggles with refugee life but resolves to pursue the American Dream. F.P. describes his idyllic years at the elite McCullough Academy, his departure from McCullough, and his startling descent into a world of violence and malice. His reckless decline into drug-fueled dissipation threatens to consume him until a girl and a chance discovery change his life forever. Told with a unique blend of wit, candor, and pathos, Sugar and Dirt recounts F.P.‘s early life of privilege, his tragic fall from grace, and his hard-earned redemption.
The River’s Memory by Sandra Gail Lambert
“Sandra Gail Lambert has an ear for the poetry of voices, the music of land, and the roar of history.” Tayari Jones
“Here are stories from the boneyard of the Florida peninsula, digging deep and calling out old spirits.” Janisse Ray
Called “a simply outstanding novel” by the Midwest Book Review and “revelatory of women’s lives” by Booklist, Sandra Gail Lambert’s The River’s Memory (Twisted Road) is available from your local bookstore as well as in both print and e-book editions from online retailers. Sandra Gail Lambert is the recipient of the 2018 National Endowment of the Arts Award in Literature.
Full Moon Rising by Valerina Quintana
Valerina Quintana has given the world a collection of poems full of sensuality and spirit–the powerful, searching voice of a woman unafraid to bear witness to what hurts us and heals us. This book is a marvel, a joy to read.–Demetria Martinez
Valerina is the traveler-poet who calls us homeward. Her diversity of imagery–angels, butterlfy wings & snow–delight & surprise the reader. Her poetics of home will take the reader from “inside out” with visceral imagery: a mother’s red shirt, blood, a snow woman built from maternal clothes.–Rita Magdaleno
To purchase Full Moon Rising or Recalling Home, contact the author at quintana@email.arizona.edu.
Recalling Home: A Poetry of Remembrance by Valerina Quintana
Valerina’s new collection prizes familia stories, from early Colorado days, days of wood burning stoves, piñón, chile verde, brujo tales, presence of wind, earth and clay. And of the lives, most of all, of the early-day families. We slip into the night with the story-poems, in our desert-body we embrace the Whiptail Lizard, we listen to her secrets and we ride, too, in fast, rough Camaro’s across the outscapes of Colorado space. In the center of the collection we shift to short-line meditations cut into tapestry-like diamonds–an unpredictable poetics. I am reminded of work by Raul Salinas, Jim Sagel and Evangelina Vigil, pioneers of travel, land-memoirs and people story. I treasure this work. It is a Colt-45 pistol by a midnight pillow, the sparkle of a dark stove ready for visions. A magnificent book, bravo! –Juan Felipe Herrera, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2015.
Attuned: Healing Your Creative & Intuitive Brain by Jeanne Bjorn
Attuned is a passionate and artful book about Healing Your Creative & Intuitive Brain. Many books on the brain, help you to have better memory or focus. This book helps you to live a fuller, richer and more vibrant life through easily accessible fun and playful modalities – such as singing, dancing and animal communication – to heal your intuitive and creative brain. Jeanne’s book Attuned, addresses the important questions: How did our brain get out of balance? What effects does this have on your primary relationships? How can your brain be balanced through choosing the right foods? How does emotional clearing heal the brain? What fun, playful things can we do each day to bring our brains into balance? In doing these easily accessible exercises, we can have more ease in our lives, make better decisions and be an actor rather than a reactor.
The Natural Law of Water by Kathleen Culver
Poetry. LGBT Studies. Kathleen Culver’s exquisitely crafted poems will enchant you like beautiful music on a misty Florida night. They will move you from deep belly laughs to tears. Culver, a longtime champion for peace, the environment, and legendary Southern feminist has inspired hundreds over the years to live their dreams. Pick up this book and let it dance into your heart.
“Lucky us, to have Kathleen Culver’s poems gathered here at last—new music of an old soul, magnificently alive and curious. Nothing here is jaded or ungenerous; nothing is secondhand. Culver’s poems bring fresh news of the world and the surprising variety of ways to love it. Reading her makes me feel more human and more hopeful. Best of all, her language speaks American and loves to play.”—Joan Larkin
Kathleen Culver lives in a log cabin on a lake with eagles, egrets, herons, and her cat, Pele. Her mother was an English teacher, her father a poet. Culver has a Ph.D. in English & American Literature, writing both her Master’s thesis and Ph.D. dissertation on Henry David Thoreau. She taught English at the University of Florida, University of North Florida, and Santa Fe Community College. Active in support of the environment, the arts, feminism and peace, Culver also enjoys camping, hiking, kayaking, dancing and playing music with her friends.
Night Mare: A Mystery by Franci McMahon
Jane Scott seems luckier than most. Inherited money and her profession as a journalist have placed her in a milieu she deeply loves, the world of championship horses. Yet she has reached a dark crossroads, one all too familiar. another lesbian relationship is coming to its predictable end. And the television images of the headline-making death of her parents continue, all these years later, to haunt her. Jane has been investigating a cruel scandal in her world, the theft and/or killing of prized horses for their insurance value. When she accompanies her best friend to evaluate an Arabian horse, Jane knows its price is too cheap–way too cheap. Shockingly, she is embroiled in a devastating murder, for which she blames herself. A murder that hurls her into the orbit of a beautiful, wild-spirited mare named Night and takes her to Montana. There Jane meets a woman who penetrates her well-guarded self.
Staying the Distance: A Mystery by Franci McMahon
Staying the Distance, a literate, lovable western, is set in the big sky, “no whiners” country of Montana. Rachel Duncan is a rancher with a passion for horses as tough and smart as she is. Especially for her mare, Kestrel, soon to be tested over the rugged terrain of a hundred-mile endurance race. But when Dr. Margaret Carson – the new veterinarian just move from back East – pulls up in her truck, Rachel’s emotional vistas begin to widen. The grey mare snorted her nostrils free of dust. Rachel Duncan let her stand and blow at the top of the ridge while she looked over the ranch for signs of the veterinarian’s arrival. Fanci McMahon, a western native, brings her passion for horses into gripping stories, appealing even to those born without the horse gene. She lives and writes on a Montana horse ranch. At last, women have a novel about girls and horses!
Matadora: A Short Story by Estella Gonzalez
Estella Gonzalez was born and raised in East Los Angeles which inspires her writing. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in Puerto del Sol and Huizache and have been anthologized in Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature by Bilingual Press and Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse by Lost Horse Press. She received a “Special Mention” in The Pushcart Prize XXXVIII: Best of the Small Presses 2014 Edition and was selected a “Reading Notable” for The Best American Non-Required Reading 2011. Her short story “Matadora” is forthcoming in Southwestern American Literature journal. She holds an MFA in fiction from Cornell University.
And from the Artist’s Corner…
To most writers, one word is worth a thousand pictures. The word “love” evokes a river of emotions. Words are powerful talismans invoking the inner doings of the soul. What would life be without words? Then, there are instances in which one image is worth a thousand words. And such images can create a mood that inspires to write, sing, tell a tale, or compose.
The Secret Life of Light by Linda Griffith
