Please subscribe to my newsletter to get writing news and updates. Last year, one of my major writing goals was to write the book proposal for my pro-immigration memoir on being half-Russian, half-Cuban, and ALL American. The name of the book is Moscow Chica: How Growing Up in Russia and Cuba Made Me an American and I’ve been talking about writing and thinking about writing and trying to work on writing this book since I was 25 years old. I am 32 now. Well, although it didn’t go as quickly as originally planned, I had a big spurt of memoir writing towards the end of the year and it felt GREAT. Since I…
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The Robin Williams (Anthony Bourdain) Tragedy Affects Us All
Note: This is a story that was written for and published on Latina.com in August 2014. However, the site has since shut down and my story has disappeared… But the internet gods allowed me to find it in its entirety, so I am re-posting it here since a) I feel very strongly about this topic & b) this piece was really important to me because I believe we need to talk MORE about mental health and end the stigma — especially in light of the Anthony Bourdain news this morning that has me crying all over again. So, I wanted to continue to share it. Enjoy! I remember feeling shocked over the news that Heath Ledger…
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I fell for my “starter boyfriend”
Note: This is an essay that was written for and published on The Frisky in 2011. However, the site has since shut down and my essay has disappeared… But the internet gods allowed me to find it in its entirety, so I am re-posting it here since a) it was fun to write & b) this piece was an important part of my emotional development so I wanted to continue to share it. Enjoy! I met Omar* at a New Year’s Eve party shortly after graduating college. He was 6’2″ and built with dark brown eyes and black wavy hair that fell below his ears. I was a 5’2″ chubby bookworm who had recently…
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May 2018 Writer’s Life: Recovering from surgery isn’t easy [#yearofwriting]
Please subscribe to my newsletter to get writing news and updates. Last month was rough. I probably worked at about 60% of my capacity, and it certainly showed in my total April 2018 income earned ($2816), which is just over $2k below my goal of $5k a month. That’s really unfortunate, but I kind of figured it would happen since I had surgery in the middle of the month, had to take a week off, and then things didn’t go as well as I hoped with getting back to work. This month, well… it wasn’t all that much better, to be honest. How much I made: $4040 I was only two weeks out…
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April 2018 Writer’s Life: Shoulder surgery means less work [#yearofwriting]
Please subscribe to my newsletter to get writing news and updates. Well, where should I start with my April blog post? Let’s see… Oh right! I had a major thing happen this month: I finally got shoulder surgery after my 15th dislocation last fall. That’s right, since I turned 18 years old, I have dislocated my shoulder a whopping 15 times and it is FINALLY fixed. Well, sort of. It’s not really as simple as all of that. I had to get a pretty intensive surgery that means many, many months of physical therapy and recovery. So far, two and a half weeks out, I am doing okay. I am making slow…
