Prayer plant
in the morning Someone misguidedly gave me a plant as a housewarming gift last July, not realizing that I dislike taking care of living beings. It's grown on me -- as it were -- and now I think I'd miss it if it weren't here, but it's all I can do to check its soil...
An Untold Story
Maya Angelou said, "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." A year ago I knew my mother didn't have long to live, but she didn't want anyone to know, so I had to blog about death without letting on why I was focused on that. That was very...
La Bloga
One of the blogueras at La Bloga posted Chicana/Latina Hair: A Discussion about Identity and Your Pelo Journey and she linked my recent post on having short hair. Amelia Montes wrote a much more thorough and thoughtful post than mine, so take a look. Thanks, Amelia!
Las Vegas. Yeah.
I'd never been to Las Vegas before I attended the 2014 Arbonne Global Training Conference earlier this month. Here I am enjoying the view from the penthouse suite I shared with three women (to cut down on costs): But I didn't have an easy time sleeping in a room...
Quote Freely, But Give Me Credit
If I'm known for nothing else, I'd like to be known for this original statement: You can't cure families; you can only prevent them. Thank you.
Chicana with Very Short Hair
novia de Frankenstein If I wash my hair and go to bed with it wet, I kind of have Bride of Frankenstein hair in the morning. Not only does it stand up in an inverted cone shape, but I've even got the streaks of gray. A friend asked why I'd want a photo of myself like...
Americans Discriminate against Other Fat Americans
Every once in a while I see an opinion piece in which someone asserts that there's no discrimination against fat people in the U.S. As evidence they often use the large numbers of fat people we have in the U.S. This is just ill-informed. Such writers clearly don't...
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself Update
Today I fit into my size 14 blouse again, with no dieting! Using Dr. Joe Dispenza's meditation technique, I'm just not as hungry. Being able to do a full yoga plow pose is now closer. It's stunning to me that I haven't restricted food or increased exercise, but...
In the Grip
This is it right here: the hard part of change. It feels hard enough to get up every morning to follow Joe Dispenza's guided meditation and do the work of digging in to my unwanted emotions, but this is the real ordeal. After months of struggling to get some momentum...
Sometimes Art Makes Money
Seven years ago I recorded a bunch of original songs from when I was a singer/songwriter. In 2013 I finally had them mastered, copyrighted them as an album and started selling them digitally on CD Baby (my album is called Going of Age and is only available as a...
The Query Has Flown!
I just sent my first query letter to my first potential agent with my first manuscript. Since it can take up to two months for an agent to get back to you, it will probably be a slow process of trying a couple of different agents before I get on with self-publishing....
Querying
Image from valeriekingbooks.com These days I consider my manuscript finished, so I'm excited to be working on my first query letter. That's the letter you send an agent to get them interested in your book. A friend of mine with a lot of publishing knowledge listened...