Thanks to Jose B Gonzalez and www.LatinoStories.com for sharing these videos with La Bloga readers.Malin Alegria
Estrella Alvarez is turning fifteen, and she's not happy about it. For as long as she can remember, her mother has been planning an elaborate quinceañera, complete with a mariachi band, cheesy decorations, and a hideous dress. Estrella is so over it.Reyna Grande
Dancing with Butterflies is about four women who share a love of Folklorico dancing. It was inspired by Grande's own love of Folklorico, and her desire to bring it to Latino Literature.René Colato Laínez
Together a little boy and his grandma discover a world of language and realize that loved ones have special ways of understanding each other. Josefina Lopez
A journalist and activist, Canela believes passion is essential to life; but lately passion seems to be in short supply. It has disappeared from her relationship with her fiancé, who is more interested in controlling her than encouraging her. It's absent from her work, where censorship and politics keep important stories from being published. And while her family is full of outspoken individuals, the only one Canela can truly call passionate is her cousin and best friend Luna, who just took her own life.Fred Arroyo
Remember that the dream of one is the dream of everyone. Ernest is searching for a place where he can live beyond his past.Patricia Santana
Premio Aztlan at NHCC Latino Writers Conference
Having left her much-loved San Diego barrio, Yolanda Sahagún is now living in the university dorms when a series of events—her mother dies and her father sells their home—forces her to re-examine her life.
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Maria Lima. Rockville MD. 2007.
ISBN-10: 0809557905, ISBN-13: 978-080955790-6
Michael SedanoA "summer read" is one of those confections you pick up motivated to while away a few hours lounging by the pool, or to occupy the mindless hours eaten up in a transcontinental airplane ride.
Maria Lima's debut novel mixing supernatural humanoids with vampires in the Texas Hill Country is that type of novel. "Humanoid" might not exactly be on the mark. The main woman critter, Keira Kelly, is a supernatural, but comes with all the hormones to feed a healthy sexual appetite for humans and her own kind, but that goes unrequited in these pages when she's captivated by an alluring violence-renouncing vampire.
Maria Lima crafts a plot that brings the king of the vampires to a vampire guest ranch in Rio Seco Texas. Keira feels incredible horniness for the vampire, and he the same. Complicating matters is the local hunk of a sheriff, Keira's former lover. Keira's best friend is the local Mexicana restauranteur, a most understanding human who knows all about Keira's unhuman, immortal, identity and is liberal enough to lust after Keira's studly brother, a werewolf, though the correct term, evidently, is "shapeshifter."
A bumbling human cousin, a couple of refugees from Nazi evil, and a pair of bumblingly dangerous local crooks get mixed up in a plot to kill locals and sell their drained blood to the vampire ranch. Keira turns crime-solver and wraps up the whole mess through ingenuity and a modicum of supernatural skill.
The only contemporary vampire novels I've read are Mario Acevedo's Felix Gomez mysteries, so I'm not sure if Lima is writing into a set of otherworldly conventions. Still, there's little comparison. Acevedo writes a lot of humor and chicanismo into his titles, whereas for Lima, almost everything is secondary to Keira's lust and crime-solving.
Dispatches from Alburquerque
This week I'm attending the 2008 National Latino Writer's Conference as La Bloga's representative on a panel discussing internet resources for writers. The organizers have laid out an interesting and fulfilling schedule of workshops and readings that run from Wednesday through Saturday morning.
I'll be posting event summaries and other material daily. For information on this year's conference, visit their website here.
One of the first goals I have is clearing up the spelling issue. Rudolfa Anaya makes a point in his first Sonny Baca novel to include the first "r" in Alburquerque, though I don't remember exactly what the point was. Another first goal is meeting and thanking Teresa Marquez, founder of a long-gone much lamented CHICLE list. It's CHICLE that brought together Rudy Garcia, Manuel Ramos, and myself, in a long-distance association that eventuated to become La Bloga.
I'm looking forward to finding more fun summer reads, and as they come past my fingers, I'll share them here. In the meantime, I'd enjoy learning your views on other vampire works, or chicana chicano latina latino works of fantasy and sci-fi. This week, I'm travelling with Abraham Rodriguez' South by South Bronx, which, as far as I've gotten, is not a summer confection.
Hey! Sabes que? It's not too late to venture a guess at the identity of the writers in Manuel Ramos' first lines pop quiz. Make your guesses before reading the comments, then send 'em in by adding your comments, or sending in your own favorite first lines.
La Bloga welcomes guest columnists. Please let any La Bloga bloguera bloguero know by leaving a comment, sending an email, or clicking here to let us know.
See you later this week with dispatches from Alburque, and next week, too.
mvs
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Seriously.
Watch this.
While Meg posted this yesterday at her blog, it was Galleycat who brought it to my attention.
I cannot wait for the next classic!
totally superbissimo. josé.
mvs