What Not to Say to a Writer

As a writer, always have a sideline job you can mention at cocktail parties.


At these parties inevitably someone comes up to you and asks what you do for a living. If you say you are a writer, their very next question will be: “What have you published?” If you say, nothing, the person will sniff as if you have developed a bad odor and avoid you for the rest of the party. If you name a book, they will look you up and down and say, “I’ve never heard of it,” and avoid you for the rest of the party.


The friendly guy comes over, pats you on the back and tells you they just heard you are a writer. You know from whom! The friendly guy will tell you they have been thinking of writing a book. You perk up. A potential ally in the isolation of your writing career? You ask how long? The friendly guy laughs. “Oh, I haven’t written a word. I figure I could push out a book over the weekend. Writing can’t be that hard to do.”


The friendly guy leaves and you are blindsided by a young lady dressed in black with blood purple lipstick. She stares at you. You stare back. She stares back. You smile. She stares some more. “I heard you’re a writer.” Guess from whom? You nod. She squints she is staring so hard. “What about?” You tell her “Life.” She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and whispers, “Awesome.”


You slide away while she has her eyes closed and join a group. “Oh, you’re a writer? comes from this grey-haired lady dripping in pearls. “That’s great; I have this wonderful story about something true that happened to me, and I just know that it would be a bestseller if I could find a REAL WRITER to write it up, and you could have half the money!”


Then you hear someone ask this young woman, “Are you the writer?” She shakes her head and says, “But I have this book I’m going to write when I get a free weekend.” The other person, a man speaking to her breasts, “Yeah, sounds great. Is it going to be non-fiction or fiction?” She smiles sweetly, looking at his crotch, “Oh, definitely non-fiction.” The man licks his lips, “Yeah, what about?” The young woman licks her lips, “Oh, I’m making it up.”


You turn around as a loud fellow points at you. “You’re the writer?” You nod. The loud fellow looks at everyone in the group, winks and asks you, “Can you tell me the theme of your book in one sentence?” You open your mouth and he interrupts, “Because if you can’t tell me the theme of your 400-page book then you’re not really a writer. A Real Writer will be able to shoot out one sentence that tells what the whole book is about.”


The woman next to the loud fellow says, “Like a sound bite.” The redheaded woman says, “In the movies they call that the trailer.” The loud fellow snaps his fingers, “Just like that,” and everyone nods their head. You leave to refresh your drink.


The bartender asks if you are having a good time. Always on the lookout for a good plot, you ask the bartender, “I bet you see a lot here?” The bartender hums a yes. “Must have tons of stories about things that have happened in places like this?” He nods. “Care to share one with me?” He asks, “Why? You a writer?” You beam. “Yes. Does it show?” “Nah. It’s always the writers that ask weird questions like that.”


Then he leans closer to you, “Man, how do you think up all those plots?” You wave your hand at the crowd. “There’s a thousand stories in the naked city.” He looks blank. “Look around. All of these people have something going on in their lives.” The bartender snorts. “You’re telling me. I get an earful all night. One sob story after the other. Cheez. You’d think they’d have enough of that with their therapists.” You leave your drink and the party.


You stop off at home to check on your sainted mother. “Hi, mom.” “Where have you been? I smell booze on you.” You laugh. “What have you been up to?” You open your mouth. “You still with that computer thing. Writing stories. When are you going to get serious and get a real job? Don’t you want to have a real job?” You kiss her on the cheek and tell her you love her.


You head home. Your keyboard waits for you. The hardest and best job in the world and you love it.


Well, maybe except for being a parent and a bartender.

Things I’ve Noticed

Everyone who follows BronzeWord Latino Authors posts and links from @LatinoBookNews knows that I love doing research. Usually I go to a blog and look for their email address and their Twitter name so I can contact the owner and invite them to participate in what I’m doing. Or if I am twittering their article, I want to use their Twitter name so they know that their post had value.


Because of my constant searching, I have seen a few things that work well and a few things that are enough to cause me to want to pull my hair out. Most people will search casually and if they don’t find a way to communicate within a few minutes, they go somewhere else. Here are a few thoughts.


1. If you have a blog, you want people to connect with you. The email can be protected easily by using words for the @ and (.) like AT and DOT so that your email can be on the front page and look like BronzeWord1 AT yahoo DOT com. Also this information needs to be what the expert calls “above the fold.” The part of your blog that a visitor will first see when they open your blog.


Also, many people who use Blogger will put their email on their profile where the person has to click on the word “email” and an email page opens separately. First, when I had an older computer and really old software, the separate email page never came up for me. Also, because I have a very slow computer, the page takes forever to download. And because this separate email page is from Outlook, an email service I don’t use, I can’t send a message from that page because if they response by clicking “reply” they will go to an account I rarely check. Instead, I copy the email address and post it on a doc page that I will get back to when I am ready to send the invitation. That’s a lot of work to capture one email address. Most people won’t wait for the tedious response.


If you have a blog for people to connect with you, please post your email address in your “About Me” section or in the top of the screen that shows when you open your blog. Allow people to express their gratitude or thanks for what you offer on your page. Or they may have something to add to what you offer. If a big corporation looks around the web, comes across your blog, and likes what they see, they have no way to contact you. They will not bother searching and waiting for separate pages to open up. They won’t.


2. Most everyone has a Twitter account. Everyone posts the widget that says, “Follow Me” with the little blue bird. Hardly anyone post their Twitter account name. The little blue birdy isn’t enough.


For one thing, when you click on the blue birdy, you are taken to another page. If the person wants to follow you, they have to sign in to their Twitter account to do so. Once they are there, do you think they will go back to your page? Or do you think they will decide since they are there, they will check for messages or what’s going on in Twitter cyberspace? If you had a product to sell, or wanted to interest them in your product/book/music/whatever, you’d lose that opportunity. Completely.


There is a cute blue birdy that has your account name and the number of your followers on the widget with a “Follow Me” message. A visitor could get your name and save it to follow you later when they move on from your blog page. And that’s the key. They stay on your page. This widget can be found at twittercounter.com . I don’t have any connection with them. You can see the widget on my blog.


Or you can use the title section of the widget to post your Twitter name, like: Jo Ann @ BronzeWord with the widget underneath.


3. I am a major non-techie. On my Wordpress blog, when I enter a link, I am asked if I want it to open on my page or a new pop-up page. A new pop-up page keeps the visitor on your site as they investigate the new page and doubles the chances of the visitor returning to finish reading your article or browse the rest of your blog.


4. Please investigate Google Alerts. This is an easy way to see who is writing about you or your product or talking about you. Just go to Google and sign up. List the names that are your company, blog, and product names and let the cyber angels do the rest. Use quotes around your name or your product’s name. You will find that some little blog in Nebraska liked your article so much they are telling their 15 followers to go check you out. That will enable you to respond to that blogger to say thanks or make an offer and find out that those 15 followers have thousands following them. Wouldn’t you rather know what is being said about you on the Web?


We’ve all heard stories of how a company hears of a complaint on Twitter and resolves the issue for the customer. Now you can be as cool as Twitter and do the same thing by having a Google Alert on your name.


Thank you for allowing me to voice a few things I have noticed during my travels through cyber space. I hope these tidbits assist you in growing your blog audience.


Thanks, Jo Ann

Being a Chicana Writer

Chicana Writer. Two words that can stand alone or when united can be fireworks on paper — a celebration.

Writer. An octopus of a word.

With one arm, I am single-head-of-household. I have to remember to set something aside for the car registration in March and the taxes in April. I have to fix the plumbing and watch for sales to buy boxes of light bulbs and make sure we never run out of detergent.

With another arm, I am the single parent of two fabulous, handsome, obnoxious sons. I have to rejoice in their victories, commiserate in their losses, encourage them out of their failures, and cheerlead them into a higher self-esteem and a sense of their powerful selves. Also have their wisdom teeth removed with no health insurance. And fill their bottomless stomachs with half the grocery store.

With the working arm, I am an employee who types other people’s manuscripts with perfect margins, researches other peoples’ ideas, and support their progress while I wake up at four every morning to write for two hours. From this employment, I gain a paycheck, which enables me, minimally, to keep the house I have to continuously maintain and support the sons I have to constantly consider.

With another arm, I use the time split off from my writing for my friendships with women — lending my shoulder, bending their ear, and in moments of complete abandonment, meeting with them to play. As for male companionship, I have about five spare minutes in a couple of months — if I could find a male who does not get threatened by the fact I can change the insides of a toilet and the oil in the car as well as he can. But I’m horny and I’m looking.

With the additional arm, there is the time I have chipped out for myself to listen quietly for the wisdom that is the source of my well being — my inner voice.

Chicana. A scorpion of a word.

On one leg, some may think my light skin earns me the prizes — food, shelter, and life free from harassment. Regardless of how I look on the outside, I am still one of “them,” and every step upward closes the window of opportunity taken for granted by so many.

On the other leg, I have to support the brown world and the white world, and I can never fully satisfy either group. Losing the fluency of my language is a symptom of my oppression. I was raised to assimilate.

On the third leg, when I write as a Chicana, I ask, who am I? Where do I fit in? I have never met a migrant farmworker. I have never picked in a fruit field. I never lived in a house with a dirt floor. I never went hungry as a child. I always had nice clothes. I was taught being light-skinned made me better than others. I grew up middle-class. I cannot romanticize my race’s poverty.

On the important leg, I portray my people with dignity and respect, the way I saw them as I grew up. I write about a Chicana who lives in a nice home, with a husband who does not drink, womanize, or beat her, and the editor asks me, “Who is my audience?”

“Chicanos,” he informs me, “can’t read and don’t have money to buy books.”

On the wobbly leg, I am told I betray the Chicana experience by writing about people who own their homes on the good side of town. I am targeted as unfaithful to my Raza because my writing contains no magic realism. Will Chicanos label me a coconut–brown on the outside, white on the inside? Will the white publishers allow me in the door?

My experience is that “they” invite you into their schools and let you play with their children, but exclude you from the power decisions. I write about the hidden messages I received as a child that as a Mexicana I would be a good servant, but anything more was impossible.

I write about a ceiling lowered on me for no other reason than being born into my family. It is a ceiling other people define for me and get angry when I resist it. It is a ceiling that can come at me from both colors.

Yet I write. My writing gives me purpose.

My courage is the ink flowing from my pen. With the squiggly lines I scratch onto a blank page, I contribute, I destroy, I encourage, I defend, and I keep myself alive.

With my writing, I can contribute. With my writing, I reach others, all colors, and share information to make things clearer and easier between us. With my writing, I become who I really am.

A Chicana Writer.

Latino Versus Latina Authors: Who is More Literary Macho?

As I dug through my slush pile of Latino books to review, the question occurred to me: Are more Latina authors being published than Latino authors. That’s the way it seemed. And if so, why?


I asked authors I interviewed this question and the result is more surprising than you might think. No jealousy between male and female writers was one encouraging result. Most agreed that as long as we were being published that was good. Others, like mystery writer Manuel Ramos, couldn’t resist issuing a challenge: “If it’s true, then maybe Latinos need to step up.”


I went on a search. Powell Bookstore, known as the biggest bookstore West of the Mississippi, has a list of 483 “Latino” books.


Once I deleted the duplicates and books in Spanish only 240 remained. Many of the juvenile stories and biographies of celebrities, including Cesar Chavez, Selena, and Jennifer Lopez were written by Anglos. They also wrote stories about our barrio life and Hispanic literature, culture, economics, art and sports. I deleted those.


Of the 142 remaining, there were 19 female fiction writers, 21 male fiction writers; 42 female non-fiction and 58 male non-fiction writers. Of the 100 non-fiction writers, women wrote more about other women, childbirth, children and health issues. Around 10 female non-fiction writers wrote serious tomes about history or economics. The male non-fiction writers wrote reference books, history, anthropology and textbooks.


Of the fiction writers, 8 females and 12 males wrote juvenile fiction. One female and two males wrote memoirs. Two females and one male wrote mysteries. Seven females and five males wrote novels and poetry was one for one.


Hmmm. Do I see a trend here? Let’s hear from the authors and editors.


Manuel Ramos, mystery writer from Denver:
“Does it matter? There are many well known Latino writers and Central American writers and Puerto Rican writers. The impression makes it look like there are more Latina authors. It’s not a problem as long as Latinos are being published.”


Marcela Landres, former Simon & Schuster editor living in New York City:
“Of course, women are being published more, but that is true of women from any background. More women buy books. Most editors are women. The publishing industry is women dominated. Manuscripts from women interest the editors more, and the publishers show more enthusiasm for women’s books. Women primarily run publishing.”


Alejandro Murguía, author living in San Francisco:
“This is a tricky question because there are no real numbers. What is important is Latinos are being published. At the time, there is a lack of men’s stories out there. Women are getting their stories out there. Men need to get their stories out.”


Lucha Corpi, author living in Oakland, CA:
“Latinas are more visible. In the Chicano Movement, the male’s voice was the main force. The male writers of today come from the ‘60s who were writing about ‘serious’ issues. Women weren’t pressured into being the voice of the Movement. Women poets were nice to have around, but their writing was considered a hobby. Women wrote about our art, our life, and published through the back door so that when the men noticed women were in. This was a blessing in disguise. Now there is no question: Latinas are contenders. A culture as complex as ours is, we need more than one viewpoint. We need different voices to speak about all the variations we are.”


Daniel Olivas, author from Los Angeles:
“Stop the gender wars. We do not need to fight between ourselves. The real question is why are we not being published more.”


Granted, my sample of Latina/o authors was small, but it represented what one of the biggest bookstores in the nation considers a fair representation of Latino books. I think I can make a safe guess about who is being published more.


My conclusion: “Nope. The vatos still have it.”

Poet Am I Not

Poetry is bewitching. Writing good poetry is bewildering. Reading good poetry is mystical, arty and can win you a woman’s attention. I read poetry and feel stupid. I never understand what the words imply. I have read a poem that had a page and half preface from the author explaining where they were when they the idea for the poem came to them, why they wrote the poem and what the poem means. “Hijola, I never get to explain my novels like that. How come they can?”


Poets get away with lousy comma placement. They can stick a comma wherever they need it to make the words sound right, regardless if they are breaking a grammar rule or not. They can write line after line without ever including a period at the end of a sentence. I read the poem to myself and run out of breath before I reach the last line. The poet reads the same poem, and there is music in the air. How do they do that?


I know somewhere in me there is a poetry bone. In high school, I wrote all my girlfriend’s Valentine cards. They would give me the date they met their boyfriend, their favorite song, their favorite place to do you know what – just kissing above the neck; we attended Catholic school – and I would shoot out a poem with each sentence beginning with the letter of his name. Let me see if I can still do it.


Each day you brighten my day with a phone call
Doing what you do best in my life
Insisting I am a writer who’s words need to be heard
Telling me how great I am
Only to ask me to do a rewrite.
Rey of the newspaper, Rey of my paycheck.


Well like I said, poetry bedevils me. I have never considered myself a poet as you can see why.


In San Francisco I listened to poets who were angry young men screaming out the words on stage about being stopped by the cops. Or the poetry spoken had to be political in nature for La Raza. If anyone is interested, I rather have the sweet words.


Hats off to those on this page and all poets for their heart, their talent, and their ability to make us feel. They remind us of the hopes and dreams we once held dear. These artists of the mind have a special sight to use their skills to shoot out a condensed version of a life’s moment. Outstanding genius.


I did write a novel in poems about a relationship I had. Once I am a famous author someone will publish this novel in poems in spite of how bad it is. That’s how it works. Until then I will leave the poetry to the real poets and let them show you the music in our lengua.

What is the state of the Latino Blogosphere? Do you see it growing?

Here are a few of the things I think can enhance the Blogosphere and the world for many of us:
1. Subscribe to each other’s blog. This generates a higher ranking on all search engines for both blogs. This also enables both blogs to appear closer to the top of the page when a search is answered. Reciprocal links is a way for both blogs to win. I understand how many people are busy and time is a precious commodity, however, you don’t have to read each post every day. If you are busy, you can delete the post. Of if you don’t care for the subject matter, subscribe and just delete the email or posting when it appears. No one will know. My sons are adults, and I subscribe to receive information about bilingual babies.


2. Leave a comment when you visit a blog. The same strategy. When you leave a comment on someone’s blog, you leave your name and blog url. The search engines ranks both the blog who received the comment and the person’s blog who left the comment higher in searches. This is an easy win-win situation. Even if all you say is hello, you comment counts and makes a major difference. Isn’t that what we want to do.


3. Share what you know. If you can do technical stuff on the internet teach others. I know this takes time, and many people are so busy nowadays. There is no movement without knowledge. Knowledge is power. With knowledge, a person can better their life. Whoever controls the information has power to motivate and control where the economy goes. If you allow one group to dominate the information, then we are doomed to be subjected to their rules. Until we take the reins of siphoning the information and controlling what we learn, change is never going to happen.


4. As an author, I cannot let an opportunity to go by. Buy Latino/a books. With that dollar bill I held up in my presentation, money talks. You understand that when you see a car commercial on TV, then the same concept goes for buying books. Latino/a authors are fighting great odds to be published. They face stereotypes of the type of book they can write: only about gangs, working as a migrant farm worker, or crossing the border. Stories about the different qualities of being Latino in different environments are discounted. The bottom line to all the CEOs who make the decision is “Will it sell?”. Until each one of us proves to the decision makers in NYC that we want stories that reflect our real lives, our real makeup of mix heritage, and the growing Latino middle class, our children will never see themselves in the literature they read in school. I know money is tight. If every one of us bought one book by a Latino/a each month, our voice would be heard. That’s all it would take.


What do you think would make a difference for more Latino/as on the internet? What suggestions would you offer to make the internet more understandable for Latinos?

LIAR is a Liar

Have you looked at the sky? Gotten your boots and raincoat out? You better. A major storm is growing.

Justine Larbalestier wrote a good book that was well received in Australia. The book cover used on the Australia book encouraged a good read. Then her book came to U.S. And the storm broke.


The book called, LIAR, about a young black girl that is a liar. The reader is challenged to decide what parts of the story is true or lies by the main character. We don’t even know her name and many, many people know what she looks like – an African-American tomboy with short “nappy” hair. Why is this?


One reason. The book in the U.S. has a white girl with long, straight tresses covering the lower part of her face on the jacket of the novel. But there is no doubt. The picture is of a white girl.


I congratulate the author. She never said a word about her dismay. Until. Others spoke up and complained. First people left comments everywhere online asking why the huge discrepancy. Then article after article came about. Many are listed below. The statement-probably-argument has abounded. Why does a book have a white girl with long, straight tresses on the jacket of a novel about an African-American tomboy with short, “nappy” hair?


One questions whether the publisher did this because Young Adult books don’t sell with Black models on the book covers. One would assume they did research to attest to this claim. Another suggest that white kids have the money to buy books, and they won’t buy a book with a Black girl on the cover. Melanie Cecka, publishing director of Bloomsbury Children’s Books USA and Walker Books for Young Readers, who worked on Liar states: “The entire premise of this book is about a compulsive liar. Of all the things you’re going to choose to believe of her, you’re going to choose to believe she was telling the truth about race?”


Oh.


Even Larbalestier is upset. “I love my publisher,” she said. “[But] I never wanted this cover. I made it clear I didn’t want a white girl’s face. Having this cover on the front is undermining the book that I wrote.” Justine chose wisely and didn’t speak up until the storm was raging. On her blog, she speaks her thoughts on this subject. But she stresses one thing about her publisher. “I want to make it clear that while I disagree with Bloomsbury about this cover I am otherwise very happy to be with them. They’ve given me space to write the books I want to write…. I have artistic freedom there, which is extraordinarily important to me. They are solidly behind my work and have promoted it at every level in ways I have never been promoted before.”


What are your thoughts on this debate? And if you see racism at work here, how can you as a book buyer and reader do to assist the publishers in changing their thinking about books with Black covers?


Thank you, Jo Ann


Justine Larbalestier’s Blog:
Ain’t That a Shame http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/07/23/aint-that-a-shame/


YA Critics Feel Cheated by Liar Cover Girl http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/book_jackets/ya_critics_feel_cheated_by_liar_cover_girl_122466.asp


Justine Larbalestier’s Cover Girl http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6672790.html?nid=2788&source=title&rid=579945450

Where do writers get their ideas? Part 2

Last week, I addressed the question: Where do writers get their ideas? I posted this news bit: Eridania Rodriguez, Cleaning Woman, Vanishes At Skyscraper Near Ground Zero :: from www.huffingtonpost.com


Can you see the potential here? First, Eridania Rodriguez can be a man impersonating a woman. As a spy to gather important info. Or as a jealous man checking out what his girlfriend is doing. It could be a woman seeking confirmation for a news story she wants published.


Okay, let’s go with the reporter. This stylish woman dresses in uniform, speaks English badly, and wears a grey wig to hide her long, black hair. And she vanishes.


Now setting. She wishes to expose the corruption in big business. But say, Skyscraper is a “time traveling spaceship.” Then she is stowing away to discover the secret destination of the scientist that are working on this project. People are disappearing. Word out is that individuals are being kidnapped to inhabit a new world. The scientists use these people as guinea pigs on another planet to see if they can survive the terrain. Yet…


What is Ground Zero? That’s what caught my attention when I read this news bit from Hispanic Tips.


Is Ground Zero the new colony being built because the scientists know the world is dying? Or is Ground Zero the place that terrorist will bomb when the President visits? (I read too many mysteries!) Or is Ground Zero the room where fraternity boys take virgins to score points in their game? Or is Ground Zero an entry way to a new dimension? Or worse, is Ground Zero where people of color are taken to imbed a device in their brain to make them docile?


As you can see, the list is endless.


Misa Ramirez http://misaramirez.com left this idea in her comment:
Hmmm, I think I would go X-Files with this. I’m in a supernatural mood right now, so maybe something like she’s lost a baby, and also lost her mind, and she’s channeling la Llorona. Now she’s wandering, searching for her child. Mwahahahaha!


A bit of SciFi mixed with Latino folktales. Who says it can’t be done?


The answer has been right in front of your face. Where do writers get their ideas? From anything in everywhere!


Thank you for visiting,
Jo Ann


P.S. Misa wins a copy of The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos By Margaret Mascarenhas. Congratulations Misa!

Where do you get your ideas?

There are two questions authors are always asked. 1. Is this book autobiographical? 2. Where do you get your ideas? And because it’s the way I am, I’m going to answer the second one first.


When I lived in Vermont, I joined a women’s group of visual artists. The head of our group was my best friend. She and I would travel across the U.S. We would be traveling down a road and see a tall building with a mural on the space. We both pointed and told each other, “Look.”


She would go on about the colors used in the mural. “Fabulous.” I would read the words aloud and rave on how the words had several different connotations. “Fabulous.” We were looking at the same building but saw two different aspects of the mural.


Do you remember when you and your partner decided to have a baby? After that, everywhere you looked you saw pregnant women.


Do you remember when you bought your car? You knew you wanted a certain color of blue. Everywhere you drove, you saw a car with that certain color of blue.


Like a Google Alert, what is your mind geared to notice. What factor you detect? What ingredient is the most important that constituents the blend of your life? “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world.” ~Buddha Same essential component.


When you are thinking story, the stories occur around you. In NYC, you see a dog walker walking 12 dogs of all sizes. You get “Monster-in-Law.” I was a foster mom for 8 years and one of my girls told me how going from home to home, the lesson she learned was always find out where the toilet paper was kept before you went. From that, “The Throwaway Piece.”


The ideas come from your eyes. What you see. How you see it. What you make of it. What you hear. When you smell it. A stuffed up nose and you walk by the bakery. The next day, no stuffed up nose, you smell the bakery a block away. Because you’re hungry. If you weren’t hungry, you might see the newspaper vendor first.


When I sit in the waiting room of a doctor’s office, I’ll usually grab a left-behind newspaper to read. I also usually stuff it into my purse to take home. Always there is an article about a man who… or a woman that… or kids who went… or a child found… and I have a new story angle.


I read this on Tomas Hispanic Tips newsletter: Eridania Rodriguez, Cleaning Woman, Vanishes At Skyscraper Near Ground Zero :: from www.huffingtonpost.com
In the comments, tell us how you would take this bit of information and make it into a story. What would you story be about? The five best plot ideas will win a copy of The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos By Margaret Mascarenhas. Hurry. You have all week to add your comment. I’ll announce the winner in my next Sunday column.


Thank you for visiting,
Jo Ann

Opinions and Ideas Column by a Latina Writer

By Jo Ann Hernández – July 5, 2009

Okay here it is. I am writing a Sunday column. That may not sound like big news to you and it certainly is in my life. You’ll learn why soon enough. Keep reading each Sunday to find out why. And that’s not a teaser to keep you coming back. It’s for real.


I am afraid. Really afraid. You’ll also find out why later. I began my twitter account, @BronzeWord, expecting to never have any followers. I’ve reached 2,600 followers and can hardly believe it. Who would want to listen to what I have to say?


With this twitter account, I promised myself that I was going to be me, with all my zits, wrinkles, and paranoia. I was going to speak my mind as frankly and direct as I do in person. I truly expected to be thrown out of Twitter.


I practiced with a few remarks. With time, I became bolder. Then I actually said something about racism, and the roof didn’t fall on my head. I’d like to think that some of those followers liked my honesty, but I don’t know. No one has ever said anything to me directly.


This experience has strengthened my resolve to the point that I can now take the first tentative steps to writing this column. I am a good person. However, I am opinionated as heck. I am also paranoid. (With laughter, I recently read a comment in an article that stated, Authors are accused of being paranoid. Of course, we’re paranoid. That’s what makes us good authors. I very much liked that as a cover for my own paranoia.) I tend to see layers upon layers of intrigue and dubious constructed logic. Logic that is usually aimed at those “others” which I am a proud member.


I am still afraid, and I am going to write this column. I am going to write a lot about writing. The book industry. The blocks to Latino success in the book industry. Who makes it and why/Who doesn’t make it and why? I am going to write about contests?-not just about doing them, but about the chancing of winning them. I am going to write about authors, and style, proposals, queries, agents, editors, you name it. I follow everyone, receive numerous newsletters, and read & listen a lot. I have the keen skill to assimilate vast amounts of information and spit out a concise representation of what I read.


I am also going to break the sin of all sins for a Mexican and talk about my personal thoughts/ fears/ goals/ hopes/ despair, my life as a writer, and my life as someone with an illness. I am going to write about taking chances with your dreams, going for your dreams, and what you need to do to make them come through. I am especially going to write about you and how you can do different, more, and better to support each other and yourself. If we don’t begin to support each other, there won’t be an “other” soon.


Everyone talks about the networking and social mentoring of Latinos. Where is it? Who does it? What does it look like? Organizations? Associations? Building Esteem workshops? Phleeezzee!


Want to know how? Keep coming back. Keep reading each Sunday. You challenge me and I’ll keep on delivering. I can promise you one thing. It’ll be interesting.


What would you like to read about on this column? What subject/topic would you like me to cover? Send me your suggestions and questions.


Thank you