Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
Up until my husband and I moved to North Carolina almost seven years ago, I spent most of my life in Northern New Jersey, right across the river from New York. I was actually born in Cuba to Cuban parents and came here at the ripe old age of one month! For the first two years of my life, we lived in Miami until my parents divorced. My mom then moved to Hudson County--we lived in the towns of West New York and later Union City--which has provided the setting for GLIMMERS OF HEAVEN and one of the characters in ONE SWEET DAY, Ileana Cardenas. It's an interesting place, and the bonus is that you have Manhattan very close by, so your characters have the best of both worlds! Because the Jersey shore figured very strongly in my childhood and youth, it also gets some play in my stories.
When did you first start writing?
When I was about my granddaughter's age (five), I scribbled on a piece of paper, showed it to my aunt, and asked excitedly, "What does this say?" My aunt, a busy lady, (also my godmother, or in Spanish "Madrina") said, "Nothing. It's scribble," and continued mashing fried plantains for dinner. At the age of twelve, I began writing stories in black and white composition notebooks and sharing them with my friends, one of whom also wrote, so we critiqued and encouraged each other all through seventh grade. I wrote in my diary back then, "When I grow up, I'm going to become a writer." Today, I'm grateful to say that my dream came true!
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