Next on the Reading List

After sending out queries, and revising my work for the next #DVpit. I have been reading. Finally after weeks on my library e-book holds. I got the Grisha trilogy. 

After I finish it along with a few other young adult books I'm reading I will be moving over to a genre that is my most loved.

HISTORICAL FICTION.

I know. I know. People don't like it but I LOVE IT! Historical fiction made me want to teach history. It all started when I read American Girl books Josephina. I love it! Whether it's based on historical figures, a story set during any place in history or historical fantasy. Point is I love it all! Here are a few I found at my library I'm going to be reading soon.

Food in Latinx Fantasy

One of the reasons my story takes place in this country is because I grew up around a lot of people of this culture. The country has a beautiful rich culture that is also influenced from their African ancestors, but also the country is beautiful. One of the things that made writing this so difficult was about the food. I love their food. When I lived in Georgia, which is where I went to school from first grade until I graduated high school, I loved when the school did culture day! Learning about every culture was just fascinating, and I loved every minute of it! I discovered a weakness for this countries food at the time.

These are some of the dishes in my Latinx historical fantasy

Moqueca Capixaba

Ceviche is also a popular dish in all Latinx countries.

Shrimp Ceviche

Ceviche of Sea Bass

Maria Mole

Cajuzinho 

Aesthetic for my Latinx Alternate Historical Fantasy

I'm a visual learner. I like to have a visual as to what I'm writing. I made this when I was writing as a motivator. When I wrote this, after my first two manuscripts I wrote that essentially got nowhere. This story was the first one in a long time I was excited writing about as it had never been done before. It has it all, sexy court romance, Brazilian palace and carnival!

Pride Book: If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

In honor of pride month I really wanted to help transgender writers, and I came across this book.

The story follows Amanda Hardy, who moves in her estranged dad to start a new life for her senior year of high school. Amanda is determined to stay under-wraps until she starts falling for football player Grant, an easy going guy who' s interested in her. As she starts to let him in she realizes she deserves to find happiness even if she couldn't be truly faithful about something. Things are going well for Amanda as she now has a boyfriend and friends while carry a dark secret. She's transgender and was previously known as Andrew.

Amanda is worried about what will happen if her secret came out. After what she went through in her old school she realizes that in order to survive she can't let her secret slip.





Review: First off there was so much to love about this book! This is an LGBTQA+ book about transgender girl, written by transgender woman and the model on the cover is transgender! A step in the right way publishing. While this came out in 2016 and I'm just discovering it, shame on me, I found this story lovely! While I am writing a book with trans main character it's not from the POV of trans character.

While some parts were fictionalized it really opened my eyes to transgender community, and I hope to find more books about transgender teens as I think it's such an important topic. Some amazing scenes to note was when Amanda's dad thought Grant attacked Amanda but it was a misunderstandinG. Another was when after her GRS, Amanda sees her mom crying over her photos and accepts that even though she has lost Andrew she has Amanda. Such a powerful scene!
Also this was not a typical story where transgender faces bullying. Instead it was about hope and love and being who you are. I totally fell for Grant.

Two things I didn't like. First off the ending. It really left me hanging. I have no clue what happens it could have elaborated on that! Also it was the flashbacks, the flashbacks were unorganized going from six years ago to three years ago to four months ago.

Other than that I highly recommend reading this!

Writing in Isolation During COVID-19

Hello World,

I hope wherever you are you are trying to stay as safe as possible. This is going to be a difficult next few months. 

My town so far has not had any major issues as our count of the infected is still low, but I am taking extreme precautions. I'm lucky to where my current job allows me to work from home, and I always buy in extra every grocery story run, so I have a good amount of stock. I work part-time as a librarian and until further notice all libraries are closed. 

It's scary. I don't know if it's a sign that I've read too many dystopian novels, but I FEEL like I'm living in a dystopian book where a highly dangerous drug is spreading and killing people. Where food is scarce and everyone is fighting over getting to the stores to buy the last of everything before it runs out. Where the money is dried up and people are struggling. I might have read it in books, but it's starting to seem too real.


On Writing

I have two diverse YA fantasies that I am editing to make sure I have it as perfect as possible to ensure that it's ready for DVpit. In my historical fantasy I'm adding some minor changes to add more magic to the story. My fantasy is loaded with magic. I'm mostly glad I'm getting more time to edit and write it after the past two years of disappointment from contest. Will keep you posted.